"Wake up," Armin nudged Braixen's arm. "Wake up, we're getting ready to head out."
Braixen let out a moan into his pillow to indicate he was awake. He had to exert himself to force his body upright on the bed. His eyes were still half-closed and almost all his fur had that bedhead look to it.
"Wh-what time… i-is it?" Braixen said with grogginess in addition to his normal stuttering.
"Ten-twenty," Armin answered. "Everyone else is awake, we should be going."
"R-really?" Braixen brought his paws up to his eyes and gave them some rubs. The little bit of stimulation helped a small amount to force him awake.
When he was done, he managed to get a look at the room with blurred vision. Armin, Max, and Nidorino were all out of their beds, and from what he could tell all the hotel amenities were in the places they were last night. The drapes were wide open and light was already pouring into the room, removing any moody lighting.
Armin had already turned his attention away from him- having already succeeded at getting him awake- and began picking his things up again.
"Are you alright? You don't look so well," Nidorino asked Braixen.
"Y-yeah, just t-tired."
"Did you have trouble getting to sleep last night? Ten is an awfully late time to stay up at," Nidorino said. His tone was neither condescending or sarcastic, it was genuine.
"You d-don't need to b-babysit me, I'm a s-strong ex-explorer like you," Braixen replied, still laying against the back of the bed and rubbing his eyes again.
"I'm just wanting to make sure you are well. Consider it like first-aid," Nidorino said. "Do you think some caffeine would help you get going?"
"Y-yeah, actually. I-I would like a large cup of c-coffee," Braixen said. "Yeah, th-that's what I'd like." he reaffirmed to himself.
"I have some sodas, would that do for ya?" Max offered, his paw resting against a can of soda he had resting against the ground.
"Umm-m, I-I'll pass," Braixen replied.
"Aight then, more for me," the arcanine said.
He used one claw to crack the can's large tab. Right as he did, a geyser of sparkling pop erupted out of it. It spouted a meter into the air before arching back down and hitting against the hotel carpet.
"Max, where has that soda been?" Armin snapped to ask.
"Uh, I bought it yesterday when doing errands. I swear it was from a pretty normal place," he defended himself.
"When?"
"Pretty early on. Like first thing when we split up."
"And you were carrying that around in your bags all day when you went around? Bags that were bouncing around from all the stuff in them?"
"Uh."
"And the bags you tossed to the side before we went to sleep?"
"Uh," Max sounded as though he had shrunk when he spoke.
Armin's fists had clenched up, but he then relaxed himself and let out a sigh. He couldn't bring himself to be mad at the arcanine. "Well, let's just keep getting ready. The hotel staff should be able to take care of that."
"Let's please not leave the room in a bad state. That's irresponsible," Nidorino scolded Armin. "Help me grab some towels from the bathroom."
"Fine," Armin said.
"W-well, that j-just about got me a-awake," Braixen said as he took the blankets off of himself and got out of the bed. "I'd s-still like the coffee, though."
"That might just have to wait," Nidorino said.
"I'm sorry," Max said.
Now standing upright, Braixen did some morning stretches to further acquaint himself with being active. He then looked down on the nightstand beside him, and noticed a stack of newspapers resting in it. Knowing it was still a bit of time before they could leave, he grabbed it and began reading.
It was the typical tabloid issue that he had remembered from his last time in the city. Some news about local businesses or incidents. But what caught his eye was an article on the front page. "Highwayman gang driven out of city, still on the run" was the headline in bold font. The body went into more detail, describing a gang of tough bandit pokemon that were forced to flee the city boundaries after a fight and escaped into the snowy outskirts. It was framed as a good thing, a heroic act by the city's security, but didn't mention any of them being arrested. The best look at the gang itself was a photograph of a walrein with other pokemon that accompanied the article.
Braixen read the newspaper for a minute while the soda was cleaned up. Afterwards he set it down, and the four could finally gather their bags up again.
Relieved to see the goods in the condition they left them in, they gathered up the cargo and their belongings, ate breakfast at the inn, and checked themselves out.
Aside from stopping to get a large coffee that Braixen wanted and making a few other stops, the four went straight to the spot they had originally entered the city at. The streets were semi-crowded, they could walk at normal speed but needed to be careful as to not hit a smaller pokemon by accident. It had diurnal pokemon walking to work and the nocturnal returning to their homes. Most wise enough to keep at a steady pace to avoid slipping, but there were outliers who rushed to their destination and tumbled down onto the hard ground when they went over puddles of ice. Then there were the pokemon who flew or levitated off the ground, who just went as they pleased- as fast as they pleased- without needing to pay mind to those slipping hazards.
"Y-you know, it is pretty odd how the b-best fighters in the guild were used for a mission that amounted to doing some errands," Braixen said as they walked uphill through the cold brick streets. "I think I'm fi- not complaining, it's just a little odd in retrospect. I'm glad I did come here."
"Strength is applicable in situations outside of combat. In this circumstance, transport," Nidorino said.
"Yee. Plus we might have to do some fighting on the way back," Max said.
"Careful now, you might have just jinxed it," Nidorino said.
Shortly after he spoke, a Jynx in the street stopped and turned her head to look at them with a confused look. Nidorino looked back at her, but didn't say anything.
"Heh," Braixen said. "Say, does anyone st-still want to check out other places in the c-city? We've still got t-time and there are so many other places I haven't shown you guys yet."
"Well actually, there's a Swana I met yesterday that I'd to visit again-"
"No, let's just move on to get back," Armin interjected.
"Are you sure? I think it'd be helpful to speak with her again."
"Yeah. We've gotten what we need from this city, let's just get this stuff back to the guild," Armin doubled down.
"Okay."
Armin took the lead for the group and Max was shortly behind him, while Braixen and Nidorino lagged behind a bit.
"Do you know what's up with him?" Braixen asked Nidorino while turning to him.
"My best guess is that it's just social exhaustion, he doesn't want to be around other pokemon after spending a while in a city. He's just wanting to get home again as fast as possible," Nidorino said, speaking quietly enough so that Armin wouldn't hear.
"Mhm…"
They walked the rest of the way out of the city, watching the place getting gradually less dense on their way out. Buildings that loomed above them gave way to single-story housing, and that eventually led to the city limits. They didn't need any final stops, they only needed persistence.
As they walked up the hill the way they originally came in, Braixen turned around to take one look back at the city to say goodbye to it, unsure of when he could return. The look back took a good thirty seconds as he had flashbacks towards being a fennekin with his sister in the city. He rubbed some loose tears out of his eyes and turned around to walk onward with the team again.
There was a pervasive wind chill that made it so the journey was colder than it was when they were coming towards the city. The snow was of a consistency that was very light and made of countless loose particles that didn't stick together, causing it to be picked up by the wind and briefly fly around. The worst consistency possible for those wanting to build something out of the snow, but the best consistency possible for those wanting to shovel out a pathway. But those things didn't matter for the four travelers, as they walked through the lands regardless.
A thick bed of clouds rolled in, blotching out the sun as the sky appeared to be an endless canvas of white and grey clouds parallel to the ground. Looking up, one could see the clouds moving around from the force of the gale.
"Looks like there's a possibility of a storm," Nidorino said as he looked up.
"Yeah, looks possible…" Max said, looking up as well.
"Should we try to look for some coves to wait out storms in? That's how we survived back in that mission where we were rescued from the storm," Nidorino answered.
"Maybe, but there hasn't been any snow yet. Let's keep moving for now," Max said.
"Mhm. Besides, we're not in t-too much m-mortal danger b-because half of the t-team are fire t-types and we have good survival skills, so I th-think we're- so I don't th-think it'll be t-t-too hard to keep everyone above hype-hypothermia t-temperature levels," Braixen gave his thoughts. "Armin, what d-do you think?"
"..."
"A-Armin?"
"Oh, w-what? Sorry," the lucario finally spoke up.
"Did y-you hear what we were saying?" Braixen asked.
"I didn't. Sorry, my mind was elsewhere," Armin explained.
"Please be more aware, we're on a mission and we don't know what could happen out in the wilderness," Nidorino scolded Armin on Braixen's behalf.
"Alright, alright. No need to pester me," Armin said defensively.
Braixen's mouth shifted to form a frustrated pout, but he didn't say anything more. The four kept walking onward.
Another hour into the journey, and the winds intensified. Some light snow falling onto the ground also served as metaphorical salt coming onto the wound. All of the white particles flying around functioned as a fog that severely limited their vision. Even if they focused, they could only see about three meters in any given direction. There could be corpses, treasure, or threats lying just outside of that short, short bubble, and they would be utterly oblivious to their existence. This uncertainness of what could be just out of reach that made them be more vigilant. It was vigilance through paranoia, but vigilance nonetheless.
"Are we even sure where we are?" Max asked in staggering confidence.
"Well we've stayed on this cleared out road this whole time, so I can say with certainty where we're not: off the path," Nidorino said, trudging ahead along with them.
"JJ-judging from what I could make out, I'd say we're like a fi-fifth of the way there. I think th-there's a forest of tr-evergreens pretty close to here that we c-could see if it wasn't-t snowing," Braixen chimed in. "C-come to think of it, I think we're in a really bad r-range where we're outside of the city s-security but there's still the city's h-h-"
"Wait, there's something coming towards us," Armin said to the group with a concerned voice. He was passively using his aura sense to attempt to peak beyond the short bubble they could see in with their eyes.
Just as Armin finished saying that, a sharp shard of ice came straight out of the fog of snow towards the lucario. He easily dodged it, and could sense that it was improperly aimed, rush fired from a strange angle.
"Highwaymen!" Braixen managed to yell out to finish his previous sentence.
While the wind still remained the dominant sound, they were able to hear several creatures moving through the snow in the direction the shard came from. They turned to face that way, but then heard the shuffling through snow from behind them as well, and from their side, and just about every other direction around their painfully limited radius of visibility.
Braixen grabbed the stick wand he had and blindly shot out a flame attack, unsure of the exact location where their adversaries were. Max had a similar tactical mindset, preparing a Flamethrower attack to spew flames around, but instead of focusing it on one particular area as he typically had done, he made a wide arc of flames. The fires from both their attacks created momentary wind and illumination, both giving them a brief glimpse into what was further away, allowing them to get a brief look at their attackers.
Armin persisted in using aura sense to take a count of what all surrounded them, and also began charging up an aura sphere to retaliate. Nidorino had no targets in close to fight, so he backed to the center of them and began planning out what to do in the situation. All while that was happening, more attacks were coming out of the white blur.
"They're able to recognize where we are even through the flying snow," Nidorino scrutinized. "I believe seeing through snow is an ability ice types have, or they have another sense they're using."
"Y-yes, ice types, I-I've read about-t th-this stuff in the p-paper" Braixen said while dodging out of the way of another ice shard, which ended up hitting Max's hide instead. He was stuttering more than usual from the frantic nature of the situation.
"They'll have to close the distance eventually to rob us, but this really isn't a good place to hold out in," Nidorino continued to say, constantly wiping his head around to watch for the different areas an attack could come from. "Armin, do you have any idea how many there are?"
"Quite a few, I'd say somewhere between twenty and thirty," Armin said, eyes still glowing from his aura sense.
"Th-that-t c-can't be r-right…" Braixen muttered to himself while Max was groaning in pain from several attacks making contact with his massive body.
"Braixen, you said there was a forest not far from here?" Armin asked.
"Should be just in front of- er- just to the r-right of the w-way we were g-going," Braixen said.
"I'll make the breakthrough," Armin said.
He unleashed the aura sphere he was charging up straight in the direction Braixen had stated. The sheer force of it counteracted the wind, cutting a clear path through the blur and hitting several of the bandits in its wake.
Armin sprinted off in that direction to follow the sphere, and the other three ran after him. Their attackers were left disoriented for a single moment, a moment that the guild pokemon took advantage of.
After a few seconds of running, trees began coming into vision. They all went around and into the set of trees to duck into the underbrush and branches.
"If the open isn't a place where we can hold out, then the woods will do well," Armin said as they enveloped themselves in the small forest. "Trees block ranged attacks quite well. So in order for them to attack us, they'll have to get closer. And at that distance, we'll be able to see them as well."
"Ah, good thinking," Nidorino said.
"Y-yeah. So we can start properly fighting back now?" Max said, still cringing from multiple wounds in his large hide.
"Yeah," Armin said, "this is where things will get fun."
"A-are you s-sure you s-s-sensed that many p-pokemon, A-Armin?" Braixen asked to make sure.
"Yes. Is there anything wrong with that?" the lucario responded.
"I-I've read the r-reports, and th-they never m-mentioned such a l-large group," he clarified.
"We must have been marked as high value targets of some sort," Nidorino said.
"We've talked enough, let's keep moving," Armin commanded.
The four hurried to get deeper into the woods. The pawprints they left in the snow created a track they could be followed by, but they were able to find some stones and fallen wood to spring off of to mitigate how much of a track they were leaving behind.
The pursuers couldn't keep up at perfect speed, and the distance between each individual one slowly got further separated. Eventually, Armin quickly jumped up onto one of the barren tree branches and waited for one of the bandits to continue chasing from beneath them. As they came, Armin jumped down from the tree and slammed his arms down onto them with the added force of gravity, knocking them out instantly on collision. Afterwards, the team managed to find a hiding spot under a small hill with loose roots overhead.
There, they went silent and the bandits lost track of where they were. The highwayman began to divide up into smaller groups to search the woods.
Waiting in the hiding spot, the guild pokemon pulled their compasses out to see which direction was which again. After some time in silence, and with their sense of direction restored, they began whispering to one another.
"So, what's the plan now?" Max asked. "Should we just try to pick them off one-by-one with ambushes?"
"They can still see better than most of us can in this environment, so we're unfortunately more vulnerable to ambushes than they are," Nidorino whispered back.
"I've got a better idea," Armin said while he had his flare in one arm, and was pulling out flammable paper meterial from his bags to wrap around the flare's stripe with his other hand.
The other three turned their heads to look at the lucario to see what he had in mind.
"You three start heading eastward again to get back to the guildhouse, I'm going to create a distraction to divert them away from you," Armin instructed. "When you see or hear my flare go off, you are not to go towards it. Understand?"
"But how will we know if you get into danger and need assistance?" Nidorino inquired.
"He won't, trust me," Max answered Nidorino. "I know him well, he's not one to mess something up like this. If he's got a plan, we should trust him."
"Yes. Now you three go, they'll find us eventually out here," Armin said as he turned his body westward but still had his head turned to look at them. "Remember to stay just close enough that you can help each other at a moment's notice, but just far enough so you don't get caught up in the same net or burst attack."
"Y-yeah, we all know the t-two meter rule, Armin. N-no need t-to r-remind us," Braixen said as the three began moving to the east, following their compasses.
Armin began sneaking off in the opposite direction, going elsewhere in the woods with his head low.
Without the aid of his companions right behind him, Armin was now alone, so carefully he snuck through the trees and leafless branches, whilst sustaining his aura sense. Using that ability, he could make out the faint light blue blurs of the various souls around him. With this awareness of who was around him, he went into full stealth to discreetly get past all of them. He stuck to lower ground to avoid being seen, and often halted mid pace to wait for some of the souls to move past before he started moving onward again.
Deftly, he avoided getting into all confrontations, as he knew that even if he did fight one of them, then the sounds of it would cause others to come to the position. His backpack of supplies also weighed him down and complicated the stealth process, but he managed to keep balanced and steady. It took a few minutes until he found a small clearing with an open view of the sky. There, he placed his flare on the ground against a stone and pointed it upwards. He lined the paper that was tied around the flare on the stone, pulled a matchbox out of his bags, lit a single match, and then used it to light the end of the makeshift paper fuse. He left the flare behind and began backtracking, stepping over the footsteps he previously made to minimize the number of tracks he was leaving behind.
Thirty seconds later, a bright orange flare spark was launched into the air over the forest, creating a loud burst of sound that the wind carried around. As it went off, all of the highwaymen pokemon turned their heads towards the burst. For a moment they had some hesitation on what to do, until a Walrein captain of them began barking out orders.
"Looks like one of them is calling for help, get that position surrounded while they're stll alone!" the walrein declared.
The various bandits managed to rally together to ambush the position where the flare had come from, ready to swarm whatever had launched the flare out. They jumped into the small clearing. But when they did, all they found was the base of a flare on the ground. The flame from the artificial fuse had burned off the flare's stripe, causing it to be activated as if it was torn off. They all stared down at if for a second, the realization of what had just transpired dawning on them. The walrein and his men looked eastward, but the lucario was long gone at that moment.
Forest behind them, open field ahead; Max, Nidorino, and Braixen made it out to continue their journey back to the guildhouse. They double checked what they had on hand, and were relieved to find that nothing was lost. For a moment, they felt a sense of safety; compounded by the fact that the wind wasn't blowing quite as hard anymore.
Right as they were starting to discuss if they should keep walking back to the guild or wait for Armin, they heard light sounds coming towards them again. Looking between the branches, they saw the blue jackal pokemon emerge and come to rejoin them.
"That should take care of them long enough for us to get back," Armin said.
"N-nice flare t-trick," Braixen said to him.
"Thanks," Armin said as he began to talk past them. "As it is said, the wise warrior avoids the battle. Now come, let's get this mission over with."
The other three nodded and followed the lucario once more.
The final way back to the guildhouse was a harder journey than the one they had to reach the port, that was certain in the minds of all four of them. Colder temperature, less clear vision, much more weight down on them, and they had much of their energy already drained from evading the bandits. Yet their spirits weren't drained, quite the opposite, there was more enthusiasm in their spirits as they imagined the warm drinks and soft furniture that awaited them at the guildhouse.
Every hour and landmark was counted during the journey. The few small settlements they passed by offered far more peace than what they saw when exiting Port Roseose, and it was hard for them to not stay for longer.
As they closed in to their destination, everything started looking more and more familiar to them Eventually, they could predict when everything would show up purely off of memory, for it was the places they had so many times when they were departing or returning from missions before.
Finally, they saw their beloved town just ahead of them. The town might have not been as nice when it was buried under a meter of snow, but it was beloved to most of them nonetheless.
They got inside the guildhouse, and immediately felt the warmth of a weathered and well insulated indoors reach their skin. They met with Espeon and began taking off the cargo they brought back.
Double checking the lists to make sure all that was requested was obtained, Espeon thanked them for a completely successful mission. "Take your reward, and your rest along with it," he said. "Don't worry about getting everything put away, you've done plenty already."
Finally done, they took their reward and looked at each other.
"W-well, I'm about-t r-ready to c-call it a day," Braixen said. "What about-t you guys?"
"I'm going to curl up with a nice book," Nidorino said, managing to smile a tad.
"Sleeeeeeep," Max said, hanging on the syllable.
"C-can't blame you, heheheh. Th-thanks for c-carrying the m-most out of all of us. Huge help," Braixen said, managing to get a little more cheery as well. "And A-Armin? What about you?"
The lucario didn't immediately respond, nor did he look back at Braixen. Instead, his gaze seemed to be magnetized to the floor. After a second that felt unusually prolonged, he responded.
"I think I'm just going to head out again. I need to clear my head," Armin said.
"W-well yeah, b-but why head out? Wouldn't the g-guildhouse be a nice and w-warm place for you to be?" Braixen questioned.
"I just want to have a walk, that's all."
"It is below freezing temperatures and plenty of buildings are closed, why walk? Wouldn't a shower be better?" Nidorino asked.
"No, there are just some places I'd like to go to clear my head," Armin replied.
"Where could you possibly be wanting to-"
"Just let him head out," Max interrupted Nidorino. "It's his life, and he knows what's best for himself."
"Mhm…" Armin affirmed.
"Alright then. Enjoy y-yourself, luc'," Braixen told him with a small wave goodbye. But he had already turned to not be able to see the way.
The four dispersed again. Braixen went to his own room as fast as he could, wanting to get there before making contact with Yuki the vulpix in any way. Nidorino and Max took their time and walked at relaxed paces, while Armin immediately went out the way he had come in, keeping just his usual explorer's backpack on him.
Armin walked across the thin layer of snow on the barely maintained paths once again. This time, he went northbound. He had a destination in mind, but to those looking, it would look like he was intentionally trying to get lost. He took the obscure side path of an obscure side path of an obscure side path. The way took him into progressively hillier and thickly wooded land. Eventually, once it had been almost an hour since he departed, he saw a minor landmark of an extra tall redwood tree that he was looking out for. At the landmark, he took a sharp turn left, leaving the paths altogether and going straight between the dense, although now leafless, flora.
He spent a few minutes going through the deep, untouched woods, looking through the branches. Once he saw some the ruins of half of a stone arch remaining, Armin knew he had gotten to where he wanted.
Armin entered a place of old stone ruins that was extremely secluded. Even flying pokemon would likely never see it as it was in a completely random part of the woods and had trees overlooking it. Save for the plants and snow, it seemed frozen in time.
The lucario stepped into the roads of the ruins between the stone structures, his paws stepping into the snow. The site wasn't large, smaller than the town the guildhouse was established in. It's purpose- long lost- wasn't the same kind of settlement.
Besides Armin were tablets with old ruins. Each written in a language no normal pokemon would understand. With just a single glance at the architecture and state, there were many questions that would come to mind, but very few answers to be given. Some were questions Armin could answer, some he could not. Some he desired to learn, some he was indifferent to. Being one of the only people who knew about the site gave him a feeling of safety in it, and Armin desired to be there as it gave off a slight, miniscule feeling of home.
The only sounds that accompanied the walk was the wind and the snow being pushed down underfoot. He took his sweet time walking through it, eventually reaching the epicenter of it. It was a small town square, with buildings surrounding and facing towards it. The most distinct feature was a large obelisk on the north center of the square, standing eight meters tall and with writings of the same language. Below the obelisk was a now frozen pool of water.
He stopped in the middle of the square and looked at the top of the obelisk, his eyes slowly descending until it reached the bottom. Armin then went closer towards it.
He reached his paw down to brush off a layer of snow from the frozen pool, revealing the perfectly clear ice beneath. In doing so, he got a look at the reflection he casted into the ice. Armin then sat down in a lotus position where he was, continuing to gaze into the reflection as time seemed to flow everywhere except in those ruins.
End of chapter 20.