Between the cold storms and oppressive weather that was the rule for winter, there were some pockets of clear skies and tolerable temperatures that served as the exceptions. The snow made walks and journeys hard to go on without needing to trudge through it, and with the right wear it was possible to ignore the cold while out on a mission. It was under these conditions that Locke, Tamin, Dewott, and Froslass could finally embark on a quest, a luxury no longer exclusive to the higher ranks.
They walked through a snowy meadow that was northeast of the guildhouse, not far from their destination. They were in a normal environment, not some uncanny mystery dungeon. It was just the leafless trees to look between. It was just a little bit of piano music away from being the serene landscape like those depicted in idealized Christmas towns. But without those tunes, it felt empty. Being empty of threats was ideal and being empty of sounds was negligible, but being empty of their objective was bad.
"When did it last snow over here? Does anyone know?" Tamin asked as she stepped through the meadow and turned her head towards her companions, straying her eyes away from the irritating glare of sunlight reflecting off of snow.
"Why?" Locke asked, not far away and sticking close to Dewott.
"Well we came here to find some lost wagon, so I was thinking that if it snowed just before it was lost then maybe there's some wagon tracks in the snow we could follow," Tamin explained herself.
"I believe this particular area hasn't seen anymore come down in a few days," Froslass answered Tamin. "I suppose it's possible, but since the wagon was lost very recently and the snow is hard, I wouldn't count on it."
"Mmm. Alright," Tamin replied, turning her eyes back to look around again. "Still odd that we'd be paid so much to find some random wagon that got lost in a non-hostile place."
"It's from a noble house, so it's 'bout what I'd expect from them," Dewott explained, hand expressions going everywhere. "I've heard a lot about them from Mienfoo. I'm guessing there was something sentimental or secretive in there that they wanted to be found in a rush- get it back as fast as possible so none would take it. That's why they're wanting this completed so fast and offering so much.
'Priceless' means something a lot more to them when they do have the poké to pay just 'bout any price you can think of."
"Wait, secretive, you say?" Tamin asked, interest suddenly sparking.
"Yeah. I'm sure they've got a bunch of confidenti-whatever stuff. If they had anything like that was on the wagon they'd be rushin' to have it retrieved."
"Alright. Was this the same house that Mienfoo's in? House Splendor, I think," Tamin asked back.
"I actually don't remember that being labelled on the quest," Dewott said.
"Yeah, I don't remember that being labeled either," Froslass added on. "Are you sure they're our clients?"
"Yee. I'm pretty familiar with them, so I am pretty sure it was one of them," Dewott explained. "They might've gotten someone else affiliated to make the request, maybe for anonymity, I don't know."
"More of just a gut instinct then?" Locke asked.
"Sure," Dewott replied.
"Alright. Hmm…" Tamin trailed off along with her thoughts. The same part of her that was interested in eavesdropping on others was now curious about what the wagon that their clients didn't want getting into the wrong hands. "Just what secrets does a noble have to hide? What's gossip with them like?" Tamin pondered, feeling a new interest get ignited within her.
Having not spoken for a moment, Locke was thinking of his own ways to interject in the conversation.
"That reminds me, have you still been doin' 'kay without Mienfoo? It's been- what- two weeks since she went?" Locke asked Dewott.
"I miss her, but I'm not too shabby alone," the water type answered. "I'm still hearty."
"Aye, that's good to hear," Locke said, forming a smile. "Did ya find someone else, or am I still your next pick to do competitions with?"
"Ha, nah, you're still good. And if we find something we can do it together," Dewott said. "Maybe a snowball fight when the snow's stickier."
"Nah, I don't think that'd be too even for me. I am a quadruped and all and can't really throw balls well," Locke answered him. "Though then again, being closer to the ground does mean it won't take as long before I get completely buried by snowballs, so I won't be losing for terribly long."
"Oh sorry, I didn't really think about that," Dewott said
"Nah man, it's alright."
"Sorry. If you can think of something else, you can tell me. But right now, I think my mind's a little more focused on Mienfoo," Dewott continued to talk. "My biggest worry is that she's going to come back evolved and I won't be able to see that."
"No, that just means that you've got to evolve yourself in the time she's gone," Locke said. "That'll be a power move right there."
"Haha. Well I certainly don't plan on evolving since it'd make life harder to be that large and I think I'd lose dexterity, but you are right, that would be a real power move."
"Shouldn't we focus on the mission, guys?" Froslass asked.
"Hey, I could certainly give you a few pointers on how to move 'round on all-fours. Plus crippling yourself for the sake of the competition will just make it much that much more of a power move."
"I do really appreciate the advice, but I think there are better options, so I'll stick to my gut."
"I'll let ya do that then. Cuz as we both know, sticking to my gut instincts certainly gave me a world of wonders and some free apparel," Locke joked around.
"If I really want to, I have some other options for power moves at my disposal."
"Do tell."
"I could just make a food sin directly in front of her when she comes back and eat it. Whole."
"Oooooh~, I like the way you're going with that," Locke said.
"Okay, I'm afraid to ask this, but what exactly is a 'food sin'?" Tamin interjected.
Both Dewott and Locke turned their heads to look at the minccino, their eyes showing fields of wonder within them and their mouths agape in excitement, like kids introducing a new friend to their favorite game.
"Oh, it's quite simple! You just grab some bowls along with some objects to stir with, and then raid the pantry for a bunch of random things that are about to expire- ketchup, lettuce, milk, mayonnaise, beans, or whatever else- then you start combining all of them together and keep going until you make Azelf regret giving pokemon free will. Then you've created a lovely, lovely food sin."
"Ah! But it's not always as simple as a blender challenge," Dewott corrected, extending one finger to hold it upwards. "There's a real art to committin' a truly vile food sin. You have to really learn some confectionary skills to take somefins that specifically don't go together, and put em' together as if it were an actual dish! Like baked bean cereal with sum sprinkles added on top!"
"Ya!" Locke chimed in.
"Wh-why in Arceus' name would you learn cooking just to do that?" Tamin said is disgusted bewilderment. "Why would you learn anything to do that? Just, why?"
"We mentioned earlier: it's a power move," Dewott stated, still grinning.
"Listen, you can be having your own little cooking competition in the guild's kitchen, and that's all fine as well. But the moment Dewott steps in and joins, you're no longer doing that cooking competition. You're playing Dewott's game. And things get real interesting, real quick when you're playing Dewott's game."
"Yep-yep!"
"I don't think anyone wins 'Dewott's game'. That just sounds like something where everyone loses. Especially when you eat one of those… confectionary devilries," Tamin said.
"Well, I'm not going to argue with you on that, but it's fun all the same," Locke said.
The shinx and the dewott continued to share a hearty laugh with each other, while Tamin turned back to look at Froslass. The ice type pokemon was just there, looking.
"Are you going to say anything?" Tamin asked her.
"No, I'm just observing at this point," Froslass said, smiling weakly. In her mind, she wished she had some popcorn to chew on while she watched the others talk.
The minccino just rolled her eyes away from them and continued looking around for the wagon. The others still had the occasional giggle, but did so while still working at the objective.
They wandered around the snowy meadow more, keeping their eyes keen. This finally proved effective as they spotted some objects embedded in the snow. It was just some splinters and coins, but it was something.
"Looks like we're on the right trail," Tamin said.
"Yep. Let's just follow the stuff now," Dewott replied.
"Of course, wonderful plan. That shouldn't leave us lost," Froslass replied. "Come let's- hey! Where are you going Locke?" Froslass shifted to shouting at Locke as he walked off.
"What? I'm looking for the wagon. It looks to be this way," Locke said.
"Please stay with the group. This is literally the same thing that happened during your test mission," Froslass scolded.
"Alright! Alright! I'm coming back," Locke said, doing just that.
"Don't do anything stupid," Dewott said to Froslass.
"Wasn't ever going to," she replied.
From there on, all they needed to do was to attempt to follow the loose trail of lost items, picking up what they could along the way.
The trail led them to a tree that had the wagon crashed into it. A few wheels were lost, and the wagon's cover had collapsed in on itself. A few pokemon were already picking at its contents, looking for what they could scrounge from it. The team didn't bother even checking if these were feral pokemon from dungeons or society's common thieves looting what they could, they scared them away with some shouting and launching off a flare to disorient them but not damage the wagon's contents. The pokemon were all shooed away without a drop of blood being spilled, and in their absence, the four guild pokemon were left to see the wagon themselves.
"So that's it then?" Locke asked. "Mission's over, just carry this back?"
"Unless there's also some noble tea party out here that we're supposed to attend and they didn't tell us about, this is it," Froslass said, dripping with sarcasm.
"Just a little disappointing for me, I guess. I mean, we did really not get into any fighting," Locke expressed.
"Yeah, I'm with you. This does feel pretty off," Dewott added.
"I'll always take a chance to avoid fighting if I can, so I'd say this mission is pretty ideal," Tamin added as they all stood side-by-side facing the wagon.
"But don't you need to fight to get experience with it?" Froslass asked Tamin.
"Whatever," she dismissed. "Let's just get this completed."
The four all got closer, surrounding it in a semi-circle to better inspect it.
"See if you can find all of the wheels to this thing. I don't want to be lifting this thing back without those," Dewott commanded.
"Yes. Be sure to get all of the things that fell off back on as well, we don't want to be missing those," Froslass said. Her tone of voice made it completely ambiguous if she was being sarcastic or not as it often did.
The four all began gathering the contents together and making haphazard repair attempts. All four of the wheels were found, so they used makeshift materials to stick it back onto the wagon's axles. Items were shifted in a wide area around the wagon, making the objective feel more akin to a chore day than a typical high-action mission.
During the pick up process, Tamin noticed a letter that was lodged into the snow. She barely managed to notice it among the white snowSo she reached down to collect it.
Picking it up, Tamin noticed more things that were off about the letter. It had a black wax seal with a symbol she had never seen before, and it had been partially cut open by something sharp in the wagon when the crash had happened. This sparked her curiosity even more.
The minccino expanded the opening with her paw so she could look inside. There, she saw a paper marked with countless bizarre symbols. They weren't something she could read, nor even recognize. They didn't look like any language at all, it looked like a cipher. Tamin blinked a few times and brought it closer to her eyes, but that just confirmed what she was seeing: rows and rows of some unknown cryptogram inside.
"Hey, Tamin, what do you have right there?" Froslass suddenly questioned.
Mentally, Tamin was shocked. Part of her blood turned cold and a fuzzy surge came to her head from nervousness. But it was just that, mentally; she didn't let those feelings reach her physical appearance. In fact, she decided to play off of that.
She made an exaggerated "ah!" sound and fell backwards onto her butt. Yet coming out of her mouth, it sounded genine.
"Are you alright?" Froslass asked.
"Yeah, sorry. You just surprised me there," Tamin said, adding some paw gestures to make herself seem more genuine. "Sorry, I was just looking around for more things to put onto the wagon."
"Mhm. What was that letter you were looking at?"
"What?"
"I saw you opening and peering into a letter, and that's why I called out to you."
"Huh? What letter? I was looking around for something."
"What? I could have sworn I saw you with one."
"Do you think you might just be seeing things?" Tamin said, adding on a bit of a shrug.
"Show me your paws," Froslass commanded.
"Huh?"
"Just show me what you have in your paws, I want to make sure."
Tamin raised both of her paws up, holding her arms parallel to each other. Both had nothing in them.
"Uh, get up," Froslass said. Confusion taking dominance over the judgemental voice she had.
The minccino got back off of her butt and onto her feet again, and nothing was where she was sitting. Moreover, she reached into pockets that were on her coat and inverted them, pulling the fabric out to show nothing was inside of them.
"Huh…" Froslass said while looking. "I'm sorry, I guess I was just seeing things."
"Yeah… I kinda think you were," Tamin replied, still showing her paws.
"I'm sorry about that, I guess my mind was somewhere else."
"Don't beat yourself up, we all make mistakes sometimes. Let's just get back to getting the wagon together," Tamin said.
"Right."
Froslass floated away, and Tamin continued to pick up other things. A moment after the ice type had gone to look elsewhere, Tamin raised her paw to the back of her neck and felt. She touched the letter as she did so, confirming it was still pressed between the collar of her coat and her back, just as she had it when she quickly snuck it there while tumbling towards the ground. "Nice," she thought.
It wasn't any exorbitant period of time to gather everything on the wagon again and make repair attempts. With everything together again, they began to take it back to the town the guildhouse was in.
Transporting the wagon was more tedious than difficult. They had to hold up some corners of it while pushing and pulling it; a hard task when they weren't the largest of pokemon. Dewott was handling the lion's share of the work, and they had to take a break every few minutes to let him regain arm strength as he got sore. During each break, Tamin would discreetly check to make sure she still had her letter.
"So where was this wagon initially heading?" Locke asked the group.
"I don't think it had just one stop," Dewott answered, "It was supposed to stop and drop off some stuff at a couple different places. More efficient than sending a different wagon for each location."
Tamin heard this, and decided to contribute.
"Was the guildhouse supposed to be one of its stops to drop some stuff off at?" Tamin interjected with her own question.
"Yeah. Pretty sure," Dewott said, "So I suppose we are really helping the wagon continue its original route."
"Okay," Tamin spoke, ending the conversation.
Tamin got more information out of that short exchange than the others had realized. After thinking about it, Tamin figured that the wagon might have been intended to stop at the guild, having someone come and look through it for the letter, take it and then read it. That certain someone must've known how to read whatever code it was in, among whatever else the wagon was supposed to drop off at the guild. In other words, she believed it could have been for someone at the guild.
With that figured out, the question in Tamin's head shifted to be about who the letter was designated for.
"Was it for Espeon?" Tamin thought to herself, "That would make sense since he is the guildmaster and would probably be the first to look through the wagon. But at the same time, I never saw anything even resembling those symbols when I was in his bedroom and office a few weeks back. So maybe it wasn't him.
What if it was Niot? He's smart and would be one to know some kind of secret code, and he would also be one to check the wagon quickly. Although then again, a lot of the stuff in Espeon's office was written by him, and there still isn't any of that code in there. Hmm… Hunter did inspect the office a lot more than me and see things I didn't, so I could try asking him if he saw anything like this, I'll just have to make sure Locke doesn't find out about me talking to him...
Enough of this. If i'm going to get to the bottom of this, I'll have to figure out what that letter means myself. If I hand it off to anyone else, then I will never get to learn what it says."
Tamin reassured herself that she would get to the bottom of the strange letter in one way or another. The entire group continued to travel back to the guildhouse.
The wagon was now secured, Locke, Tamin, Dewott and Froslass all entered the guildhouse once again. All of them are getting to feel the warmth offered by the building that they had missed for several hours now.
Several guild members were in the foyer to notice them, Espeon included.
"Oh, uh, welcome back to the guild!" Espeon said to them once he was them enter, starting with stuttering in surprise before shifting to enthusiasm.
The arriving guild members did not match his energy, only walking forward to get deeper into the guildhouse. They all wanted their money from the mission, but more so wanted to have their warmth and rest. After gathering their share of the geneous mission reward amount, they talked again.
"So Locke, anyfin else you wanna t'day?" Dewott asked.
"Dunno, can't not think of much right now?" the shinx replied.
"You mean you can't think of anything?"
"Right," Locke gave a small and short nod, more like a head shake than anything else.
"Always on the move, you two. Might as well push the entire guildhouse while you're at it," Frosslass, being certainly sarcastic this time instead of being unclear if she was or wasn't sarcastic, like she usually was.
"As chilly as it is outside, I'd rather chill out inside. Even if you think that's uncool," Tamin said, trying to interlace in some puns to fit in and reduce any suspicions that were potentially on her.
"I know snowball fights aren't really for you, but maybe something else with the snow," Dewott suggested, "it's pretty sticky over here."
"What about something like digging tunnels?" Locke said.
"Mmm. I'll think 'bout that," Dewott said.
"Aye, alright. By the way, I don't think you ever told me about how that last snowball fight you did with Mienfoo went before she went away."
"Oh, lemme tell you that it went wonderfully. I think she underestimated how quickly I could cobble a snowball togeth'r by scooping up the snow with my scalchops," Dewott recited his story with a wide smile. "She must've been overconfident with how much the cold would have affected me 'cause I'm a water type. I could tell she was trying some tricks to like out agility me."
"Aye, I can imagine that. So you won quite easily?"
"Half of her body was buried in snow by the time we were done," Dewott cackled.
"Nice! Seems you ended things off quite well," Locke said.
"Yup! Now I just need to make sure she doesn't close my lead when she evolves and comes back."
"Good luck,"
"Thanks," Dewott turned to look at the minccino. "Hey Tamin, you're a biped and have got a fair bit of dexterity from what I can tell, maybe we could do a snowball fight sometime?"
"Snow? More like s-no-w," the minccino said as she walked off.
Dewott and Locke talked for a bit longer, but Tamin had already left the scene behind. Froslass went back to her room to look over magazines, and Tamin returned to her abode as well. She didn't put her coat back to the guild's shared supplies, as she knew she needed it to effectively smuggle the letter to her room, and her scarf wasn't large enough to hide it. The coat wasn't technically hers, but Tamin knew that she could pass it off as a simple accident caused by forgetting if she was called out on having the coat, whereas explaining the letter would be far harder.
She entered her room, shut the door behind her, and made double sure to lock it. The minccino walked over to a small table she had and withdrew the letter from the coat, and finally opened it again.
The paper inside was as she remembered it, and the envelope was blank aside from the black wax seal. Rows upon rows of strange symbols stared back at her, her eyes wandered around it, unable to focus on any one part as she couldn't find any singular character she could identify.
She looked frustrated for a second, but persisted in attempting to study it. It took a few moments, but she got an idea on how to keep moving forward by gaining information.
Even if she couldn't gleam information from the characters themselves, she could look at the places they were and their formatting. The letter obeyed proper formatting with paragraphs and indents; it even appeared to have proper punctuation as well. It had a few paragraphs, with the first and last being the shortest ones and the second-to-last being the longest. The punctuation also told their own story as she counted four semicolons across it and other uncommon punctuation, indiditive of formal writing to form a high reading level.
The more she studied the formatting of it, the more it seemed familiar to her and gave off an aura of deja vu. Squinting closer and thinking harder about it, she then got a realization;
"This is formatted like our mission requests are," Tamin thought.
That discovery sparked up her interest even further. This was a real mystery to her, even more than just a simple thing to break up the monotony of winter.
"Oh I've just got to decode this and figure out what this says now. Just what kinds of things would have to be hidden under a code like this? This feels like it's something a lot more serious then the stuff I eavesdrop on. Potentially way bigger than any whisper I've heard." she thought to herself, starting to get excited. "Sure, cryptology isn't one of my skills. But I could sure make it one."
Tamin gathered together papers and writing utensils, preparing for a long session to solve this. Her coat was tossed to the side of the room, and she started writing down whatever notes she could think of.
The first thing the minccino did was right down a list of every unique character on the paper, and counted how many times they appeared. She then took note of identical words and common strings of characters. Afterwards she copied the letter several times so she could get a version she could circle characters on and add notes without damaging the original. Every idea she had got written down on paper, even before she fully thought it through.
Going after the lead that this resembled a mission request, Tamin left her room for a few minutes to dig through trashes and archives for completed mission papers to use as a reference.
This lead of comparing it to a letter she could actually read gave her some decent knowledge. She had a good guess on what certain words at the beginning or end of sections were by those being what appeared on the normal papers. This served as an exceptionally strong lead, even if based on assumptions, as now she could make educated guesses on what specific symbols meant and try those out for other places they appeared in it.
For hours she remained in her abode, stretching her mental capabilities to make notes and attempt trial and error. Time pasesd by like a rushing river outside of Tamin's notice. Minute after minute and hour after hour, Tamin worked.
Eventually, a sound rang through the entire guildhouse and made its way through Tamin's door to reach her ears: it was the ring-a-ding of a brass bell. The ring pulled her focus away from her work and made her look in the direction of her chamber door.
"The meal bell? It can't be supper already, can it?" Tamin thought to herself. "Wow, have I really been working at this for that long? I could have sworn it's been less than an hour… huh."
Tamin set her writing utensils down, then looked at her room's window. She had her curtains up, but carefully examining them, she could tell that no daylight was seeping in between anymore, confirming her suspicions on what the actual time was. The minccino then went over to her chamber door and left through that. With her sense of time destroyed, she stumbled towards the mess hall.
While she was in that room physically, she was not mentally. Her mind stirred around in her cranium trying to both figure out how time had slipped by so easily, and the letter's secrets. She operated automatically with how she was grabbing food and nibbling at it, her actual energy being devoted to her internal thoughts. The mess hall was bustling with chatter- far more than what the typical winter night hosted- but she didn't put any focus on it.
After eating, it was right back to her room and to racking her brain in trying to solve the mysteries of the letter.
She spent another hour-and-a-half working at it on her own, but she didn't know that herself. More brute-forcing, unsubstantiated theories, having to backtrack, and having her penmanship quality gradually deteriorate overtime. By the end of it, she was mentally tapped. Paws in her hair, she held up her head with her eyes still and staring downwards at the page as if she expected the symbols to suddenly rearrange themselves in a fashion that made sense. Tamin realized this approach wasn't working anymore, she had to find a new angle to come at it.
"Isn't there a library downstairs?" Tamin thought to herself, "Maybe there are some books on cryptology there that I could use But do I really need to go downstairs for that?" Tamin gazed on the paper again, seeing how little it made sense to her after so much work. "...Yeah, I do need to go down there."
She picked up the letter and a few notes, carefully put them into a bag, and left her room with them. She knew there was a risk to being caught with them, but at that point she had a harder time caring. She didn't take the envelope with her, so she was banking on the thought that if she was seen with it, whoever saw it would have no idea what it was and let her keep it.
The basement was annoying to Tamin as it always was, for the same reasons of the inconsistent design. She had to stay keen to avoid getting lost, but found her way to the guild's library. It was a rectangular room, one wall with an entrance and a few windows in, and three walls of bookshelves, complete with two short wooden tables. It was empty of life, and perfect for study.
She set her supplies down on one of the tables and began scanning the bookshelves for ones that would be of service to her. But instead, she made the discovery that the books were not sorted in the proper way. This discovery spiraled into her spending over a half hour to just move the books around and be figuring out where everything belonged, ignoring the letter as she worked on that.
Once the books were finally to her liking, she finally grabbed a book about deciphering unknown texts that she had noticed while doing her rearranging.
Tamin went over to sit back down with the letter to start working on it again. Once again, she absolutely immersed herself in the work.
The outside world closed off while she put all of her mind into the letter. It wasn't the passage of time, body's needs, or her relationships that she cared for, she cared for nothing except solving the mystery during that period.
Minute after minute, hour after hour. It all passed on again without Tamin's notice. This time there wasn't the meal bell to intrude on her work.
Locke checked up Tamin at one point to see how she was doing. Tamin largely brushed the meeting off and kept focusing on the letter, ignoring the shinx. After a minute of failed communications, Locke simply left saying, "I'm going to bed," and Tamin had forgotten about him minutes later.
As time went on, she got more and more pieces of cloth to fold and re-fold to help ease her stress. A collection of folded cloth and paper gathered and grew on her desk as she went on.
Eventually, another pokemon came into the library to speak to Tamin. This one being something she did not expect and something that caught her attention more.
"Shouldn't you be in bed by now?" the voice said to Tamin.
The minccino looked up from the pile of papers and rotated herself. She gazed back at the library's entrance, and saw a black blotch standing at the intersection between the two rooms. Her pupils refocused at a delayed speed, and the blotch became clearer. It was Umbreon.
"Wh-what time is it?" Tamin spurted out. The words came out sounding like someone who was just coming out of a nap or even sleep talking. It wasn't until Tamin had heard herself that she realized just how tired her body was.
"Twelve-forty," Umbreon answered.
"Oh, that late?" Tamin asked, further clicking in her head just how much time she had spent on that letter.
"Yes. I think you're the only diurnal awake right now."
"Is there a curfew I have to follow? Sorry, I didn't know," Tamin began saying, picking up her papers again.
"Oh, no no. I was just wanting to make sure you were alright," Umbreon awkwardly reassured, not sure where the idea of a curfew came from. "You're not the first pokemon that has stayed up for longer than they knew, either. Don't worry."
"Oh, okay… would it be alright if I kept working at this then?" Tamin said to her, shifting her torso but keeping her head facing towards Umbreon. "It's something personal, and I think I'm not far from completing it."
"If that's what you want, that's fine. We are having lunch in twenty minutes, so you're welcome to join us for that if you want to," Umbreon told Tamin, some reassurance could be found in her tone.
"Lunch?"
"Well yeah, we have lunch at one-o-clock. I guess in your case that would be… well, I don't think there's a name for what that meal would be for you."
"Right, right. Nocturnal stuff, forgot about that."
"Mhm. The guild technically hosts four meals every day," she explained. "Anything else you have questions about? Anything you need?"
"Just some time alone," Tamin said, shifting her head back to the papers as well.
"Can do," Umbreon said as she turned away.
Tamin attempted to get back to testing things out with the decryption, but found herself unable to fully refocus on it. The short chat with Umbreon had reminded her of just how tired she was, and how little she had eaten in her last meal. She tried for five minutes, but couldn't make any progress as she just found herself unable to turn the mental and visual blur into anything clear.
Her stomach grumbled and she placed her paw on it. She knew there that she couldn't just keep fruitlessly pushing on. Even if the hunger wasn't bad then, she knew it would only grow overtime.
She pushed all the papers into a pile, putting the less suspicious ones on top and facing them downwards. Tamin then walked out of the library and began making her way back up.
As she walked through the basement again, she noticed something, or rather, she noticed the lack of something. The basement was void of any other Pokemon in it, it was completely barren and silent. Even the day she got trapped downstairs had more activity as that had Locke and Hunter down there with her.
Tamin heard nothing with her fine tuned ears while she was downstairs. But as she got to the stairs and began walking up then, she got to make out friendly banter between voices that she rarely heard by themselves.
Once she climbed fully upstairs, she saw the light in the guild was dimmed, yet still on. The window outside revealed the skies to be a cloudless black boasting a glorious array of stars. The constellations of so many different legendary pokemon stood above her, clearly visible.
When she went into the mess hall, she saw various pokemon around the table that she didn't often see. The only ones she truly recognized was Umbreon, Buizel, and Crystal. All around the table and getting it set as well as bringing food over to it.
Since she was stepping into the doorway into the mess hall to look in, she was also exposing herself to be seen by the pokemon in it, with Umbreon being the first to see her.
"Hi Tamin, come to join us?" Umbreon asked as she saw Tamin, which caused others to raise their heads and look towards her.
"Yeah, I just need a bite to eat," Tamin said, walking forward to the table. "I think I'll probably be doing an all-nighter."
"That's fine then. Please, have as much as you'd like."
"Thanks," Tamin said, saving precious words for later.
She took the same seat she usually sat at with meals, and grabbed some food as the rest ate.
During the meal, she got a chance to observe this set of guild members without any of the diurnal ones present. First thing that caught her attention was just how quiet compared to daytime meals, no one chewing with their mouth open, no loud banter, they were all calm and ate with etiquette.
It didn't take long into the meal for Tamin to notice that Crystal was intentionally avoiding making eye contact with her. The weavile wasn't making it subtle, but Tamin didn't make any action regarding that. She didn't want to interact with her either.
She thought the buizel being there was the strangest thing. As she thought about it more, she realized that she never did see her during lunch or at most times of day, but the bright orange fur did not match with the darker colors the rest of them had. Her behavior was different from the others as well, at the start of the meal she put her paws together, closed her eyes, and lowered her ear below her paws as she silently prayed before eating. Most of her attention, both with sight and hearing, was on that water type. Her curiosity was taken captive.
Once everyone was done eating, Tamin didn't immediately go back to the basement. Instead, she decided to be more proactive than she was on most days and walk up to the buizel.
"So, I didn't know buizel were nocturnal?" Tamin asked Buizel, it being the first question she could think of that she mainly said just to have the initiative.
"There are plenty of buizel that stay up with the sun, but there are more- which includes me- that like the night. Just kinda depends on which way you were raised" she answered, "Although I'm definitely the one here that could most easily pull off an all-dayer if I was needed in the day."
"Huh. I suppose that would be a term for you."
"Indeed. I'd say I'm happy with my life though. It's calmer at night, and it's nicer on the eyes."
"I can see why you would like that," Tamin said. "I've never really been a fan of the hyper people in this guild, like Dewott."
"Don't gossip about others," Buizel hissed, suddenly more commanding.
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Tamin said, taken aback.
"It's fine. Just watch your tongue in the future. Arceus does warn to do as much."
"Um, okay," Tamin said. The minccino took a step back. She wanted out from the conversation as she felt it was going to go in a strange direction.
"Oh, apologies, did I make a bad first impression? I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," Buizel said, noticing Tamin's shift in behavior.
"No, no, it's okay. Something just came to mind and I think I need to clear my thoughts for a minute," Tamin said. She was just making up words as she went to find a way out of the situation.
She managed to back away, with Buizel not pursuing her further. She then started wandering around the guildhouse, making it look like she was doing personal reflection like she had said to Buizel.
Tamin randomly walked to another section of the main floor, where she stumbled across Umbreon. The two made eye contact.
"Hello again," Umbreon said.
"Hi."
"So why exactly are you staying up so long?" Umbreon asked.
"Just some personal stuff I have been working on," Tamin said as she tried to think of a way to change this conversation, "So aren't you the leader of the guild right now?"
"Yeah. My younger brother is the leader during the day and I lead in the night. He's also classified as the leader when we're both awake." Umbreon explained, "I don't have as many people to keep track of, but he also has Niot and Sylveon to help him out. So it sort of balances out."
"I see," Tamin said, "To be honest, I can sometimes hear you guys skittering around in the guildhouse while trying to get to sleep in my room."
"I think we do a better job than the durnals do about that," Umbreon replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Tamin said. Her mind started searching for every instance she could remember of herself being loud, and tried to visualize what it would have been like for them.
"Don't be, you've definitely shown yourself to be a quiet type," Umbreon reassured, forcing a smile.
"Ah, that's good to know. Say, what's your name? I remember Espeon saying it was Herold, but I don't believe I've gotten your name."
"I'm Eryth," Umbreon told her. "And my brother's name is actually pronounced 'Herald'."
"Ah, I see then."
The two turned down one of the hallways as they stayed together, Umbreon leading while Tamin followed. They both passed by the rooms of the other guild members as they walked, making sure to be light on their feet and quiet in tone so as to avoid disturbing them.
"To be honest, I don't see too much that I could give you a tour on how it's like at night. This place is largely the same as it is during the day. Just a little bit darker and with a little bit less people," Umbreon said.
"Alright. So here's a question: is the office right next to the questboard room specifically Espeon's office, or is it the guildmaster's office and do you use it during the nighttime?"
"It's my office as well. And I use it when it's my turn to run the guild, but I typically stay out of it while I can. I don't want to wake my brother up while stepping in the room above him." Umbreon explained.
"Ah, I see. You know, speaking of your brother, did you know he's kinda got a thing for Sebastien going?"
"Yeah, I do." Umbreon answered, "I really don't think there's anything you could tell me about them that I don't already know. They're quite intimate, and I'm not going to intervene or stop them. It's not my life."
"Ah, that's what I like to hear."
"Thanks," Umbreon responded with a smile before she went back to being serious, "Oh, going back to the office: didn't you get locked up in that office by Sylveon a little while back."
"Uhh, yeah actually," Tamin said, getting a bit embarrassed and her cheeks turning a slight shade of red. "There's a longer story about it though. I was trapped downstairs and Hunter was the one that suggested we-"
"Relax, I've heard the full story," Umbreon said. "I know that it was Hunter that pulled you and Locke into it. I put most of my blame on him."
"Ah, okay," Tamin said. "Thanks for being understanding."
"Right," Umbreon said. "You know, I've heard a lot about Hunter. I've seen him in the hours when we are both awake, and the times where he gets kept in one room for a while as a punishment.
He's a real rascal, that zorua. Always getting himself into trouble. Pulling some not-so-light hearted pranks on others and making others get into hot water. I'm sure he keeps things interesting for my brother in the daylight hours."
"Yeah, I guess," Tamin said. "But sometimes he can be a little too much work for what he's worth."
"I suppose. The only real equivalent I have to him is Murkrow, who is less of a prankster and just a kleptomaniac. Not nearly as interesting."
"Glad we have the lockboxes then."
"Yep," Umbreon sighed, "he's part of the reason we got those."
Umbreon and Tamin continued to talk for a little while longer, but Tamin barred herself from getting too personal. Like what had happened when she worked at the letter, Tamin lost track of time once more. She had a second wind where she no longer felt tired, but she wasted plenty of that newfound energy on just talking.
Umbreon was able to catch one last glimpse of Tamin before she headed downstairs without announcement. Umbreon was able to see Tamin's eyes half-closed and arms drooping down. The effects of not having sleep were taking its toll on the minccino.
By the time she had gotten back down, she was more tired than how she was before she went up to eat. While she did manage to regain focus and continue working, her mental capabilities and vision just became more and more blurry as time went on.
Back to the seemingly endless task of trying to decipher the letter, to make her best guesses on what certain symbols meant; only to have to backtrack on those guesses after backtrack after backtrack. Whenever she thought she was on the train of progress, she would have to erase it all soon enough.
Tamin's state of mind went away at an exponential rate as getting work done became harder and harder. Just seeing what the symbols were started getting hard as her vision blurred and even keeping her eyes open had its own difficulties.
While Tamin was downstairs in the library, Umbreon casually kept track of the time while she did her own work. Not much work was available to be done in the office due to the low number of missions being carried out, but she did what she could while her eyes constantly glanced back at the clock to see the time.
Once an hour had passed and it was a solid three in the morning, Umbreon hopped down from the office seat. She traveled outside of the room and then took the fastest path to get downstairs. While she was normally quiet, she made sure she was especially quiet now.
Once there, Umbreon opened the door up to look inside. When she did, on the far side of the room she could see a calm minccino sitting down at the table chair. She wasn't holding a pencil or looking at a piece of paper, her head was laying on the table and her eyes were closed. Umbreon also listened to hear the quiet breathing while she looked at Tamin using the folded papers as a makeshift pillow.
Watching Tamin sleeping after she passed out from lack of sleep was something Umbreon found cute. She didn't fault Tamin, for she knew what her diurnal sleep schedule meant for her and the difficulties in breaking that.
"Goodnight, sleep well," Umbreon whispered to Tamin, avoiding waking her.
Umbreon stepped close to Tamin and turned her head to the side. She then opened her mouth and put her teeth around Tamin's body to carefully grip her.
Once Umbreon had Tamin picked up and being carried in her mouth, she began walking out of the library, leaving her work behind on the table. She went through the basement rooms into the lounge, up the recently repaired staircase.
She stepped over to Tamin's chamber door and opened it up to go inside. Although she had never seen the interior to Tamin's room before, she was able to spot the hammock hanging up in the room and deduced it to be what Tamin usually slept in.
Umbreon walked to the end of the room and stood up on her back legs while pressing one of her front paws against the wall for support. Now that she had the right height, she gently opened her mouth to set the sleeping Tamin down into her hammock, nothing that had happened quite being able to wake her up.
"Sweet dream, little minccino," Umbreon whispered again, still too quiet to wake her up.
Umbreon lowered herself back onto all-fours again before she walked out of Tamin's room, leaving her behind to get the sleep she desperately needed.
Tamin spent several hours resting in her hammock. Sleeping soundly during that time, far from the point where she would naturally wake up.
It wasn't until hours later where another sound would wake her up.
The sound of knocking repeatedly banged on the door to Tamin's room.
"Tamin wake up! It's time for breakfast!" Niot shouted through the door.
She was finally woken by the sound being produced, leaving Tamin in confusion on where she once was.
From her perspective, she was just at work on trying to decode the letter a second ago, but now she was suddenly in her hammock and inside of her bedroom. At first she wondered if the entire situation with the letter was a dream, or if she was currently dreaming, but then Tamin got embarrassed of herself as she realized she must have passed out and fallen asleep in the library. Then, she got even more embarrassed when she realized that someone must have carried her to her room to put her to bed.
After spending a few seconds to get herself reoriented with reality, Tamin jumped down from the hammock she had apparently slept in and walked over to the door in her room.
Tamin was in the state where her body and mind were still in the process of waking up, so she actually still groggy with slowed movements and tired eyes. Not helping matters was that she only got a few hours of sleep.
Once she opened the unlocked door to her room and walked out of her room, she didn't stop to have any talk with Niot. Instead, she just chose to make a sleepy walk straight to the mess hall.
She wasn't too terribly hungry for breakfast due to the meal she ate at midnight. So instead, she spent breakfast as a time to wake herself up and remind herself of what needed to be done.
"I still have to get that letter figured out," Tamin thought to herself. "Wait, where is it right now?
The last time I saw the letter was in the library, is it still there? Did anyone take it?"
Tamin only got a few bites of food from breakfast before she jumped off of her seat to start walking out of the room. She went to get back to the staircase and get to the library again.
Locke was in the room and eating breakfast, and he noticed Tamin leave. Part because he was paying a lot of attention to Tamin as she was his friend, and part because she was doing so at an odd time. So Locke decides to finish the current bit of food he was on and follow her.
Tamin once again navigated her way through the floors and into the library. There she was thankful to find the letter and her decrypting notes still on the table there. Although the possibility of someone seeing them wasn't ruled out.
She began taking the letter and notes to get them all picked up, planning to transport them all back to her room where she felt safer.
As Tamin began heading out of the room with all of her papers in hand, Locke came into her path and they met up in the basement.
Tamin was surprised to see him then and there. She had a strong hunch that he had some purpose because of the rudeness of it.
"Are you still working on that weird letter?" Locke asked.
"Yeah," Tamin responded, "I think I've gotten some progress, but I still have no idea what it says."
Locke gave a sigh before he continued to talk.
"Listen, I don't want you to be getting obsessive with that. I don't want you to waste so much of your time into that little of a thing that you start losing sleep because of it." Locke said to Tamin.
"But I really want to know what this says," she complained
"You no actual idea with on what this translates to being and saying or any rest" Locke pointed out, his grammar still leaving something to be desired like always, "You are just going to waste literally unhealthy amounts of time on that."
Tamin spent a few seconds thinking about what Locke had said, considering the realism of the situation as well as her curiosity.
"Maybe you're right…" Tamin admitted. "Maybe it would be best for me to stop."
"I don't want you to waste your life devoted to this."
"If you think it is best for me, I can stop..."
"Right," Locke said as he began to turn around and walk away, expecting Tamin to follow, "Face it. Realistically, you would need someone who's like obsessively investigative to figure this out. I just don't think it would work great for you."
"I understand," Tamin said to close off the conversation.
End of chapter 22.