Michael closely inspected the sliced metal blades of the broken scissors Stella gave to him. "Damn that's a clean cut. Looks like something a bisharp or scizor would make. And you think the scarf, I mean, your scarf did this?"
"It has to be," Stella replied, "it happened right when I tried to cut it off."
The two were in an empty classroom at Syllose High. All of the other students had just rushed out of the room since classes ended and it was the last day before winter break.
Michael sighed. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, lowering his head down in thought. "Honest to Arceus, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard Stella. I mean, you travelling to a whole 'nother world with only pokémon and you becoming a pokémon..."
"I know it's weird-"
"But I totally believe you." Michael interrupted.
"Huh?"
"I mean c'mon Stella. We've known each other at this point for like what? Eleven, twelve years now? You'd think I'd know when you're telling a fib. Besides, you show up with a weird-ass bottle of magnetic-pokémon powder with absolutely no documentation anywhere describing anything remotely similar to the stuff? Now that's weird. I think you stumbled onto a whole box of weird."
Stella chuckled. "Yeah I guess so. I mean, you remember when we were at the café the day before yesterday, er… actually yesterday. I guess I spent an extra day in the other world in-between yesterday and today." Stella shook her head and sighed. "But anyways, you remember when we were talking yesterday, I thought it all had been just a dream. Threw me for a loop when I realized that it was all somehow real. It's still confusing now, but I think I'm getting used to it."
"Man, that's kinda wild. You basically get to live out double the days too."
Stella paused for a moment and wore a pensive expression as she considered Michael's statement. "I guess so. Never really looked at it like that. Still a lot of things to figure out, like where that old box came from. I should ask grandma, but not sure if she'd know anything. I have a lot of old things from my parents."
"Yeah, you should definitely ask. By the way, about this other world... Are you like, always an eevee like you said, or…?"
"Nah, I'm always an eevee."
"Oh wild. Have you tried battling or using moves and stuff?"
"Not yet," Stella replied, "I should probably try doing something about that though."
A voice called from the hallway, "Yo Mikey! You comin'?"
A casual-looking student wearing a hoodie and jeans stood at the entrance of the classroom. They had a sentret perched on top of their head whose tail swished back and forth behind the student's back. The scout pokémon curiously eyed Michael and Stella from upon their lofty perch.
"Taco night at Jerry's place! Remember?"
"Yeah yeah, be there in a minute dude," Michael replied before turning back to Stella. "Sorry Stella, I promised Jerry and the other guys I'd spend after-school with them the last day. Can we catch up more later or tomorrow? I really want to hear more about this other world. Plus, I have an idea or two on how we can learn more about your scarf..."
"Oh really? Well sounds good then! And no rush, we've got a few weeks free anyways."
Stella waved as she watched the two guys walk out of the classroom and picked up her backpack. Both Michael and Stella herself knew well she wasn't particularly fond of parties, especially with people she wasn't overly familiar with, so Michael didn't bother inviting Stella. Michael was more of the extroverted type and thus he typically had many other friends other than Stella he would hang out with. But he usually spent most of his time with Stella anyways since they were neighbors and had been close friends for a long time. Stella on the other side, was more of an introvert, so she usually kept her friend groups to only a few people.
As soon as Stella made sure her backpack wasn't missing anything, she made her way to the subway to head home.
As Stella rode the crowded subway home, she took a moment to think about the strange dream she had last night. That monologue from that mysterious voice about her scarf and all that talk about "change". Very little about it made sense to her.
"The dyadian artifact's strength comes from only the strength of your will and determination alone." The voice had said. Stella wondered what it meant by that. "Maybe then you can command its true power, for there is no truer determination than that which comes from understanding one's own purpose." Understanding her purpose? Stella shook her head. There was so much to unpack from that dream message. To her it sounded like some philosophical mumbo jumbo that some edgy teenager wrote down to sound cool. But maybe there was something to it. Maybe there was some secret to her scarf hidden in that message. And if so, who did that voice belong to? Was it someone communicating with her? Maybe telepathically?
Stella shook her head as she dismissed idea after idea. Once again, she was left with another mystery that only led to more aimless speculation.
After finishing dinner, Stella started washing the dishes and decided to ask her grandmother about the harmony scarf.
"Hmmm…?" she pondered for a moment before producing a surprised expression. "Oh my, that definitely is your father's scarf Stella."
"Wait, seriously?" She put the plate she was scrubbing down as her mind started racing with possibilities. Why did he have it? Did her father also have the ability to travel between both worlds, becoming a pokémon in the process? Where did he even get it from?
"Yes. He wore it almost every single day. Not quite sure where he got it from though. I am surprised you found it in our closet, it's not something he'd part from so easily. It has been over a decade since I've seen it too. I thought it had… disappeared with him."
"Oh..." Stella's expression became solemn for a brief moment.
"But it looks absolutely lovely on you. I'm sure he'd be happy that you're wearing it. Makes you look like you're about to go on an adventure and raise some hullabaloo!" Lucy let out a hearty laugh, which made Stella replace her pout with a slight smile. "Your father, when he wasn't being so serious, was always the one to light up a room. Lovely bloke he was. I still remember when your mother first introduced him to me. Stubborn and rambunctious fellow." Lucy let out another cackle. "But he had a strong sense of justice; always sought to do the right thing. He was a good man..." Grandma Lucy's voice trailed off as she reminisced about the past. She then turned to Stella. "Oh I shouldn't dwell on things too long. Say Stella, did you have any plans for winter break?"
"Well," Stella started, "I have a few ideas..."
Stella, Cress, and Talia entered Collis Village's dojo. After a discussion earlier in the morning (and strong insistence on Stella's behalf), Madam Dravé suggested that Cress and Talia teach Stella how to fight so that she could defend herself and be more self-sufficient.
The dojo walls were primarily made of light grey stone which contrasted it's dark brown dirt floor. Scratch marks could be seen randomly strewn among the rocks and wooden dummies scattered about. The floor also had some scratch marks raked across it with a partially sealed dirt hole in located towards one corner of the room.
Cress started Stella with some warm-up exercises while Talia contented herself with reading a book nearby.
"Ok," Cress said after they finished warming up, "we're just going to start with the basics. Just give this dummy a good tackle!" Cress motioned to the wooden dummy right next to him.
"Right, just a tackle..." Stella took a moment to poise herself before she took off at a sprint towards the dummy, jumping into the air and slamming it square in the center. She winced and fell to the ground. "Owww..." Her vision blurred for a moment as she recovered from the impact. "Is it supposed to hurt that much?"
"Uh no, not usually," Cress replied with a tilt of his head. "It looks like you just hit it head-on though."
"But… That's how tackling works. Isn't it?"
"Not really," Cress replied. "I mean sure, you have to physically hit the dummy, but using a move is more like something you need to vibe with, just feel in your gut."
"What?" Stella asked with a confused expression.
"He means that it's something that usually comes intuitively." Talia commented loudly so her voice could carry across the room. "Probably because you used to be a human, so using moves doesn't come as naturally to you."
"I guess that makes sense," Stella replied, "but I still don't get the difference between using a tackle move and just hitting them with my body."
"The difference fundamentally is the type of energy pokémon use." Rebecca explained.
"Type of energy?" Stella parroted as she took a sip from her hot cocoa.
The next day, Stella was at the Syllose public library café, talking to Rebecca as she waited for Michael to return from the library with some documents.
"Yeppers," Rebecca replied, "it's like how thermal energy is different from electrical energy. Most pokémon, like us, use chemical energy to walk, swim, and fly around. A pokémon doing a normal tackle, not using the move tackle to be precise, would just use chemical energy. But for some reason, pokémon moves like a quick attack, a water gun, or even dark pulse uses a different kind of energy called evomorphic energy, or morphae in other cases. I'll be frank, it's relatively new science, so the name hasn't been decided on yet." Rebecca chuckled at her own comment. "In fact, this stuff is purely theoretical. We don't even know if it exists for sure."
Stella raised a brow as she took another sip from her mug.
"What I mean is that the big-dog theoretical physicists and biologists came up with morphae as a theory to explain where pokémon get the energy to use moves and evolve. Stuff like how a mudkip can shoot out more water than it can physically store, or how a joltik can make as much as sixteen times its body mass in string in about a few seconds. They aren't even sure if it's real- HEY!" Rebecca suddenly shouted at someone behind Stella, prompting Stella to turn around and see who it was herself.
There was a leafeon standing on one of the wall shelves that carried a few potted plants up above some other customers. The grass-type was casually sniffing some of the plants, blissfully unaware of the trouble they could cause if they knocked over one of the ceramic pots.
"Sorry Stella give me a sec," Rebecca apologized as she stood up, walked over to the leafeon, before proceeding to pick them up and off of the shelf (with a great deal of fuss from the leafeon who tried to scramble their way out of Rebecca's grasp), and placed them back into their bed by the windowsill after a quick scolding.
"Sorry about that Stella." Rebecca said as she sat back down in her chair.
"It's fine!" Stella said with a chuckle, "I got a good laugh out of it!"
Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he can be a real rascal sometimes. Love him to death though." Rebecca said with a grin on her face.
"But anyways, where was I…" Rebecca muttered as she tried to remember what she was talking about. "Oh, right! Scientists aren't even sure if the stuff is real. Supposedly they have really rudimentary instruments that can slightly detect morphae's presence, but apparently they aren't even sure if they are picking up the right stuff, or if it's just random radio waves. But aside from that they have no other way to see it's effects other than seeing a pokémon evolve or use moves. It's pretty neat theoretical science stuff, but hasn't reached the practical stage yet."
"Huh, that is pretty neat." Stella said as she reached the bottom of her hot cocoa.
"It's kinda like aura. We know it exists because we know riolu and lucario are able to see it and react to changes in aura, but otherwise no concrete way to prove that it's really real. Though aura has way more scientific evidence going for it compared to morphae. Like at least with aura, we have pokémon who can see it. Morphae is something that basically only exists on paper."
"Oh, I see."
"I'm curious though, why the sudden interest?" Rebecca asked. "Need it for a school project or something after break? I could help if you want!"
"Uh… no particular reason really," Stella hastily replied. "Just curious."
After lots of training, and much trial and error...
WHAM! Stella plowed through a wooden dummy, shattering its body and sending splinters flying.
"You finally did it!" Cress exclaimed. "Now that's a tackle if I've ever seen one!"
Talia put down her book and started clapping from the corner of the room. "Congratulations!"
Stella just smiled as she laid on the floor, exhausted from ramming her head constantly into the dummies. She then turned to where the broken dummy now stood, surprised at how easily it broke once she found that "feeling" and was able to pull out a proper tackle. "Whew, was starting to think I'd never get the hang of it. Can't believe it takes so much effort just to throw out a basic tackle." Stella said.
"It really shouldn't be," Cress said. "But I guess it's like Talia said, it's not something you're used to. It'll probably get easier with time. You look exhausted though. I'm guessing though you want to take a break?"
"Yes please," an exhausted Stella said as she lifted herself from the ground.
The trio sat together in the middle of the dojo where they ate an assortment of berries Talia had brought and prepared earlier.
As they were eating, Cress suddenly asked a question. "Hey Stella, what's a human city like?"
"Human city?"
"Yeah," Cress replied. "Don't you guys have massive cities or something like that? I've only heard stories though."
"I'd like to hear too," Talia added. "It's a rare opportunity to hear stories from another world. Even rarer to hear them from someone that comes from that world."
Stella tried her best to explain what a human city is like. The brick and mortar apartment buildings, the futuristic glass-covered skyscrapers, paved asphalt streets with street lamps hanging over them, and the cars that drive through them. Explaining how cars worked was especially difficult for her.
"Your cities sound absolutely huge!" Cress exclaimed. "I could never imagine living somewhere like that."
"Indeed," Talia added, "it seems to me the human world is much more technologically advanced than ours."
"Well, I wouldn't really call it the 'human world' since there's also a lot of pokémon who live there too." Stella said. "But that does make me wonder though, you all seem different from the pokémon in my world."
"Different?" Cress asked.
"Yeah, I'm not sure exactly, but all the pokémon here I guess seem smarter? I'm not sure the pokémon in my world would be able to or even be motivated to build houses or buildings. Building stuff and civilization is more of a human thing."
"Hmmm..." Talia pondered out loud. "Perhaps the pokémon in your world are more like ferals."
"Ferals? Like feral pokémon?" Stella asked.
Talia nodded. "In our world there are three types of pokémon. Us civilized pokémon, the feral pokémon who live outside of towns, and the pseudomon that are generated from mystery dungeons." Talia paused for a moment as she considered her own statement. "Though I suppose pseudomon don't count since they aren't really 'real' and can't exist on their own outside of a dungeon. On the other hand, feral pokémon are physically identical to us, but they typically can't speak coherently and don't tend to be very smart, relying mostly on their primal instincts."
"That's why I was so psyched to meet a human like you!" Cress exclaimed.
"What do you mean Cress?" Stella asked as she turned to him.
"Oh, I guess you don't know." Cress said. "The reason why we're not feral pokémon is because of humans!"
Stella raised a brow as Talia nodded.
"Indeed," Talia started, "legends say that the first pokémon to come to these lands were civilized by humans. Most of us are descended from them, and thus we became civilized too. Without humans, we'd all just be feral pokémon too, relying on our instincts and lacking critical thinking."
"Wow, I never realized." Stella said. "I guess that does explain why you guys would be interested in humans, if we did help with kickstarting your society."
"Right!" Cress added. "I guess you're not physically a human, but being able to talk to a human is like something out of a fairy tale!"
Stella snickered, "Yeah, in my world, becoming a pokémon and being able to talk to pokémon would also be a fairy tale. So I guess we both get to live out our wildest dreams all thanks to this scarf." Stella looked down at the harmony scarf wrapped around her neck.
"Did you ever happen to learn anything new about it in your world?" Talia asked. "I assume the technology over there is more advanced and better suited to learning about your scarf."
"Well," Stella began, "I looked into it with a friend and we found something pretty interesting..."
"How much longer Michael?" Stella complained.
"Just a few more seconds, I want to get a video," Michael said as he held up his phone camera to the microscope lens.
"Video?" Stella asked.
"You'll see what I mean in a second..."
Michael and Stella were in his room. At Michael's suggestion, Stella had her head laid against his desk so they could look at her scarf underneath his personal microscope.
"...And done." Michael finally said.
"Whew." Stella lifted up her head from the desk and stretched it out from side to side. "Thought my neck was going to go stiff from keeping it there for too long. Why do you even have a microscope anyways?"
"It makes me look much smarter than I actually am."
Stella snorted at his comment, "Mmmhmm, yeah right."
"Well anyways, it was well worth the two-thousand poké I paid at the discount store. Take a look at this Stella."
Michael showed Stella the pictures he took underneath the microscope. You could see light and dark green intertwined threads of fabric, but also what seemed like small chambers or capsules that were connected to each other in the form of sheets that seemed to twirl through and around the threads. "Looks like… cells?" Stella noted. "A bit square-shaped like plant cells."
"That's what I was thinking too." Michael replied. "And if you look at the video..." Michael took a moment as he pulled up the video he recorded. "...you can see them moving a bit."
Stella watched as small black and green specks moved around inside of the cells, though she couldn't make them out very well since the resolution wasn't particularly high.
"So what, the harmony scarf is... alive?" Stella asked with a tinge of doubt.
"Seems so." Michael said. "After all, didn't you say that it attacked you or something crazy like that? If it's a living thing, then it makes sense how it could do that on it's own."
"I guess so..."
"Though I really don't get how it'd be able to do that, I really don't see anything that could let it physically move, but biology really isn't my forte so I wouldn't know. Honestly you should really tell Rebecca about this stuff, she might be able to help you know. Pokémon biology is her specialty after all."
"I know that..." Stella muttered. "It's not like I don't trust her… But I dunno. I'd rather just keep it between you and me for now. At least, until I feel comfortable enough with all this weird stuff."
Michael shrugged. "Yeah, I can respect that. I think I'd feel about the same way in your shoes too." Michael paused for a moment as if he had just remembered something. "You know, speaking of weird stuff, did you ever figure out about that vial of emera powder?" Michael asked.
"So here's the thing..." Stella started.
"Emera is a type of substance you can find only in mystery dungeons," Talia explained.
It was a chilly morning in Collis village, and Stella and Talia were having a discussion in room 7, Stella's room.
"They either form as a single-color crystal rock or as small deposits of rainbow powder. The powder is magnetically attracted to us, and we can absorb it to get slightly stronger, but only for the duration of time we spend inside of that dungeon. After that, the effects of all of the emera we absorbed disappears. You can also crush the stones which turn into emera powder that you can then absorb."
"I swear, every time you talk about mystery dungeons there's some new weirdness I'm learning about," Stella said. "But that does describe pretty well the bottle of emera powder I had."
"I suppose mystery dungeons are quite strange," Talia replied, "but what is even stranger is how you could even have a bottle of emera powder outside of a dungeon. As far as I'm aware, mystery dungeons don't even exist in your world."
"You're right, they don't… I wonder how and why that bottle is holding the emera powder then. It is explicitly labelled 'Emera Powder' after all. Maybe it's a special type of powder? Wonder what my dad was using it for… That is, if it was his."
"That could be the case. Not to go off topic, but here's another history lesson about emeras: Apparently in the past many dungeon-exploring pokémon used tools called looplets to temporarily gain special powers from emera stones. However, the looplets we have today are now an artifact of the past; most are all rusted and broken. Nobody knows how to make new ones."
"Oh wow. If nobody knows how to make new ones, then how did they come about in the first place?"
Talia shrugged. "Nobody knows. Pokémon aren't always the best at keeping records of the past."
At that moment, Cress wandered into the room. "Oh, good morning you two! How did you two sleep?" Cress then stretched himself out the same way a cat would, lowering his forelegs and raising his hindlegs. "I slept like a baby last night."
Stella and Talia looked at each other before suddenly bursting into a bout of laughter.
"Wait, what?" Cress questioned. "What's so funny? Don't leave me out of it!"
Earlier...
Stella was bored in her bedroom, looking outside her window at a lone emolga playing with a group of pidove among the Syllose rooftops. It was midday and she didn't have any particular plans at the moment, so her mind wandered to various thoughts about the other world, the harmony scarf, and everything related to her strange situation.
After a bit of thought, curiosity suddenly struck her: "Wonder what would happen if I fell asleep during the day. I always fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning over there." Stella considered the thought for a moment. "Wouldn't hurt to try I guess."
Stella set her alarm clock to wake her up in about an hour, and tried her best to fall asleep. Slowly but surely, her consciousness sunk deeper and deeper into deep sleep.
"Mmmmpfff" Stella groaned as she lifted herself from her thatch bed. She felt like she hadn't slept for very long, but even then, she could feel that her body was that of an eevee again. Stella quickly glanced around the room, then at the high window that let moonlight into the room. "Huh, so I guess if it's daytime in one world, then it's nighttime in the other world. That seems reasonable."
Stella took another quick look around the room. "I feel exhausted." Stella suddenly let out a shiver as she looked at the open window. "And it's chilly too. Wish they had insulation here, or at least some way to close the window. Might as well head back to sleep. I guess my eevee body has a different sleep schedule than my human body."
But just as she was about to lie down, she heard the sound of wood creaking in the hallway. "Footsteps?" Stella's curiosity got the better of her as she approached the door and slowly slid it open.
What she saw was a confusing sight indeed. Cress was slowly ambling down the hallway on his hindlegs, something he normally doesn't do. He moved slowly towards Stella's end of the hall and seemed to be muttering something under his breath.
"Hey Cress." Stella whispered. "What are you doing?"
No response. He continued walking down the hall. Though now that he was slightly closer, she noticed that there was something unnatural to his movements. She tried to look at his face, but couldn't quite make it out as it was too dark.
"Hey Cress, are you okay?"
As Cress got close enough to Stella, a chill ran down her spine, she could see that there was something definitely wrong with him. Cress's eyes were completely open, but seemed vacant, as if no one was home. He muttered an incoherent string of sounds under his breath as he walked. "Buh buh buuuuuuh buh be buh bo buuuuuh bu ba beeeeeeee."
Stella watched as he slowly shambled his way past her, completely ignoring any attempts she made to get his attention. "What in the actual hell..." Stella looked to her right, towards the room where Talia and Cress slept in, room 6. The door was slightly ajar. Stella looked to her left where Cress continued to shamble down the hall. Without any other ideas, she slowly crept her way into room 6. Cress's bed was empty, but Talia was still sleeping in her's.
Stella nudged Talia gently. "Hey, wake up. Please..."
"Huh…? What? Oh it's you Stella. Need something?"
"Cress is doing some weird stuff."
Talia turned over and glanced at the empty bed beside her. "Oh Arceus not again. No wonder it feels so cold in here."
Stella followed Talia as she gently led the sleep-walking Cress back to his bed, who kept making a variety of "buh buh" sounds all the way back to the room. Stella watched as Talia gently lowered Cress into bed. "Okay, back to bed you go big guy."
Cress replied in a slurred and distant voice, "Mmmm, but I wanna some spaghetti..."
"Okay, we can get you spaghetti later, but you need to go back to sleep now, okay?"
"Mmmmhmmmm okaaaaaay splagettiiiiiiii..." Cress slurred speech trailed off as his eyes gently closed and his head went limp.
Stella and Talia watched in silence for a moment as Cress resumed normal sleep and his belly rose and fell from his breathing.
"Does he uh… do this a lot?" Stella asked in a hushed voice.
"Sometimes," Talia whispered, "but only in places he feels comfortable, according to him. So he never sleepwalks while we're out camping or somewhere new."
"So he knows about this?" Stella asked.
Talia nodded. "But I usually don't tell him when it happens. He gets a bit embarrassed when I do."
"Oh I see..."
The two stood in silence for another moment.
"Spaghetti exists in this world?" Stella asked.
"Not here in Collis village, but we do in Luminare, the town we come from..." Talia replied.
There was silence for another moment as they both watched Cress sleep.
"You guys have spaghetti in your world?" Talia asked.
"Yep." Stella replied. "I thought it was just a thing from only our world though."
"No no, we have spaghetti too..." Talia replied.
"Right, yeah..."
The two stood in silence as they continued to bond over Cress's strange sleep habits and spaghetti.
"I'd like to try some of this world's spaghetti one day." Stella suddenly whispered.
"That would be nice. I think I'd like to try some human foods some day. What sorts of snacks and such do you guys have?"
Stella, Michael, and Rebecca were in Michael's apartment sitting on the sofa together, eating from a bag of sour cream and onion chips. They were watching a series of matches from the official pokémon league winter series.
On the television, an Aegislash and Duraludon fought it out as the commentator hyped up the crowd. "...will Duraludon be able to keep up with those lightning fast slashes?" Suddenly, the Dualudon fired a steel beam at the aegislash and landed a direct hit.
"OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH THAT HIT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK!"
Rebecca suddenly jumped up from the couch. "LET'S GO DURALDUDON, KICK THEIR ASS!"
"Damn Rebecca, you gotta chill." Michael said. "They can probably hear you through the television from how loud you're screaming."
Rebecca sat back down. "Sorry dude, you know how hype I get with this stuff." Rebecca then stacked three chips together and stuffed them into her mouth. "Twiple stacced chwipts!" She exclaimed with a stuffed mouth.
"Sometimes I swear I'm the oldest of the group." Michael said as he grabbed a single potato chip.
Stella chuckled at the comment. "Yeah, says the guy who rigged the classroom projectors to show only cute baby mudkip photos last year."
"Hey! That was absolutely necessary!" Michael protested. "I blessed the lives of the entire student body with joy and happiness!"
"Hehe, that was pretty funny." Rebecca added. "Though I think a bunch of baby pichu would've been much cuter."
"Oh Arcerus I can only imagine the amount of damage a bunch of baby pichu would cause."
"Because they are dangerously cute?"
"No," Michael replied, "like, dangerously dangerous. That much volatile electricity in one place is like the summoning ritual for the second coming of Zapdos."
"Pffft, you two are absolutely ridiculous." Stella said.
"...AND DURALUDON GOES DOWN WITH A FINAL BLOW!" The commentator suddenly shouted.
"Aw man," Rebecca sulked, "I really thought they were going to win." Rebecca slumped further down into the sofa and stuffed her mouth with more chips as the commentators finished their post commentary and the advertisement break came on. As soon as she finished swallowing her chips, she stood up and asked "I'm gonna go to the kitchen to get some soda. You guys want anything?"
"No thanks." "Nah I'm good." Stella and Michael replied simultaneously.
"Coolio, be back in a sec." Rebecca said as she headed off to the kitchen.
As soon as she left the room, Michael asked Stella, "Hey, how's the battle training been going by the way?"
"Battle training?" Stella asked.
"You know… You battling as an eevee? Didn't you say you've been learning how to use moves and stuff the past week or so?"
"Oh, right. Yeah, It's been going pretty well. Moves were hard to figure out at first, but I already got through that blockade. I think I feel confident enough to take on other pokémon actually!"
"Woah!" Stella yelped as she dodged an ember from Cress. "Hey, that one nearly hit me!" Stella complained as she regained her footing
"Hey don't blame me!" Cress exclaimed. "You're the one who was eager to fight me! You can't be wanting to fight others if you aren't prepared to have them fight back! Now c'mon and hit me with a quick attack like we practiced!"
"Right," Stella thought to herself. She tried to focus as she poised herself to dash forward. Stella took off at a sprint towards Cress, using her speed to narrowly dodge the next ember he fired at her, and closed the gap. Cress began to brace himself for the impact. She was only a meter away when suddenly, she missed a step and instead of a quick attack, she tripped and started tumbling uncontrollably towards Cress.
Cress was caught off guard by Stella's trip and WHAM! Stella collided into Cress sending the two flying toward where Talia was sitting, who promptly dodged the incoming furball. BAM! The disorientated duo finally collided with the back wall of the dojo.
"Man, I was expecting a quick attack, not whatever THAT was." Cress complained as he caught his breath and got back onto his feet.
"Sorry about that," Stella apologized, still slightly dazed from doing twenty 360 degree spins. She then reorientated herself and stood up again.
"Eh it's fine." Cress said. "You're still learning anyhow, so there's no pressure. These things tend to happen." Cress looked over to where Talia was brushing herself off. "You good?"
"Slightly annoyed, but otherwise fine," Talia commented before giving Stella a smile. "It's nice though to see how far you've come. To think that you couldn't even pull off a basic tackle about a week ago."
"I'm definitely better now, I don't feel as tired training anymore; my stamina is much higher now." Stella said. "But I still need to get more consistent with my coordination. That quick attack wasn't anything to be proud of."
"Hey, you'll get there eventually!" Cress exclaimed. "It just takes time and practice. Speaking of, do you wanna go for another round?"
Stella nodded. "Of course!"
As Stella and Cress started to walk to their respective sides of the arena, they were suddenly interrupted. "I see training is going well." Madam Dravé said as she walked in through the dojo entrance.
The trio turned to see who had arrived. "Oh, hello Madam." Talia said. "What brings you here?"
"Indeed, what does bring me here…?" Madam Dravé stood in place for a moment as she searched her memory. "Ah yes, something has come to my attention recently. Something that might interest you three in particular."
"I'm sure you two, Cress and Talia, know this, but Deldrick is a close friend of mine."
"Deldrick?" Stella asked as the group walked into Madam Dravé's study.
"He is the guildmaster of the Mystery Dungeon Surveyors Guild in Luminaire." Cress explained. "He gave us the opportunity to come out here to Collis Village and survey the dungeons in the area in exchange for promotion from a trainee team to a proper survey team."
"Indeed," Madam Dravé confirmed. "I agreed to provide lodging in exchange for the services Cress and Talia provided. Thanks to them, we have a much better understanding of the dungeons in the area. Though I digress." Madam Dravé walked to the corner of her study where her desk was located "I have a few records of correspondences between us and found something he sent me that I scarcely remembered. He sent it to me several years ago." Madam Dravé then produced a weathered note from her desk and walked over to the trio. She laid it down so everyone could read it. To Stella however, it was complete gibberish.
"Uh… sorry, I don't know what it says."
"I suppose humans wouldn't necessarily use the same writing as us." Talia said "No worries, I can read it for you." Talia cleared her throat for a moment before speaking.
Dear Ussaya,
I wanted to thank you for your help with providing supplies for our expedition through Collis Mountain heights. I don't do well with cold temperatures, so the fire stones were perfect for keeping us warm. The others joke that with the pace I'm working at now, I'm probably set to become the next guildmaster.
I wanted to ask you a question I forgot to ask when we stayed in Collis Village earlier. It's something personal and extremely important to me, so any small thing helps.
You have been on many more travels than I have. Have you ever encountered or heard of a pokémon who always wore a light and dark green scarf? It has a sort of square or zig-zag pattern. I'm uncertain of the species of pokémon or their name. All I know is that the scarf is named "The Harmony Scarf."
Cress gasped, "So Deldrick knows about it?"
Stella furrowed her brow as she tried to understand what it meant. She had only first arrived in this world about a week ago. Why would someone else know about her scarf several years ago?
"It seems so. I'm frankly surprised, I couldn't even remember this message until I found it." Madam Dravé said before letting out a small chuckle. "It's been a while since anyone called me by Ussaya. Talia, could you keep reading?"
Talia nodded.
I'm sorry that it's not much to go off of, but I am certain that this pokémon wore this scarf wherever they went. I'd like to find some way to meet them, or if not possible, at least speak to somebody who was well-acquainted with them.
Please respond with any information you may have, anything helps. Thank you.
Yours truly,
Deldrick
"Wow, who would've guessed that Deldrick would know something about the Harmony Scarf." Cress said.
Madam Dravé nodded. "I cannot recall what I responded with, but I likely responded with the story about the harmony scarf from the story of the dyads since that is the only information I would've had at the time."
"He mentioned it was personal." Stella thought out loud. "I wonder what he meant by that. This was several years ago, right? So was there someone else in this world before me who wore the harmony scarf?" Stella's mind immediately went to her father. Her grandmother mentioned her father wore the harmony scarf in her world. Was the pokémon with the scarf Deldrick mentioned, her father? Maybe he had travelled to this world with the harmony scarf and became a pokémon too? Maybe other pokémon had heard of her father before and seen his scarf? Maybe Deldrick heard rumors about him and wanted to meet him? Maybe he actually met him? Stella's mind continued to mull over possibilities.
"That is what I found quite interesting," Madam Dravé said. "He apparently has some personal connection to this supposed previous wearer, whoever they were. Though I suppose you three can find out what he meant soon." Madam Dravé turned to Cress and Talia. "You two are slated to return to Luminaire in two days to finish your training, which would make it an ideal time for you to bring Stella with you."
Talia raised a brow.
Cress's eyes lit up from excitement, along with his back which literally lit up.
"Wait, really?" Stella asked.
Madam Dravé nodded. "We cannot ask him what he knows without asking him ourselves since we cannot send postage from here. Pelipper express discontinued their service here a while ago due to a lack of correspondence. We are quite the isolated village after all." Madam Dravé chuckled. "What do you say to a bit of travel Stella? It's about an entire day of travel to reach Luminaire. But with you three together, I'm certain it will be much less demanding than travelling alone."
"Of course! Why would I ever refuse?" Stella exclaimed. If she had only a slight chance to learn anything about her scarf, or maybe possibly her father, she'd take it. "Even if it's something little, we're not going to learn anything sitting around here."
"So it's settled! I think this will be a great opportunity for you to experience the rest of this world." Madam Dravé said as she gestured to a window outside, which overlooked the village and provided a lofty view of the mountains. "There's much more for you to see out there other than just our tiny slice of life among the mountains." Madam Dravé walked over to a nearby bookshelf and pulled out a large scroll. She then returned to the trio and opened the scroll before them. It was a drawing of the entire continent. The Collis mountain range was marked in the corner of the map, only taking up a small portion. "Just a small slice of a larger cake."
"Mmm," Cress said. "I love cake!"
