Nona woke up that next afternoon from the only sleep she had in the past 48 hours, and she could feel it all siphoning itself into that same crick in her neck from the day before.
"Fuck..." she muttered, throwing off her blankets and staring blearily around the room.
It looked like Ignis and Ronan were out, and they left behind a couple remains of breakfast for her. She scarfed it down in a blink, chasing it by guzzling water from the spigot.
Her stomach felt like it held a pond's-worth of water, but still she somehow felt like a raisin. Suppressing her coming stomach ache, she sat down on Ronan's bed to retie her leg braces.
These paws still feel so fuckin' weird, she thought to herself as she yanked the leather.
Able to walk on two legs again, she slumped out to the front of the house and contemplated what she would do for the rest of the day. Somewhere in her still sleepy mind she wished she could have a cup of coffee. She wasn't sure if they even had coffee there.
At least I remember coffee.
There was something perched on the mailbox when she walked out the front door, an unfamiliar Pidgeotto with their beak sifting through a thick mailbag.
"Mornin'," Nona said.
In a very bird-like motion, they raised their head and cocked it to look at her. "So that's what we're callin' the afternoon now?"
She gave an amused hum in response, and the Pidgeotto resumed their work. They finally managed to dig out a small stack of paper tied with twine and set it carefully in their team mailbox.
"I haven't seen you around here before. Do you live here now?" They asked, turning towards her with a hop.
"Uh… yeah, for now at least. Were you expecting the other two?"
"Yeah, Charmander and Cubone. Where are they?"
Nona shrugged. "Hell if I know. In town, probably?"
The two sat in awkward silence for a few seconds. Nona couldn't stop herself from looking them over again and again, her mind poking her with the thought that she'd seen him before.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" She asked.
Pidgeotto cocked his head again. "Don't think so."
Looking over their fluff of mahogany feathers, something clicked in her brain- they looked just like the Pidgey from the exam and the other Pidgeotto from Leavanny's
"You Monty's older brother?"
Pidgeotto gave an offended chirp. "You sayin' we all look alike?"
If Nona could sweat, she would have been then. "...Really put my foot in my mouth with that one, huh?"
"Yeah you kinda did." To her surprise, Pidgeotto laughed, and despite her grumpiness, Nona chuckled with them.
"You're close though. I'm his uncle. You can call me Wendell."
"Mm, Nona-" she said before she could catch herself. She still wasn't used to this whole species name thing or its rules.
Mental note to look up a book on etiquette, and also coffee.
"Nice to meetcha, Nona," Wendell said.
"So… are you like the delivery person- er- pokemon?"
Wendell gave her a confused look, but answered. "Well, one of 'em. My family handles all the mail and deliveries around here. Kinda run the scene. You mighta heard of us- Bronson's mail."
Nona rubbed her chin to appear as if she was remembering. She shook her head.
"We're the ones updating the job board most of the time too. We're not supposed to, but… not a lotta 'mons to work at the guild right now."
"...Why?"
He gives an impartial shrug. "If I had to guess, it's that a lotta new pokemon started coming here recently and joining. Nobody to run it though."
"Hm…"
Silence for a few moments.
"How did I just notice you're two-legged?"
Nona looked down at her feet and shifted awkwardly between them. "Why are you asking me?"
"Dunno, just didn't see it until now. You look like a Marshtomp."
"Didn't know that, but uh… thank you?"
Wendell buttoned the flap of his bag with his beak. "Well, was nice meeting you. Tell Charmander and Cubone I said hi."
In one graceful motion, he swept his wings down and shot into the sky, quickly disappearing over the tops of the trees.
"Can do," she said too quietly for him to hear.
With her only company gone, Nona decided to make the hike to the guild.
The walk through the square was a gauntlet of eye contact Nona had to dodge, all the while scanning for her teammates. As much as she didn't like to admit it, she felt weirdly vulnerable without them around. It didn't help that a new face dragged a lot of stares.
Inside the guild, she could still feel the weight of yesterday, compressing her shoulders and sinking her stomach. Much to her relief, she saw Ronan standing outside the infirmary. He startled when she called out to him.
"Oh- morning Nones. You sleep good?" He asked, still wringing his claws.
"Fine," she answered, "where's Ignis? Neither of you guys were home when I woke up."
"Sorry… Ignis wanted to go train, and I wanted to check in on Manectric…"
Nona leaned into the infirmary doorway. Slowking, Shiinotic, and a few other pokemon she didn't recognize were all crowded around one of the beds. They were speaking in hushed tones that she couldn't decipher.
Looking back at Ronan, she asked, "why aren't you going in?"
He looked guiltily down at his feet. "They said I'm too little to talk about whatever they're talking about, so they kicked me out."
"They have a point. You're like, what, nine?"
"Nine and a half!" He pouted, crossing his arms, "plus, they let me help Manectric earlier, and I handled that just fine."
"Oh you sure handled it. It's not like you were tossing and turning all night or anything."
He went quiet and tipped his skull down to hide his eyes.
Nona pursed her lips, upset with herself for the awkwardness she ushered in.
He's just a kid. I can't blame him for wanting to be involved.
"So Ignis is here?"
Ronan nodded. "She's down at the training grounds practicing."
"Aight, then that's where we're going, c'mon."
"But I wanna help Manectric!"
"And they already said they aren't gonna let you. I'm not gonna let you just sit here stressing all day, so come on."
When Ronan finally caved, they made their way down to the back of the guild, passing a few of the older, more experienced apprentices like Meganium and Machoke on the way. As they stepped through the entrance, they noticed a huge gathering by the dojo. Both Nona and Ronan looked at each other with mutual confusion, neither knowing enough to ask.
They found Ignis over by the two-legged dummies- much to Nona's surprise- practicing her moves with a gigantic sword.
"Got a new toy there?" Nona joked as Ignis' blade bounced off the dummy's shoulder, grazing the top of its head.
"Oh, Nona, you're awake!" She wiped her brow and sheathed her blade in a new leather loop she wore around her waist. "What do you think? Heracross showed it to me last night, and I spent all morning practicing. Pretty cool, right?"
Nona remembered Ignis's shoddy axe form and grimaced. "Sure, just… watch where you swing that thing. Do we have any plans for today? We need something to keep Ronan from breaking into the infirmary."
Ignis wrapped an arm around Ronan's shoulders. "Well, uh, I was hoping to get some combat practice with some of the other apprentices, but all the senior teams were with Slowking this morning."
"Did they figure out who was going into the woods?" Nona asked.
"Uh… I think so, but I didn't see who." Ignis rubbed her chin. "They were talking about the situation with the… infected. There's the one we saw, and the thing in the woods they think could also be one, so they need a plan on how to handle it."
"But they don't know Abomasnow is dead."
"Yeah, but the fact is: it still spread this far. For all we know, there could be even more of them." Ignis kneaded her palm. "I still don't know what to do while we wait for those guys, though."
"-We could go on a dungeon mission!" Ronan interrupted, "just like you wanted, Ignis."
That should have been perfect for Ignis, Nona thought, but she could see her hesitate, her claws gripping clammy on her sword hilt.
"Uh… sure, if that'll help you feel better, Ronan," she decided, with a smile a little too forced.
Ronan was allowed to pick the mission again, and he settled on a fairly simple "harvest" mission at a dungeon called the King's Orchard. He dumped on Nona the smorgasbord of berries there, enough that they would be able to stock up on some for their own kitchen as well.
It was- not to Nona's surprise- another dungeon covered with absolutely suffocating plant life. From the outside, it had the clear spacing and fruit trees of an orchard, but the gaps between them were stitched together with voracious vines, the flora gaining a life of its own and wrapping everything in its grip.
They entered through a rusty wire entrance, connected to a long-destroyed fence. Presumably, it circled the dungeon at one point. Again Nona felt the familiar claustrophobic weight on her chest from when they walked through the dungeon at home.
"Is there a reason it's hard to breathe in here?" She asked from the back of the line.
Ignis swung her sword high above her head and hacked her way through a thick web of vines.
"All dungeons feel like that," she panted, "this is just your first time being in one that's actually- well- active."
"Okay, but why?"
"It's how the dungeon feeds! It takes energy from us so it can eat," Ronan explained far too cheerily.
Nona looked down at him with a horrified expression. "And we just… go into them willingly?"
"Pretty much."
"That's so fucked up-"
"Hey!" Ignis objected, "what did we say about language?"
"I know what you said about language. I just choose to ignore it because it's stupid."
"Look, all I ask is that-" Ignis scooped up an aspear berry- what they were supposed to be harvesting for the mission. "-You choose more appropriate times for serious language."
"How is finding out that we're in the stomach of a giant monster not an appropriate time for an f-bomb?" Nona huffed.
Ignis just rolled her eyes. In her crusade against swear words, she was clearly losing, and she knew it. Nona had to admit, it was fun bugging her about it.
They all fell hush as they ducked under an arch of apple trees into the next room. Ignis's tail simmered down to a gentle glow, and she pointed out to the others the pokemon inside.
Nona recognized Oddish and Aipom, both idly tending to the surrounding trees and bushes, no doubt waiting for them to stumble into the room.
"Ready or not, here we come," Ignis muttered to herself. She readied her blade and stepped out.
Immediately, like a silent alarm was sounded, the wild pokemon dropped everything to face them down, and in seconds the calm burst into frenzy.
Ignis's first instinct was to play defensively, keeping her blade extended in front of her. Nona, impatient, shoved past her, leaping onto all fours and rushing the Aipom, Ronan just on her heels.
Oddish rushed Ignis first, and she held strong. Legs apart, blade pointed forward, eyes focused. You can do this, just remember-
It never even got within her range, not that it needed to. It spat at her a nauseating cloud of sparking yellow dust, and her whole body numbed with static.
"Ack!-" She sputtered and coughed, leaving Oddish to stumble its way over to the others.
Aipom swung its tail at Nona like a sack of bricks, but she blocked it with her forearm, answering with a left uppercut that landed rough on its jaw. Its teeth clacked together, and it leapt back, trying to buy enough time to recover.
But Ronan pursued. He thrashed his club, the enemy just barely dodging, until its thick end landed hard against its temple. It went down limp.
He had no breather before Oddish rushed in after him. Nona just barely intercepted, throwing her whole body weight and pinning it against a tree.
Just when she thought she had it, her tensed muscles suddenly went slack, her whole body burning as if her own blood was trying to escape her skin. She howled in pain. Nona threw herself away to see the end of the mega drain's green energy seep into Oddish's foliage.
"Fuck- Ignis!" Nona cried out.
Ignis was fighting hard against the paralysis as it seized her joints and muscles. It was like her body was made of cement.
"Ignis!" Ronan shouted, "heads up!"
Her only strength, she used to raise an arm and catch the flying cheri berry. She shoved it into her mouth. The relief came as soon as the juice hit her tongue, washing her entire body clean of the toxin and leaving her room to breathe again.
Before Oddish could ruin anything else, Ignis barreled down on it, kicking it hard in its body and bringing down her blade. It missed, but she was close enough to dispatch it with a swipe of her claws.
"You guys okay?" She asked while fussing to re-sheath her sword.
"I'm good!" Ronan sounded, but Nona was still reeling on the floor.
"W-What the… What the hell was THAT?" She growled, her paws clutching every inch of her burning skin.
"Getting hit with a super effective move will do that to you, unfortunately," Ignis consoled, offering a hand.
Nona took it and was helped shakily to her feet. "I figured it would be hard but… God damn that hurt. Don't ever let me do anything like that ever again."
"Okay, we won't," Ronan said, shoving an oran berry into her hand, "here, this'll help with the pain. Make sure you eat up!"
They elected to take advantage of the slow point in the dungeon to catch their breath. Ignis and Ronan dug through the bag and took inventory of the berries they were collecting, while Nona chowed down on her snack and left her mind to wander.
Those eyes were definitely there… the ones from my dream. But if it was really whatever attacked Manectric, why didn't it attack me? Was it because Ronan and Ignis came?
Nona thought of what would happen if Ignis and Ronan were the next victims of… whatever that thing was. Images of punctured skin stripped of all its fur filled her imagination, and she saw those two in the infirmary beds- or worse.
"… Do you guys remember our test?"
Ronan lifted his head up to look at her, while Ignis continued sorting.
"I… I think I saw something, when I got split off. I think it might be what attacked Manectric."
Ignis stopped moving altogether, giving Nona a cautious half-look. "What do you mean?"
"It was… there was this pair of eyes looking at me from the woods. It was white, almost like the sunlight reflecting off a mirror, but I know it was there. Two eyes, staring straight at me."
The other two were totally silent, hanging fearfully on her every word.
"Everything fell so quiet too. We just stared at each other like that, and it blinked at me. It kept blinking- flickering- until it was gone altogether."
Ronan gave Ignis a scared look, and she shook her head. "That… That could have been anything- like you said, a reflection of light."
I would have thought that too, had it not been haunting my dreams the night before.
To reveal her dreams could lead to revealing their subject matter: the fact that she was a human, and that this thing knew it.
"Yeah… probably. I don't know." Nona slicked back her crest, feeling the oran berry's numbing sensation ripple through her nerves.
Ignis finished piling the berries back into the bag, and Ronan slung it over his shoulder.
"We don't know yet if it's really an infected," Ronan piped up, "Slowking said it could be a criminal."
Nona leaned back and heaved a heavy sigh. Infected or not, whatever it was, she saw it, and she said nothing. Maybe she could have stopped it.
The rest of the mission, for all of its battles, went relatively smoothly. They quickly reached their quota of berries, so the rest was a rush to the end.
The two older kids were able to come to a silent agreement: Nona went head first, while Ignis kept the grass pokemon distracted, and it was enough for them to make a full clear.
It was near sundown when they returned to the guild for their bounty. Despite the hour, apprentices were posted on stand-by in the main hall, and light glowed from the inside of almost all of the team rooms.
"A safety precaution," Slowking told them, "while we have our high ranks sweep the woods."
Sleep came easy to Nona that night, and after eating dinner and chugging her customary river from the spigot, she plopped herself down on her blanket pile. She was asleep before either of her teammates could wish her a goodnight.
The pair of eyes she recognized from before stared at her, unblinking, at the lip of the woods. Between the thrashing vines and the shifting bark, it was hard to tell, but they were entirely still.
"Are you going to speak this time?" She asked.
No response. Not even the wind, despite the wild dancing of the leaves.
Nona had her memory of this thing, the thing that took the shape of Gengar, but in this instance, the memories of her past dream blended in with her current perception. It was real. They were both there in the real world.
"I know you were watching me. I saw you."
The eyes blinked.
"Why didn't you attack me then?"
They shifted apart, then flickered, then tilted- an animal observing her.
"You attacked Manectric, didn't you? You probably attacked those Delibird too."
…
"Am I wrong?"
Sharp things began to take shape in the shadows under the trees. Sharp things dipped in fire. Teeth. She could see them, stalking.
Then ice. Cold things. They frosted the grass, crystallizing around her leg. It burned hot, but it was the deepest, coldest bite. The inside of Abomasnow's maw.
The eyes moved closer to her, growing larger and larger as they came into focus. Blinding reflections of light. It blended in with the whiteness of the sky. Then it shifted.
The sickening hue of purple.
Teeth, claws, beaks, and blades poured from the eyes, stabbing pokemon-rending flesh- frostbitten flesh- near dead in the infirmary.
Nona was going to be next. The beak flew towards her chest, followed by flurries of others, but they stopped.
The purple wash of the land fell totally black. Then, faintly, two milky white diamonds danced and reflected in front of her. Two eyes looking right into hers. The figure from her dreams.
"Nona," they said in a gentle voice, "Nona… Nona… NONA!"