Hey guys! This is my first legit attempt at writting something PMD-related, hopefully you guys like it, be sure to tell me what you think! Reviews and whatnot are more than appreciated!
Disclaimer: Contains graphic descriptions of violence, character death and eventual romance.
He could feel the sun as it scorched his fur, threatening to burn him alive.
His eyes were half closed, and it felt as if his entire body was paralysed. Every inch of his body hurt.
"YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY…" That loud, booming and aggressive voice still echoed in his mind. It was like a roar that formed words. After that, the only remembered was this pain he still feels.
And the scorching sun too.
"But Miss Audino…!" A young and masculine voice that was the complete opposite of the one in his head spoke, carrying both poutiness and youthful mischief, "I told you already, I heard a big BOOM! And I was like: 'Oh no! Someone must be hurt! I gotta go and check it out! A shame I'll skip class and all my boring chores to do so!'"
"Hatchling, you and I both know you ran away before the loud noise could even be heard." Another voice, one feminine and much more mature than the previous one answered, "I am not angry, you know it. But you must learn to behave, things are hard for unruly pokémon…"
"See? That is exactly why I prefer to skip everything and run away!" The younger voice replied with indignation towards this 'Audino', "having everyone tell me the same thing over and over is booooooring! I just want to have fun, for once!"
He heard them both getting closer and closer. He begged his body to move, yet he had no such luck. He tried to open his mouth, but doing so only further exhausted his battered body even further.
"You can have plenty of fun once you finish your duties, hatchling." He could detect that the feminine voice carried a hint of melancholy.
"H…h….el…p" He managed to mutter, little more than a whisper.
"Oh yeah? How can I have fun if no pokémon other than you can stand being near me!?" That caused the other voice to be quiet, it was as if she knew he would say that, but it stung to hear all the same.
"Hatchling I-"
"H…elp!" Once again he tried to shout, hoping the two would hear his pleas.
"Did ya hear anything?" The young voice asked. "Must've been the wind."
"Indeed. No way we'd ever hear such a worthless pathetic attempt at calling for help."
"Yeah, it would be best if you just closed your eyes and died, Elias."
"Don't you want to just close your eyes and stop being such a bother, Elias?"
"Elias?"
Elias felt his entire world shaking, like an earthquake. Yet it saved him from the dark turn his dream took.
"Elias!"
When he opened his eyes, he saw the culprit behind said 'earthquake', an all too familiar young white-furred rabbit right in front of him, who had a grin perpetually stuck in his face.
The scorbunny didn't stop even as Elias opened his eyes, only when he meekly struggled to break free from his grasp that the rabbit let go.
"There ya go!" Scorbunny put both his paws on his hips, proudly posing whilst Elias felt his entire world still shake uncontrollably, "I know how much you love waking up early, that and the fact that you were making those weird noises that I hate too… so yeah, no need to thank me!"
Elias shook his head, not hearing half of what his friend had said, considering he spoke much too quickly for his dizzy mind to process. "Uh… t-thanks, Shai…"
"Oh, what did I just say?" Shai still had his usual smile plastered in his face, the one Elias never saw him without, though now it was mixed with the slightest of blushes under his fur too, "but well! If you insist, I'll take it!" He giggled and immediately kneeled right in front of Elias once more, paws stroking his friend's gray fur, "Now let's get'cha all dandy for today, you zany zorua!"
Unlike the fire-type, Elias was a quadruped, fox-like pokémon, with fur that was light gray with red and white accents. The big tuft on his head and the ruff around his neck were the main points Shai focused on, using his paws to gently groom the unique zorua's fur to the best of his ability.
Elias knew that Shai had no clue what he was doing, yet he allowed him to do it anyway, since the scorbunny was always happy when he did so. The fire-type also picked up a pendant and placed it around Elias' neck, it had a ruby-like stone that shone red. "Um. Do you even know what 'zany' means, Shai?"
"No clue! It's a word I learned like, just the other day and I reaaaally wanted to put it in a sentence!" His deadpan honesty made Elias awkwardly stare at the rabbit with his golden eyes, "did I use it right?"
"I guess… you are way more zany than me though. And quite the zestful one too. I can say that you are my dear zippy friend." Elias laughed a little at his friend's confused expression, immediately followed by a smile so large that showed his buckteeth.
"I get it! All those weird z-words mean 'super awesome', right!?" Shai started to hop around with his paws close to his mouth, waiting excitedly for Elias's reply.
"... Sure!" He blatantly lied, but Shai believed it immediately, performing a backflip from the sheer joy he felt.
"Alright! I knew it!" He punched the air and laughed merrily, "you're my super awesom- I mean, my 'zippy' friend too, Eli!" Shai shouted and ran laps across the embarrassed ghostly zorua, "now c'mon! Miss Audino won't start breakfast without you!"
Elias opened his mouth to speak, but the scorbunny ran out of their shared room before he could say anything.
"... So much energy, this early in the morning…" Elias muttered to himself with a sigh, getting out of the straw nest he was sleeping on.
The room he was in was very minimalistic in nature. Other than his little nest-bed and Shai's, It had two small wooden shelves with various books, scrolls and papers with childish drawings in them. A mirror and various scattered toys could be seen too, half of them were neatly placed in one of the shelves, the other half was scattered around as if a tornado had just passed in that half of the room.
"Oh Shai… I keep telling you to clean up the toys after you're done with them…" Elias sighs to himself, and quietly starts to pick them up one by one using his muzzle, placing each and every one of them in order back on the shelf, knowing full well that Miss Audino might chastise Shai otherwise.
After he put away the last toy, he couldn't help but look at himself in the mirror. His perpetually half-closed eyes and perpetually messy fur made him look like some sort of depressed ghost. Elias decided to just keep the bizarre furstyle that Shai always made sure to do every morning, if only because his friend was very proud when he saw the zorua walking around with it.
And of course, if the scorbunny was happy, then so was he.
But even still, something about his quadruped reflection was… wrong. Alien. His golden eyes tried their best to adjust and make this bothersome feeling pass, but it was fruitless. "I've felt like this since forever… ugh, what is wrong with me? It's like I'm staring at someone else, even though I know it's… me."
Elias shook his head and moved away from the mirror, pleased to see that their room was now clean and tidy.
"Elias? Hatchling, are you okay in there?" The ever-gentle voice of Miss Audino echoed from the room right next to his and Shai's bedroom.
"S-Sorry! Coming!" Yelped the gray zorua as he trotted towards the voice, ending up in another simplistic room.
This one had tree trunks from differing sizes that acted as chairs and a table. The middle one was filled with all sorts of colorful berries and vegetables, with some sweet-looking juice already in each of three wooden cups.
An audino with a gentle smile and a scorbunny with a much more mischievous one sat on the chair-trunks, both of them looking at the approaching zorua.
"Took your sweet time, hah! Were you admiring yourself in the mirror again!?" Shai immediately questioned, and Elias lowered his head in embarrassment. Before the fire-type could speak more, Audino kicked his leg underneath the table. "OW! HEY!"
"S-Sorry…" The zorua said simply as he sat down across the two.
She ignored the angry looks the scorbunny aimed at her, instead focusing on the zorua. "Are you okay Elias, sweetie? You look a bit under the weather."
"But he's always like tha- OW!" Another light kick from under the table made Shai shut his mouth and allow Elias to speak.
"I… I had that dream again, of when the two of you found me…" The zorua sighed and looked away shyly. "But um. Different from what actually happened…"
"The one where we don't find ya and leave you to- OW!" Shai jumped out from the tree-chair and started to dramatically rub his abused leg and hop around with his other one, "COULD YOU STOP!?"
"Then be mindful of what you speak. You know Elias is a sensitive boy." She told Shai firmly, yet always with her warm tone. The scorbunny pouted for a second, but then frowned and lowered his big ears and bowed in shame. "I'm soooorry…"
"It's ok, no need to apologize… please don't fight because of me, you two." Elias lowered his own head too, his ears behind his head, "It was a stupid dream anyway… I should just get over it and stop dwelling on the past, I'm almost a grown-up, right? I should be more like you and Shai, Miss Audino."
"Don't say that!" Shai surprised him with his ever-loud voice, "you're perfect the way that you are! You're not inferior to anyone just 'cause you're having some bad dreams every now and then! I have some myself, y'know!" The scorbunny held the gray zorua's frontal paws with his own and stared at him right in the eye. "After we're done eating breakfast, we'll go play hide 'n seek to getcha out of this funk! I just can't beat you in that one!"
"I-It is my favorite game, after all… I'm not that good at it, though!" Elias couldn't help but blush at the sudden burst of affection that came from the white fire-rabbit. "And um… don't we have to go to school after breakfast? Elder Shuckle would be sad if you skipped his class again…"
"Oh shush! You're super duper awesome, and you know it!" Shai laughed and squeezed his friend's paws some more. "And well, cheering you up is more important! I'm suuuuure he'll understand! Plus, I am allergic to his history lectures…"
They both were interrupted by a warm hug, Audino's arms wrapping around them both, and gently locking them together. "Oh I swear… you two will be the death of me sometime. You should try showing this side more often, Shai!"
"What'd you mean? I'm just being honest!" The clueless scorbunny accepted the hug with a shrug.
"You two can skip class this one time. Just don't tell anyone I allowed it, ok?" She giggled, surprising both boys. "Infernape has been on high alert for some reason, so don't go wandering too far from the village."
"W-What? But Miss Audino, we have to at least write a letter to justify our absen-"
"All right! You're the best, Miss Audino!" Shai shouted in pure joy, punching the air in glee, "it will be fine, Eli! The teachers hate me anyway!"
"I mean, even still… we shouldn't just skip class for a stupid reason…"
Shai's ears perked up when he heard what Elias had said, "It's not a stupid reason! It's to cheer you up! I've skipped class for way less anyway!"
"Not with my permission…" Added Audino, glaring at the scorbunny, who sheepishly looked away. "Elias, sweety. You have been nothing short of an angel for the one year I've taken care of you. It's okay to bend the rules a little."
Shai's ears perked back up and he grinned, "Sometimes." Audino completed before he could get too excited.
"...Ok." Elias conceded. Both Audino and Shai smiled at him, the adult hugged the two even tighter.
"Then it's settled. Again, just don't wander too far from the village, and don't warn Infernape. He won't be too happy about this arrangement." Audino, pat the two of boys in the back. "Don't forget to pray to our guardian deity too! Even if you boys are having a lazy day, it's no excuse to skip your prayers."
"Of course!" Both of them said in unison, both very aware of the importance that was starting the day by praying to their guardian.
"Good! And eat your berries first!" She added before the scorbunny could dash away and drag Elias with him. "We don't want Shai fainting in the middle of running because he forgot to eat."
"I swear, it was one time…!" The adult and Elias both laughed at Shai's grumpy grumbling as he sat back down to eat.
"C'mon, Eli! You'll never catch me at this rate!"
"Go slower, Shai! You might trip and fall!"
"Pleeeeaaaase! You underestimate m- OW!" The scorbunny was interrupted once he crashed against a tall nidoqueen and fell prone.
Before going to the outskirts of the village, they made their way to the local shrine, which was near the forest anyway. It was composed of various flowers and offerings surrounding an ancient-looking statue of a pokémon, which was made of mossy rock that glowed a calming red, similar to the pendant that Elias was wearing.
Neither Elias nor Shai knew who exactly this Pokémon was, but they both respected it greatly, since Miss Audino and all the other villagers referred to them as 'The Guardian'. Fittingly enough, the holy symbol in the statue was a shield.
Pokémon from the village usually could be seen praying quietly in this area, like the very annoyed nidoqueen that Shay had disturbed.
"Oh, god! Are you okay?" The grey zorua nudged his friend, who just nodded dismissively. Elias then nervously looked at the poison-type, "S-Sorry, Miss Nidoqueen!"
The poison-type looked at the zorua with an annoyed expression, then resumed her prayer before acknowledging him again.
"This is no place for you two to be playing at." She scoffed.
"We didn't mean to disturb you, sorry!" Elias bowed respectfully at her.
"Just don't do it again, cursed child." The adult clearly targeted the last part to Elias specifically, as she then walked away without glancing at the two small pokémon.
"HEY! Who do you think you are to call Elias that!?" The scorbunny immediately got back up and angrily shouted at her, "HE HAS A NAME, YOU-!"
The adult ignored the shouting scorbunny and kept doing her business. Shai wanted to run and confront the nidoqueen, but was stopped by Elias, body blocking him.
"Lemme through! I'm gonna put some sense back on her old head!"
"Shai, it's fine. It can't be helped…" The zorua tried to stop his friend from doing something he might regret.
"She doesn't have the right to call you that! No one does!" Growled the rabbit, "just 'cause you're a bit different from other zorua doesn't mean you're 'cursed' or whatever!"
"She's an adult. There's no way we can tell her what to do…"
"Still! We can't just let them talk that way about you! I don't care how older she is, no one can just offend you! Miss Audino even talked to the elders to try and make them stop being mean to you!"
"Don't get worked up..." Elias nudged his friend with his muzzle, "you said we were here to cheer me up right? Let's not let this sour our day."
The scorbunny sighed, lowering his shoulders, "Fine. Just 'cause you asked. But I still think this has been going on for long enough! I don't think I can keep standing back and watching any longer!"
Elias shook his head, "this is my problem, Shai. I don't like seeing you angry like this… please don't worry. As long as you're happy, I am."
Shai lowered himself and placed a paw on Elias' tuft, nuzzling his friend, his white fur meeting the zorua's gray and red one. "I won't ever be happy if I see you being disrespected…"
"Don't worry. I don't mind. If that's the price of being with you and Miss Audino, I'll take it with no complaints."
"I swear, you give up way too easily…" Shai sights, walking closer to the shrine with his paw now holding Elias's.
"I just pick my fights, it's different." He struggled a bit, considering he had to walk on three legs instead of four, but for the sake of showing affection, the zorua did it anyway.
"Heh. Yeah, sure. You mean that you fight if it's about someone other than yourself..." Shai whispered to himself, with his ears down.
The deep part of the forest that surrounded the village was filled to the brim with luscious vegetation.
Perfect for two kids to hide and play to their hearts' content.
"Hmmm… c'mon, where are you…?" The scorbunny questioned, doing his best to find the hiding zorua.
His large ears tried to catch the faintest of sounds, but only the wind could be heard.
"I swear, it's like you stop breathing all of a sudden…" Shai still kept his guard up, and grinned to himself once he saw a small reddish spot poking out of one of the bushes.
Slowly, he sneaked towards it, and as soon as he could, he jumped in the bush shouting "GOTCHA!"
… only to end up with a cheri berry in between his paws.
"... whatcha got there?" A voice came from behind the disappointed scorbunny.
"Eh, maybe a snack or- '' He turned around and jumped when he saw the grey zorua looking at him casually "-By Arceus, Eli! How do you even do that!?"
"The berry wasn't my doing." Elias shrugged, "and I just stood still, really. Decided to come out else you might get too tired from looking."
"Hey! I was… getting there, ok!?" The scorbunny blushed and fell on his rump, wiping some sweat from his forehead. "You are just too good! Now I hide and you-"
Shai was silenced when Elias jumped on top of him, placing a paw on the rabbit's mouth.
Near them, they saw an infernape scouting through the forest, fierce eyes scanning every inch of green surrounding him.
"What's he doing here? He never guards this far!" Shai whispered, still with a paw semi-blocking his mouth.
"Dunno. Is he looking for us?" Elias shivered a little, whispering inches from Shai's ear.
The fire-type shook his head, "I don't think anyone saw us leave! He can't know!"
The duo remained quiet, and watched as the elder fire-type climbed a tall tree and jumped towards somewhere deeper in the forest.
"Ok… I think that's that." Shai sighed, gently pushing Elias away so he could stand up.
"I think we should go back…" Elias gulped, "there's something weird about this. We've been away for long enough…"
"Don't be dramatic! Elder Infernape must be paranoid as always. He has no clue we're here!"
"I am more worried about Miss Audino… she suffers enough for sheltering you and me as it is." The grey zorua whispered with a hint of melancholy.
Shai pat the ghostly fox on the back, "you are far too sweet. Don't worry, it will be fine! We should probably get away from here if infernape is patrolling this area."
"Tell ya what!" Shai winked and started to pretend he was running. "We'll race! If you win, we go back home and do whatever. If I win, we'll play here 'till dawn!"
"We can't wander too far, remember? Plus you and I both know I can't beat you-" and as expected, the scorbunny started running towards nowhere in particular, laughing loudly to himself.
Which forced the zorua to run after him in order to catch up, "-why do I even bother…"
"Hahahah! C'mon, ya slowpoke! Move those paws of yours!" Shai's giggles echoed through the forest as they ventured far away from where infernape had gone.
"Coming! Go a bit slower, please…" The zorua huffed, struggling to follow the rabbit.
Shai suddenly halted with a smirk, paws in his hips. "Welp. I guess this is deep enough! Don't think infernape's gonna bother us here!"
"Do you even know where we are…?" Elias's golden eyes stared at the vegetation around them, noting most were of a different color than the usual green. He couldn't help but move closer to one of the strangely-colored bushes, gazing at it closely. "Their color is… violet. And they have a reddish glow…"
"Huh? Oh, I see!" Shai poked his head right next to Elias's, which caused him to jump a bit. "The glow is kinda similar to the red tint on the tips of your fur!"
"D-Don't do that… this place is creeping me out." Elias shook his head and tried to compose himself.
"Sorry! Somehow, I always forget how jumpy you can get." He pet his friend on the head to apologize, "but yeah. Gotta say I don't remember this part of the forest being so… weird."
"Me neither… feels… darker too. And a bit cold…" Elias shivers as he keeps looking around them, "I think we should go back…"
"You're being paranoid! Must be something to do with the season or something. Maybe it's fall or winter already?" Before Elias could reply, they both felt a strange chill in their spines, their furs standing up as they instinctively felt something weird.
And when they both tried to look at what it was, the space around them started to contort, twist and change, as if the very fabric of reality was made of water.
They both started to cough loudly, feeling as if the very air had turned into smog that burned their lungs, quite the opposite from how they remembered the friendly forest felt.
Shai started to rub his eyes with his paw, confused as to why out of a sudden he was having trouble merely standing on his feet. "Eli!? Eli, you ok!?"
"S-Shai…!" Elias' meek, scared voice startled the rabbit.
Once he opened his eyes, he saw Elias pointing to a creature that looked like a mix of rotting flesh and needle-like crystals that had the same violet and red glow that the vegetation of this area had suddenly changed to.
"Ok… I'll admit…" The rabbit gulped and took a step back along with the ghostly zorua, "I don't think the season has anything to do with this…"
"Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen…" A young gabite counted gold coins inside of the bag she carried, minding her spike-like claw so as to not damage anything.
"Fourteen poké total. Perhaps I shouldn't have stayed in that inn back in the city after all." She mumbled to herself. "Couldn't help myself. That Mr. Mime's theatrics were far too enthralling…"
The dragoness was sitting on a pleasant campsite she set up in a meadow, complete with sparkling stream. The sound of water running down always calmed her down no matter how stressed she felt, and the clear green grass in the prairie that licked her scales felt very reassuring.
"It was my own fault for not focusing entirely on the mission I was given," she sighed to herself, "now I will have to save a bigger percentage of the reward… if I even get it to begin with."
She wore a blue-colored blanket scarf around her neck, with a shiny golden badge attached to it, as was custom for explorers. The color of her blue scales were way more shiny and bright than what was normal for her species, and the usual red of her frontal scales had a greenish-yellow color instead, that was a bit hidden thanks to the scarf she wore.
She used her spike-like hands to better fit the scarf around her neck, it was incredibly hard to do so without damaging it, but with enough patience it was doable. She couldn't help but stare at the stream as she did, seeing her reflection on the clear water's surface.
Her draconic muzzle was perpetually frowning, her honey yellow eyes appeared angry all the time. For a second, the image of the grumpy gabite changed to a smiling gible, who would stare into a beautiful stream like this one with only positive thoughts. Strangely enough, this gible had greenish-yellow belly scales instead of the usual red, much like the gabite.
The bright blue gabite on the other hand just couldn't bring herself to have the same jolly thoughts as the reflection.
"So pretty… you must be very proud of how you look, Mr. Stream!" The reflection casually spoke with the water, as if she was sincerely expecting an answer from the river, "you see, my friends say I don't look beautiful because my scales have this weird color. Do you think I can be pretty like you when I grow up, Mr. Stream? Everyone always comes to look at you, do you think they can do the same to me?"
The voice was innocent in tone, and despite the melancholic undertone of her words, she was filled with hope.
The bright blue-scaled pokémon shook her head, "No time for that. I have to focus." She moved the coins aside and picked up a map and some notes, which she examined carefully. Busying her mind with work was the best way to avoid facing her emotions and dark thoughts.
She carefully picked up a sketch she had been given when the mission started. The sheet of paper depicted some sort of quadruped canine pokémon that wore expensive-looking armor, the dragoness read the sloppy notes she had written underneath, "Allegedly this legendary creature was worshiped as a god by mysterious pokémon known as 'the wardens'."
Her yellow eyes wandered to her notes right next to the sketch, "objective: find a proof of the creature's worship… one of several relics nicknamed 'stones of protection'."
"Now with my daily reminder of what I am supposed to be doing out of the way… I can say I've made approximately…." She closed her eyes and remained with an awkwardly stoic and grumpy expression, "0% progress so far. With a 1% margin of error."
She set all the items aside, placing them back in her explorer's bag, eyes closed and stoic expression still present. "This forgotten forest is the last place I'll look… the mountains and caves I ventured showed no sign of these so-called 'wardens', nor the creature they supposedly worshiped…"
Gabite refused to give up despite the demoralizing status of her mission. It was one of those investigative explorations that most teams avoided like the plague, preferring more simple and direct jobs like rescues and outlaw apprehension.
And that was exactly why she always picked these tedious archeological and exploratory quests, she had an excuse to disappear by herself for long periods of time and venture into less inhabited places like this prairie.
"Hm. One of the areas in which that relic was said to be was around here… perhaps if I venture deeper in that forest…" She got up and started to scout the area, looking for anything that could act as a clue, seeing the large quantities of trees up ahead, and so she decided to go there to investigate.
She left the campside she had set up, her bag and its contents being the only things she really cared about. For what felt like hours, she kept walking aimlessly, investigating every inch of the forest.
"Hm… perhaps the intel given by the locals was inaccurate? I have found exactly no clues in weeks of searching…" The gabite kept talking to herself, "would be highly unprofessional of me to return to the guild with nothing to show. I suppose that's what I get for accepting a mission in which the main sources were based around rumors and myths…"
The dragoness kept walking deeper down the area, the prairie which she previously was starting to get covered by dense vegetation, trees blocking most of the blue sky above.
"I can't and won't give up so easily. There has to be something in here, all maps are suspiciously vague with their contents." She told herself, finding the tallest tree she could see and using her spikes to climb to the top.
Gabite saw the blue, empty skies. The sun shone brightly as ever, the mighty howling of the wind making a pleasant melody with the rustling of the leaves. Usually, the cold winds made shiver, but the comfy scarf she wore thankfully prevented that.
She sat in one of the branches, wrapping her tail around it once she was certain it could accommodate her weight. She pulled the map once more, this time with a compass.
But once again, her memories refused to cooperate. She saw that same smiling gible from before right next to her, casually sitting and enjoying the view.
"I love this view…!" A voice came from next to her, belonging to the small dragon-type, "everything looks so beautiful from up high! Someday, I want to climb the tallest mountain I can find! I want to reach the clouds themselves… so I can feel like a pidgey flying through the night and see the entire world from this beautiful view!"
Gabite had to struggle to not lose herself into yet another of the memories that haunted her.
"Look." The gible looked at her and pointed towards a deeper spot in the forest, so far and hidden she would not have noticed had the gible not pointed out. She complied, and saw what looked to be splattered blood on one of the trees.
The shiny gabite stood up in alert, and noted that the gible was nowhere to be seen. She shook her head and tried to forget that for now, jumping out from the tree and running towards the bloody tree.
Once there, she used her spike to touch it…
"It's dry. The morphology of it implies that it has been here for mere hours but…" She leaned in closer, sniffing it and examining it with her honey-colored eyes, "the scent… and the overall looks imply this is much older than me…"
She also noticed that the leaves of this particular tree were violet in color, and had a slight glow that resembled the blood that painted it.
"Hm. This tree is the same as all others, save for the unique color… a mutation perhaps?" She questions, her spike feeling it up, noting how twisted and strange this particular tree felt. "Looks something straight out of a…"
When she was about to finish her sentence, she noticed that the area around the tree started to deform, the very space around her bending out of shape and into something unrecognizable from the calming forest she once was.
Now with the green of the plants being replaced by an ethereal violet, the peaceful blue of the cloudless skies now replaced by a bloody red, with the sun now looking like a stain in the sky, Gabite saw how the grass from under her turned into a river of endless snow. Her heart started to beat faster.
"... Mystery Dungeon."
All God's Village
Layer 2
The snowy violet dungeon was like an antithesis of its former forest self, instead of a calming natural retreat, it resembled a nightmarish maze of mangled trees that wouldn't look out of place in a swamp, save for their strange coloration.
The blood she had seen on that one tree was something they all shared in this place, but each unique tree had its own unique bloodstain, if it could even be called 'blood' to begin with, it was closer to something trying to mimic blood.
"Hm. This is wrong. Very wrong. This place should be just a dense and unassuming forest. A dungeon shouldn't be hidden in plain sight like this…" The gabite kept muttering to herself as she ventured further into the corrupted landscape, "it's not mapped either… it's like it just sprung into life. Am I really the first to come across it…? Why has no one ever mentioned this place before…?"
She shivered, feeling her shiny scales feel vulnerable and meek from the intense cold that suddenly took over everything around her. "And of course, it has to be a snowy dungeon. Lucky me."
The colder it got, the louder her heart started to beat. It was caused by both a primal fear from her cold-blooded biology, and one rooted in a much more personal trauma. It already felt like she was walking for ages, but in truth it was a few hours. "In an ideal scenario, this is one of those easy 5-floor dungeons. Hardly the case…"
She kept walking at a fast pace, her spiky hind limbs and blade-like arms both ready to attack in case a feral dungeon pokémon crossed her path. "No signs of any stairs… perhaps it's a single-floor dungeon?"
"Leeee…" She heard an otherworldly, guttural noise from in between the trees.
With a quick motion, she roared and fired towards the noise a torrent of azure flames from inside her mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth.
Once the flames died down, she saw what seemed to be the vaguely familiar shape of a nidoqueen, but their rotting flesh was impaled by various glowy purple crystals that stabbed almost every inch of their body, not sparing her eyes and mouth.
The dragon breath that had hit the monster burnt her already dead flesh even more, but it was reflected by the crystals all over her body. Even as pieces of its rotting body crumbled and fell into the snowy floor, the monster still kept making her way to the gabite.
"Leeeeaaaaa… veeee…"The twisted nidoqueen croaked, in a mix of a moan and a hiss.
The dragon-type was stunned at what was in front of her, but quickly recomposed herself and dodged out of the way when the creature charged headfirst at her, making the foe hit one of the trees instead.
When the monster made contact with it, the tree quickly started to rot and wither away even more so than what it already was.
"Leave…"The creature hissed again. Preparing another punch to try and dispose of the intruder.
"That's what I'm trying to do, you blob of flesh." Gabite got ready to keep fighting, but felt her vision start to get blurrier and blurrier. Her legs started to shake from the cold.
She fired a barrage of her draconic breaths, further searing the creature's flesh, even if most of it was reflected by the crystals that poked out of their body.
But then she just stopped once the place got colder and colder, hail now falling from the red sky, stealing even more energy and heat, and bringing worse memories to light.
"Mom! Mom! Where are you…?" She heard the ghostly whispers of the gible echoing through the mystery dungeon, "it's so cold, mom…"
Her head started to spin. Breathing the cold air was like trying to survive by breathing pointy rocks. Her body felt numb.
She saw her younger version kneeled in front of a dead tree, the hail and snow making it hard to see clearly. She could hear the gible sobbing.
Immediately she lifted one of her arms to try and reach out, but the twisted nidoqueen's punch snapped her back to reality.
It was so strong that she flew back and crashed against a tree, breaking it in two with the impact.
She shook her head and got up, seeing the creature charging at her once again, she got ready and as soon as it got close to her, she sidestepped away from their attack, and hit it with two brutal strikes using both her spiky limbs and slashing with her arms, which tore through its limbs leaving large gashes exposing more of its weak flesh.
Before the creature could even process what had happened, the gabite followed-up with yet another dragon breath, this time point-blank and aimed mostly at the gapes she had just created. It melted the creature's sensitive parts, and turned them into dust on the wind.
Gabite then watched as the bright crystals that were once impaling the creature exploded into nothingness right before her eyes.
She shook her head and took a step forward, but almost fell face first into the snow.
Her legs were still shaking, and now so were her arms.
The dragon-type then looked at the spot where the nidoqueen had hit her, right under her blanket punch had left a rotting wound on her chest, it was unlike anything she had seen before.
Knowing full well of the powerful healing abilities of her scales, she immediately used her spiky hand to tear out one of her arm scales. The adrenaline was more than enough to allow her to ignore the pain, so she easily tore it off and swallowed it.
But much to her dismay, it only served to cause even more pain to shoot through her body. She could see her greenish-yellow chest scales all rotting away together with her muscle tissue.
"This is insane…" Her head kept spinning and her body begged her for rest, but instead she shakingly got back up and started to stumble towards the deeper part of the dungeon.
"... Have to… run away…" She coughed to herself, the pain in her chest and the cold threatening to overtake her at any moment.
All God's Village
Layer 4
The gabite finished another of these strange decaying crystal pokémon with a tired swipe of her powerful arm, decapitating it immediately.
These creatures were slow and predictable, but if a single strike could deal this much damage, she had to take measures to make sure they would never hit.
Even with almost no stamina left, the dragon-type kept moving forward, avoiding alerting these monsters whenever possible, and fighting from a safe distance and defensively when it was unavoidable.
But the cold and the gaping wound were both taking their toll on the dragon type.
She ran and ran across the snowy field, holding her wound with one claw and leaving the other ready in case she needed to defend herself.
Miraculously, she saw what looked like some sort of village up ahead, with various huts and buildings, though all of them were overtaken by the snow. "Is it… abandoned?"
"No… energy…" She whispered, now having to walk wobbly. "Can't… keep… going…"
The gabite's body tensed up once she saw another of those monsters right near the village, this time a shuckle. Its shell had various of those violet crystals, so she was relieved at first since shuckles are known for being sluggish and slow already.
But she wasn't prepared for it to start firing a barrage of crystals like projectiles at her. She ducked and used her arm as a shield, most of the shots missed, but some caused further damage to her body… and further decay.
Angry, she once again used her dragon breath to swallow the monster, and she didn't stop until she was sure it melted inside its shell.
But that was the very last of her energy.
She was now laying on her back, against something hard, maybe one of the trees, but she wasn't sure. In any case, the snow underneath her sealed her fate.
It was eerily similar to how she remembered.
"Mom… I'm going… to visit… you…" She whispered in a state of both delirium and acceptance.
She closed her eyes. She felt her body freeze, and the rotting of her body continued.
"But I didn't… become… the pokémon you… wanted me to become…" She felt a single tear leave her eye and it froze as it fell from her cheek. "I'm… sorry…"
Yet somehow, something warm started battling the cold.
Somehow, something kept her heart beating.
There was light in this cold abyss.
"It is not the time to sleep." She heard a strange and yet surprisingly familiar ethereal voice wake her up.
She opened her eyes and saw a large creature towering over her, a quadruped, bulky canine that seemed to be made of glowy mist.
"Look." It used its paw to point to the place in which she was laying against, some sort of stone statue that was covered by snow.
What caught her eye was the shape of it. Exactly like-
"The sketch… this is the… sketch…" She then looked back at the large shape that talked to her, "you… are you… the guardian…?"
"You whose heart is resilient and pure…" The ghostly being ignored her question and pointed to the statue once again, "Touch the sacred shrine and have your soul be judged."
Barely conscious, she felt compelled to do as she was told, crawling on the snowy floor until she could press a single spike on the statue.
As soon as she did though, she felt a vibration coming from it. "A… heartbeat…?"
She then pressed both of her claws on the shrine, feeling it get stronger and stronger as if she was giving it energy.
The snowy dungeon then vanished, and was replaced by a forest once again. Gabite looked around and saw that she was in the middle of a village, filled with pokémon.
They all were silent, almost like they were mere puppets being moved around.
When she tried to touch one of them, they all vanished, leaving only a ghost town behind. It was exactly like the one she had seen before in the dungeon, only this one was not covered in snow.
She winced once she saw more of those things coming from inside the huts, and even from the forest around the village. She got ready for one last brawl, until…
"AAAAH!" She heard a loud shriek coming from outside the village. Without even thinking, her body started to move towards it, ignoring the monsters for the moment.
Once she got far away from the silent village, she saw yet another of those crystal monsters, though this one seemed to be made entirely of crystal, and had only a vaguely pokemon shape.
But what really caught her eye was a pokémon shivering in fear, on the verge of tears. He was a zorua, but his fur was colored gray, almost silver. He was paralysed in fear, the monster was about to strike him down, he seemed to have some sort of pendant around his fluffy neck.
But then even with no energy left, Gabite roared and dual chopped the beast, then she slashed at it with her arms, trying to use the momentum to push it away from the zorua.
"Get… AWAY!" She roared and fired a dragon breath at it, which caused the monster to shatter in a million pieces.
"You… saved me." The zorua behind her whispered.
She was silent for a moment, this strangely colored zorua seemed to be more or less her age, if not a little younger. Yet she could see the spark of innocence in his eyes, a spark that was almost taken away by that thing.
"Don't thank me." She dismissively said, once again feeling the fatigue and pain returning to her, "it's just my job."
"You have a wonderful job, then." The zorua shyly replied, "and for that, I thank you anyway."
That caused her to snicker a bit. Before she could question if this zorua had any clue what was happening, an army of those monsters surrounded them.
"Crap…" She spat, stumbling back to her feet and struggling to get back in her combat stance. "Stand… behind me…"
Her wounds started to hurt more, her body started to feel colder and weaker. Her vision got blurry, her body shivered.
Reality started to return to her. She remembered the fact that she was dying in a snowy dungeon.
Was this a vision? Was any of this real? Was this her very own purgatory? Was she dreaming as she died?
The questions that rang on her head were all silenced once she looked behind her and saw that gray zorua. He looked at her with his tearful eyes. His golden, innocent, tearful eyes.
For one second, the zorua became a smiling gible.
"No… can't die yet…" She shook her head, once again lost in a mix of her memories, reality and delirium, "I have to… I have to protect you… like she… told me…"
Gabite fell on her knees for the last time, now she couldn't get back up.
The monsters started to close in on them.
She threw herself in front of them and the zorua, using her body as a shield and closed her eyes.
She could not see, but the ruby-like stone that was the zorua's pendant started to shine its red light brightly.
"Please be safe… please survive!" Were her last thoughts before all went black.
That same calming voice from before started speaking inside her mind. "You who choose to defend others in detriment of yourself…" She felt her body flying, drifting and floating away, as if being gently carried by an invisible force.
"You whose humility proves the sincerity of your actions…" No longer she felt cold, the wind was pleasant once more, and the snow had become grass underneath her.
"You who never waver, even in the face of certain doom…" Her wounds mended, her scales regained their color, and the poisonous decay was purified.
"I henceforth dub thee my warden. And entrust you to care for the human." She finally could breathe again, and regained her senses properly. "May you shield this world from the darkness that approaches, oh worthy one."
"Human…? Warden…? Darkness…?" She whispered, slowly being lulled into a peaceful rest. "Was that all a dream…? Is Zorua… safe…?"
As if to answer her own question, she felt soft fur rub against her scales, in her arms a small, gray pokémon gently snored.
They were both in a cave, completely different from the forest and prairie she was previously in.
She closed her eyes, deciding it was best to ask questions later. Her last act was to set the zorua away from her, on the floor of the cave. She had rough skin after all.
