Chapter 3: New Plans
Drizzle was finally beginning to calm down again some legs to stand on after the raid a few days prior. The weather had been appropriately dreary and gloomy as Pokémon were forced to leave Drizzle to look for a new place to call their home thanks to the assistance of Haronfield's Tropius Airlines. Citizens were going to sleep with one eye open and cautiously wandering about town, in case of another attack. A ceremony was held to mourn over the lost of any loved ones whose lives had been abruptly shortened on that day. Lillia and her friend, on the other hand, were busy taking care of a problem neither of them would have expected to deal with. An egg.
Lillia had shown to somewhat dislike having the egg around since it put a damper in their whole "leaving the village" plan, but the Mienfoo had taken somewhat of a shine to the unborn. She noticed the small sighs of relief he gave when they tried to donate the egg to someone more capable. Nonetheless, the two cared for the egg as best they could in hopes to make the ones who sacrificed their survival for them proud.
Speaking of a certain psychic cat, she was currently stumbling home with several heavy bags of groceries in paw, visibly struggling. A few good Samaritans had offered to help her, but she expectedly turned them all down with haste. Several grueling minutes later, she flopped into her abode and set the bags on the counter, before finally flopping onto her bed.
"I'm assuming y-you want me to g-get those sorted?" Her friend asked from across the room, sitting in a newly purchased rocking chair with the egg cradled in his lap. She grunted out a confirmation which caused the fighting type to sigh and set the egg down safely on the floor before doing as told. By now, he had lived with her long enough to have memorized what needed to go where and had the bags emptied in no time. He then reclaimed the egg and sat down in his own bed next to her.
"Hey." Lillia turned her head to meet his to initiate a conversation. She had a few things she needed to talk to him about. "Can we talk for a bit?"
"About w-what?"
"About you." He nodded, telling the psychic to continue. "What's our plan? I thought we'd be out of the village by now and heading to Haronfield, but we're stuck inside watching over this thing." She motioned to the object in his possession. "You seemed to have completely forgotten our initial plan." He winced, seemingly expecting something along those lines to be asked. He thought over her question for a moment before responding.
"I'm n-not too sure what to d-do myself. I-It's not like I w-wanted to just up and abandon what we originally wanted to do, but we can't just leave them here to die. No one can watch him except for us." He sighed, placed the egg to his side, laid down to stare at the roof, and continued. "L-Leaving Drizzle is s-still a priority f-for me. I'd just feel g-guilty is something w-were to happen to them while we were gone."
"Do you remember that Vivian said she wanted to have a talk with us at our earlier convenience?" The Mienfoo nodded. "Well, how about we visit her tomorrow and see what she wants? If she needs us to go somewhere, she'll have to watch the egg for us. If it is as important as she says it was, she shouldn't be able to turn it down. We'll be tackling two problems with one stone." He thought over her offer for a good long while as she spoke. A part of her was worried he had become too attached to the egg to hand it off at this point and didn't want to leave. Thankfully that wasn't the case.
"O-Okay. Let's m-meet up with her tomorrow." A nod affirmed his choice and Lillia grinned.
"Perfect. Oh! There was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about." His head tilted to the side. "I was thinking of giving you a name while we search for your memories. At least until we learn what your old one was." His ears perked and his eyes lit up.
"Really? D-Did you have anything in mind?" Lillia's eyes noticed a bit of movement down below and stifled a giggle as his tail began wagging.
"I had a few options, yeah. Though the one I had come up the most was Slate." He seemed confused at the usual name, causing her to elaborate a little. "Because your memory is like a blank slate right now...It sounded better in my head, alright? I can think of a new one if you want."
"No, no, no. I-I like it a lot. At the v-very least, it's b-better than nothing." He gave her a toothy grin to reaffirm his excitement of actually being named something and she thankfully seemed to calm down a bit.
"Slate it is then. I know it's probably nothing like your old one, but I hope it suffices for now."
"It's more than enough." The two didn't exchange anymore words for the time being and just enjoyed some quiet time. A few silent minute went by and a thought popped into Slate's head to make him want to strike up another conversation. "By the way," She glanced at him. "I d-don't want to sound rude or anything, b-but you haven't b-been all that... I don't k-know how to say it...concerned or anything about D-Drizzle being attacked." The feline raised a brow. "L-Like with all the ones who p-passed away. You don't s-seem too scared? Or nervous a-about another attack or anything l-like that." Lillia finally huffed and gave him a look he couldn't quite pin down. Anger? Annoyance? He couldn't quite tell. Though, her response didn't quite match up with those feelings.
"I've lived here for a long time. Moved in with my dad after he and my mom got into an argument and got divorced." He wanted to say something, but she continued, now leaned up. "He was an explorer, a part of the same guild in the village, actually. He was also...my entire world. I loved him more than anything." A smile crept onto her features." The look in his eyes when I did something to make him proud, it gave me the confidence to move mountains. Since I didn't have any friends growing up, I mostly kept to myself and after I finished school, I went straight home and sat in the living room with my thoughts until he came back. Every day he had a story of some grand adventure he had gone on." The look of happiness slowly shifted into a grimace. "One day...he never came back. To this day, I still don't know what happened to him. The guild doesn't even know. I cried for days, didn't even go to school. I was around twelve at the time so I was at least knowledgeable about things like keeping food on my plate and such. I let it eat me up for months. After around four months, I finally pulled myself together and started training. Training to get into the guild he was in. When I finally got accepted for their student program, I was so happy. I realized that I shouldn't let someone's death or disappearance get to me. Nowadays you could tell me all my friends died and I wouldn't even flinch." She let out a dry chuckle, though avoiding eye contact with the concerned Mienfoo sitting next to her. "It's not that I don't care of course. It's just that I'm quick to move on with this sort of thing. If I spend too much time worrying about it, I'll be vulnerable and unable to prepare myself in case it does really happen again. Plus...I want to help you. If I worry about this too much I might not be able to get you to where you may need to be."
"I...s-suppose that makes sense." He stayed quiet for a bit before continuing. "I'm sorry for what happened." She waved it off.
"I'm over it already, but thanks anyway." A smile returned back onto her face.
"One more thing, before I forget. Can you explain a Mystery Dungeon to me? I don't really remember much about them."
"Of course. The best way I can explain them is as areas that seemingly pop out of thin air or distort large places to make them these sort of twisted and complicated labyrinths. Every time someone goes in there it seemingly changes its layout, making every Pokémon's experience different from the last. Some can have a cakewalk of a time or an absurd challenge. Though some Mystery Dungeons are notoriously challenging no matter what. Gloomy Woods, the forest that surrounds Drizzle, is one of the hardest known dungeons. Which is why we'll be leaving using Tropius Airlines. I doubt either of us could make it through there." Slate shivered.
"Is that w-why that Sabeleye a-attacked us?"
"Yep. That lake just happens to be on the cusp of the Gloomy Woods entrance. Some Pokémon are known to wander a good distance away from their respective dungeons and we do occasionally deal with savage Pokémon attacks. While we're on that topic, I might as well give you a rundown on the different classes of Pokémon as well." He nodded. "There's civilized Pokémon like you and I. We live under roofs and have an economy and things like that. There's wild Pokémon, those that live out in the wild, shocker, and aren't all too dangerous. Though there are aggressive species out there so you should always be on your guard outside dungeons and towns. Finally, there's feral Pokémon. They're the ones that live in mystery dungeons and are the worst of the bunch. Those who live inside mystery dungeons and have their brains contorted and rot from the sort of weird energy that seems to power them. They attack almost anything that breathes and will not hesitate to kill you. Though I think I should mention that it is impossible to die at the paws of one. If a feral "kills you," the dungeon seems to magically warp you to it's entrance, not without stealing some of your belongings of course." The feline shook her head. Mystery Dungeons are strange things, there's a lot we don't know about them, but I hope that'll suffice you for now." Slate nodded, confirming that was quite a hefty amount of information. "So, about the egg, are we taking it with us or leaving it here when we meet Vivian?"
"B-Bringing them with us. "Still n-not comfortable w-with them being in the house alone."
"Cool. I'm going to find the dragon duo of dumb dumbs and catch them up on our plan. Don't want them freaking out over us disappearing from the village so suddenly. See you in a bit." Lillia grabbed her satchel and walked out the door, leaving the newly named fighting type alone to collect his thoughts. He certainly did just that as his hands moved over to his face and let out a loud groan.
Four nights. Four nights in a row he had been haunted by those damned dreams. Each one of them is even more confusing than the last. That voice he heard got more and more impossible to hear the more he dreamt like it was taunting him. Then there were the flashes of something he saw afterwards. He couldn't make out what was happening in those either, all he could make out was some bits of silver and red, but that's it. Slate couldn't tell if was going batshit insane or what, but these dreams were driving him nuts. It didn't help that he felt as if they were giving him some sort of deja vu.
The fighting type shivered and lightly smacked his dome a few times, not wanting to get caught up in those specific thoughts again. Instead, he looked back to a useful source of comfort, the egg, and picked it up off the ground. He then wandered back over to the rocking chair and began swaying himself and the egg back and forth. A motion that quickly managed to lull the carrier asleep with the egg firmly in his paws.
Lillia returned inside the house a few minutes later and smiled warmly at his sleeping figure. She gently took the egg away from him, worried it would drop, and set it down between their beds before resting herself in her own bed and falling asleep.
The two stared down the door to Vivian's home, both slightly nervous. Neither of them could guess what she wanted from them. Lillia was about to knock on the door when she noticed Slate quivering ever so slightly beside her. She raised a brow at him.
"You good, dude?" He jumped.
"Y-Yeah! She j-just c-creeps me out a b-bit."
"Yeah, she is a pretty imposing Pokémon. Ironic since their species is pretty passive, but she isn't going to kill you or anything." Slate huffed.
"I know, I-I know. Let's just g-get this over w-with." The cat nodded and gave the door a few firm knocks. It was quickly answered and swung open by the swan herself with a pleasant look across her face.
"Ah! Here I was, beginning to think I needed to hunt the both of you down." Lillia rubbed the back of her head.
"Sorry about that. We got held up with all the village stuff and we had this egg to look after so we had to buy a lot of stuff for it." She sighed. "We've just been generally busy all around."
"Don't worry dear, I get it. Everyone has been pretty up and down the village recently, but enough about that. Come! We have much to discuss." The bird swiftly scooted out of the doorway to let the two smaller Pokémon in. Lillia gawked at the interior. She knew Vivian's house was larger than the rest, but she didn't imagine it would be this big. It looked way bigger on the inside. Unlike her own abode, she had multiple different rooms, each filled to the brim with décor of her and Kyle, family, and fine china and unlike the home the pair of dragons reside in, these rooms were about double in size. The swan took the lead and led the duo to her kitchen table where she offered them to sit. Once they were comfortable, Vivian took a seat across from them and cleared her throat.
"Now, why don't we get right to the chase? If you two believe me or not, we cannot take any chances. I need you two to travel to Driptide Village and look for an individual named Kaoko. He's an elderly Carracosta who has seen many humans come and go. He knows more humans than most Pokémon I know. If anyone would be able to tell if yours is a similar situation or not, it's him. You'll learn how to get back to your own world from there."
"Driptide?" Lillia piped up. "Isn't that the one village all the way south of here? That's like a three day flight! They don't even have a Tropius Airliner so we wouldn't even be able to land there. We'd have to land at Portrus and walk for another two days!"
"I'm aware of the travel situation, but I implore you. It will be well worth your time and the information he should be able to give you is invaluable." Vivian looked over to Slate, who hadn't said a word yet and leaned forward to meet his eyes with her own. "What do you think?"
"I-I d-don't know...I g-guess?" Vivian smiled.
"Wonderful!" She clapped her large wings together. "Another thing I suppose I should mention is why I needed to pull you aside, yes?" Lillia nodded. She had planned to ask that anyway. "Well, sorry for being so secretive, but I've been worried about the folks ever since the attack and have been trying to keep the whole situation regarding our amnesiac pal over here under wraps. I don't need these poor Pokémon to stress out about anymore things for the time being. They thankfully seem to have forgotten about your predicament, so that's one problem of our list." She chuckled. "One more thing." She turned her attention to Slate once more. "Have any memories of yours returned by any chance?" He shook his head. "I see. That's a shame. Well, I wish you luck on your endeavors. Report back to me as soon as you can."
"Wait, we have a question to ask you ourselves." Lillia explained. Vivian's eyes met hers.
"Oh? Fire away."
"Do you think you can watch the egg for us? We haven't been able to find anyone willing to look out for it for us and we certainly aren't bringing it with us."
"Is that all? Of course I'll watch after the little one. I've watched a good amount of children in my day. Hand them over." She extended a wing towards the Mienfoo with an excited smile on her beak. He placed it among her feathers and she quickly took it away. "Now then. Good luck and be careful!"
"We will. Come on, Slate."
He nodded and followed her out, giving a weak wave to the bird. She waved back at him, although a little confused about the name. Once outside and a good distance away from her house. Lillia abruptly stopped and whipped around to face her friend.
"What do you think? Should we go to Haronfield?" He raised a brow at her.
"W-What?"
"Do you really want to waste time going to Driptide? That will take ages to get to and I don't think we'd get any actual useful information from that turtle guy."
"You t-think I'm not a human?" Lillia chuckled.
"Of course. I don't believe I ever said I did." Slate looked away and rubbed his sleeved arm.
"You l-looked like you d-did that day." She thought back to a few days ago. Vivian had warned them of some evil force was bound to show up due to Slate's pure existence. While she did somewhat believe her because of all the crazed Pokémon running about, warning others about the apparent end of times, it seemed a little far-fetched that he was a human. After all, every other. every instance of a human turning into a Pokémon distinctly had them say that they were indeed a human. Slate had been nonstop trying to convince Vivian that he wasn't one. That directly contradicts every single human that has become a Pokémon and debunking Vivian's theory.
"I can't lie and say that it isn't a stressful situation with the apparent end of the world those Pokémon always go on about, but I believe you, no matter what you think. So, if you don't want to waste time with Vivian's little side quest, we can just head straight for Haronfield and begin our search for your origins there." After a good chunk of silence had passed between the two, he faced her, smiled, and nodded.
"O-Okay, let's do it."
She matched his enthusiasm with a confident smile of her own and began leading the way to Tropius Airlines. Once there, Lillia had paid the receptionist a large sum of coin and was led to a room to wait for their ride to be ready. Once he sat down and actually thought about what he'd be doing, reality finally kicked in for the poor fighting type. It became hard for Lillia to not notice the trembling mass of fur next to her.
"What's wrong?"
"I-I-I'm really a-afraid o-of heights."
"Oh...oooooh. Uh, ok. Don't worry, Tropius are incredibly calm fliers. Once we're in the air, we'll simply glide slowly towards our destination with little to no turbulence. All you have to do, when we board, is grab on to the best thing you can grip, clothes your eyes, and wait for us to land. You'll feel much better." He seemed to trust what she was saying and calmed down a bit. Didn't stop him from shaking nonstop until their names were called, however. They were led out the back door by a Cramorant and onto the landing pad, where a Tropius was patiently waiting for his tiny passengers. He saw them approaching and flashed a big, toothy grin at them.
"Welcome!" He politely greeted. "I trust that you two have all the belongings you need before we take off?" Lillia did a quick check through her satchel before giving the giant a thumbs up. Slate did the same only with noticeably less moxie. "Nervous flier?"
"Y-Y-Yeah."
"Fear not. In all my years of flying I've only crashed eight times and lost five passengers." The flying type burst into laughter as the poor Mienfoo went pale and almost passed out. "I'm kidding, of course. I've never screwed anything up in my years." He leaned in close to the two. "Just don't ask the Mrs." Another fit of laughter boomed from him. The pair awkwardly waited for him to finish up and lower of his leaf wings for them to climb onto his back with.
"Great." Lillia thought. "We get the funny pilot."
The feline got comfortable on the back of the Tropius and waited in vain for her partner to do the same. She could feel him shaking the entire Tropius with the level of trembling emitting from him.
"Hey, remember what I told you. Just grab onto something and close your eyes. It'll be over before you know it." He nodded and quickly looked around for the nearest leaf appendage to snatch up and grab, his claws digging into it as he pulled.
"Ouch! Take it easy back there you two."
"S-Sorry." Slate's grip loosened as the Tropius turned around.
"Are you two set for take off?" Lillia nodded and was once again mirrored by a less enthusiastic one behind her. Within seconds, his wings began to flap and they were climbing in altitude. Slate's eyes had already been slammed shut the second his wings began moving, but that wasn't exactly helping as the wind impacted his snout.
"L-Lillia!" He shouted at her through what he thought to be the roaring wind. In reality, they weren't moving all that fast and Lillia enjoyed the gentle breeze, but she turned around anyway.
"Yeah?"
"I-It's not w-working!"
"What isn't?
"Holding onto s-something!"
"Oh! Well, hold onto something else. Preferably something that's easier for you to grip onto." She turned back around and was ready to relax again until, to her surprise, a pair of big, sleeved arms wrapped around her torso. Her head whipped around and she was greeted with a somewhat amusing sight of Slate with his eyes clenched shut and staring straight down. It didn't stop her face from heating up a bit. She faced forward again and glared at the smug Tropius face staring at her. She grabbed a berry from her satchel and psychically bonked him on the forehead with it. He chuckled and turned back around to fly.
"...Is that better?" She asked him.
"Much," Lillia sighed and stared at the back of the Tropius's head.
"This is going to be a long flight."
Author's Note: Apologies for the shorter chapter this time around. It was for the sake of the shorter release date I swear. Besides, the two needed a smaller and light hearted things to deal with this time around. As always, reviews are appreciated blah blah blah. I don't own Pokémon and stuff like that and I hope you enjoyed. :)
