.16
~\({O})/~
5.
Monster of The Mines
~\({O})/~
Abandoned Drilbur Mines
~Espurr~
The other side of the mine shaft led to a steep hill that made Espurr and Tricky trip and tumble, sending them falling further down, down—
Espurr shut her eyes tight, refusing to scream loudly like Tricky was. She tried her best to roll herself into a ball, protecting her face and her injured arm so they weren't damaged on the way down.
It wasn't enough. The sudden riiip of her cast as it tore off flew by her ears; she had to open her eyes then. It was hanging on a sharp rock she'd just barely missed spearing herself on.
The whoosh of the air by her ears suddenly disappeared, leaving behind something damp and stale as the two students tumbled to a stop at the bottom of the slope. Once everything had gone still, Espurr dared to take a shaky breath and uncurl herself. The air smelled stale and faintly like something dead—the telltale scent of a mystery dungeon. She was beginning to realize they all smelled like that.
"Did we make it?" she asked. There was a shake in her voice she couldn't quite kick.
"You can open your eyes now."
Espurr realized her eyes were still shut tight. The second she opened them, she was greeted with Tricky's snout right in her face. She almost fell over again. Her arm dully ached, free from the cast. Espurr tried not to move it.
She looked around them. If the tunnels of the mine above had been dark, they were nothing compared to the caverns of the mystery dungeon below.
Not that the mystery dungeon was dark. It glowed with the light of all the crystals anymon could ever wish for. Green and blue and pure white gemstones shone along the walls and roofs, glowing dimly and giving the corridors a soft, ethereal glow. Tricky had sparkles in her eyes at the sight of all the jewels.
"Wow wow wow!" she exclaimed. "Look at all these gems! And in a mystery dungeon, too! Who would be stupid enough to board this off?"
"There's no red." Espurr said.
"Hmm?" Tricky turned around, barely keeping her excitement below a threshold safe enough to display in the dungeon.
"Pancham sent us for red gems," Espurr pointed out, staring up at the sparkling jewels on the cavern roof. "Well, there aren't any. Not anywhere."
It was true. The light from the crystals cast a variety of colors upon Tricky and Espurr's coats, from blue to green to sparkling white… but no red. No red anywhere. Not even down the hall.
"Well…" Tricky's voice faltered for a moment, but she regained her composure and shrugged immediately after. "…Maybe we need to go to the bottom of the dungeon for the red ones! I bet those drilbur were just silly cowards who were too scared to mine in a dungeon." With that, she began to trot off with her tail high cheerfully. Espurr wished she could mimic that cheerfulness right about now.
She studied the crystals on the wall as they went. From what she had seen of the drilbur, Tricky's explanation mostly checked out. They definitely were cowardly. But she noticed the unnatural, jagged gaps on the walls as they walked too, like there had been a crystal there and then somemon had torn it out. Maybe it was thieves… but nothing had been stolen in the village, and the drilbur probably would have toughened up by now if they were being stolen from all the time—
"Espurr, watch out!"
Tricky's voice shot over from Espurr's left, and she barely had time to react before a brilliant orange ember flashed through the crystals, blinding her and a geodude.
The geodude wasted no time getting back to its feet… hands, and skittered straight for Espurr like a spider. Just the movement was spine-chilling, and it was fast. Espurr gasped, green fear grasping her eyesight, and quickly backed herself up against the crystal wall as the Geodude scurried towards her. She had to think quickly. She had to do something. She had to—
The pokemon let out a snarl as it closed the distance. Espurr ducked at the last second, then kicked the geodude's hand out from under it and scampered a good distance away on three paws before it could grab her. The geodude slammed face-first into one of the crystals on the wall, landing in a daze; one of Tricky's embers a second later missed but dealt a finishing blow to the blue rock. It shattered into tiny pieces, expelling shimmering white dust everywhere. A large piece landed on the geodude, shattering into dust knocking it out.
The whole thing had happened in seconds. Espurr watched in silent, wide-eyed terror as the geodude's body degraded before her eyes, collapsing into a pile of dust on the dungeon floor. What had just happened? Had they… killed it? Was this what happened to pokemon when they died?
Trying hard not to think about it, she focused on her movements, trying to shake the sparkling dust from her fur as she pulled herself up and hurried back to Tricky, back to some kind of safety. When she looked back, the dust was suddenly gone.
Tricky looked excited, her mouth hanging wide open, her tongue out, and her eyes bugging out of her head.
"Holy mystery dungeon…" the fennekin breathed as Espurr stumbled over, clutching her bad arm. "…we fought a dungeon 'mon! And WON! This is amazing!"
"Did… did we kill it?" was all a frazzled Espurr managed to ask. "It just… crumbled."
"That's 'cause it's not real," Tricky said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"It looked real to me…" Espurr protested. She was pleading with life at this point – if anything would start making sense right about now, she'd gladly take it.
"Well, it's not! The dungeon just makes those, no-mon knows why. But we beat one!"
That worked.
She stared down the corridor the geodude had come from as they walked away, not catching a single other 'mon amongst the jagged pathway. What kind of place made up pokemon just to attack whatever was inside it? Watchog hadn't covered that in Dungeon Class yet.
Watchog… Espurr wilted at the punishment that was waiting for them above ground. Then she looked at where the sparkling dust from the gemstones still littered the floor, and at Tricky, who was still celebrating.
"Umm, about that…" Espurr began. If they encountered more… she had a few ideas.
~\({O})/~
"Stop that! It tickles!"
"Sorry… I'm still trying to control it."
"You really are weird."
"What?"
"Aren't you psychic-types supposed to learn these things quickly or something?"
"No…" A careful lie, based on what made the most sense: "Not all of us. At least, not quickly."
An unbroken piece of gemstone swayed and bobbed in the air, prompting Tricky to hold in her laughter as it brushed the tip of her sparkling tail again. They hadn't been able to get the dust out of their coats, but they had gotten so much of it stuck to them that they glowed like walking gemstones themselves.
The apparitions, Tricky explained further, weren't real pokemon. They were created by the dungeon to fight off outsiders, like an immune system fighting disease. Did that mean dungeons were alive?
Several apparitions had attacked them on their way into the caverns. Espurr and Tricky together had come up with a strategy for beating them. Espurr would act as bait and lead them away, and Tricky would then leap out of hiding and collapse the nearest crystal with her ember. It wasn't foolproof, but it hadn't failed yet.
Tricky suddenly gasped and scampered ahead, leaving Espurr in the dust.
"Come on! I found the stairs!" she yelled, bounding into the distance. Espurr, with only one arm and still unsure on her feet, had to drop the crystal she was practicing on to focus on keeping up. Stupid clumsy feet…
Only then did the implications of Tricky's statement fully hit her: Mystery dungeons had stairs?
~\({O})/~
Mystery dungeons had stairs.
Perfectly level, pristine stairs, and Espurr couldn't even begin applying logic to that. Wouldn't they at least get dusty? Even as she walked down the steps, which just happened to be the perfect size for Espurr and Tricky, the smoothness of the stone compared to the rough floor of the dungeon baffled her. Did all dungeons have these?
"All dungeons have those," Tricky said dismissively. "Dunno why, don't really care." She shrugged, glancing around the cavern. "Hey, is it darker on this floor?"
It was. The cavern was just a little darker than the last one, and the crystals here glowed brighter in the growing darkness than they had before. And here there were red ones. They glittered in secluded spots amongst the many other colors, like a missing color added to a painting.
Espurr was about to say that it was, but then they both heard the distant skittering echoing through the cavern walls, the sound of approaching dungeon wildings.
"I hear more enemies coming," she said instead. "We should hide. It sounds like a lot."
Before Tricky could even open her mouth in response, several geodude skittered around the corner, rushing right past and around the two students like they weren't there. Espurr and Tricky shared a look of weirded-out puzzlement. Then the sandshrew rolled past. And the roggenrola clopped on by.
Tricky couldn't contain her snickers at the goofy way the retreating herd of dungeon wildlings was running off, but Espurr cast a look to the cavern up ahead. None of the apparitions before had ignored them… but maybe they were running from something else. Something like a larger dungeon pokemon.
And then she heard the distant stomping. And Espurr put it all together.
"Hide!" she suddenly yelped, pulling Tricky by her ear-fluff behind a large, teal-colored crystal jutting up out of the ground.
"Oww… Watch the ear-fluff!" Tricky complained once they were both safely hidden behind the crystal. "How would you like it if I pulled your ear?"
Espurr's ears briefly tingled, and something told her that would be a very bad idea.
The stomping slowly became louder. Both Espurr and Tricky could hear it clearly now, the sound of a heavy stomp and then the screech of claws being dragged across the floor.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Louder and louder. Espurr realized she was holding her breath. Her vision was tinting green with fear and she didn't know if it was from her or Tricky.
Then it stopped. Right by their hiding place.
An excruciating moment of silence passed. Espurr, barely daring to breath herself, could hear nothing but the creature's deep, raspy breaths. Then the sudden scraping of claws against gemstone came from the opposite wall. Espurr wrenched her eyes shut and locked up as a loud crack resounded through the cave unseen, followed by the metallic sound of brilliant, shimmering dust erupting into the air. The creature must've torn the stone right out of the wall!
It repeated several more times. First the scraping against the gemstone. Then the crack! of rock being torn from the cavern wall. Then the explosion of sparkles that erupted not a second later.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Only when the creature was several paces away from their hiding spot was Espurr brave enough to peek out at it. What she saw only made the green stronger: A monstrous gabite lumbered off, dragging its feet through the cavern like a zombie. Its head hung low, drooping down over its body, and in its arms were a collection of sparkling red gemstones. It was at least three times their height, if not more.
As the gabite stomped off the way that they had come, Espurr and Tricky slowly emerged from behind the crystal, stepping on the sea of sparkling gemstone-dust that now littered the floor. They could still hear the echoing thuds of the gabite's footsteps in the distance.
"What was that?" Tricky whimpered, much of her bravado suddenly lost.
Espurr just looked at the wall, where one of those jagged gaps from before remained. Now that the fear was slowly wearing off, something strange jumped out at her. It had torn gems out of the wall, but it had only taken the red ones. Why?
"Espurr!" Tricky yelped, her voice wavering with fear. Looking at her, Espurr could see that she was quivering, her tail and ears down. "What was that?"
"I think…" Espurr stared at the cavern behind, where they could still hear the dull thuds of footsteps. She racked her brain for an answer. She didn't like the answer. "I think that's the explorer who got lost down here. He matches the picture in the book. Remember?"
Tricky's ears couldn't have gone lower, her eyes were already saucers.
"Is that going to happen to us?" she whimpered, a frightened look on her face. Espurr didn't know how to answer it. She wasn't the dungeon expert. How was she supposed to know?
But Tricky was the most scared Espurr had ever seen her. The waves of green coming off her were so strong she couldn't even get too close without being overwhelmed. She couldn't let her go on like that.
"…Not if we move quickly," she said, settling on what seemed like the least scary answer. She hoped her tone matched. "Can we still go back up?"
She looked back towards the dark corridor, where to her dismay she could see nothing.
"Dungeons re-arrange themselves behind you," Tricky explained. Espurr could still hear the quake in her voice, but she was slowly calming down. "So the only way out is down…"
Another thing that didn't make any sense! How was travelling further down supposed to bring them back up to the surface? But Espurr had so many questions about dungeons at this point she was ready to just bump it on the list and move on. The situation right now was too urgent for questions anyway.
A distant roar from behind them and the agitated chitters of several apparitions sent them both tumbling in the opposite direction seconds later.
~\({O})/~
Espurr wasn't sure how long this dungeon went on for. They were on the third floor now, if she was counting right. There could be just one more left, or another six. The time after that was spent in silence, walking through the mazelike caverns in search of the next next floor down.
Tricky became quickly became peppier once the gabite was out of their sights, and her better headspace made Espurr's feel better too. The ache returned to her left arm as they traveled through the crystal-glows of blue and green and white. Or maybe it had never left, and she was just now noticing. Their pace was hurried and silent, which left her head clear to wander. One question kept coming back to her: Why had Gabite only taken the red ones? It didn't make sense. What was so special about the red ones?
Whatever it was, had Pancham known?
Too caught up in her thoughts, Espurr suddenly tripped. Falling on her good arm, she spun around, fearing a dungeon apparition had done it, but stopped once she realized she had actually tripped on an old, dusty leather bag.
"You okay?"
Tricky had stopped, looking back at Espurr as she untangled her feet from the bag's straps. It took her one clumsy paw much longer than it should have.
She was hurting in quite a few places, actually.
"It just tripped me," she said, finally kicking the bag straps off her feet and getting up. "What's it doing sitting around here?"
At this point, if Tricky told her bags just naturally popped up in dungeons, she would have accepted it without a beat.
"Maybe somemon left it here…" Tricky pondered, tail swishing. "We should open it!"
The bag didn't hold anything interesting. It was already wide open, and only several dried-up berries and ancient pieces of rescue equipment met their eyes. But beyond the bag, in a dark, forgotten cavern of the corner, Espurr spotted something strange. It looked like…
Crawling over, she picked it up off the floor. It was an old, tattered journal covered in cavern must and glitter dust. Maybe it was from the bag. Had it been dropped here… ?
Only, she couldn't read what was on it.
"What's that?" Tricky asked. "Does it belong to Gabite?"
Espurr handed the notebook to Tricky.
"See for yourself," she told the fennekin. "I can't read."
Tricky took the notebook from Espurr's paw and spat it out on the floor, twitching her nose at the cloud of dust that erupted from page one.
"Entry #1, 2/11/10993," she read. "Wow… This was a long time ago,"
"New journal. I'm investigating a new dungeon that's just popped up in the area at the request of a small little village nearby," Tricky continued, reading off the page. "It's in the middle of a mine-shaft, and I have to perform a routine dungeon patrol before the place can be declared a class A dungeon, or off-limits. As I write this, I'm setting up camp in the dungeon. The place was filled with valuable gemstones, and I got too caught up trying to pick some for my bag. I wager the red ones will go for more than they're worth. It's not recommended to camp out in a mystery dungeon, but if it's a class A dungeon like I suspect, then I should be fine."
"Signed, Gabite the Explorer," Tricky finished. Both Tricky and Espurr shared a look.
"He camped out in a dungeon?" Espurr asked.
"Seems that way..." Tricky glanced around the cavern. "But I don't see any camping supplies…"
"Maybe there's more on page two."
Tricky flipped to page two with her snout, quickly turning her snout away to avoid the dust that fluttered off the papers.
"Entry #2, 2/12/10993. I was wrong. The dungeon is stronger than I thought. Already it's beginning to attack me; I didn't even get an hour's rest. Class A dungeons don't have the apparitions, and normal Class B's aren't this aggressive so quickly. How could a new dungeon have gotten so powerful so fast?
Another flip of the page.
"Entry #2, 2/12/10993 (continued). I've been in this dungeon for far too long already. You can't tell time down here, but I estimate an entire day has passed in the dungeon since I entered. Outside, who knows. For a dungeon this powerful… that's bad news. Already, the fog is surrounding me. The apparitions have backed off, but I can feel something else approaching. It's whispering to me. It's in my head. I've wasted so much time gemstone hunting, and now I'm paying the price. The best thing I can do is write this all down, and hope I escape before
Tricky suddenly stopped.
"What's next?" Espurr asked urgently.
"Nothing!" Tricky exclaimed. "It's just blank." She flipped the page again, but found that one blank too. She flipped to page four. And then leafed through the notebook clumsily.
"This was his last entry, wasn't it?" Espurr said. He'd only gotten to make three. What had happened?
Tricky suddenly gasped. Seconds later, Espurr saw why: the back half of the journal was completely tattered, torn to pieces by several large claw marks. Claw marks large enough to belong to…
The cavern fell silent. Espurr and Tricky just stared at it uncomfortably.
"I'm just gonna put it in the bag," Tricky said shakily. She picked the book up with her mouth, grimacing and then spitting it back into the bag's flaps. Immediately afterwards she spat, cleaning her tongue with her paws.
"It even tastes old…" she complained.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
In the distance. Both Espurr and Tricky looked to the cavern behind them, eyes widening.
"It found us."
Tricky sprung to her feet at Espurr's comment, bounding further into the dungeon all on her own. Espurr quickly tried to work the bag over her shoulder with just the use of one arm. She couldn't just leave it behind! It was just small enough for her to carry, but she had to get it over her head first.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Espurr spared a glance back towards the cavern from which the beast was quickly approaching. She could even see its shadow from the gemstone light on the wall now, stomping along the cavern like a body possessed. She needed to get out of here! If only she could…
"Espurr, come on!" Tricky's terrified voice echoed through the cavern after her. "You're gonna get caught!"
Torn between the bag and the monster, Espurr did what seemed like the best option at the time—She balanced the straps of the bag over her head, quickly turning tail and running for the other cavern before Gabite could see them. She could have sworn it caught a glimpse of her, but then she was panting for breath against the same crystal Tricky had hidden behind, the bag still swinging awkwardly from her head. Espurr carefully tilted it to the left, nudging the strap in the right direction—
—It fell painfully on her left shoulder, sending bounces of pain through her broken arm. Espurr barely managed to contain her expression of displeasure to a mere hiss of pain.
"You took the bag with you?!" Tricky exclaimed in a hushed voice.
"It could be useful," Espurr argued back. "Besides, we need to show the drilbur once we get out of here. Somemon needs to know about this!"
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
"You could have been caught!" Tricky hissed. Espurr could hear how much the green fear had gotten to her in her voice. "What if it got you?! You'd— You'd—"
Tricky went silent. Her ears drooped, and Espurr felt the corners of that overwhelming blue cloud flare up around her mind once more. She had to move back from Tricky just to cope.
"I don't want it to happen again…" Espurr heard her whisper. But as quickly as the blue cloud of negativity came, it disappeared, like it had been covered up. Morbid curiosity invaded her despite herself, despite the situation. What did that mean?
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
"We can't let it get ahead of us," she said to Tricky, snapping back to business mode. She kind of had to. "Or we'll be trapped behind it in the dungeon."
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
"Well, then let's get ahead of it!" Tricky said. She took off, frantically glancing back at Espurr as she tried to clumsily follow.
"Come on!" she yelled back, but she was just so much faster. Espurr couldn't keep up, especially not with the bag weighing her down.
Screeech.
Suddenly the thudding stopped. Espurr had to keep moving, she knew that, but something had changed. There was a numbing presence she could feel but not explain, like a sixth sense telling her something was right behind—
Suddenly, a piercing roar shook the cavern behind her. It was a lot closer than she'd thought. Espurr shot a glance back, and saw to her horror that Gabite had already made it around the bend!
"It's coming for you!" Tricky hollered from ahead. She was prancing anxiously between her paws now, her eyes wide open with fear. Espurr just had to keep moving. As slow as she was, she was still running. She could close the gap!
Then Gabite broke out into a run. Stomp stomp stomp. Espurr yelped and quickened her pace, for what little good it did her. She wasn't fast enough!
Gabite charged forward, and in her panic, Espurr tripped. She hit the ground hard. It was all over, she couldn't get up or even move fast enough! All she could see was the gabite sliding to a stop, raising a single, blade-like arm, and preparing to bring it down—
A single ember flew through the air, reflecting off the gemstones and blinding both Espurr and the gabite. With a squeal it staggered backwards, and Espurr felt Tricky chomp down on her arm, physically dragging her away
"Why diph phou phop?" Tricky asked frantically through her mouthful of Espurr's arm. "I can phee the phtairs from here!"
And as a dragged-along Espurr staggered to her feet, she saw it was true—at the end of the corridor lay the perfect, out of place stairs that would lead them to the next floor. They were paces from escape!
Gabite snarled, nearly recovered. The sound sent both Espurr and Tricky running faster, and by the time Gabite was able to properly open its eyes again, they were already out of sight.
The roars of the zombie pokemon raged through the cavern as Espurr and Tricky rushed down the dungeon stairs. Espurr glanced back at the stairway as she ran. It was going to close up, right?
"What are you doing?!" Tricky cried out in terror.
"The stairs—" Espurr began.
"—They don't move if somemon's watching them, you ignoramus!" Tricky screeched, rushing back and practically bulldozing the poor feline down the cavern hall.
Faster than anything she'd done in this dungeon, Espurr turned her head away. She heard Gabite's terrible roar, and a single thud against stone, but then the light suddenly cut out. Gabite's roars became muffled, then disappeared altogether. Only silence remained.
Tricky stopped when she realized they could no longer hear Gabite's enraged roars.
"Did… Did we make it?" she asked, catching her breath and giving Espurr a chance to break free from the fennekin's grasp. Espurr looked back to the cavern they'd come from, now shrouded in darkness.
"I can't tell…" she responded, nearly too jittery to talk. "It's too dark."
"Well, I can't hear him." Tricky's voice also had some jitter. She shook herself off, the sparkling dust in her coat sending glimmers of light that reflected off the crystals and cast a dim glow around the cavern. Espurr noticed the red hue a few of the gems took. Could it be?
Quickly, she went ahead, shuffling her fur as she went to illuminate the gemstones around her. They weren't in a narrow hall shrouded by rock and crystal anymore. The cavern was wide and unfettered by obstacles. It was almost as large as the entire school classroom, and in the middle of the cave sat the largest mountain of red gemstones Espurr had ever seen.
As she stood there, wide-eyed, Tricky trotted up, looking around the cavern with amazement.
"Wow…" she began, the stars invading her eyes again. "Remind me why I wanted to leave again? This is amazing!"
"Let's just grab some of the crystals and go home." Espurr didn't fancy the idea of staying in the cavern any longer than necessary. As enthralled by the place as Tricky seemed to be, even she didn't contest the idea, and the two set out to work picking a few of the better gems.
Espurr opened the bag she had slung over her shoulder the best she could with her working arm, allowing Tricky to dump the stones into it. The bag felt heavier now, digging into her shoulder, and adjusting it was painful on her bad arm.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Faint, in the distance. Espurr glanced at the shadows from behind, writing it off as her imagination. The stairs to this floor were sealed. There was no way for the gabite to get back here before they left the dungeon... Right?
"I see some light!" Tricky announced, looking ahead. Walking around the massive pile of gems, Espurr did indeed see a source of light in the distance. It wasn't daylight, but it wasn't crystal light either. Maybe it was the way out!
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Faster. This time, Tricky heard it too. It echoed around the cavern, making it impossible to tell where the sound had come from. Both Espurr and Tricky hurriedly turned towards the underground hallway they had come from.
But when the gabite attacked, it wasn't from the front. The only warning the two students had was the sudden sound of footsteps from the left—
—Stomp-Stomp-Stomp—
"No fair!" Tricky whined, just before they both jumped out of the way of the charging gabite. The monstrous pokemon spun around, digging a blade into the ground as it slid to bank the turn, then bellowed loudly at Espurr and Tricky. Tricky let out a squeak of fear, and quickly tried to blend in with the red of the gemstones. Espurr wasn't fast enough to follow her. Which meant…
She was the target! Enraged, Gabite began to charge after Espurr. She ran as fast as she could on her clumsy tiptoe feet, which wasn't very fast at all. An arm-blade slashed the ground right next to her, missing her by inches. Espurr yelped and jumped to the side. That was what saved her. She landed against the gemstone pile, the too-large gabite propelled past her by sheer bulk.
It would only buy her seconds.
Before Gabite could turn around and come back for her, Espurr quickly hopped the other way, stumbling over gemstones as she dove into the gemstone crater Tricky was currently huddled up in. Gabite roared as it dashed past, unaware that the pokemon it was pursuing had hidden.
"Tricky!" Espurr prodded the cowering fox with her good arm.
"I… I can't…" Tricky shuddered, covering her eyes with her paws. "I can't beat that thing…"
"But we don't have to beat it!" Espurr pointed out. "The exit's right there, we can just leave!"
That made Tricky perk up a little, as she realized the obvious. "But…" she stammered.
Gabite suddenly slid to a stop in front of the gemstone crater. It let out a deafening roar at the two pokemon, preparing to strike them down with a clawed fin. That was it. Without thinking, Espurr grabbed a big fat gemstone, and with narrowed eyes hurled it straight in Gabite's face. It exploded into shards of sparkling dust, knocking Gabite's head back with a grunt.
Gabite stopped for a few seconds, trying to process what had just happened. Silence settled in the room. Neither Espurr nor Tricky dared to move, staring up at it with wide eyes. It remained still for a few seconds more. Then, slowly, its face pulled back into a snarl, and as that snarl became sound, it brought its sharp fin down upon Espurr's head—
—A flaming ember whooshed past Espurr's ears. It hit Gabite square between the eyes, and its blade slashed into the nearby red crystals instead of Espurr's skull. Having destroyed some of its treasure enraged the blinded Gabite even more, and it began to unleash all fury upon where it thought Espurr and Tricky were. Espurr suddenly felt Tricky chomp down upon her right arm, and she was pulled out of the way of an attack that probably would have felt less painful than her arm did. She looked into Tricky's eyes and saw nothing but fire as she was dragged a safe distance away from Gabite's temper tantrum.
"Don't ever do that again!" She spat. "I thought you were… going to…"
The fennekin took several deep breaths. Espurr's vision suddenly exploded with blue, so bad she couldn't even see. She had to move several feet away from Tricky just to keep her head.
Gabite hadn't noticed them yet. It was still busy destroying upon its treasure. Every new gem exploding into dust was met with another thunderous roar, and eventually it gave up with the slashing and swiping and just charged headfirst into the pile. Espurr watched the mountain of gemstones sway dangerously. And then she put two and two together. Maybe she could…
Espurr focused on a single gemstone, located on the bottom of the pile. She focused on it, trying to pull it with her mind.
Her heart skipped a beat as she suddenly saw the gemstone move a little. But it wasn't coming out any further. It was too heavy. Espurr couldn't free it on her own.
Gabite sniffed the air, its sight finally returning once more. Its eyes fixed on Tricky and Espurr, and seconds later, so did its body. It let out a mighty roar once more, loping towards them with reckless abandon. Espurr poured all her concentration into one final psychic pull—
The gemstone soared free at the last second, whizzing through the air and knocking Gabite's right foot off its mark. Suddenly sent tumbling to its side, Gabite could only brace for impact as its body slammed against its massive pile of treasure. Espurr and Tricky watched in horror as the mountain of gemstones clinked, clattered, and then began to topple, burying Gabite under an avalanche of shiny red rocks.
The ear-piercing sound of gemstones exploding into dust filled the air for at least a minute, and their sight exploded with gemstone dust. But then the sounds slowly died away, and only silence was left. A few of the stones clinked as they settled, and the air was thick with gemstone dust.
"…Did we… ?" Tricky asked in a small voice, the fire gone from her eyes. "Did he…"
Espurr was sorry to say that she wasn't sure. And she didn't want to stick around to find out.
"Let's just… go," she managed to say with level tone.
"Yes, let's." Tricky hurriedly agreed.
~\({O})/~
Drilbur Mines
"I-is he still out there?" a drilbur asked, pacing about the mine crossroads uncomfortably. The light from the new torch illuminated many of the drilbur colony's similarly anxious faces.
"He's still pacing around the mine shaft," answered another, who had just crawled down from the other side of the tunnel. "We heard him grumbling about 'no-g-good-troublemakers'."
Many of the drilbur drooped their heads at the scout's report. A new torch had been set up, and the cavern was now a hidey-hole for the Drilbur of The Mines. They were faced with a dilemma above-ground, an angry pokemon who was sure to let them have it if they came back empty-clawed, and below ground…
The drilbur didn't speak of what was below ground. Those two kids weren't getting out alive.
"N-now what d-do we d-do?" One of them asked, the collective stutter beginning to return to their voices full-force.
"I supp-pose we c-could stay down h-here for the rest of-f our lives," Another drilbur proposed. It seemed like the colony was actively considering it.
Suddenly, there came a rumbling from deep inside the boarded-off mine shaft, and the very two children tumbled right out, both panting heavily and covered in sparkling dust. The Drilbur of The Mines were left agape.
There were several muffled shatters from within the bag Espurr was carrying. She wilted at the sound, realizing what those were. The gemstones… had everything they'd just gone through been for nothing?
"We… defeated… your… monster…" Tricky spat out between gasps.
"Y-y-you what?" A lone drilbur stammered. A few others, prone to drama, fainted on the spot. Espurr and Tricky both picked themselves up on shaky feet.
"Yeah. We beat your monster," Tricky repeated matter-of-factly. "Y'know… Gabite?"
Several gasps rang throughout the drilbur clan, amongst shocked whispers of 'It's true!'.
"H-how?" Another drilbur spoke up. "H-how did two children…?"
"It was crushed by all the gemstones," Espurr explained.
"G… G-gemstones?" The word seemed to catch many of the drilburs' interest. "W-what gemstones?"
"Y'knooow…" Tricky drew out her sentence promptingly. "The gemstones?"
One of the drilbur walked forward, picking up a few grains of the dust that had fallen from Espurr's fur in its claws.
"Emeras…" he quietly whispered to himself. "We s-struck emeras!" He yelled to the rest of the clan. There were cheers everywhere, as the mood in the cave suddenly went from overwhelmingly anxious to undeniably joyful.
"What's an emera?" Espurr asked Tricky.
"Beats me…" Tricky yawned, falling flat on her haunches. "I was asleep that day in class."
"H-how can w-we ever thank you?" The drilbur asked. Espurr perked up. She saw a perfect opportunity! Tricky opened her muzzle, probably to demand something silly, but Espurr spoke first.
"There is one thing…"
~\({O})/~
Drilbur Mineyard
The drilbur led them through the cavern, up towards the entrance that glowed with the light of late day. After so much time spent in darkness, Espurr had to shield her eyes with her good arm, but her heart leapt to see the daylight all the same. She didn't know she'd missed it so much.
"Troublemakers?!" she heard Watchog call out hopefully, his voice echoing through the mineshaft's walls. "Is that you?"
"It's us, Mr. Watchog!" Tricky bellowed out. Her voice was amplified by the corridor and made Espurr wince from the loudness. Her gut twisted at Watchog's voice. It had been a ride… but now they had to face the music.
"Finally decided to come back out, did you…" she heard him grumble. As they emerged from the mines, he loomed over them, his arms folded and his face twisted into an angry scowl. He blotted out the sun.
"Oh, you two are in a world of trouble," the Vice Principal sneered at the two of them, before noticing the bag on Espurr's shoulder.
"Where did you get that?" he snarled, roughly snatching the strap. Espurr was pulled forward, the movement jostling her bad arm.
She swallowed her pain and made eye contact with Watchog.
"It's my souvenir from the mines," she said carefully.
"Troublemakers…" Watchog seethed. "Don't get souvenirs."
"B-but they weren't t-t-troublemaking," One of the drilbur piped up.
"Yeah!" Tricky fired back. "We weren't troublemaking!"
Watchog couldn't contain himself. He let out a high-pitched chuckle of disbelief.
"You expect me to believe that?" he wheezed, coming down from his laughing trip. "You probably just bullied the drilbur into saying that."
"No-mon bullied us," The drilbur said, his voice suddenly losing all stutter. "Except you."
"You forced us underground!" Another piped up.
"Barged onto our property!"
"Kicked us out of our own mine-yard!"
"Bossed us around!"
Watchog's face contorted into several, increasingly exaggerated faces as he tried to process the mounting accusations against him.
"You can't give us orders!"
"You aren't fit to give orders!"
"ALRIGHT!" Watchog yelled, so loudly that Tricky's ears were flitting away from volume. He took a few deep breaths, then composed himself into something more appropriate for negotiation. "Why don't we just go home… and forget this all happened?"
"And you'll never come back?" The drilbur all collectively gave Watchog the stink-eye. Watchog opened his mouth a couple times in disbelief, but then thought better of it and nodded his head instead.
"And you'll take our word that these two haven't been up to any troublemaking today?" The stink eyes only seemed to get more intense, all directed his way. Tricky had a goofy grin plastered on her muzzle, and Espurr had to admit the positivity was contagious.
"They just helped us uncover a very large stash of unprocessed emeras today," one of the other Drilbur mentioned. "And you know how much money emeras are worth…"
Terrified, Watchog nodded his head ferociously.
"We'll just be going now," he said with a shaken voice, picking up his stuffed bag and shuffling off in an unusually uptight manner. Espurr and Tricky shared a look of triumphant disbelief, barely able to contain their grins, then quickly followed before they could try their luck. An angry Watchog was not a Watchog to test.
"Yeesh, I h-hated that 'mon…" Espurr heard the drilbur begin to gossip behind her.
"T-tell me about it. T-talk about h-high horsea…"
"Goomy!" Watchog snapped as they approached him. He was hiding from the sun under the shade of a large rock, and he looked quite exhausted. It must've been the heat. "Did you move from that spot?"
"N-no, Vice Principal," Goomy stammered out, his eyes shimmering with fear. Of course he had, but it wasn't like he was going to admit it, and Espurr certainly wasn't going to say anything. But to everymon's surprise, instead of pointing it out, Watchog just sighed heavily, gesturing for Goomy to follow as they continued onwards.
"At least somemon's on my side today…" he grumbled.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village
"So…" Pancham loudly began from his spot against one of the many buildings lining the Village Square as Espurr and Tricky walked towards him. Shelmet was next to him, and they both had annoyingly smug looks on their faces. "Did you get them?"
"You didn't tell us the mines had a monster in there!" Tricky yelled at him, then hurriedly checked to make sure Watchog was out of earshot first. Sure enough, the long, brown pokemon was moping his way home, far off in the sunset distance by now.
Pancham looked very caught off-guard. He nervously grinned and then quickly took Shelmet aside.
"What monster?" Espurr heard him whispering to Shelmet. "I didn't see a monster in there."
"Just roll with it," Shelmet whispered back. They then both turned back to Espurr and Tricky, the same exaggerated grins plastered on their face.
"We… we knew about the monster," Pancham said. "I was just testing you. Did you get the gems?" His voice was grating towards the end, like there was something he knew that they didn't. Espurr could already feel her gut churning with anger; she could tell where this was going.
"We tried," she began. "But they exploded into dust the moment we took them out of the dungeon." She showed them the dust in the bag for good measure. She was met with the downright mean laughter of Pancham and Shelmet. It just made her fur bristle more.
"You two are such dimwits!" Pancham gasped out between laughs. "We got you so bad!"
"Everymon knows you can't take emeras out of dungeons without processing them first!" Shelmet added, crying tears of laughter. Espurr's eyes narrowed, pink annoyance flickering at the corner of them, and Tricky was staring at them in hurt disbelief. Espurr saw the darkening look upon Tricky's face, the burgeoning cloud of red that was growing around her head. For both of them, she wasn't letting these two have the last laugh.
"Anyways," Espurr said, closing the strap on the bag with her good arm. "Thank you."
"What?!" Both Shelmet and Pancham ceased their laughter to look at Espurr in shock. Espurr sent them her best attempt at a smile.
"It was fun," she sweetly lied to their face. "I'm glad you sent us."
"You had… fun?" Shelmet gasped. "In a mystery dungeon?"
"More fun than picking berries would have been," Espurr replied.
By this point, Tricky had caught on. She blew a raspberry at Shelmet, before quickly nodding along with Espurr.
"Doesn't surprise me," Pancham said, folding his arms. "I always knew you were a freak. Just like your 'partner'. Now the whole village gets to know, too…" He blew his own raspberry at Tricky.
Tricky gasped. "You wouldn't!" she shot back at him, some steam puffing out of her ears. "You can't prove it!"
"Yeah," Pancham brushed Tricky off nonchalantly. "But who's the village gonna listen to? Me… or the local troublemakers? Untouchable, remember?" he sent Tricky a wink that made her look like she wanted to blast him onto the next continent. She growled at him, some more steam blowing from her ear fluff.
"And now, I must be off, ladies." he bid them goodbye in the most obnoxious tone possible, blowing them a kiss and then sauntering off. Shelmet blew a raspberry at Tricky before scampering after Pancham.
Tricky growled with anger, watching them stroll back to their house on the other side of the square.
"I hate them…" she snarled, her ears flat with rage.
"Maybe they'll leave us alone now," Espurr said.
"Pancham and Shelmet never leave us alone," Tricky muttered. "They're just dumb, rotten bullies."
"That you went along with," Espurr couldn't help but say. Some edge crept into her voice at the end. The whole reason any of this had happened was because of Tricky!
"Because the dungeon was really cool!" Tricky whined. "Besides, you did it too! And you had fun, didn't you? You said so yourself!"
"Tricky, I…" Espurr trailed off. Her words had really backfired. "I just wasn't giving them the last laugh."
"So… you didn't have any fun?" Tricky asked dejectedly, focusing intently on the ground she was pawing. Espurr dug down for an answer, and then realized she didn't have one Tricky would like. Except that they'd nearly died several times today and narrowly avoided another week of detention, and that was that.
"We almost died," she told Tricky. "And Vice Principal Watchog nearly kicked us into next week. We barely got out of it."
"But wasn't it fun, though?" Tricky pleaded.
And there was the hard part. Some of it had been fun.
"I… don't know," Espurr finally settled for. "I'm sorry."
"Oh."
They stood in silence for a moment. The silence lasted long. The silence was awkward. Espurr could feel the corners of blue negativity beginning to creep into her head from Tricky's direction again.
"I should probably get going," Tricky finally said, ending the quiet. "My Pops is gonna give me the lecture of the century if I don't get home before dark. Also if he finds out what happened today, so don't tell him."
Espurr couldn't imagine a world where she'd willingly tell anymon in charge about what had happened today.
Tricky waved goodbye with her swishy tail, and then ran off in the direction of her house. Espurr started down the forest path towards the school clinic, a dull pain in her arm reminding her she hadn't had a cast on it for the last four hours. She could still see the way it was slightly crooked, feel how it hurt whenever she moved.
The question hung in her mind and bothered her as she walked past the trees: Had she had fun? They'd nearly gotten killed. More than once. And they'd broken into a place they shouldn't have gone, and Vice Principal Watchog was going to have it out for them now for sure. But there was a rush that came from doing all that dangerous stuff, that made her feel more firm, more rebellious than before. Despite the bullying, and the danger, and the way Tricky kept pushing her into everything, some of it had been fun.
The conflicting pit in her stomach grew all the way back to the School Clinic.
~\({O})/~
School Clinic
"I've had another talk with the Principal," Audino said, trying to keep the anger out of her voice as she pulled yet another cast out of the medicine cabinet. "Watchog will not be overseeing your detention tomorrow. Not with that arm, at least." She began to dry Espurr's recently-washed fur off with a towel. Espurr, sluggish, tired, could barely keep her eyes open, much less follow Audino around the clinic as she switched between tidying up and cleaning Espurr's arm.
"I always tell him, don't overwork the students!" Audino continued angrily as she worked. "Don't make their injuries worse! And what does he do? He takes you to work at the mines! I've never seen dirtier pokemon in my life! And I'm the village nurse!
"Honestly…" Audino grabbed the cast and began to wrap it around Espurr's arm. "It's a wonder you didn't split the fracture again."
She got up, closing the cabinet doors and picking up the mess after her. "IF you keep that cast on, you can take it off tomorrow night," she told Espurr. "Report to me for the rest of your week's detentions. If you can't be kept safe outside of this clinic, you'll just have to serve your detention inside it."
She went around the Clinic's large room, covering the globes containing luminous moss with tarps.
"All set, Deerling?" Espurr heard her ask the straw bed facing the other side of the wall.
"Yes, Nurse Audino." Deerling's voice emerged from the bed, though Espurr couldn't see her.
"I'll discharge you tomorrow," Audino continued. "You should be past the worst part of the molt now."
"Thank you, Nurse Audino," Deerling said, relief palpable in her voice. Espurr sat down upon her straw bed, casting a look back at Deerling's beside her. She was tired and still damp from the bath that been required just to get the emera-dust out of her fur, and her throat still felt scratchy from all the dirt she had breathed in that day.
"Sleep well, both of you." Audino picked up Espurr's bag by accident, setting it down once she realized her mistake and taking her own. She continued into the back room of the clinic and closed the door behind her, leaving Espurr and Deerling alone for the night.
"It's not true, is it?" Deerling asked a few seconds later, her voice carrying a worried tone. "You didn't go into the mines with Tricky?"
Espurr froze. How had she known? Then she remembered a certain pokemon's words. The answer hit her.
"Did Pancham tell you?" Espurr asked, connecting the dots immediately.
"He told everymon," Deerling replied. "He said he played a prank on the troublemaker and the new kid as revenge for getting him in trouble, and they fell straight for his trick. Not that anymon's going to tell on him. The school never does anything because his family's rich."
Deerling sighed, readjusting herself on the nest so she could see Espurr properly. "Espurr, right?"
Espurr nodded.
"Listen… I don't want to sound rude or anything," Deerling continued. "But I know you've been hanging out with Tricky, and I wanted to warn you that…"
She stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath. Espurr could see many colors behind her words, blending into a soup of indistinguishable brown.
"We don't talk about it," Deerling continued. "I— I shouldn't talk about it, but… well, everymon here knows what happens when Tricky takes pokemon into dungeons. It doesn't turn out well, and we've all been there. I don't want to watch somemon her hurt somemon else."
Espurr took a moment to consider, weighing every word.
"Somemon… else got hurt?" she asked, still trying to piece everything together. Those words Tricky had said back in the mines…
"Tricky has hurt pokemon, yes," Deerling replied. Her voice was serious, her eyes wide open and staring straight at Espurr's. For that moment, the brown mix of colors seemed to grow in power. "Just… please take my warning to heart. Don't go into dungeons. Okay?"
Espurr just nodded, trying to process everything that had just been unloaded on her.
"I will," she said, still unsure. She was sure it read on her face.
What else could she do?
~\({O})/~
Café Connection
~Ampharos~
No luck. After hours of searching through many more hours of wilderness noises, Ampharos found exactly nothing. At one point the orb had picked up the off-tune singing of a local pokemon, but otherwise his entire plan had turned belly-up in the water. In fact, there was only one more place on the reel that he could check. If that turned up nothing, then he could safely say he'd have to start from scratch.
Ampharos began again at the start. The very start of the reel, the only part of it he hadn't listened to yet. His efforts were rewarded: voices! This must have been from before they dropped the orb. He sifted through the chatter of what sounded like Fennekin and Espurr, closely listening for any clues that might point him in the right direction.
"Now that I think of it… you never told me where you came from, did you? That's like, question number #2 on the list of things friends should know about each other!"
That was Fennekin. Ampharos leaned in closer, his lantern tail glowing brightly. Surely, this was his lead…
"It's like I said. I… Got lost in the woods, and Nurse Audino found me and took me here."
Espurr must have been holding the orb. Her voice blasted through the speakers louder than Fennekin's had.
"Yeah, but where did you come from?" Fennekin whined in stereo. "Come on—I want the juicy bits!"
"I… don't want to talk about it."
"Spoilsport."
Ampharos paused the audio. Then he rewound it and listened to that section all over again. This 'Espurr' was certainly dodgy in many ways… As Ampharos booted off the Expedition Gadget and tucked himself in for the night, he jotted down her name in his mental book of suspects.
He had a new lead.
~\({O})/~
From Wartortle's Guide to Dungeoneering: Class C Dungeon
Some dungeons are not safe for anyone. Class C Dungeons, the strongest class of dungeon, are small in number, but highly feared. Though only a handful of them exist across the entire planet, Class C dungeons are notable for their intense power and effects on pokemon inside. The distortion within these dungeons is thought to be so strong that not even those who enter are safe from corruption. Explorers have been known to turn as rabid and feral as dungeon apparitions within Class Cs, beyond any sort of cure once the damage has been done. For this reason, a watchlist exists for all Class B-2 dungeons that may become Class Cs in the near future, and every known Class C dungeon is barred to all except the most experienced and capable explorers, to which they are open by necessity only. The average Class C dungeon is at least eight millennia old.
Music of the week!
Pirates VS Natives VS Heroes VS Chickens - John Powell