.14

"Back in the old days, luminous moss was a hot item. You grew it, you put it in an orb or a lantern, and when it got dark, the moss would glow. Nowadays everymon uses emera tech. Ever since HAPPI discovered the process for harvesting emeras from dungeons, everymon wants better lights, lights than can shine brighter than moss... but only for a while."

~ Zebstrika, moss farmer on Water

~\({O})/~

CHAPTER EIGHT: ARTEMIS

~\({O})/~

Simipour's House

~Audino~

~Knock-knock-knock~

The nighttime air of Serenity Village was sickly warm, with a dampness that felt sticky against one's fur. Audino stood at the porch of Principal Simipour's house, her bag tightly against her side. At some point while Espurr had slept, she'd left the house and trudged through at least ten minutes of the humid night to get here.

She did not fancy ten minutes more of it on the way back.

~Knock-knock-knock~

The door opened, revealing Principal Simipour himself. Recently he'd been looking like he was about to keel over from exhaustion on a good day; in the middle of the night he was practically sleepwalking.

"Nurse Audino," he yawned, like he was struggling to keep himself awake. "What do I have to owe a visit from you at this—" a tired glance around. "Lovely time of night?

"I'm sorry to wake you," Audino began, "but it's an urgent matter concerning the test on Saturday. May I come in?"

Simipour yawned again, then cast a look towards the parlor inside. "I don't see why not," he slurred.

Simipour's house was a single, large room separated into quadrants with minimal walling. The one touching the door was the parlor, and Audino could see the bedroom and the kitchen on either side. The houses with views were smaller here, but in larger demand than the loftier ones at the bottom. And thankfully, it had none of that sticky night air.

The Principal gestured towards the furniture in the parlor, a couch and an old pink armchair opposite a small table. Audino took a seat on the couch, letting Simipour sit in the chair before she began speaking.

"I happened to look at the location Vice Principal Watchog chose for his test when filing away the test work," she began. "I think he should change it. It's a safety hazard."

"A safety hazard?" Simipour asked. "What makes you think that? The School Dungeon is a safe dungeon. No fog. No aggressive apparitions. That's why we use it for exams like this."

"The last time I went in, there was fog," Audino stressed. "I filed the paperwork for that when I got back that night—didn't you see?"

Simipour was quiet. It was an uncharacteristic quiet for him.

"It must have gotten lost in my desk," he eventually said. "But I don't understand the rationale behind such a change. Dungeons take centuries to grow stronger; the School Forest is barely a decade old."

"The dungeon's going bad, Principal," Audino replied. "The Drilbur Mines… Wooloo Plains… Poliwrath River… All the dungeons here go bad faster than they should. We should move the test."

"To what location?" Simipour asked. He didn't seem to be fully there. "The School Dungeon is the safest dungeon around. Would you rather we hold our tests in the Foreboding Forest? What would Watchog think?"

"We should hold it on the school grounds!" Audino couldn't help but raise her voice then. "We're running a school, not a sporting event. Watchog's test is crazy under normal circumstances, right now it's unacceptable. I don't care what he thinks; we need to change it."

Simipour sighed.

"I'll see that Watchog does a sweep of the dungeon before the test," he offered limply.

"And he'll change it if it looks dangerous?"

"That is his choice. Good night, Audino."

He'd forgotten the 'nurse'. And the 'vice principal'. He almost never forgot to add those. In fact, something about this was all very off. The thought felt crazy, but the way Simipour had been holding himself this entire time gave her chills down her spine. It felt… unnatural. And if she felt unsafe, what did that mean for the children?

No. She was up too late, and letting her imagination run wild. She needed to leave this house and get a proper night's sleep before she attacked this again.

"Very well," she said, standing up and gathering her bag. "I'll hold him to that tomorrow."

Simipour didn't walk with her. He just remained hunched over in the faded pink chair, his sunken eyes following her every step until she shut the door.

Audino shivered once she'd closed it.

She never knew how creepy this part of the village could get at night. Deep down, she knew it wasn't the village, but she forcefully dismissed that thought. Annoyance filled its place.

Why was she the only teacher who had her priorities straight?

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~

Tricky didn't show up for class the next day. Espurr had considered going over to her house earlier in the morning, but figured that they could talk when she showed up for school. But class was in ten minutes, and the fennekin was nowhere to be seen.

Until now, she'd spent the spare time slightly uneasy, but filled it by idly reading things instead. Now that she could, it felt like a large weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It was easier and easier to forget what had happened yesterday, easier and easier to not wonder how. She wasn't even reading because it was interesting. She was reading because she couldn't have just a day ago, and it felt addicting.

With Farfetch'd's class out of the way for the summer, the first event of the day was Audino's exam, which Audino had upturned most of the School Clinic to prepare for. The straw beds had been pushed aside to make way for spare tables brought in from the storage room, and twin baskets of medicinal berries had been set on each tabletop.

And now the test had been postponed almost ten minutes, because Tricky wasn't here. At some point, Watchog had said something about 'starting without her' and stepped out of the clinic, and Audino, with a hesitant look on her face, began the exam.

"On the board are the final versions of three different mixtures you will need to create to pass this test," she said, pointing to a portable blackboard that had been wheeled in for the purposes of this class. "You have all been provided with the right berries and equipment to make them. Outside of that, you will need to rely on the knowledge you've gained from this week's review, and make the decisions you believe are best for your mixtures. And remember the three rules of berry safety:"

"Smell, don't taste, oran berries make the base, and always mash everything into a paste," the class recited.

Audino nodded, flipping an hourglass from the storage room and setting it on the table.

"The test ends at noon. You have one hour. Best get mixing."

The class was left to their own devices afterwards. Pancham and Shelmet took the table on the right with the best-looking berries before anymon else could even move, and Goomy got an entire table's worth of supplies all to himself. Espurr sat at the table to the left, eyeing the blackboard from the stool she sat on. It looked like she needed to make a skin lotion, a psychic-muffling paste, and a sour elixir to pass the test.

Espurr decided to start with the skin lotion, since she still remembered the recipe from Tuesday's class. She fished in the berry basket for an oran, but none were turning up.

"The oran berries are in this one."

Deerling, who Espurr had taken a seat next to, pushed the separate basket of oran berries towards Espurr. "Audino didn't want them to get mixed up with the others, since the orans are special."

Espurr took an oran from the basket, and put it into the bowl. "Thank you."

She snatched a bluk berry that was on the top of the other basket and put it aside for later.

"Deerling?" Espurr asked a moment later.

Deerling looked up from her work, staring at Espurr questioningly. Espurr mashed the oran berry to bits with the wooden masher, not really paying attention to what she was doing at all.

"Did… something happen between you and Tricky?"

Espurr never thought she would see Deerling stiffen up the way she did. All of a sudden those colors were back, the veiled ones that Espurr couldn't quite see or read.

Deerling's unnaturally cheerful response: "W-what makes you think that?" only served to reassure her that something was indeed going on.

"It was something Tricky let slip," Espurr decided to go with. "I thought I'd ask around. Especially since she didn't show up to class today."

"Well, did you guys fight or something?" Deerling asked. "You wouldn't know, because you've only been here a week, but Tricky usually doesn't show up to school the day after a fight."

Something about that answer didn't quite sit right with Espurr, especially when the colors she could vaguely see only began to grow. She knew there was more, something Deerling wasn't saying. She briefly paused to gauge her oran berry – which was now just a sorry pile of mush – then dropped the bluk berry into another bowl and started mashing that.

"She mentioned you," Espurr continued. "She looked upset. And you said a couple of nights ago that you didn't want to see somemon else get hurt because o—"

At that point, the colors exploded. Deerling slammed her hooves into the table, a seething expression on her face.

"Tricky is mad at me because I don't want to see pokemon get hurt because of her, and I'm picking up the responsibility she doesn't want to touch!"

"Deerling! Calm down, please." Audino put her book down from the other side of the clinic.

Espurr silently mixed her two berry mixtures together, and covered the bowl.

"I'm sorry." Deerling had her head hung in silence. "It's… not a pretty thing. I… I can't. I just can't. Please don't ask me."

Deerling turned away from Espurr after that, unreadable, swirling colors invading Espurr's head. The rest of the test was spent in silence.

~\({O})/~

Espurr barely passed Medicinal Berries. And only because she had arguably performed the best out of anymon in the class, on account of having one perfect mixture.

Deerling had used all the right berries, but had mashed them so hard the mixtures came out wrong, leaving her without a replacement before the test ended. Goomy was entirely lost, and Pancham and Shelmet together had flubbed all three mixtures, then proceeded to create a custom one so foul that Audino disposed of it as quick as she could.

Tricky, who was absent, automatically failed.

The fifteen-minute recess period between Audino's exam and Dungeon Class was spent in silence, as three of the present students reviewed their test scores from yesterday and the other two were in no mood to converse with each other.

Espurr read the score on the paper she'd been given, a high mark just like she was expecting. She held the paper close to her like it was something precious, rising from the nest she was sitting on. It was time to make Pancham's mouth fall open.

She marched over to Pancham's table, where he and Shelmet were looking at their own scores—much lower than the one she had, she noted. She slammed her paper on the table, pushing it towards Pancham.

"Take a look," she said, letting smugness spread across her face. "93 percent. I passed."

Pancham picked it up. His eyes flicked over it several times. Espurr couldn't see any of the colors from his head, but she wished she could. She knew she would have enjoyed it.

Then he slammed it back down, and pushed it towards her.

"What, am I supposed to be impressed by this?" he said.

"I'll be studying with you next class," Espurr said, folding her arms. "So, yes."

"No way you learned that material in three weeks," Pancham scoffed. "I bet you just cheated."

"Yeah," Shelmet cut in. "Maybe you did freaky mind stuff."

"Maybe I really did learn it in three weeks," Espurr shot a comeback at him, dancing around the accusation. "Just like I picked up reading. You got a 53%, by the way."

That seemed to get to him. His eyes widened, and he made sure his paper was face down on the table before looking at her.

"W-well then, maybe you're a freak," Pancham said, copying Espurr's tone. He leaned in over, closer to Espurr. "No normal kid does that. You're a dungeon-raised, mind-reading freak. So go back to your freak friend and do your freaky dungeon stuff like the freaks you both are. " He paused in mock contemplation. "Oh, wait, she didn't show up. Guess you're outta luck."

Pancham and Shelmet suddenly broke out in laughter. Espurr held in a displeased hiss, her eyes narrowing, red blinking into her vision. She didn't have to take this.

Snatching up her grade paper, she marched over to one of the clinic's three nests, throwing herself in the nearest one and folding her arms with a huff. All she'd done, and it had been for nothing. She'd cheated because of him, and he was still going to give her grief. She let out a long sigh, eyes narrowed as she stared at the room ahead. Was anything good enough?

The sound of something sliming over caught her attention. She looked over, seeing that Goomy had just slid up.

"I s-saw what happened," he stammered. After several seconds of silence, he continued: "I-I just stopped."

"What?"

"I just st-stopped."

"Stopped what?" Espurr asked.

"T-the-the last t-time I tried to p-prove I was a big kid to P-Pancham he left me in a dungeon all alone," Goomy said. "A-and when Tricky told me i-if I was c-cool I'd help her rob the berry farm, I g-got in trouble. A-and Shelmet s-said I should get rid of my stutter but I c-c-can't, a-and Deerling t-thinks I'm a b-baby. S-so I just stopped trying to b-be cool for them."

He mushed his slimy paws together uncertainly, as they both watched Pancham and Shelmet whisper and giggle at their own table.

"I t-think you should too."

Espurr just silently huddled a little further into the nest. She knew Goomy meant well, but…

"They'll hate me," she said. "I don't want to spend the next school year getting jeered at by them."

"I d-don't either," Goomy said. "B-but Mom s-said you should f-focus on friends, n-not enemies. A-and real friends d-don't care h-how cool you are." He looked down. "R-real friends l-lift each other up. Mom says P-Pancham and Shelmet d-don't have friends."

Espurr's eyes cast themselves down towards the floor. It was unspoken between them: she knew he was right.

That thought stayed with her as Watchog forced everymon in the stools for Dungeon Class. It cut through all Watchog's loud prattling about pokemon types and how they matched up with and against each other, making it all a fuzzy droning in the background. At some point, she glanced around at the other students, hoping Tricky had silently slunk in at some point. She wasn't there.

"…And that's how type matchups work." Watchog brought his lengthy speech to an end, stepping in front of the blackboard. "Any questions? Better ask now."

No-mon cared enough to have questions.

Then class ended. Everymon went home, while Espurr was kept behind for detention. Goomy was having it with Audino today, so she'd be having it with the Vice Principal. Tricky still hadn't shown. Watchog was off in the background, grumbling about how she was skipping school and now skipping detention too, and he was going to get the principal to extend hers into summertime.

By now Espurr was beginning to get worried. If she left in the middle of detention, she'd never hear the end of it from Watchog, but it was at least worth checking her house, right?

Espurr turned her attention back towards Watchog, who was nearly done stuffing his things in one of the school's large exploration bags.

"Mr. Watchog?" she asked.

"Vice Principal."

"I'd like to go check up on Tricky," Espurr said.

"Really? Sounds like an easy way to cut detention to me," Watchog said, trying to decide if the water canister he was bringing along was enough for the hot sun. He shrugged it off, placing it in the bag anyway.

"But she hasn't shown up to school yet today," Espurr said. "Somemon should go, right?"

"She won't be there," Watchog drawled. "She's probably off prancing through some dungeon somewhere. And that's why she's getting detention in the summer. That'll show her…"

He finished packing the bag he was currently stuffing full, zipped the top laboriously, and lugged it over his back. "Time to go," he said.

Something innate told Espurr his mind wasn't going to be changed. Maybe it was part of her sixth sense.

They walked down the path and away from the many houses of the village. Espurr considered what to do as she walked. She could go to one the other teachers, but it would cause such a stink, and from what she knew, the only teacher who would back her up was Audino. She'd just be wasting time she could use doing something that actually helped.

Soon, the daylight above them began to filter out, eclipsed by blue and purple shades of leaves and tree branches. Espurr knew where this route led: The Foreboding Forest.

"Start picking up all the mess in the area," Watchog said curtly, handing Espurr a rake and a potato sack. The clearing all around them was covered in hundreds and hundreds of fallen leaves. "Tell me when you're done. I'll be waiting outside." And with that, he was gone.

Espurr slowly raked up leaves in the clearing, but her mind wasn't in it.

Knowing Tricky, Watchog was probably right about her not being at her house. She was off sulking in some mystery dungeon right about now. And after seeing what had happened back in the mines—she shivered—it was probably something dangerous.

If she left on a trip to Tricky's house without Watchog excusing her from detention, she'd score herself a week's more in the process. But the way she was going about detention meant it would stretch far into night. And if Espurr was right, and Tricky really was in danger, then sitting around here and shoveling up leaves was the worst thing she could possibly do.

She thought for a minute. Then another, mindlessly stirring the leaves on the ground around with her rake. Then she decided.

That was it. Fuddy-duddy Watchog could stick a wooper in it. She quietly set down her rake and the potato sack and crept off into the bushes, taking the long way back into the village. For both their sakes, she hoped she was wrong, and Tricky really had just been sulking around in her bedroom the whole day.

~\({O})/~

Carracosta's House

Knock~Knock~Knock

Espurr knocked on Carracosta's door. There was no answer, but she figured it would take him a minute to get there.

A minute passed. There was still no answer.

Knock~Knock~Knock

Espurr tried again. She pressed her ear to the door, hoping she could catch what was going on behind it. She only heard silence.

She looked left, then right. She was sure she wasn't being watched… So no-mon would mind if she quickly broke in, right?

The window outside Tricky's room had no glass. She could get in that way. The hard part was getting up there. Espurr levitated herself up to get up onto the sill, but a headache spiked before she was even half a foot off the ground. Luckily, that was all she needed. Catching the window bars with both her paws, Espurr gave herself one last boost with the rest of her energy—

—Which was enough to get her through the window, and somewhat neatly into Tricky's room. She briefly rubbed her head to clear it of the headache.

Once inside, the first thing Espurr did was check the book on Tricky's bed. Those dog-ears around the corners only meant it could be one thing, after all…

"A Complete Guide to Mystery Dungeons", the title read. Espurr knew she had seen it before! She held it in her paws, looking at the page number:

Page 26: Nectar Meadows – Water Continent

Espurr read through the page, her eyes flicking over the text as fast as she was able to read it. Nectar Meadows was a Class A Mystery Dungeon, which meant there weren't creepy dust apparitions, the dungeon didn't fog up, and pokemon who entered it didn't turn into rabid monsters like Gabite. Class A dungeons were usually the homes of pokemon who didn't feel at home living in civilizations such as Serenity Village. However, Nectar Meadows was the home of a beedrill colony that had a reputation for being vicious and territorial in the honey-making stage of the year, which was… just around summertime.

Espurr set the book down, taking a minute to clear her thoughts. If Tricky had gone to Nectar Meadows, she would have had to leave about four hours ago to skip school like she had. Which either meant that she was still in the dungeon heading back home, or… something had happened to her.

"And guess what? There's a small dungeon right near Pop's oran berry fields!"

Tricky's words from Wednesday rang in Espurr's head, and so to the oran berry fields she went. She still remembered the way there from her first detention—down towards the square, through the village gates and on the path until it split away from the mountains and the trees gave way to fields of farmland and the hot summer sun. Nectar Meadows was somewhere around here.

The fields ended at the base of a large mountain, where a small alcove lead off into a dimly-lit cavern of flora that Espurr assumed must have been the dungeon. There was only one way to find out, so she walked up to it, and slowly crept inside.

~\({O})/~

Nectar Meadows

Espurr knew it was Nectar Meadows from the moment she walked in. There was nothing else it could be. The entire spacious cavern was filled with all sorts of plants, from moss to tall grass to various flowers that lined the walls and roof of the dungeon. Pollen hung in the air. The sweetness of flowers mingled with the rotting scent of mystery dungeon, making her wrinkle her nose as she walked. As Espurr stepped under one of the holes in the dungeon's sunlight-filtered canopy, she saw that the halls ahead were completely empty.

But at least that meant there were no apparitions in the dungeon, just like the book said. She climbed to the next floor on that polished stone stairway unbothered. On the second floor, she sensed the presence of several other pokemon quietly observing her from the darkness. But if they were there, they did nothing but watch. The book had said some real pokemon lived in this dungeon…

At some point, on the next floor, it struck her that it had been too quiet. Where were all the beedrill the dungeon book had said would be here? And where was Tricky? Something didn't add up. Had she gone to the wrong place after all?

She really hoped not.

All she could do was cautiously press on.

The pin missile suddenly slammed into her. It sent her flying back from sheer force until she hit the wall hard and tumbled to the ground. Espurr pulled herself back up as quickly as possible, ignoring her new aches. Her attacker was a large, hovering, insect-like creature she assumed was a beedrill. It was bigger than her. She stood her ground, brandishing her paws like they could somehow conduct her energy. She could do this. She could fight one off.

She quickly abandoned that thought when the first beedrill was joined by two others. The best idea was to run—

"Begone, foul beast!"

A shot of flame suddenly flew out of nowhere, sending the beedrill flying back. Espurr saw an offended sneer on one of their faces, before it was swallowed up by fire.

Tricky bounded out of a side route in the mystery dungeon and dashed up to Espurr, running past.

"C'mon!" her voice shot back. "Follow me if you wanna live!"

Espurr stumbled along, doing her best to keep up with Tricky as they ran as far away from the dazed beedrill.

Tricky was panting and looked run ragged. Suddenly, she made a detour into a dead-end on the side, practically pulling Espurr along with her.

They both pressed themselves up against the wall, trying to blend in with the flowers. The beedrill rocketed past, leaving them both behind.

"What are you doing here?" Tricky yipped excitedly once the dust had settled, and the beedrill were out of earshot. She sounded hyper, manic. Espurr shot her a look of disbelief. Of all the reactions she had been expecting, it wasn't that.

"What am I doing?" she asked, the exasperation wavering in her voice. "I came here to look for you. You didn't show up for class today. I skipped detention to come here! What would the teachers say if they knew you'd been frolicking around in mystery dungeons all day?"

"Touché." Tricky didn't seem particularly bugged by any of it. "I just woke up with so much energy today I had to run it off somehow, so I went exploring!"

She quickly paced back and forth in the side pocket, her movements stiff and erratic. Espurr could see her legs quaking, her ears flicking back and forth, her eyes peeled wide open like she couldn't shut them, the way she was stretching the grin on her face. Had all this really happened just because they'd had a fight?

Espurr trailed off with an unsure sigh. How was she supposed to handle this? She'd only been around for a week.

"Let's just go back to the school," she carefully began. "Everymon's worried, and you're acti—"

"I was thinking we could go exploring in the Foreboding Forest next," Tricky interrupted, like she hadn't heard Espurr at all. She was chasing her tail in circles now. "And then we could run the School's dungeon!"

Two thoughts came into Espurr's mind: The school had its own mystery dungeon? And more importantly, had Tricky gone mad?

"…Are you sure you're okay?" asked Espurr. At this point, she wasn't sure either.

Tricky stared at her with a confused look, then burst into awkwardly fake laughter seconds later.

"Of course I'm okay!" she laughed out of herself. It sounded strained. "There's nothing wrong! What makes you think I wouldn't be okay?"

Espurr folded her arms, flicked her eyes over Tricky's twig and dirt-ridden coat, and then gave Tricky a stare so telling there was absolutely no confusing its meaning.

"I mean yeah, I probably need a bath," Tricky went on. "—Oh wait. No I don't. I don't need a bath! I never need a bath! I'm fine. I'm really fine! I'm totally fine! See?"

She pranced about in the nook of the dungeon she and Espurr were in for five seconds just to show Espurr how fine she was. Espurr wasn't buying it.

"You don't sound 'fine'," she said. "I think we should go ba—"

"No!" Tricky yipped, interrupting her again. The grin on her face was stretched so wide it was quaking. "I'm fine! I'm really fine! I have to be fine! I have to be! I have to be! See?"

She kept repeating that phrase. She was breathing heavily now, prancing around the small dead end as fast as she could to convince herself she really was fine. Espurr could see a tug-of-war between yellow and blue circling around Tricky, and it suddenly expanded into her—

It was like being hit with a train. Her vision became nothing but colors, and she lost her balance, falling flat on her behind. "Stop," she whimpered, trying to shunt away the colors, the sheer force of it in her head, blotting out her sight, her thoughts. Tricky's constant back and forth was intense, invading her mind, raising her stress levels by the second. She could feel everything Tricky felt, and it was too much. Too much. Too much!

"STOP!"

She hadn't realized she'd screamed it until the sound hit her ears, and something else blew out. Opening her eyes again, Espurr saw that all the flowers within a few feet of her had been uprooted, and Tricky had been blown a couple feet back. Knocked out of her mantra, she stared at Espurr in wide-eyed startlement. Then she calmed down. Her body stopped quaking as hard, her ears weren't flicking back and forth anymore.

Then, slowly, she laid down in the middle of the ground. Her face was covered by her paws, and she was lightly trembling all over. Espurr slowly crawled forward,

"Th-that was an accident," she said. "I didn't mean it. I promise."

Tricky suddenly let out an ugly sob. Espurr, inches away, froze.

"It's my fault," the fennekin croaked out.

"What's your fault?" Espurr asked.

"Tricky's just a nickname," the fennekin began. It was quiet, barely loud enough to hear over the silence.

"My old name is Artemis. That's what my Pops named me when he adopted me. I… had another friend before you. A year ago. He used to go exploring with me all the time. And…

She took a long shaky breath, as if to prepare for what she was about to say next:

"A-and I killed him."

~\({O})/~

Serenity Village Outskirts

~Then~

"Budew! Hurry up already!" Artemis' ears twitched, sensing Budew as he dashed through the underbrush after her. They were at the outskirts of the village, where the buildings ended and the forest crept in, and he was already falling behind. She was going to leave him in the dust at this rate. "We're supposed to go check out that mystery dungeon today!"

"Hah… Can't you go a little slower?" Budew asked. "I'm dying back here."

"Fiiine…" Artemis whined, falling back into a trot instead of a frolic. Why couldn't her friends be as fast as she was?

"I thought we weren't supposed to go into mystery dungeons," Budew said once he had caught his breath. He adjusted the sky-blue scarf he wore like a cloak with his vines, quickly fixing Artemis' before she could brush him away. He was a neat freak. She lived and breathed mess. They balanced each other out.

"Well, yeeeaaah," Artemis drawled. "But it'll only be in and out, and the adults won't know a thing! Besides, all the great teams were doing this when they were our age! If we wanna grow up and join the Expedition Society one day, we need to start training now!"

"I guess…" Budew admitted. "Where do we go, though? Is there even a name for it?"

"It's called Poliwrath River," Artemis said. "Look—I know the way! I snuck a look at Farfetch'd's maps today in class."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Budew asked.

"I was just gonna ask you that," Artemis said with a mischievous smirk on her face, and then she was off so fast that Budew had no hope of keeping up.

It felt like only seconds before they in front of the dungeon. It loomed above them, dark, gloomy, and overgrown unlike the neat, tidy forest around them. The border shimmered, reflecting the light in strange ways. There was a faint stench in the air, like something had died.

"I'm not so sure about this anymore…" Budew looked up at the entrance to Poliwrath River anxiously. "Can we go back now?"

"Nope! No take-backsies! You promised you'd go exploring with me today!" Before Budew could even protest, Artemis planted her head against his backside and began to push him up there herself.

~\({O})/~

"NOW can we go back?" Budew asked, glancing back longingly at the entrance of the mystery dungeon that they had just walked into. The place was dark and gloomy, overgrown just like the entrance was. Even Artemis had to admit it was creepy. But that just added to the thrill!

"You can't go out of a mystery dungeon the way you got in, silly," she waved him off. "The only way out now is up-up-up!

"Besides…" she added, countering Budew's fearful face with a contagious grin. "This is a water-type dungeon! You have a type advantage here! Don't you get how awesome that is?"

"I guess…" Budew said.

"Wait. You know type matchups?" he asked a second later.

"Yep." Artemis trotted next to Budew, grinning like the smuggest fennekin in the world.

"I can't believe you actually paid attention in dungeon class!"

"I try."

All the chatter was clearly making Budew less and less anxious. That, and the fact that they had not encountered any enemy pokemon yet.

"So what kind of pokemon live around here anyway, 'dungeon master?'"

"Uhh…" Artemis began. She hadn't looked at that, she just knew the name. "It's… a surprise!"

"A… surprise. Huh."

"Yup," Artemis nodded.

It happened in a split second. Artemis' scream of surprise was downed out by Budew's shriek as a large, mottled arm burst out of the foliage and snatched him up. It knocked Artemis out of the way; she hit the ground rolling, tumbling into a patch of golden weeds and out of sight.

Budew wasn't so lucky. He ended up in the middle of the ambush.

There were two of them; massive, burly, poliwrath with mottled, slimy skin, making the most terrifying sounds as they pummeled and fought over Budew. They hadn't seen her.

She wanted to do something, anything. But all of the sudden all that bravery and recklessness, those dreams of becoming a rescuer, left her. Terror petrified her, only able to watch with wide, terrified eyes as the scene continued. It was too painful to watch, but she could only watch, and listen to the sounds of Budew's cries and leaves tearing apart and bones cracking.

It ended. Silence fell over the dungeon. She lost track of how much time she spent there, shivering, unable to process.

Slowly, she lifted herself to her paws with a sniffle, eyes bloodshot, and climbed out of the foliage.

"Budew?" she called out.

There was no answer.

"Budew?!"

She bolted forwards, terrified of what she might see. And when she did see it, she couldn't look away.

She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. All she managed was a croak, a waver in her throat. Next to what remained of Budew was the scarf Artemis had bestowed him as a sign of their friendship. It was clean, undamaged. There was only a single nick in it. He must have lost it early on.

That was the point where she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She grabbed Budew's scarf in her mouth, and ran like the wind in the direction that would take her the farthest away from Budew. She didn't care that she left his body behind, she couldn't look at it; it was burned into her head when she closed her eyes. Her mind felt numb, woozy, unable to grasp that this was real. She shut down, recoiling from all thoughts except getting away from this place.

Somehow, she managed to blindly stumble her way out the dungeon by dark.

~\({O})/~

Now

"Pops and the Principal said it wasn't my fault," Tricky continued. "But it is my fault! And I can't... I can't live without…"

Espurr sat and listened quietly. She didn't say anything—how could she? There was nothing to say. She couldn't even imagine what such an experience was like, let alone try to comfort Tricky with words. Instead, she settled for just comforting Tricky.

"I just want to forget," she mumbled to herself, still breathing hard. "No-mon lets me forget. No-mon lets me just be Tricky. No-mon lets me…"

"Tricky…" Espurr began, reaching a paw out to console her.

"Tricky didn't do this!" the fennekin suddenly snarled, looking up with wide eyes and aggressively brushing the paw away. "I did! Just… just… leave me alone!"

She hopped up, spun around and bounded off down the dungeon tunnel before Espurr could say a word.

There wasn't a question. She had to go after her. Tricky was going to get herself in trouble in her current condition for sure, big trouble. She could figure out what was going on later. Hopping to her feet, she began running after Tricky as fast as she could, even if she wasn't as fast. There was still a little trip in her steps, but it stopped mattering. She just had to catch up.

~\({O})/~

Tricky ran down the dungeon aimlessly, the two scarves bound to her neck rustling with her movements. Where she went, she didn't care. She'd find her way out! …Somehow. That's what she always did.

Bzz~Bzz

Tricky ignored it. She could outrun them! They were only stupid bees.

But they were right in front of her.

But she could outrun them! She could do it! She was good at running! Really!

Not that good.

They converged upon her as soon as she got close enough, and even though she fought and screamed and tried to destroy them with her fire just like the Poliwrath had destroyed Budew, it was all for nothing. She felt a sudden painful stab in her side, and then she was suddenly too drowsy to stay awake anymore.

~\({O})/~

Espurr watched from a hastily-chosen hiding spot as the three beedrill made off with Tricky, lying unconscious in their stingers. As they buzzed off, she silently followed them. They went up one floor, then the next, until on the fifth floor they reached a large, open room that wasn't a labyrinth. It was a sunny cavern, filled with bushes and flowers and plants of all shapes and sizes—this must have been the anchorstone!

Quietly following them in, Espurr hid behind a bush, watching as the beedrill set Tricky's body down with a loud 'thud!'.

"So what do we do with it?" One beedrill asked.

"It's a honey thief," the second one buzzed back. "The townymons never set foot in here unless they're trying to steal our honey." They folded their stingers. "I say we kill it."

"Or we could take it back to the hive, like we're supposed to do with intruders," the third beedrill said.

"Waste of time," the second one retorted. "It's always a mess, and the others'll never know."

"And when the townymons come looking? It's not a wild animal!"

That was it. Espurr shrunk deeper into the bush, huddling up and casting her focus away from their chatter. She needed a plan, and now. Before the Beedrill could finish cooking up whatever insane idea they were plotting.

And she was beginning to see the inklings of one.

"So what are we gonna do?" The third beedrill flapped its arms in frustration, floating back and forth in midair. "Are we just gonna wait for the honey thief to wake up? It's a Fire—"

Clatter. All three beedrills' heads spun to the other side of the room, where a rock had just skidded out into the open from behind a few bushes. A pair of sticks dancing at Espurr's command shook the bushes and made it look like somemon was hiding in it.

Beedrill #2 shushed the others. With his head, he silently motioned for the others to follow as he buzzed forward.

And as they approached the bush at the other end of the room, Espurr ever-so-quietly slunk out towards Tricky. She held her paws out, honing her focus as the fennekin's body began to move. Tricky rose unsteadily into the air, hovering in place. Espurr ignored the headache she could feel coming on. At the end of the room, she could see the stairs. A look at the beedrill said they were still busy with the bush; it was now or never. Renewing her focus on keeping Tricky in the air, she started running.

The sounds of leaves and branches ripping apart came from behind her, accompanied by several buzzing and stabbing noises. Espurr's heart nearly skipped a beat. They were running out of time!

"Nnghh…" Tricky slowly shifted in midair, the beedrill's poison slowly beginning to wear off. She slowly blinked herself awake. "…Whath's… happenin'…"

"Quiet!" Espurr whispered, eyes wide and checking behind her frantically.

"Es…purr?" Tricky slurred out obliviously.

The stress was beginning to become too much. Espurr felt a sudden spike of pain flare up in her head, and tripped over a rock right after. She fell forward; Tricky fell unceremoniously to the ground.

Both Espurr and Tricky picked themselves up. Tricky, who was still feeling a little woozy from the poison, stood wobbly on all four legs. Then they both noticed the beedrill that were heading straight for them.

"Tricky, run!" was the only thing Espurr had time to say before turning back towards the stairs and dashing. Even an addled, sleepy Tricky had the sense to run for her life. They weren't faster than the beedrill, but the stairs weren't far. Only a few more seconds—

The beedrill quickly picked up the chase, zooming after them at speeds that seemed impossible for creatures of their size, and as Espurr and Tricky ran up the stairs and set foot on the next floor, one of the beedrill was fast enough to make it through. The staircase warped and disappeared behind them, the warping of space sending out a wind that blew the two of them forward into the hallway.

Their last chance, gone! Espurr and Tricky wasted no time trying to get farther away from the beedrill, but even with their newfound head start they were no match for the insect's speed. The oversized insect ran them down and slammed into them from above, sending them tumbling into a dead-end to the left.

Beedrill #2 fell back into a hover as Espurr and Tricky coughed and tried to pick themselves up from the dungeon floor. He looked left, then right, then began to prepare his stingers.

"Alright then. I'm just gonna get rid of you myself. No-mon need even know you were here…"

Tricky attempted to hurl an ember at the beedrill, but only coughs and rasps came out of her throat. Her eyes widened in horror. A split second later, both of them barely ducked out of the way of the beedrill's stingers. Espurr snatched up a rock off the ground and threw it at the beedrill. Her aim was spot on, and it clipped the beedrill in the face. They used that to get as much headway as they could.

"My throat hurts…" Tricky complained as they ran into the dungeon's main hall and took a quick left turn.

Espurr didn't have time to answer. The beedrill rounded the corner with sheer force and speed, heading straight for them and gaining ground fast.

"Hey!" it called out, bearing down directly on them. "You aren't going to be able to run forever!"

A swipe of its stingers, and Espurr and Tricky barely avoided having the fur atop their heads sliced off.

They rounded another corner.

"I'm gonna catch you soon enough." The beedrill dug its back stinger into the wall to bank the turn, leaving a large dent in the dungeon. "And when I do, I'm going to give the both of you a slow death just for all the trouble you've been. You'll die miserable, rotting away in the dungeon as the plants feast upon your corpses!"

Tricky looked back at the last minute to see where the beedrill was. She suddenly rammed into Espurr and pushed her out the way at the last second before the beedrill's spear could go through her stomach. Espurr hit the ground rolling on her side. Missing its mark, the beedrill swerved through the air as it stumbled to regain its balance.

Espurr got to her feet, looking at Tricky crumpled all up in the hallway behind her. In front of her, the beedrill rose in the air again, priming its stingers for one last shot.

"Really a shame you two can't fight back," he said, preparing to dive in for the kill. "But hey, what can a child do?"

This was it. Espurr felt power begin to rise up within her. Her fur began to glimmer with energy. Her ears unfurled, the insides gleaming with blinding light. Her eyes shone too. The power welled up to the surface, then stayed there. This time, she directed it into her paws. It was immense, and she couldn't keep hold of it for long, but she didn't need to. She looked up at the beedrill, who was hovering in front of her with his guard up.

"This," she said.

All the power she had concentrated in her paws exploded out in a single, powerful blast that hit the beedrill right in the chest. The light was blinding, and Espurr didn't see exactly what happened. Only that it was loud and spectacular, and all of the sudden she wasn't feeling so great…

Her eyes fluttered. The sheen disappeared from her fur. Her legs suddenly felt unsteady. She fell to the ground, and lost consciousness.

~\({O})/~

Slowly coming to. Espurr's eyes wearily blinked open once more.

She was, once again, surrounded by nothing but all-encompassing black. Another dream. Espurr brought herself to her feet, trying to ignore the aches and pains in her sides and head.

With a few quick looks around, she realized that her mind was not in the best shape right now. The explosion must have caused some damage to her surroundings—all around her, glowing white cracks wisped all throughout the air. A pang of fear struck its way through Espurr's heart. If this was a dream, then had she somehow broken her mind?

But she didn't feel broken. She felt just fine. Espurr inspected her body, devoid of the cracks that lined her surroundings. Maybe she'd just broken her dream, the one she'd been caught in for the past week.

She could live with that.

In the background, something slithered off.

Slowly, Espurr began to hear hushed voices slipping in and out in between the void. They swirled around her, mumbling and whispering phrases incessantly. Espurr quickly singled one out from all the others. The one that whispered a word she did understand: Human.

As if it had noticed it was being watched, Espurr felt the wind descend and spin loops around her. It strongly ruffled her fur with that rotting scent, but didn't go back up to join the others that were spinning above her like a cyclone. Espurr made no sudden moves. She closed her eyes, and let her ears do the seeing for her.

Human…

~\({O})/~

When she woke up, the canopy of Nectar Fields met her. And it was moving… no, she was moving. She was being dragged through the dungeon, the dirt brushing roughly against her back as she slid. Blearily looking up, she could see Tricky dragging her along by a few tufts of her fur.

A few coughs sputtered out of her. All of the sudden, the dragging stopped.

"Espurr!" Tricky cried out, dashing in front of her and looking down. "Are you okay?"

Espurr was too bleary to form proper words. She settled for a small nod, ignoring how it made her headache spike. As her senses slowly fluttered back into view, she managed to drag herself up into an unsteady sitting position.

Now that the roof wasn't spinning anymore, she noticed Tricky looked a lot worse for the wear. Her legs looked unsteady, and her tail was drooping weakly. She looked exhausted, like she was going to fall over any second.

"C'mon," Tricky panted out, looking straight past her. "The exit's over there! It's just a few more steps!"

It was true. The hallway ended in light, shining so bright Espurr couldn't see the corridor after it. She pulled herself to her feet, wobbling a little before righting herself. Her vertigo left her after a few seconds, and she was able to walk with Tricky all the way to the entrance before it could disappear or re-arrange itself somehow.

~\({O})/~

~Espurr~

They came out the same way they had gotten in, just like they had in the Drilbur Mines. Espurr didn't understand it at all, but she was learning to roll with the punches. Beside her, Tricky stumbled out the dungeon. They both sat down by the edge of the dungeon's cavern, catching their breaths as they watched the sunset slowly set over the mountains, the edges of its rays casting the field a deep orange-green.

"There's something I don't understand," Espurr said. "If Budew…" she trailed off, seeing Tricky's ears suddenly flatten. "…If something bad happened in a dungeon, why do you keep going back into them?"

And why do you keep dragging me along with you?

"I don't know," Tricky muttered. She was curled up in a ball next to Espurr, her eyes directed at the ground instead of the sky. "When I'm in them, it's like I can forget. I can just be… Tricky. Not the murderer. A-And then you showed up, and I wanted one friend who didn't know, and I just thought if I tried really really hard…"

Her breathing started speeding up, and all of the sudden she was trying really hard not to look at Espurr. The blue invading the edges of Espurr's eyes told her everything that she needed to know.

"You probably don't wanna be—"

"Shake on it."

The sudden interruption made Tricky stop. She looked at Espurr, her eyes flickering with confusion and surprise.

"What?"

"Shake on it," Espurr said, thrusting her paw out. "I'll still be your friend. Just… as long as we aren't only going into mystery dungeons. We can do other things too, y'know? Less… dangerous."

"Why?" It sounded like Tricky barely dared to ask.

"Because real friends lift each other up," Espurr said. "We haven't been good friends, but maybe we could be."

It was slow, but she watched as Tricky rose up from her spot on the ground, and held out her own paw for Espurr to grasp. They shook.

Espurr had never seen a brighter look on Tricky's face, even as she was suddenly pulled into a tight hug by the fennekin, which she returned. All seemed to be well in the world.

Until Tricky quickly backed up with a sudden scared look on her face, and threw up on the ground in front of her.

~\({O})/~

Carracosta's House

"You FOOLS!"

Carracosta stood in his study, looming over his desk at them. On the other side stood Tricky and Espurr, both looking ashamed.

"Just what were you thinking, wandering off into a mystery dungeon like that?!" He yelled at them. "You could have died! You could have been trapped in there! And you are both lucky I keep pecha berries around, because Tricky would not have made the night alive without them!

He gave them both an intense glare, causing Tricky to droop. Espurr had to stop herself from taking a couple steps back—he was intimidating.

"Have I imposed upon you the seriousness of what you have done?"

Tricky nodded her head as fast as it would nod. Espurr looked at Tricky and quickly nodded her head too, before she ended up setting off Carracosta even more.

"Good!" Carracosta turned to Espurr. "Now the school tells me you're under their custody until the start of summer, so I'll leave your punishment to them. But you…" he glared at Tricky. "No sweets for a week! Vegetables and berries only!"

"But Pops—" Tricky whined.

"AND an early bedtime! Go!"

Seeing that arguing back was futile, Tricky slunk off to her room dejectedly.

"And you!" Carracosta boomed at Espurr. "Out!"

"Mr. Carracosta—" Espurr began, trying to explain. "We didn't mean to—"

"OUT!"

~\({O})/~

The last rays of sunlight were disappearing over the mountains to the west when Espurr stepped out of Carracosta's house. Nuzleaf's place was unlit and idle; she suspected he was an early sleeper. She let the door shut behind her, quiet surrounding her for the first time in hours. With nothing but the chirping of bugs to fill the air, it felt… wrong. Too empty.

"Psst."

Espurr heard the sound whistle out of the bushes just outside the door to Tricky's house. Seconds later, Tricky stepped out of the bushes, shaking a stray leaf out of her fur.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Espurr asked.

"Nah." Tricky took a seat next to the porch. "Pops never thinks about the windows. I use them to get out all the time and he's never guessed a thing!"

She turned around and began to dig through the bush.

"I just wanted to give you this," Tricky said through her teeth, pulling an entire appleberry out of the bush by the stem. "Pops gave me two, but I'm not that hungry tonight, so I wanted you to have it!"

She handed it to Espurr the best she could with her mouth. Espurr took it in her paws. Now that Tricky mentioned it, she really was famished.

"Tricky?" Espurr said, before the fennekin could finish slipping off back to her bedroom window. It had been present in her mind ever since the dream. She needed to say it. "Can you keep a secret?"

Tricky cocked her head. "What is it?"

Espurr took a deep breath, then blurted the phrase out:

"I'm Human."

~\({O})/~

Open Seas ~ Water Continent

~Mawile and Archen~

"Let me ask this again, just to make sure!" Archen tried his best to keep the water out of his eyes as he squawked over the wind and held on for dear life. "Do you have any idea where you're going?!"

Like the other times Archen had asked, he got no response from the sharpedo they were struggling to hold on to. A nasty freak storm building out on the water had stopped their trip home in its tracks, forcing them to camp out on one of the Water Continent's more remote islands for the night. Now they were heading full-speed ahead for the Water Continent, but Archen was convinced that they were in fact going in circles. He hadn't even seen a hint of land for ages, and already the weather was beginning to seem colder all over.

Mawile was much in the same spot that Archen was. Hanging on for dear life, she also had to make sure their bag of supplies wasn't swept away in the east-blowing winds. Already they had lost a few things before Mawile was able to properly zip the bag, but nothing of major importance was gone… yet.

Archen was nearly thrown to the side as the sharpedo made a sudden bank to the right.

"What gives?!" Archen cried, but his shouts were lost to the winds and forgotten when he saw what Sharpedo was heading away from: A boat. An actual, wooden boat.

He glanced towards Mawile the best he could over the splashing water. Mawile leaned in towards the sharpedo, and whispered something in its earhole. The sharpedo nodded the best it could, then made a left-hand bank for the ship. Archen stared at the earhole on his side in disbelief. That was all it took?!

~\({O})/~

"Welcome, members of the Expedition Society!" Governor Primarina spread his fins in a welcoming gesture, bowing his head dramatically as Mawile and Archen stepped aboard the lavish ship. The wind ruffled Archen's feathers eastward. Braixen, who had a far more flat expression on his face, retracted his mechanical pen and stuck it back in his fur. If Archen looked out of the corner of his eye, his fur almost seemed to lose definition.

"Thank you for hosting us aboard your ship, Governor," Mawile politely said.

"Oh, it's no problem at all," Primarina said. "I always bring aboard any struggling seafarers the Exeggutor may come across aboard."

"We didn't need to stop the ship for this." Braixen folded his arms nonchalantly, leaning against the Exeggutor's mast. His lavender fur blew to the west. "That sharpedo is more than capable of taking them to land—"

He was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a sharpedo turning around and skidding back out to sea.

"…I stand corrected," Braixen admitted reluctantly. "No objections." And with that, he silently walked past Primarina and into the ship's cabin. "We'll dock at Lively Town at 1200 hours."

"Please excuse Braixen," Primarina said. He massaged his temples with one of his flippers. "He's my secretary. He can be unruly when the whim strikes him."

"It's no bother at all," Mawile responded, but Archen could almost see the gears whirring in her head through her eyes, which fixated on Primarina skeptically. She knew something.

And as Primarina led them into the Exeggutor's main cabin, he could tell something was off as well.

~\({O})/~

From Wartortle's Guide to Dungeoneering: Class A Dungeon

The weakest and most benevolent of dungeons are Class A dungeons, which turn a small spot of ground into a large, static labyrinth. Hazards known to mystery dungeons do not often appear in Class A variants, such as fog, apparitions, and winds. Due to the benevolence of Class As, some tribes of pokemon make their home in these dungeons, away from the hustle and bustle of the towns.

Music of the week!

You're My Friend - Yuki Kajiura