Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Shadows of Ganderosa
Chapter 4
Hazel's Dream
When Dillan woke up, his stomach was hurting. Other than the Sitrus berry Hazel had given to him, he hadn't eaten anything for the past two days. He hadn't drank anything either. How did I not notice? Maybe I hadn't thought much about it until now. He got up and walked over to the west door. He looked through it to find Ryan was on a desk helping Anna with some paper work.
The room they were in was a circular room. On Dillan's side, there was a desk where Anna was working. On the opposite side of the room, there stood a pair of wooden doors. Beyond the desk, in the center of the room, were empty chairs. Probably for waiting. Pictures hung on the walls. They had words on them saying things like, "It's gonna be ok! Trust us!" or "Broken leg? Who ya gonna call?". There was even one that said, "Be like Lenny Noris. The world doesn't get him down, he get's down with the world." That one had a picture of a yellow, bipedal pokemon with a big, fluffy white mane of hair. The pokemon was a little chubby around the waist. His tail was striped and came to an orange orb at the tip. The Ampharos looked as though he was dancing in space with a planet. Was Lenny Noris some kind of celebrity?
"Dillan!" Ryan called out. He noticed the Gabite was awake. Dillan walked over to him.
"Dillan!" Anna scolded. "You shouldn't be on that leg!"
Dillan completely forgot about his ankle. It didn't hurt. He looked down at his big, mummy foot. He put some more of his weight on it. It felt fine. He put all his weight on it. It was good. He crouched down, ready to jump and land on his foot when Anna stopped him.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Anna asked in an exasperated tone. "Do you want to hurt yourself again?!"
"Uh..." Dillan said. "Sorry. I just didn't expect it to be better yet."
"Neither did I!" Anna exclaimed.
"Looks like Hazel knew what she was talking about!" Ryan said as he elbowed Anna. She just looked at him as though he was crazy and went back to her paper work.
"Do you have any food, Anna?" Dillan asked. His stomach growled loudly. "And maybe some water?"
"Yeah." Anna said without looking up from her paper work. "Ryan, could you take him to Harley's?"
"No problem, Anna." Ryan responded as he added a smile. "Come on, Dillan. Follow me."
"Okay..." Dillan said skeptically.
Ryan jumped off the desk and ran to the door. He pushed it open and went out side. Dillan followed. His leg was still bandaged up, making it hard for him to run.
When he was outside. He realized they were in the castle walls. Most of the buildings were a story tall. The one's that weren't had colorful roofs ranging from blue, to green, to yellow. All of the one storied roofs were not as colorful. They were all brown. The buildings were all made of stone.
Dillan walked as Ryan took point. He was fine with that. He wanted to look at everything around him anyways. The streets were flooded with different colors belonging to different pokemon. The affect of the mass herd of pokemon against pokemon was a lot of excess noise. It was very loud. He looked at shops that had an assortment of items, each shop differed in some way. One shop sold cheese, while another sold bread. Some shops sold necklaces that advertised abilities that varied depending on which one you wore. Dillan didn't understand how that was possible.
"Dillan." Ryan called out from below him. "Over here."
Dillan followed Ryan into an alley in between a shop and some kind of hotel building. Once they were there, the noise level dropped.
"Did you notice the roofs and the different colors?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah. Is there a reason for that?" Dillan replied.
"Figured you wouldn't know based on your amnesia and all." Ryan went on. "The two story buildings are buildings of interest. The color of the roofs is how you tell one building from another. The hospital has a white roof. Shops have green and blue roofs depending on what's being sold.: blue for supplies and green for gear. The red roofs are hotels."
"So the yellow ones are for food?" Dillan asked, knowing that yellow was the only other color he'd seen.
"Exactly." Ryan answered. "Now, on this strip of road, there is a café called 'Harley's'. The pokemon there make orders for the hospital's patients for free. Anna took me there this morning and told them you'd be by to get some food as well."
"Perfect." Dillan smiled as his stomach decided to make more noises. The inside of his mouth was dry.
Dillan followed Ryan back into the crowded street. They walked for five minutes before Ryan halted in front of a walk-in bar. There was a sign that was in cursive that said, "Harley's Diner". Ryan went inside while Dillan followed.
It was a nice place. It was small, yet cozy. There was a counter at the entrance where a bipedal creature was waiting to greet customers. There were rows of tables with chairs. There were about three empty tables. The rest were full of pokemon. Some looked like lovers. Others looked like friends. A few of the tables were playing some form of card game. There was a wooden chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The walls were wooden. They were painted blue. The ceiling was also made of wood. The floor was cobble stone. Behind the front counter was the bar. Pokemon sat there and talked to eachother. Others just drank some kind of brandy. Behind the counter was a kitchen area that was visible. Fire pokemon could be seen scuttling around in the back to make a meal that wouldn't be there's.
Dillan's mouth watered at all the smells that bombarded his nose.
The pokemon at the front counter signaled that she was ready to see them. The pokemon looked like a purple monkey. It had two tails with hands on the end of them.
"Hello gentleman!" The ambipom said. She had a sweet and energetic tone to her rough voice. "Do you two have reservations?"
"As a matter of fact, we do." Ryan said.
"I remember you!" The ambipom exclaimed. "You were the small squirrel from before!" she started laughing heartily.
Dillan looked towards Ryan. It shocked him to see his face harden.
"You laughing about my height?" Ryan asked sternly.
The ambipom saw his expression and was confused. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked.
"You sure did, fat hands!" Ryan said. "You like making other pokemon feel bad by mocking them?"
The ambipom was shocked. It took her a minute to process what had been said. 'Fat Hands' she mouthed. Her face started looking stern. "Fat hands?" She said through gritted teeth. "You're really gonna go there?"
Dillan saw the tension building between the two. "Miss, what my friend is trying to say-" Dillan began, but was cut off by the ambipom.
"I know what he was trying to say." Ambipom's face grew tighter. "You two aren't welcome here."
"What?" Dillan yelled. The room grew quieter. Dillan could feel the eyes of the other pokemon on his skin.
"You heard me. Out!"
"Not until I report you to the manager!" Ryan said.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Ambipom said with her tail-hands on her hips.
"Y-you mean," Dillan stuttered. It dawned on him who this pokemon really was. "You're Harley?"
"Yes." Harley said, now thoroughly annoyed with the conversation. "Now I want you out of my restaurant."
"Harley!" A cheery and familiar voice called out from behind Dillan. He turned around to see the same pokemon from yesterday.
"Hazel!" Harley called out. "My, it's good to see you again! How's Kalen?"
"Working hard or hardly working." Hazel answered. "Take your pick."
Harley laughed at the comment. "Sounds just like him."
"By the by, what's going on here?"
Hazel brought Harley's attention back to Ryan and Dillan. She stopped laughing and stared at them. "These two aren't welcome here. I won't have any trouble makers in my diner making my customers feel bad by making cracks at their problems."
"Did one of them make fun of your hands?" Hazel asked in a concerned tone.
Harley looked as though she were considering murder as a punishment for Ryan's comment. She had a face of horror. "Y-Yeah..." she said.
Hazel went up to Harley and whispered something into her ear. Harley looked shocked, then concerned. She looked at Ryan with a face of pitty. Ryan looked like someone had spit in his drink. Whatever Hazel was saying, he didn't like it. Hazel moved away from Harley's ear. Harley mouthed something to Hazel. Dillan couldn't tell what was said. Hazel nodded.
"A-Alright then." Harley said with concern. "Go past the bar and there should be an open table."
"Thank you!" Hazel said as she led the group to a wooden table with four seats.
Hazel and Dillan sat at two of the chairs, while Ryan hopped onto the table. The noise level went up as everyone went back to what they were doing. Hazel had a stern face.
"You know her?" Dillan asked.
"Yeah." Hazel answered. Her cheery tone mimicked her expression. "My dad sells her most of her ingredients. She's a very nice lady." She then turned to Ryan and said, "Why would you say that about Harley's hands? That's so rude!"
Ryan gritted his teeth and said angrily, "She made fun of my height! She deserved it!"
"How can you be so dumb? She didn't make fun of your height. She was trying to say she remembered you from today!"
"Oh yeah? Then why was she laughing?" Ryan had a look of triumph. This didn't stop Hazel though.
"Because of the comment she made She called you a squirrel instead of pachirisu because she didn't remember your name. She said specifically 'Sorry, but I never remember species' names other than my own', then she laughed at herself!"
Ryan stared at Hazel for three seconds. He then looked at Dillan.
"She did?" He asked. Dillan nodded in agreement. Ryan looked ashamed. He looked back at the ambipom as she cheerfully greeted some new customers. Ryan's expression then became confused.
He looked at hazel and asked, "How long have you been following us?"
Hazel's scales turned bright red. "W-What? W-Well, I... I um... uh..." She couldn't seem to find the words. Dillan was shocked by the sudden stuttering. "Oh waiter!" Hazel called out to a short pokemon that was dressed in a black vest. He had a tag that said, "Hello. My name is Fred".
The pokemon had big, yellow and black ears. He was a little chubby. His tail was in the shape of a lightning bolt. He had bright red cheeks and yellow fur.
"Ello Miss Sigourney."
"Fred." Hazel said. Her cheeks were still red. "We've talked about this. It's Hazel. Not Sigourney."
"Whatevair." the Pikachu said as he rolled his small, brown eyes. "What ees eet I can get for you todae?" He asked as he pulled out a notebook and some sharpened coal from his pocket. This is when Dillan realized his furry hand was stained with the stuff.
Dillan could hardly understand Fred with the accent. He then realized he had no idea what they served at the diner. Thankfully for him, Hazel answered for him.
"Three oran juices with a quiche."
"And zis ees on ze house?"
"Yup."
"Alraight. Your ordaire will be ready shortly." Fred told them as he put the notebook and coal in two separate pockets on his jacket. He then walked away.
"Thank you!" Hazel shouted. Her cheeks were back to their normal shade of crimson. She then turned to the two boys and said, "So have you two thought about my offer yet?"
"Oh no." Ryan said with an irritated glance. "You aren't avoiding my question that easily."
"What are you saying?"
"Just answer the question."
"What question?" The pink was back as she looked up at the chandelier.
"And here I was thinking you were smarter than you looked."
She stopped looking at the ceiling and had an offended expression. "What does that mean?"
"Oh, nothing. Just that I was just starting to consider your idea before you started acting weird."
She looked worried. "Fine, I'll answer your stupid question!" She said as her eyes scrunched shut. "I was waiting for you two."
"Waiting?" Dillan asked. "How did you know we would come?"
She looked at him. She looked slightly embarrassed. "This place gives free meals to patients at the hospital. I knew you two would show up eventually. All I had to do was wait."
"If you were there, why didn't you step into the argument earlier?" Dillan asked. He crossed his arms and leaned in a little closer.
"It would have felt weird to suddenly jump in."
"But you did it anyways." Ryan pointed out.
"When I saw you were getting yourself thrown out, I had to step in."
"Which begs the question." said Ryan with some concern on his face. "What did you say to Harley to get her to calm down?"
"Well... She saw you earlier today, so I told her you were from the hospital. I..."
she paused for what felt like a long time.
"'You what?" Dillan asked.
"I told her you got hit on the head and as a result, you have an imbalance that made you jump to conclusions."
Ryan looked highly offended. "You..." He stumbled. Hazel nodded. "Do you... Do you honestly believe that?"
"No!" Hazel quickly said. "Of course not!"
This is not going well. Dillan thought. Does Ryan even want to be here anymore? Does he like Hazel? Is he even considering joining her on a team?
"Look..." Hazel started. Her face told the two boys that she was ashamed. "I'm sorry for what I said. It was wrong of me. It's just that this is the only place that serves patients for free. I didn't want you guys to starve because Harley was offended. But, no. I honestly do not think you have a problem."
Ryan didn't look convinced. He turned away from her and sat in silence.
That was when the drinks arrived. The drinks (What did Hazel call them? Oran Juice?) were a metallic blue. The waiter, Fred, put them in front of their respective owners. He then took out three straws. One of them was a little longer than the others.
"And ze quiche?" Fred asked as he held a yellow slice of what looked like cake. It was filled with all sorts of berries and herbs. It looked more like a pie.
Hazel pointed towards Dillan. Dillan's mouth was hanging open. He was drooling. He just stared at the quiche. As Fred started passing it to him, time seemed to stop. Dillan stared for what felt like minutes. The quiche didn't move. Dillan just stared. He then tilted his head in confusion. The talking and laughing around him stopped as well.
"Hello?" he called. "Fred?"
Dillan stood up and moved to Fred. The pikachu just stood there, trey in hand. The Gabite tried waving in front of his face. Nothing happened. He sat back down and looked at Ryan and Hazel. They weren't moving.
"Ryan? You hear me?" No response.
Almost as fast as it happened, the noise level picked back up. Dillan jumped from the sudden flow of noises. He just sat there.
"Thank you, Fred." Hazel said to the short, yellow rodent.
"If zere ees anysing else, just call." Fred bowed and left the table to continue his job.
Dillan was still shaken up by what had happened. He didn't realize when Hazel had said, "Dillan? You feeling ok?"
Ryan stood up and walked across the table to him.
"Ganderosa to Dillan!" Ryan said. "Dillan! Can you come back from the void you've slipped through?"
"What?" Dillan snapped back into reality. He realized he was staring, lost in thought.
"Are you feeling ok?" Hazel asked.
Dillan didn't know what just happened or why, but he wanted to answer Hazel.
"Uh, I was just thinking..." He stumbled. He could feel his face getting hotter the longer he took to give an answer. "I was thinking about your offer."
Hazel's face grew into a smile. "Really?" she asked. "And?"
"Well..."
Ryan saw the worry on Dillan's face. He quickly jumped in by saying, "Yeah. He and I have made up our minds. We want to join the Exploration Team!"
Hazel screamed with excitement. Everyone whipped their heads around to look at Hazel. Even Harley was staring. Hazel didn't seem to mind. She was too excited.
"OMYARCEUSOMYARCEUS!" She leaped from her chair and hugged both Ryan and Dillan. Ryan wasn't very comfortable with it, but it made Dillan glad to see her that happy. "It's always been my dream to be part of an Exploration Team!" She went on. "Ever since I was a little charmander! Being able to help pokemon in danger! See the world and the mysteries it hides!" She stopped for a second then said, "I need to run back to my place to get my things! Once you two are done here, go to the guild! I'll be there!" She let go of her new team mates and ran out. Dillan could hear her scream for joy when she was outside.
"Uh..." Dillan looked at Ryan. He was speechless. "Ryan, where is the guild?"
"Hm. Good question." Ryan put a paw under his head and began to scratch his chin.
"Should we go after Hazel?
"No... At the rate she ran, she's probably long gone by now."
Dillan looked at his food, which was at room temperature by now.
"Want some quiche?" Dillan asked. Ryan looked at the quiche with anticipation. The Garchomp saw how his friend looked at the quiche. He proceeded to cut it in half and gave the piece to Ryan. Dillan then proceeded to eat his own slice.
The second it hit his tongue, angels sang a tune. The flavor spread in his mouth. The taste was sweet and juicy. The berries seemed to blend with the dough it was incassed in. It was the best thing he had ever tasted. He then ejected it from his mouth.
Ryan started laughing. "What's wrong, not a fan?" Dillan smiled back.
"It's delicious, just overwhelming."
"Well, you're going to have to eat it. You need your strength." Ryan bit a small piece off of his own quiche.
When they finished their meal, the two left the dinner and stood at the entrance of Harley's, watching the flood of pokemon in the streets.
"What now?" Dillan asked.
"Well, we have to find the guild." Ryan answered.
Dillan thought hard about what to do. Maybe we could ask around? Someone has to know where the guild is. He tapped a random pedestrian on the shoulder. The stranger whipped around and said, "What do you want?" The stranger's tone was full of anger. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"U-Uh... Hi." Dillan started. "I-I was just wondering if you could show me where the-"
The stranger walked off. Dillan was left standing there, looking at the pokemon as he blended back into the crowd.
"That's not gonna work." Ryan told him. "Pokemon here are too weird around strangers."
"Well, what now?" Dillan asked. He was thoroughly annoyed by the rude way he was treated. The scattering of pokemon paws against the ground was the only thing keeping silence at bay.
"I have an idea." Ryan told Dillan. "If all of the normal buildings are one story tall and all of the important buildings have a different colored roofs, then it stands to reason that the guild would be either two storries tall, has a different colored roof than normal, or both!"
Dillan smiled. "Well then, let's look around!"
Ryan nodded, then they both looked up to the roof tops. Red, blue, green, yellow, green, blue, yellow, yellow-
"There!" Ryan called out as he pointed to a black roof. "That's the only color I don't recognize."
"Then that must be it!" Dillan started into a run when he stumbled on his bandaged leg. He bumped into some pokemon in the stream and landed on his side.
"Watch it!" one pokemon cried.
"What are you, mentally ill?" another said.
"Sorry!" he called out.
"Here, let me help." Ryan said. He bent down and untied the bandages around Dillan's ankle. As he took it off, it revealed more and more of the leg. It looked as good as new, or so Dillan assumed.
"There." Ryan said as he took a step towards the crowd. "Now let's get going. Hazel will be waiting for us!"
When they got closer to the guild, there was a flight of stairs leading up a hill to a two-story tower. The tower was at the back of a courtyard. The courtyard had a path leading from the top of the stairs to a fountain. The fountain had a statue in the middle of it. The statue was of a chubby dragon with a spike protruding from it's head. It had curly horns sticking up from the top of it's skull. The dragon had tiny wings. It didn't look to Dillan like the dragon would be capable of flight, had it come to life on the spot. The statue was standing on a base that was spouting water at the statue's feet. A group of pokemon were laying in the grassy field. Another group of four were huddled together in front of a billboard.
Hazel was at the base of the fountain, staring at a plaque that was on the base. She was carrying a bag with a strap that went around her shoulder. It was a brown bag. It had a flap on top that could open to reveal the contents. It also had a silver latch on the front that would hold the flap down.
Dillan and Ryan walked up to her. Dillan lightly tapped her shoulder with his claw. She jumped at the touch. She looked around and saw that her friends were standing there.
"Who's that?" Dillan asked as he pointed to the statue.
"Oh," Hazel said with a frown. "I guess you wouldn't know. That is the Great, King Maxamillian Armandine. Kids are told stories of what he did for Ganderosa." She looked at Dillan and saw his perplexed face. She giggled before saying with a mock smile, "Don't tell me you don't know what Ganderosa is either."
Dillan felt ignorant. I should know this! I hate amnesia...
When Hazel saw his face of shame, she realized what she said wasn't taken the right way. "Sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to insult you."
"It's fine." He said with a fake smile. "It's not your fault." He waited for a few seconds. He wasn't mad at Hazel, he was just annoyed at himself. Hazel went back to talking.
"Ganderosa is our kingdom. It's made up of five domains. Fericia, the one we're in; Alka, which is made up of the main land and an archipelago of frozen islands; Labensia, the area to the east; Kerroshia, a territory made up entirely of desert; and the island of Jarondai, our capital.
"Anyways, King Maxamillian united our territories and became the King of Ganderosa. Our current king, Judah Arvaine the III, is a descendant of Maxamillian."
"Cool." Ryan said. Hazel looked at him with confusion.
"What's cool?" Hazel asked
"What do you mean, 'What's cool'?"
"You said 'Cool', didn't you know about King Maxamillian?"
"Of course I knew!" Ryan said defensively. "I just thought it was cool that King Judah is a descendant of Maxamillian. That's all."
"Oh..." Hazel said in embarrassment. She was blushing. "S-Sorry..."
They stood there, listening to the splatter of water on water.
"Hey, Hazel." Dillan said. "Why are we here?" Hazel looked at him and smiled.
"Because we need to sign up as a team, silly!" She said. The embarrassment left her voice. Ryan rolled his eyes at Hazel's sudden change in emotions. "What are we waiting for?" she said with a grin.
Hazel took the lead. They walked around the statue and headed for the tower. From this pont on, all three of their lives would change. They would have many adventures together. As their feet grew closer to the tower ahead, so did their hearts to each other.
