The sea breeze blew in from the open ocean behind the abandoned building Amber stood in front of. The setting sun cast her in shadow, as a kind of peace fell over Canalave City coming in with the blanket of stars. The hustle of the canal was winding down nearby, but that wasn't Amber's concern.
Her concern was the abandoned inn she found herself outside.
The teenager's brown hair blew back, as if to deter her, dark eyes staring dead ahead. Her thick glasses protected her from the dust the breeze carried. She shivered in her thin brown jacket, staring at the faded sign.
Harbor Inn
A Roost for Restless Sailors
Amber found herself shaking. Why was she doing this? To prove a point? She had nothing to prove to idiots, but… she was curious. If she could manage to get in… what would she find? Probably an old bed, but maybe something more?
The inn had been abandoned for as long as anyone could remember, even Nana had never seen anyone come in or out of the decrepit cube overlooking the sea. The fading blue rooftop was caked in Wingull crap, the one visible window was absolutely caked with grime, so much so that it was impossible to see into the building. She tried cleaning it off before, but it was so caked that nothing was getting through. It's as if absolutely no one was allowed to know what was inside.
It was a good thing Amber found that stupid. She was gonna figure out the big mystery of this place tonight, or her name wasn't Amber Kutcha.
She took a deep breath and walked towards the ratty door. It definitely had seen better days. Rotting wood, peeling paint, and that doorknob… What was with that doorknob? It looked normal enough…wait, that was it! It looked normal! There was no sign of age like the rest of the building! It had no keyhole either… how was anyone supposed to get in or out? Was there another entrance?
Maybe it didn't have a lock?
There was no way it was that easy. She tried it anyway. The doorknob barely budged.
Barely.
Amber could feel it, while it felt like trying to snap a rock's neck off, there was just the slightest give. If she kept going, she might be able to do just that…
And so she tried, pushing and pushing, and pushing. Why was any doorknob this tight without being locked? It didn't make sense. Maybe the lock was broken? But the knob itself looked almost brand new! This entire building was-
Click.
Ah, there it was. Was it really that easy? Did no one even try just forcing the knob? Well, it was their loss! Time to see what was behind door number-
Amber threw the door open, and saw only darkness. It was like she was staring into a vat of pitch. No. It was darker than that. A void. Darker than the darkest night. Void of stars, void of everything. She could make absolutely nothing out.
Well, that wasn't strictly true.
It was hard to miss the eyes.
They were a brilliant blue, with a gash of white. The only things that even came close to standing out in this void beyond black. And they looked straight at Amber, no, straight through the teenage girl. To her very core.
To her Soul.
She tried to speak, but no sound came.
She tried to move, but found herself frozen.
She tried to turn away, but could only find herself being drawn in.
As soon as she touched the void, it started to consume her. Her leg was the first to go, consumed by the dark. She could feel it, but it was numb. Cold.
The dark, the cold, it just kept going. It just kept spreading. She couldn't pull away, why couldn't she pull away?
What the f-
As it reached her mouth, the cold crept inside her mouth. Her tongue went numb. What little she could hear was replaced by the nothing of the darkness when it reached her ears. And then her eyes. She couldn't cry even if she wanted to. All she could do was watch, until even that was denied to her.
Cold.
Numb.
Sleep…
…
…
…
Amber found herself yawning. That was weird… when did she fall asleep? The last thing she remembered was… those eyes.
Those brilliant eyes. And the dark.
She shook her head, which felt really heavy for some reason. Did she fall asleep with her glasses on? That was bad. She could have broken them in her sleep! Wait… why did it feel like they were stretching around her head?
For that matter, why did she feel so heavy? Her middle felt like she was strapped down with rocks, no, lead. And that wasn't helped by the fact she was STARVING. She felt like she could eat an entire Wailmer!
…she felt warm too. Like she was in a thick blanket.
…fused to her skin.
Amber's eyes shot open, confused at the sight before her. Trees, a grassy clearing surrounded by trees? Did she fall asleep outside town? No, there was no smell of the sea… no random Bidoof crowding her like they usually did. It was a lot warmer than it should be too, even without the…
Blanket…
She looked down at her body. At her thick stubby arms, large round paws, rotund belly, and all covered in blue and beige fur.
…no way.
She wiggled her legs, revealing the round, clawed feet of a certain pokemon. Which she seemed to have turned into.
There was no way in Distortion this was happening.
She brought her blue paws up to her face, felt the goggles around her eyes, and slapped herself as hard as she could. Her body jiggled, but she barely felt it.
This wasn't a dream.
Amber had been turned into a Munchlax.
She took one, large breath.
And screamed. The Tailow that flew away from the sudden noise was very disturbed. Her voice was a lot gruffer now too.
The first thing the newly minted Munchlax did was rip the goggles from her head. Where had these come from? Where were her glasses? Why were THOSE the questions she was asking herself right now?
She took a deep, sobering breath, and looked around. She had to figure out where the hell she was first. She was sitting against a pine tree, facing a grassy clearing, with a lazy river just going Amber sat her heavy body up and waddled over to it. Why was she so short and heavy? Half her body was stomach now! She barely had legs! She should have studied more biology than behaviors back at the lab…
When she finally managed to waddle over to the lazy river, she looked to confirm, and yup. A Munchlax with goggles on stared back at her. Their normally dopey eyes widened in shock and horror at her lost humanity. She screamed again.
"SHUT UP WILL YA?!"
Her reflection was suddenly interrupted by something peeking out of the water. Amber scrambled back to face the creature that had just interrupted her freak out. A Basculin, red striped with angry, tired, crimson eyes. "I was just about to go to damn sleep, what's the problem brat?"
The fish was talking.
"I- you- what-" was all Amber could manage to stammer out. This couldn't be happening. There was no way this could be happening.
"What, you never seen an old bass before?" The Basculain glared. "Why, back in my day we respected our elders, aquatic or not!"
"Uh-"
"Used to be you could swim down the stream, start a friendly chat with whatever surface dweller was walking down the banks, not have 'em yell so loud they're heard through the damn water!"
This guy was suddenly reminding her a lot of Mr. Rapsa from next door.
"Uh, sir-"
"And another thing young lady, you just need to calm right down. There's no need to screech like an Exploud! Not like anything in this neck of the woods can hurt ya!"
"Sir-" her fear was drowned out by familiar annoyance all of a sudden.
"I mean look at that belly!" the old fish pointed a flipper at her chunky middle. "You can definitely take a few hits! What's your ability, Thick Fat?"
And the fish just called her fat. That was enough of that.
"OK I GET IT!" she hissed and stomped her foot once. The red Basuclain swam back a step.
"Now what did I just say young lady?" and back to scolding, he went.
"I'm sorry ok?" Amber slapped her face with her strangely sticky paws. Instinctually, she took a sniff. It was like nothing she ever smelled with such detail. Sweet, sticky goodness-
…it was honey.
…she liked honey. Nana used to have to hide it before she went to bed…
Why were her paws-hands-whatever covered with honey?
Why did she want to just start licking it off?
FOCUS AMBER!
"...I'm lost, sir," she said after taking a deep breath, and resisting the urge to lick her paws clean with the fresh scent of the sweet honey- WHERE DID IT COME FROM. "...would you happen to know where I am?"
"What, you lost your memory kid?"
"N-no," Amber wanted help, she wanted to figure out what the hell was going on. Were humans a thing here? Would she sound crazy if she talks about this? Do they have looney bins here? "I just… don't know where I am…"
The fish gave the Munchlax a good, long look over with one raised eye, before nodding.
"You're in Verity," he answered. "Closest surface town would be… Sanctuary, just follow the river's flow."
…Verity? Like the lake? Sanctuary? The only town near that lake was Twinleaf… why was she still going on about that? She clearly wasn't in Sinnoh anymore… probably…
"If you want an escort you're outta luck," the fish went on. "Bastards like to fish."
"...fair enough I guess…" Were carnivores a thing here? Was this some sort of only the strong survive society?
…or maybe this was a dream. This place seemed to be based off the Lakefront, even if she hadn't been there in a long time, the fish was talking, and then there was the fact she was an Arceus damn Munchlax
"So we done here, kid?" the Basculain asked, sighing. "Need my sleep."
Sleep… sleep… this had to be a dream! And the way you wake yourself up from a dream is…
Amber curled her… paw? Yeah, paw, and went to punch herself in the face. She didn't expect her fist to catch on fire in the process. The Fire Punch seared her nose, and that wasn't even considering the force of the punch. That HURT. Amber rolled around in pain, the fire in her fist and nose dying.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" the old Basculain shouted.
"Just shut up…" the Munchlax groaned, sitting up. Wasn't she supposed to wake up now?
"Well excuse me brat!" the fish huffed. "What I get for helping a landie…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Was the fish really being RACIST? Was calling him a fish racist? How did this work? Why did it matter? It was a dream!
Right?
The fish simply scowled, before sinking back under the waves. Amber pushed herself up, growling. Actually growling. She. Was. Growling.
And she STILL hadn't woken up.
…
No. Focus.
If this was a dream, she'd wake up eventually. Maybe she just had to ride it out? Maybe a Drowzee was keeping her under to eat. That happened sometimes…
Great, now she had that on her mind.
Well, if she was stuck here, might as well see what this Sanctuary place was about. Or she could sit here and do nothing.
…
…but who would waste a dream like that?
Amber set off soon after, following the river's flow. She may as well see what her mind cooked up.
So far it wasn't cooking up anything she hadn't seen before. Trees, the occasional bird pokemon, a distant rustle of bushes caused by something, nothing really new, except the whole being a pokemon thing.
Why didn't she dream herself as something with longer legs? Did she even have legs? It didn't feel like it at least, and the blanket of thick fur she had coupled with her decently stubby arms made checking not much of an option. Ugh, the fur… Why did she have to dream that part too? Or at least not dream of it being a sunny day. Couldn't it be raining?
Okay, maybe that wouldn't be as refreshing with the whole fur thing.
Why was there so much walking? No, that's enough complaining. When has a dream ever made sense? Usually, they're totally incoherent… which this one hasn't really been. Huh, odd. At least the fish was gone. Why'd she dream of- No! No more complaining. Just enjoy it.
And it was a lot of walking. Like a lot of walking. Seriously, how did a dream- Stop complaining! What did you just say? Besides, a bit hard to look for a town when you keep complaining. And to distract herself from the complete lack of an interesting dream, she'd instead find herself complaining about a nagging feeling of hunger that just did not want to go away. Probably because she was hungry. And you best believe she'd complain about dreaming that detail if she didn't already swear she'd stop complaining about the stupid things she for some reason decided to dream about. Like that fish- What. Did she JUST say?!
Before she was able to scold herself though, a loud, wild and deep growl came from somewhere nearby, out of sight. Great. This was great. Then another, but this one was accompanied by a sting of pain through her gut.
"Listen, I KNOW I'm hungry! I get it! I'm working on it!" she finally snaps. At her stomach. For growling. When she's hungry.
Yep.
She needed food. At least towns have food… usually.
…
This one better have food, otherwise, she's going to have a serious conversation with her subconscious.
…
There better actually be a town too.
Luckily for Amber's subconscious, there was. Or at least there was a bridge, and then a town as she got closer. Or she thought it was a town. That's what towns look like, right? It might not be one. You know, crazy dream and all that.
There were two sides to the town, one on each side of the river. And the buildings on both sides seemed to have pretty different architecture. At a closer look why that was would become pretty obvious. One side looked like shops, market stalls, and the like. The other side, the one across the river, looked a lot more like residential housing, with a variety of pokemon walking too and fro between the two sides and younger ones playing in the streets.
Oh yeah, and it was all pokemon. Not a human in sight.
Now, THIS was the cool dream stuff she was waiting for! A town run by only pokemon? How did she never think of that before?! Well, unless some human actually was running it and just didn't know because…
Dream. Not important.
Lead by her own curiosity, Amber enters, suddenly not at all tired from all that walking. Unfortunately, her hunger didn't disappear quite as easily. And neither did the Mawile who was barreling towards her and was not stopping.
"Oof!" An exclamation sung in a duet as the two collide, but what happens beyond that is a bit out of sync as the Mawile ricochets off of Amber and towards the ground, flat on his back.
Wow, the headmaw was a lot more intimidating when you were about the same size as it. No wonder they used to freak Rusty out.
…
Oh right, should probably check on him.
"Uh… Are you okay?" Ugh, that voice thing. Forgot about that.
"Y-yeah… Sorry about that miss," the Mawile spoke as he climbed back to his feet, brushing a thin layer of dust and dirt off his body, turning his attention to Amber in full and shooting her an odd look after a moment accompanied by a slight tilt of his head.
"Are you new around here? Don't think I've seen you before. Are you here to join the guild? Are you an explorer?" the Mawile excitedly questions, hardly giving a moment between to answer each one.
"Uh… Yes, maybe, and yes." She got every question there right? She knew she was new. She wasn't really sure what that guild thing meant. And she did explore a lot, though whether or not that was a good thing would depend on who you asked. You piss off one Ursaring and suddenly every adventure is a death trap!
"Oh, great! I'll show you where it is." The Mawile takes a straight 180 and starts marching back down the way he came, very clearly having a place in mind.
"...Wait what? Wh-where what is?" Amber was still having trouble figuring out what he meant by those last things and then he just does… whatever was even happening right now.
"The guild." The Mawile didn't even stop to respond.
"I… What is a guild?"
That gets the Mawile to stop and look back, shooting another confused look at Amber. "...What do you mean? Aren't you an explorer? Thought explorers were supposed to know that kind of thing…" he trails off into a thoughtful mutter, more thinking out loud than anything now.
"I… I mean I explore… sometimes." Did that not qualify as being an explorer? Explorers explore. She explores. Was there really that much of a difference?
"But are you an explorer?"
"I… Sure, yeah. I am." Yeah, she was an explorer. She was also getting tired of debating this.
"And… you don't know what a guild is?" the Mawile continued to question.
"No, I-" The Munchlax's stomach cut her sentence off with a loud and deep grumble. She groaned a bit. Okay, that hunger was starting to hurt. And her noses' magnetic attraction to her mysteriously sweet-smelling hand… paw… things was not helping.
The Mawile winces, recoiling his head slightly.
"...That didn't sound good."
Amber would have retorted if she had the energy to, but she was starving and spent probably the entire walk trying to enjoy this stupid dream and not complain about it…
Just like that.
"...Y'know, the guild serves breakfast and dinner to every member for free."
"Okay, it's- Whatever, just… take me there; I'll sign up." She didn't really care anymore, she was just starving suddenly. She just needed-
"I have an extra apple if you want-"
"PLEASE!" she shouted desperately, not at all intending to say it that loud. Normally the turned heads checking for the meaning of a sudden uproar caused by Amber's hand would elicit some embarrassment, but she really couldn't care less right now. She was hungry.
The Mawile took a single nervous step back, reached into his bag, and pulled out the promised apple, holding it out to Amber like a caged animal, who yanks it from his grasp and practically eats it whole.
That was probably the best apple she's ever had in her life, but she couldn't tell if it was because she felt like her body was eating itself from the inside out before she had it or because dream apples just tasted THAT good.
…
Maybe it's some combination of both?
"...Uh- There's more food at the guild, like I… said…" the Mawilie somewhat timidly piped up, who didn't seem too keen on his whole current stash of food succumbing to the maws of a Munchlax's ravenous appetite.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Amber marched off in a direction. She had no clue where the guild was or what it was or even where it was, but she marched with such determination that anyone passing by that didn't know any better thought otherwise. Until she stopped when reality finally caught up to her. Or… dream-reality? It's a dream; it's not really… real, but she's still here so it's kind of real? Whatever, she's not smart enough for this. What was she doing? Oh right, the guild thing.
"Uh, where is it?" she finally turned around to ask.
The Mawile merely sighed like someone who only just realized what he was getting into and started off into town like someone who knew where they were going, but this time it wasn't someone who was faking it. And Amber, with nothing better to do, follows along.
…
…
…
"...And this is the guild." The Mawile gestured broadly to the gigantic building that stood before them both. "Oh, I'm Felix by the way. Sorry, I… kind of forgot that part."
To be fair, Amber also forgot that part for multiple reasons, one of which definitely included hunger.
"I'm Amber." Something about hearing him mention his name recemented the surrealness of just a pokemon. Talking. Like a person. And just… had a functioning society. Damn, this dream was cool! I mean, Rusty could understand her just fine and for the most part she could understand what he was trying to communicate, but he couldn't talk. Or, he could, just not english or anything. These pokemon were talking!
She needed to tell the professor about this dream.
"Nice to meet you, Amber!" Felix gave an excited grin. "I hope you don't mind but the whole… food thing is only for guild members so you'll have to sign up."
"Listen, at this point, I couldn't care less. Whatever it takes, just… get me food…" She was tired, hungry, her stubby legs were sore. She just wanted dinner and a nap. A long nap.
"…Alright." Felix shrugs indifferently and leads the Munchlax through the enormous front doors. They weren't even really doors, more just an open doorway.
The interior quite honestly didn't look all too different from just a standard office building. In layout, not in the material used. A front desk sat right in front of the door where it was impossible to miss, and some poor pokemon that looked half-asleep seemed to be manning it. A few more open and huge doorways adorn the sides of the hall, each one having a unique aura about them (well, not literally), and the occasional pokemon entered and exited through them, hardly even batting the pair an eye as they marched off somewhere for something.
While Amber's stopped in her tracks, admiring yet another really cool aspect of this dream, Felix marches on, straight towards the desk, knocking on the wooden desk to walk the sleeping 'mon, and-
"Mmmm…? Oh… Hey Felix-" Apparently fully asleep. The receptionist groggily raises his head, stifling a sleepy yawn with his hand. And now that he wasn't hunched over the desk in a deep slumber, what they were was a lot more clear: a Passimian.
"Hey Mr. Derrek; got a new recruit."
"Hm- New recruit…? O-oh, right. Uh, give me a sec, sorry." The Passimian yawns again, rattles his head a little with his hands, then snatches a long stick of charcoal sitting on the desk, spinning it between his fingers until stopped, resting in the perfect position to write. With his other hand, he grabs a sheet of paper from under the desk and slides it in front of him. Seems like he's done this a few times.
"Alright, what's your name miss?"
"Amber."
"Amber…" he repeats as he jots it down. "Alright. What moves ya know?"
"Moves?" She's both surprised and annoyed she didn't think of that. I mean, she's a pokemon, that should have been like the first thing she thought of! But now she had to figure out what she knew since what pokemon didn't know what moves they had?
…
One that had amnesia! Er, not the move, just one that didn't… Whatever.
"Uh, Fire Punch."
"...Just Fire Punch?"
"Yep."
"...How does an explorer only know one move? You got the goggles and everything! Whatever, sorry, that's none of my business is it now?" Derrek waves dismissively and shrugs as he jots down the singular move. "Alright, where you from?"
Okay, guess she didn't have to use the amnesia thing, but she can answer that easy enough. And if he (probably) has never heard of it, then she can totally bullshit something, like it being super far away or it being a small town no one bothers jotting down on a map.
"Canalave."
"Canalave… Can't say I've heard of it before but I'm no cartographer so it's not like my word means much." He shrugs again, taking a bit longer to jot it down this time. He looks it over again, following along where he read with the pointed tip of the charcoal stick, which he eventually unceremoniously drops back on the desk again.
"Alright, that's it. Welcome to the Sanctuary guild. Sleeping quarters are over that way, mess hall over there. Don't check out the cells just yet those guys'll eat you alive. Mission board back there." Hardly anything about his explanation is ceremonious or fancy, it more sounds like a customer service line worker saying the same exact greeting to everyone. "Dinner's in a few hours so probably best to spend that time looking around or something."
"'Kay… Thanks…" She didn't have enough fight left in her to say something about it. Besides, napping was still an option. And so, she slogged off to do so, wandering the halls tiredly for an amount of time she didn't bother to keep track of.
The beds looked enough like beds to hardly bother Amber, but she'd honestly be fine sleeping on the floor at this point… As long as she had a pillow to rest her head on. But she didn't need to sleep on the floor, so that was nice.
The Munchlax practically crawled into the nearest open bed, weighing the middle of the bed down with her weight, creating a cozy little dent in it and curling up into it, becoming nothing more than a large mass of blue fur to the outward eye.
You know what? Maybe the fur wasn't so bad. Sure the heat was miserable and she didn't even want to think about rain, but BOY if this wasn't comfortable. The second she was situated she could feel herself already dozing off, and she did nothing to fight it. She needs her rest, especially if she was going to explore this place and everything else around here tomorrow.
But that was tomorrow. Today, she slept.
And she sure enjoyed today.
