The next morning Sea woke up in his comfy bed, ready to take on the wilds around the village. First, he began his morning routine. He took a bottle of polishing liquid from a small shelf and mixing it with his own water, cleaned his scalchop. Even since his youth, he was taught that it is very important to keep his weapon as clean as possible. After the scalchop was glistening, he carefully attached it to his belly and opened his window. He stood there for a few seconds letting the morning sun warm his face up. Excited, he rushed to the kitchen, ready to devour his breakfast and set off.

But when he came to the living room, it was empty. The small table and seats in the middle of the room were empty, along with the small kitchen. This was strange to him, since his mother was usually up long before him. He decided to check on the master bedroom where his parents normally slept. He opened the door to a lit-up room similarly made to his. A couple of small shelves with different utensils and keepsakes, and a nicely framed picture of his family, made by a smeargle. That, however, was not what Sea was concerned about. He rushed over to the large haystack bed and found it empty. He stood there trying to process what he so before backing away from the room and closing the door. Although slightly worried at this point, Sea tried to calm down and think about what could have happened.

"Think, Sea, think, where could she have gone?" he wondered to himself as he walked around the room. An idea suddenly came to his mind: "She must have gone to the market to pick up supplies for our exploration!" he said, already going to the door.

What Sea stepped out to confused him even more, however, as the main road of Milleaf, that was usually busy, was now desolate without any Pokémon in sight. For the first time, he realised he heard no noise at all, as the silence surrounded him. Dreading the worst, he ran to the Kecleon mart, and found it closed, drapes shut over the stall.

"No, No, No, No"

he kept saying under his breath as he rushed toward other stalls. The bank, the storage manager, all the colourful stalls that he saw just days before, all shut down, without any note or anything that might indicate where everyone is gone. At this point, Sea thought he was dreaming. Sitting down in the middle of the road, he was starting to panic a little bit. The people of the town couldn't have just disappeared into thin air, now could they have? He remembered the one last possible option where he could find out what happened: the guild. He looked over to it, the tallest building in town, and to him, the last bit of hope about getting info. He ran back, past the markets, past his house, quicker than he ever thought he could run, and arrived to the other side of town in under a minute.

The guild was a truly beautiful building. Intricate designs of various Pokémon he never saw before were carved into an ancient tree as a large sprawling entrance loomed in front of him. Although on the same height from the ocean as the rest of the town, the guild was based on a cliff looming over the beach underneath. Its purpose also doubled as a lighthouse, as there is believed to be multiple Pokémon keeping the light on at night, high in the leafy branches. It seemed incredible how the tree was still alive, even with the carvings and large holes that were carved from it. However, even the guild seemed abandoned. The lobby that the saw was always full of new Pokémon was now empty. Even the mission boards which were refreshed very often were empty. For a few seconds, Sea thought he truly was the last Pokémon in the world, the rest of them devoured by some horrible calamity, when he heard the patter of feet coming from the steps on the back of the room. Immediately he felt relief flourish in his chest. He wasn't alone. Sea rushed forward ready to meet the newcomer, as a brown blur rushed above from the lower floors, colliding with him at the entrance.

"OOF!" said the Pokémon as it collided with Sea.

"Hey!" said Sea, knocked down on the floor "What was that for?!"

The Pokémon, who he now saw is an Eevee, said:

"Sorry! I'm in a bit of a hurry! Must deliver some urgent messages to the Winding Woods."

"Wait! Hold on!" Yelled Sea as the Eevee ran past him "What is going on? Where is everybody?"

The Eevee froze and looked at him in surprise.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Don't know what?" asked Sea.

"Come here, let me show you"

Sea followed the Eevee up the stairs to a what seems to be a watching post in the lower branches of the tree.

"Look over there" said the Eevee as it was pointing one of its paws vaguely towards the direction of the woods. Sea froze with shock as he saw the scene unfold before him. Massive black columns of smoke came from what seemed like a massive area of the woods.

"It seems like a lightning strike from yesterday lit a tree on fire, and it burned the whole night." The Eevee shook its head "The news reached us only very early this morning. Luckily for us, the guildmaster seemed to predict the calamity somewhat, since the entire guild was placed on high alert since last night. The guild's reaction was swift, as we managed to awake the villagers and warn them. Surprisingly most wanted to help with the fires, even the grass types."

"So, what you are saying is, all the villagers are out in the woods extinguishing the flames?"

"Well not everyone can shoot water from their mouths" The Eevee scratched his neck "Almost everyone is ether digging diches to try and stop the fire or helping with the evacuation of Pokémon."

The Eevee turned around to face him.

"I really should go now, you should climb down to the third floor and talk with Snivy, she is in direct contact with the guildmaster, and she will probably escort you to Raichu's tent where the rest of the children are located."

As the Eevee rushed down, he yelled:

"Tell Snivy Leo sent you!"

-0-

At first, it took Sea a couple minutes to process everything that happened. The fires, the villagers, everything Leo said. He wasn't sure what to feel, but he decided to follow his advice and find Snivy.

He went down to the first basement floor, absorbing everything he could. The first floor was seemingly a cafeteria and a med-bay, as the two blending into each other. Although empty, he could still smell the scent of spices and sweets emitting from the kitchen. The med-bay was empty as well, a note on the door saying: "Took most of the healing items to the woods camp, if you are feeling hurt, have an Oran berry! – Raichu". With some hesitation, the still-hungry Sea took a single Oran berry from the pile on the wood plate. While eating, he noticed that although torches were placed strategically around to light the area, they are all extinguished, the only light coming into the room from the windows seemingly drilled into the sturdy rock.

He went further downstairs discovering what seemed to be a dorm area along with a single room on the far side that was labelled "Training area". He could see that the dorm area was split into various smaller rooms, with 2 beds at most. The training area was shut, and although curious, he decided to continue to the lower floors as he will probably be able to explore the area later.

On the 3rd floor, where Leo told him to go to, there seemed to be different important guild member's rooms and offices. While most doors seemed to be made from wood with a sign signifying who the rooms belonged to, one stood out: the guildmaster's door, which seemed to be made of solid steel with many locks across its surface. Suddenly, he heard the inner mechanisms shift and change as the locks slowly opened one by one.

Sea started getting excited.

"Maybe I'll be the first person ever to see the guildmaster by accident!" he thought to himself as he watched the locks move. As the door opened, Sea watched in awe as a snivy came out. For a second, he stood as she carefully closed the door with her vines, making sure that each lock is carefully closed, before it clicked in his mind that this was probably the Snivy that Leo wanted him to talk to. Slightly disappointed, he approached Snivy as she was turning the final lock.

"Excuse me" he asked, tapping her on the shoulder.

Quicker than a speeding electrode she turned around and said: "Ah good, the reinforcements that the guildmaster asked for have arrived. Leo works fast."

For a second, Sea was confused about what she was talking about.

"Wha- "

"No time to talk, we have to hurry" said Snivy as she grabbed Sea by the hand and started dragging him up the stairs. In no time flat, they were at the entrance in front of the guild.

"We need to hurry; we must arrive there in at least 5 minutes if we want to keep up with Altaria's schedule."

"5 MINUTES?!" asked Sea, who was still trying to recover his breath from the fast run up the stairs "Even at full speed, it will take us at least half an hour to reach the area around the fires!"

"Hmmm" said Snivy, hand under mouth, thinking. "Alright, we might need to go big. Hold on."

"Go big? Hold on? What do you… WOAH" Said Sea as he was picked up by one of Snivy's vines.

"As I said, hold on." Two more vines popped from the back of her neck and started bunching up into knots on the floor, as they slowly lifted Snivy and Sea off the floor.

"Woah" said Sea, this time in awe. He has never been so high up in the sky. Looking down, he assumed they were at least over 20 meters in the air. Seemingly satisfied with the achieved height and the stability of the vines, Snivy started moving them like legs. Sea expected them to move slowly, basically being dragged across the ground, but Snivy moved the vines as she would her legs, basically jumping over the entire town withing two bounds. Sea could barely follow what was going on as the path blazed past under them. All he could do at this point was scream out loud:

"THIS IS AMAZING!"

Snivy seemed to smile at the comment: "I know right? Yet so many Pokémon are frozen with fear just at the thought of this." She said loudly, as to overpower the strong winds blasting past them. Within two minutes, the road was replaced by the leafy surface of the oak trees that overpowered the other trees in the woods. Snivy dodged the tree trunks expertly, as well as making sure not to run into any trees that were taller than average. As soon as the ride began, however, it ended as Snivy set them down in front of a couple of white tents in a small clearing.

"That was incredible! Do you do this often?"

"Only when speed is necessary. And I told you already, not many people enjoy it. Now come on, we must meet Altaria."

They entered the biggest of the tents, which seemed to be the information centre. Many Pokémon rushed about, doing their duties. The tent was filled with things such as maps, figurines and many other things that Sea didn't recognise. In the centre of it all was an Altaria perched over a massive circle-shaped map, who, at this moment at least, seemed to be talking to Leo the eevee carrying out a report. Sea had seen an Altaria only once before in his life, and this one looked no different: blue body, white fluffy wings that look like clouds, the only visible parts of her body being her head, and her legs that are currently dangling over the edge of her chair. The only thing that distinguished her was the badge on her chest, which shone as the sunlight reflected around the multicoloured gem embedded into it.

As they approached, Leo seemed to be finishing a read from a piece of paper.

"'… this request is urgent and cannot be ignored at any cost.' That would be all on the paper. Do you have any further messages I should deliver?"

"No, it is fine" said Altaria, looking at the map with a troubled look "You may do as you wish"

"Yes ma'am" said Leo with a polite nod. Passing by them, he nodded to Snivy the same way he did to Altaria and gave Sea a little wave, which he returned. Approaching Altaria, Snivy said as loudly as she could:

"Hey 'taria, I got you the reinforcements you were looking for"

"Don't yell!" Altaria said with annoyance. "I can hear you perfectly well without you breaking my ear drums. Also, I told you to not call me that…" she suddenly stopped as she turned around to look at them. She cast her look onto Sea, then Snivy, then back at Sea, and finally, her glare settled on Snivy.

"Snivy" she said slowly "Is this child the 'reinforcements' you brought me?"

"Yup"

Altaria's glare narrowed: "Snivy, we can't just take random children, throw them into a mystery dungeon, and tell them to evacuate the area."

"Why not? I was about his age when I started my adventure" she said "Besides he is an oshawott, his parents are bound to have taught him some skills to defend himself"

"Well perhaps… but…"

"Besides," continued Snivy "if he wishes to volunteer himself, who are we to stop him from helping?"

Altaria rolled her eyes "Fine. But I need to hear him say that he wants to help. Speaking from experience, you probably snatched him right up without explaining anything."

"Fair enough" said Snivy, shrugging her shoulders. Both of their gazes turned to him, and Sea realised that this is a big decision. He could say that he doesn't want to volunteer, and he could avoid all the trouble that comes with it. He would probably be sent to Raichu's tent, where he would be completely safe and could even make a couple of friends. On the other hand, if he volunteers, great danger could await him. Was he ready to take on the risk? The answer was clear to him.

"I'll do it. I will help you." Snivy smiled, while Altaria let out a sigh.

"Your choice, I guess. Now climb up so I can show you what you will be doing." With little difficulty, Sea jumped up to the table with Snivy close behind him, using her vines to put her next to Altaria in terms of height. Pointing to the area where Sea stood, Altaria said:

"That over there is the eastern area of the Winding woods. It is also a Mystery dungeon. The fire that is heading over to Milleaf is more-less extinguished, however we are worried about it burning its way toward the area we don't want it to go and hurt lots more innocent Pokémon. Although there are very little chances that the fires will breach the magical shield of the dungeon, I do not wish to be the Altaria that has to tell those poor Pokémon that they need to evacuate within a span of 10 minutes just because we didn't consider that their area was under threat. Any questions?"

"Yeah," asked Sea, genuinely baffled, "what was the talk about dungeons having a magical barrier around them?"

"It's a fairly recent discovery, so I am not surprised that you didn't know" said Altaria. "In a nutshell: the dungeons form a natural barrier that protects them from the outside influences. The woods are protected from forest fires, underwater caves are protected from the effects of the tides, stuff like that."

"Ah alright" said Sea, nodding his head. He kind of understood what she wanted to say, but he also noticed the general rush everyone was in, and he assumed that Altaria had other duties she needed to tend to.

"Good. Here, take this" Said Altaria, throwing Sea a small light blue coloured bag. He opened it, fining a small seed, two Oran berries and a wood badge.

"The badge is a temporary one, if you are hurt or cannot continue, simply thinking about coming to camp while holding it should teleport you right over. The small seed is a tiny reviver seed. If you happen to feel close to fainting, make sure to eat one. It will give you enough energy to at least teleport yourself out. Is everything clear?"

"Yes miss!" Said Sea, almost saluting.

"Good. Snivy, you are to watch over them and make sure the mission is completed successfully."

"What? Why me?" asked Snivy, giving Altaria an annoyed face. "And why do I have to listen to you? I am the one that is higher ranked."

"Maybe you are, but I am sure the guildmaster would be absolutely thrilled to hear that you let a kid fend for itself in a mystery dungeon. Besides this was your idea, so you need to take responsibility for it." Before Snivy could answer, Altaria was at the tent-flap, getting ready to fly away.

"I have to go scout the situation." Sea could swear he saw her smile." Good luck on your mission!"

She stopped one last time, turning around and told Snivy: "Also, could you wear your badge? It is unruly of someone with your status not to wear theirs." Before anyone could say anything, with a flap of her wings, Altaria was gone.

-0-

It has been about ten minutes since the conversation with Altaria happened, and Sea and Snivy have almost arrived to the dungeon. Sea tried to start up a conversation, but Snivy was having none of it, grumbling underneath her breath. Sea only managed to catch a couple of words, which were: "Stupid", "Nap", and "Babysit". In general, he felt a bit hurt at how much of a chore Snivy was seeing him as, but there was nothing he could do about that. Snivy seemed mad in general, and he felt as though talking about his problems will only aggravate her even further. He felt as though he didn't want that. So, he walked in silence, the only noises being Snivy grumbling under her breath, and perhaps a chirp of a flying type in a distance. Sea took this time to think about his day. First, he was expecting a small adventure with his mother, only to end up in a situation where he is exploring with one of the top ranked adventurers of the guild. And his mother… Sea wondered how she was doing. She wasn't a great adventurer like his dad, but that didn't mean that she wasn't powerful. Samurott were known to be a proud species of Pokémon, adept at fighting since their youth. While Sea was raised similarly to this, his parents were much more relaxed over the 'family honour' thing, so while he was strong, he was weak compared to rest of the oshawott his age. So far, he wasn't that concerned about his low strength when compared to others of his kind, but now more than ever, he was kind of hoping his parents would have been stricter about such things. He was so caught up in his thoughts, in fact, that he didn't even notice that they arrived to the dungeon until Snivy grabbed his hand.

"Hold on a minute kid, we should talk strategy."

"I told you my name is Sea"

Snivy rolled her eyes. "Alright Sea I will take the western path, and you take the eastern path. If you get into any trouble, yell for me. And remember your mission. Any Pokémon you see, tell them about the approaching fires. The more Pokémon you tell, the faster the word of mouth will spread, and the more Pokémon will be evacuated. Got it?" Before Sea could answer, Snivy said: "Good. See you at the exit." And disappeared into the smaller path on the right. With a sigh, Sea took the left path into his first ever dungeon.

WINDING WOODS: EAST SIDE

The first few rooms he entered; Sea found nothing. No treasure, no Pokémon, not a single interesting thing. When he heard all those stores from his dad, he imagined the rooms would be filled to the brim with items and enemies. What he found was rather underwhelming. It wasn't until his fifth room that he found his first Pokémon: a starly. Their meeting went something like this:

"Hey you there!" yelled Sea.

The starly turned around with an angry look in her eyes: "What do you want? This is our territory, so scram!"

Slightly taken aback at the hostility, Sea said: "I was sent here by the guild to send the message to as many forest dwellers about the incoming fires."

"Fires you say?" the starly asked, her expression softening. "And why should I believe you?"

"You can fly a bit above the canopy and see the smoke rising"

Quickly enough, the starly flew and came back, a worried expression on her face.

"Oh dear. So, it is true"

Shuffling nervously, Sea asked: "Have you seen anyone else around? I searched for almost the entire floor yet found nobody."

"Most are probably hiding in the canopy" the starly said "I will go warn them."

"Hold on!" yelled Sea "you said most. Does that mean that there are more Pokémon in this floor who aren't hiding?"

The starly stared at the sky thoughtfully. "Yes, take a straight here and a right the next fork you see. There you should find a Pokémon lying on the ground. I saw it this morning."

Sea breathed out in relief." Thank you."

As the starly flew up, Sea dashed to the room it described, finding a small curled up figure on the floor. At first, they seemed to only be asleep, but then Sea noticed that their breaths were shallow.

"Oh dear" he said as he rushed to the small blue ball, turning it only to find a face of a cyndaquil staring back at him. Their breathing was still heavy, and Sea noticed small scratches all over the place.

"I hope I am not too late" said Sea as he took an Oran berry out of his bag. Expertly using his scalchop, he sliced the berry into even pieces and slowly fed them to the cyndaquil. "There, there." He whispered, unsure whether to himself of the cyndaquil. "You will be alright"

With each slice entering their mouth, their wounds seemed to clear more and more, and their breathing got lighter and lighter. With a satisfied sigh, Sea put the final piece of the berry into the cyndaquil's mouth, seemingly waking them up.

"Thank goodness you are alright!" said Sea. "You had me worried for a second there" The cyndaquil looked like it was about to say something, before Sea's speech interrupted it. It seemed to get on its back legs taking a few steps backwards, clearly in shock. Then they looked down. Sea could hear them whispering:

"What?", Before they began checking every part of themselves, from their small hands, to their back covered in red spots.

"No, no, no, no, no" Sea could hear them whispering.

"Hey, are you okay? What's wrong?"

The cyndaquil seemed to have noticed Sea speaking, and with every word, they seemed more and more in shock.

"You are an oshawott" they said, this time in a clearly discernible female voice "and how are you talking?"

Sea was confused about the question. "Of course. You are a cyndaquil, and I don't see anything strange about you talking"

The sentence seemed to confirm her worst fears. She sat down looking at her hands. "So, it's true" Tears began streaming down her eyes.

"Hey, it's alright!" said Sea, sitting down next to her. "You can tell me what's wrong."

"I… I can't remember!"

"Can't remember what?"

"Anything! My name, who my family was, or anything but one fact"

"And that is?" asked Sea curiously.

"It's the fact that… I am a human."