The ring of the school bell could be heard throughout the village. Panne stuck her nose out the window and listened as it echoed into the hills, her ears twitching attentively to the sound before it faded out. Eight years ago, she would have been barreling through the village at this exact point. She would've already been late, of course. As soon as she got there, Farfetch'd would have scolded her in front of everyone and made her write out a full blackboard of sentences, which was exceptionally more difficult since she didn't have thumbs yet. That memory was still so fresh in her mind that she must have been subjected to that punishment at least a dozen times. People always assume world-renowned explorers were excellent students when they were young. Thinking back, it's funny how wrong they really are.
Panne turned away from the open window and went straight back to brushing her unruly fur into submission. A deep yawn came from beyond the doorway, followed by some heavy, thumping steps. Carracosta meandered his way into view, his sullen eyes not quite as awake as the rest of him. Not that the rest of him was all that awake.
"Morning, Pops," the Braixen called out, working diligently at a particularly dense tangle.
"Mornin', sunshine," her father muttered back, slowly working his way over to the kitchen counter. His eyes were trained solely on the jar of coffee grounds. "It's strange to see you up before me. Usually it's only been the other way around. I guess cartographers have a lot on their plates."
Across the table, Vallion sat staring down at his untouched breakfast. The glass of fruit juice, however, was completely gone since the last time she checked. He tried to speak, but let out a few dry coughs instead. "I- um. I don't mean to be a bother first thing in the morning, but I kinda had one of those allergy...dream...things last night. Do you have any medicine?"
Pops raised an eyebrow, then placed a flipper over his forehead. "Oh, it seems you have. Though that fever's running much higher than I would expect out of one of those. Hold on, I've definitely got something for that in one of these cabinets." In the midst of making his coffee, Carracosta began to rummage through dozens of bottles and jars. "Bah, and on your first night back, too! That's such rotten luck. Strange that it's affecting you so strongly despite being a grass type, though. What kind of pollen could cause a reaction like that?"
"Definitely not just allergies," Panne said, grimacing from both the situation and the knot that her brush had caught. "I woke up in the middle of the night to find him totally burning up and coughing his lungs out. I had to shake him awake from the nightmare, and afterwards he was totally messed up! So he's been feeling sick ever since then. Barely got any sleep, too. I told him to go back to bed this morning and he wouldn't listen."
Carracosta shook his head, sprinkling some crushed herbs into a small cup of water and mixing it with some seed powder. "So like Meowstic, then. Mmm..." He turned around and set the concoction in front of the Servine, his brow still furrowed in thought. "I'm starting to get worried about this bug now. Up until this point, it was just a seasonal thing that came and went without much fuss. Just something weird that tends to happen at the end of spring. I assumed that Meowstic had just caught the flu at a bad time, but now it's happened to you as well. How so very strange..."
Vallion downed the medicinal potion in one gulp, cringed in disgust for a moment, then returned back to his sleep-deprived self. "It's not that big of a deal, to be honest. Annoying, sure, but it's not going to stop me. I've got vacation stuff to do, and goddammit I'm gonna do them." It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anything else.
"Vacations are supposed to be about resting, dummy! You literally told me that yesterday while I was freaking out about not having anything to do!" Panne set her brush down on the windowsill so that she could put both hands on her hips. "If you start to get any worse, I am going to chain you to a bed until you're better!"
The Servine just chuckled and shook his head. "Come on, Panne. The symptoms aren't even the bad part. At least give the medicine more than thirty seconds to start working."
She scoffed, her ears twisting behind her head. "Fine! I'll give it a while, but I mean what I said. I'm gonna go see Meowstic and see if she's any better while I'm at it." Panne halfheartedly waved goodbye to her father as she walked to the door. It wasn't just the sickness she was worried about. Nightmares like that don't just happen. "And finish your breakfast! Pops, make him finish his breakfast! He's gonna actually get sick for real at this rate."
The heavy wooden door swung behind her with a secure thud. Panne tilted her nose towards the sky and took in a deep sigh of the warm, sweet air and tried to move on. It was definitely honey season, the whole valley was starting to smell like it. All the Combee in the meadow were working overtime to produce for their Vespiquen. Maybe she should head over there at some point and try to haggle some out of their hands? Ooh, that would be delicious! And honey was good for when you were sick, right?
The Braixen shook herself awake and took off down the road. Even with the short distance she had to travel, there were plenty of distractions to keep her attention. Panne immediately managed to run into Roselia, but couldn't quite put together whether it was the daughter or the mother. Either way, they exchanged a wave and went their separate ways without having to confront that awkward reality. Just a few moments later, she came across Nuzleaf as he tended to his garden out front. The grass type had accidentally slipped into a thicker accent when they exchanged greetings. She considered asking about that huge surprise, but the thought drifted away before she could act on it. Probably for the best. Not like she'd even get anything out of him.
Without any further distractions, Panne finally made it to the daunting thing that was Meowstic's massive, solid wooden door. Normally she opened this thing with telekinesis, right? It wasn't that Panne couldn't accomplish such a feat, but it'd be rude to just barge right in. Instead, she knocked a fist against the door and while hoping there would be an answer before she bruised her hand. "Hey Meowstic! Are you awake? It's Panne! I know you were sick yesterday, I just wanted to check up and-"
'Yes, I'm awake.' Panne heard a voice from somewhere right behind her ears and inside of her skull. 'No, I'm not dead. I would have come to see you but I slept like twenty hours yesterday. Hurry up and get in here. I don't wanna open the door.' Turning the knob, she stood shoulder-first and pressed her way into the home with an exhalation of effort. While she had fully expected to have been hit by a cocktail of medicinal smells, the only thing that would float by her nose was a faint cinnamon.
A bit further in to the house, though, the Braixen finally walked face-first into a veritable wall of musky scents. The suffocating air consisted mostly of incense and odorous tea leaves. Across the room sat Meowstic herself, curled up in a large reclining chair with three blankets, a dozen or so empty mugs, and a book that was only marked within in the first few pages. Her fur was bedraggled and her gaze was half-lidded, but she mostly just seemed tired.
"You look way older." was the first thing Meowstic said. Her voice was significantly less rugged than her appearance would suggest. "It's only been a few months since I saw you, but you look like it's been a few years. Was there really that much crunch time near the end of that map?"
Panne shook her head. "Man, you have no idea. Nobody had any days off for weeks. And if you did, most of us ended up just working on those days too." She found a chair that wasn't covered in empty tea mugs and sat down, glancing at all the cluttered details of the room. "Yeah. I wanted to meet up with you yesterday, but Sawsbuck told me you were down for the count. Looking at you now, that seems like a pretty accurate way to put it."
"Wow. Rude. I'll have you know I'm doing much better this morning, thank you. I just haven't had a chance to clean stuff up yet." Meowstic exerted herself to stretch, then went right back to reclining amidst the blankets. "Worst part wasn't even the symptoms. I kept having the weirdest dreams. I don't know if anyone's told you about the allergy thing that floats around-it's not much of a topic, honestly-but I think I got it worst of anyone this year."
"I- um. About that." Panne struggled to find the right words to say, especially with everyone taking this so casually. To the villagers, it was just a seasonal ailment, but she saw what it was truly capable of last night. Val hadn't looked that scared in a long, long time. "So about those dreams. Can you...tell me what you remember about them? Or if you even remember them at all?"
"Hm? Yeah, I remember them somewhat. They're about as hazy as any other dream might be." Meowstic's brow furrowed as she rubbed her temples, humming in concentration. Apparently there was quite a bit to recall. "Well it's wasn't really too far out of the ordinary as far as strange fever nightmares go. A whole lot of floating around in darkness for the most part. I certainly didn't feel like I was alone in the dark, and whatever was around me felt particularly evil. You know, normal stuff like that. Honestly, the weirdest part was that I kinda remember smelling pine, almost like I was somewhere inside of a forest. Oh yeah, and there was always a yellow flash somewhere in it. Don't know what that's all about."
Panne's claws clacked against the wooden floor as she bounced her leg up and down. "Weird. That's weird. Super weird. Do you think it means anything?"
"Why would it mean anything? It was just a dream." Meowstic tilted her head. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden? Have you been whipping up premonitions in the dead of night?"
"No, not me. Maybe Val, though. He caught the same weird illness as you last night and I'm just wondering if it was...important." She exhaled out her nose. "Whatever! I'm glad you're doing better, anyways. We really gotta figure out some stuff for us to do together while I'm on vacation. I basically haven't made any plans besides the part where I wake up every day and do nothing. I can't just waste all this time, you know!"
The psychic type shrugged and took a swig of some nearby tea. She made a particularly sour face and slid the mug much farther away on the table than where she grabbed it. Must not have been the freshest mug. "Oh don't worry. There's plenty of time to think about it. I'm doing better, but I'm not exactly healthy yet. And besides, I know that Vallion's got something big planned for you at some point. Wouldn't want to get in the way of that."
"What?! You know about that? How?" The Braixen's ears shot straight up, poised and ready to catch any secrets that may come their way.
Meowstic chuckled. "Relax. I don't know what it's about, I just know that he's been working under the table for a few months. Nuzleaf told me a little while ago, that's all. Rumors can be interesting sometimes." With that, she let out a yawn and sunk into an abyss of comforters. "'Kay, I'm all tired again. Apparently I'm not done sleeping. Tell Vallion I said hello, will you? Give me a few days and we can celebrate your map the real way, alright? I've got a few bottles of honey wine stashed underneath my dresser that are just waiting to be found."
Panne said her goodbyes and pressed her weight into the oversized door a second time. When she slipped out into the warm sunlight, gravity caused it to slam back shut behind her, nearly catching her tail along the way. Screw that goddamn door. Why doesn't she just get a new one already? The Braixen huffed to herself and aimlessly strolled towards the center of town. The longer walk would probably be good for her nerves. It's been a long time since she's really just hung out. It's always business this, detour that. This time, it's an actual vacation! Who cares about having somewhere to be?
The breeze whipped at her face as she took a leisurely pace over the bridge, stopping halfway to stare at the current of the river as it washed over the reeds. The sun-soaked planks felt warm against her feet. For a few seconds, she didn't think about anything. This place was just as beautiful as when she was just a kid. It was actually still so breathtaking how little it had changed. It seemed like just yesterday she was finding big stones to toss over the edge of this bridge, fighting with Pancham to see who could make the largest splash. He had always won on account of having hands to hold onto larger rocks that she couldn't bite onto.
A little further down the path, a few familiar faces were setting up shop for the day. With the exception of the diligent Kecleon, who had already set up shop an hour ago just in case there some early travelers stopped by. There must not have been much business, though, since he had been wiping down his counter for the past minute. What did he even do in the downtime? Were there books below that counter for him to read or something? Thank goodness she didn't have to work a job as boring as that.
In the low murmur of far-off conversations, the Braxien heard a voice she could have sworn she recognized, but couldn't quite place who it came from. She wracked her mind for a few moments, glaring in random directions for the source of the sound. Of all the pokemon in the immediate area, the most obvious possibility seemed too crazy to believe. The longer she stared at the Pangoro, the more she realized that her immediate assumption was somehow correct. Panne snickered as she rushed towards them.
"Oh my gosh, Pancham? Is that really you?" she said. Pangoro noticed her, then immediately rolled his eyes and groaned. He attempted to turn his body away from the inevitable conversation and pretended not to notice her. "It is you, isn't it! Ha, I can't believe you finally evolved! Just look at you now! You used to be so short!"
"Ugh. Come on, Panne. Does this really need to such a big de- Oof!" Pangoro was promptly cut off when the Braixen tackled him with a hug. He tried his best to shy away, but to no avail. She was stuck to him like a Cascoon stuck to a branch. "Get off me. This is weird."
"You're so huge now that I can't even see over your head anymore! I wonder if I can still touch it." After her attempt was swatted away, Panne stepped away and delivered a playful jab at his stomach. "I don't remember you being this...circular, though. Did this happen when you evolved, or are you just eating too much still?"
Pangoro glanced down at his belly, despair flashing over his face for a split second. "Hey, you shut up! I'm sorry I don't have the free time to run around and play in mystery dungeons all day, alright? A pokemon living in a town's gonna be a little chubbier than one that's doing cartwheels through deserts or whatever it is you do. Of course they're gonna look better!"
Panne's smirk grew. "Are you saying I'm attractive?"
"I- I never said anything like that!"
"Oh. So you think I'm ugly, then?"
It was nice to see that, despite being four times as large and way more intimidating than before, Pancham still got just as flustered as ever. "No! That's not what I said at all! Quit putting words in my mouth! We're- we're all adults here, and- Gah. Shut your trap already. As soon as I evolved I knew this kind of thing was gonna happen eventually."
The Braixen's ears twitched. "Ooh, I get it. So you were thinking of me in the midst of evolving, right?"
His exasperated growl was matched only by her bubbling laughter. He punched her in the shoulder in a playful manner, but the kind of playful that still knocked her a foot back and threw off her balance. Not that she didn't deserve it. The fresh ache in her arm was just another welcome reminder that she was home.
"Nice to see you again, dweeb," Panne finally managed to say, rubbing at the bruise. "What have you been doing these days? You weren't around yesterday, so I started to assume you might have moved away like Accelgor did. Though I don't really know where you would even want to move."
Pangoro's posture started to relax. "Nah. I probably couldn't leave this place if I tried. You know, I was actually out of town visiting Accelgor when you two showed back up. The lucky bastard's doing pretty well for himself, all things considered. Not as well as you, I guess, but still not bad."
"Yeah well it took a few years to get to this point, Pangoro. Ooh, that's kinda weird to say. Pangorooo. I gotta get used to that."
To her musings, Pangoro merely sighed and crossed his arms. "The day you DO get used to it couldn't come sooner. Speaking of which, I think I can see your pet snake over there. Might want to check that out." Panne twisted around with the notion that he was just kidding, but lo and behold, Vallion was really there. And with Farfetch'd of all people in tow. Before they could make it over, Pangoro started walking in the opposite direction. "Oh, look at the time. It's half-past I'm-not-here-anymore. Later."
"Panne, hey!" Vallion shouted over the distance. "Here you are! I was wondering where you'd wandered off to. So- Oh geez, is that Pancham?"
"Nope! Pamcham's gone now! Totally leaving!" Pangoro yelled behind him one last time before he scurried off behind a market stall and out of sight.
It took a few seconds for the disbelief to drain from the Servine's expression. "Err- Okay, never mind. Just listen. So I went off looking for you, and I ended up running into Farfetch'd while I was out. I think our vacation's gonna be on hold for a little bit."
The Braixen narrowed her eyes. "Wait, seriously? What's so important that we gotta deal with it ourselves? And isn't school in right now? Why aren't you over there getting torn apart by ravenous children? If you're asking us to substitute for Watchog I swear I'm going to teach those kids every swear word I know."
"No no, it's nothing like that," Farfetch'd quickly replied, nearly tripping over his own words. "I'm at a loss, really. I need someone reliable and I need them now, and as much as I'd rather not interrupt your celebration, it's an emergency! I don't have any other choice!"
Vallion held his nose high like he did whenever he accepted a mission. "That's what I've been told so far, but I wanted to find you before getting into any trouble. Alright, Farfetch'd, spit it out already. What's the emergency?"
The flying type shuffled in place. "To put it briefly, we're missing two kids. A Growlithe and a Ledyba. When they didn't show up for class, I just assumed they had scurried off again. When I went to tell their parents, I discovered that they had disappeared this morning before school had even begun. They weren't in their usual spots. Nobody's seen hide nor hair of them all day."
"Yep, I've done that before. Sometimes on accident," Panne said with a tiny smirk. "You sure they're actually in trouble and not just running around somewhere?"
"No, I'm not, but their parents seem to be adamant that something is wrong. I've never seen that Arcanine look so panicked! That woman's going to burn down the whole forest looking for that child if we don't find them soon! I really didn't want to bother you, but I desperately need the help! I can make it up to you somehow! I just haven't thought of it yet!"
"It's no problem. We'll start looking as soon as possible," Vallion said for the both of them.
A sigh of relief fell from their beak like it had been pent up in there for ages. "Excellent, that's excellent! I know I can always count on you two to get the job done. I'll figure out some reward somehow, don't worry! Oh, and when you find those two little troublemakers, could you maybe knock some sense into them about this kind of thing? It's every other week with them, I swear!"
Just as soon as he had appeared, Farfetch'd raced off towards the school in a flapping blur. Vallion let out a few coughs and scratched the back of his head with a vine. "Hm. Alright, I guess that's happening now. Sorry."
"Why are kids skipping school like two weeks away from summer? I mean, come on! It's not like you need to endure that much more!" Now that Panne was thinking about it, though, she really didn't remember anything that was ever taught in the last chunk of the year. However, she did remember the excursions into the forest where she skipped school exactly like this. Better not tell them that. "So where are we starting? The sooner we find these two, the sooner I can get back to being anxious about other things."
"I suppose we'll just start looking in the surrounding area. You check the forest south of here and wrap around west for about a half-circle. I'll go north and circle down east. That'll pretty much cover all the directions they could have run off to. If neither of us find them, then I guess there'll be a bigger problem on our hands."
"Sounds good to me," Panne said, stretching her arms behind her head. She was just about to walk away when the Servine suddenly stepped forward in an urgent kind of way. Distress flashed across his face, but his words got caught in his throat. She tilted her head in response. "You alright? What's the matter?"
"I love you," he quickly said.
The Braixen crossed her arms and gave him an odd look. His worries were getting under his skin again. She couldn't tell whether it was about last night, his big plans, or something else entirely, but the stress was written all over his face. "Hey. I don't know what's bugging you, but whatever it is, everything's going to be okay. Today's gonna be a good day. We've got some goddamn vacation stuff to do, remember? Let's get this over with so we can get back to them."
...
The first place Panne searched was around her special hill. She didn't expect anything, and found about as much. If it were this easy to find those kids, it wouldn't be an emergency in the first place. As she progressed further south, the forest thickened up to the point that the sun had trouble piercing the canopy. The cool air smelled of mud as she pressed out through the border of a mystery dungeon. It was just a small shudder and a brief gasp of electrified air. She probably wouldn't have even noticed if she wasn't already aware of the dungeon in the first place. Still, even a place as faint as this could send a couple of kids wandering in the wrong direction.
Her ears went high, pivoting towards the slightest sounds. She sniffed around for any unnatural smells and scanned her surroundings for tracks or debris. All that effort, and still the serenity of the forest made it exceedingly difficult to feel any sense of urgency. How could anything be wrong on such a wonderful day? Everything was so peaceful out here. Even the wild pokemon were going about their business without a care in the world. Nincada had started to emerge from their season-long slumber to meet the summer. Starly left their nests and flew in flocks above the treetops. No Growlithe or Ledyba, though.
Minutes ebbed away. The pleasant stroll became a little more serious after some time had passed with no sign of the students at all. There was a faint aura of foreboding in the air, like all this tranquility was just a mask for something more sinister going on beneath the surface. For the first time since coming out here, Panne started to actually worry for the safety of the two students. It wouldn't be for another few minutes that she finally realized why this totally-average day in the forest felt off.
It was just too quiet. There was no danger here at all. But why wouldn't there be?
Even in mystery dungeons like this, where the worst thing you'd find is a field of poison ivy, there should still be some kind of predator searching for a meal, or some wildling defending its territory. Up until this point, she has seen none of those things. It was so mind-numbingly peaceful that there had to be something wrong. The Braixen went from searching for the kids to just searching for a reason to feel threatened at all. She jumped through bushes in an attempt to piss off anything on the other side. She hooted and hollered and gave away her position constantly. She tried to be as much of a menace as possible, and only managed to make her self even more annoyed when nothing came to stop her. What the hell? If she did this in these woods before, a Seviper would have probably slithered out of a fallen log and bit her head off by now.
It took around half an hour for her to even see a pokemon that was moderately dangerous. A Beedrill flew by some few feet above her head, but the way it moved gave the impression that it was disoriented, drifting from side to side while clumsily flying between the branches of trees. Was it recently in a fight?
"Hey!" Panne called up to the bug type. "What the heck is your deal? Where is everybody?"
The Beedrill didn't answer. It just kept wobbling off through the air, barely staying afloat. She tried to chase it down for a while, but was stopped by the fact that she couldn't fly up into the canopy with it. The pokemon disappeared into the sea of leaves and left more questions in its wake than answers. The same thing happened again not twenty minutes later. Even deeper into the mystery dungeon, way out of the westward circle Vallion had suggested she move in, Panne found a Dustox unconscious in the trees. Not sleeping, but completely out cold and barely moving. An earthquake couldn't have woke that thing up.
When she came across a small clearing in the trees, she glanced up at the sun and saw just how far it had traveled since her search began. After all this time, she'd found a dozen bad omens and exactly zero signs that the kids had come this way at all. Vallion had probably found them and returned them to the village by now. Still, her legs just kept on carrying her forward through the verdant labyrinth. There was something important to be learned from all this, she just didn't know what it was yet.