"Heeyyy. Heeyyyyyy!" A very deadpan voice speaks out to me. A zorua looms over my face, waving a paw over my half opened eyes. "Are you alive?" I groan and begin to get up, the Zorua steps back a tad startled, maybe because they thought I was actually dead or asleep. I rub my eyes. My hands- No- Not hands, my paws are fuzzy. Apparently that wasn't a dream or maybe this is an extended dream and I just haven't woken up yet.
"You're alive!" they exclaim. "Well, that's good. I didn't wanna have to go report to the guild that someone collapsed in the middle of the path." I pat my face, still in disbelief. I grab at my ears and my jaw drops a little.
E. S. P. Espurr. That's what I am and that's what that red V dude meant.
"Um, are you ok?" I snap back to reality with the Zorua looking confused. "What are you doing?" I shake my head and struggle to find a response. "Um, sorry, just a bit out of it. I think I hit my head really hard or something- Where are we?"
Surrounding us are trees and bushes with purple flowers and grass that's half as tall as me. The trees cover everything above with only small beams of light pushing through. The flat dirt path we're on winds away into the distance, I can't see the end of it all because of the twists and turns.
"Oh! This is uh…" They pause for a moment. "On the tip of my tongue… This is- Grytille forest! Yeah, Grytille forest. This place has all sorts of cool little trinkets lying around, perfect for exploring." They grin.
"My name's Marble by the way! Yours?"
"My name's Walker I think." I replied. A headache pounds at my head like I'm being punished for trying to remember.
"You think?" There's a brief silence before Marble speaks up again. "Well, you did say you hit your head really hard."
"Uh-huh." I reply flatly.
"Either way- Nice to meet you! We should get a move on to Aurial town just ahead of this path. Get you fixed up there." Marble moves forwards at a brisk pace.
"H-hey, wait up!" I follow them along passing through weird arches of foliage, hopping over logs in the path and jumping over a small creek of water.
As we're walking along Marble decides to strike up conversation. "So where do you come from?" Ah shoot.
"I come from the uh… Um. The city of..." I break out in a sweat and Marble looks at me anticipating a response.
"I don't actually remember, haha…"
"What! You don't remember?! Man you REALLY must've hit your head. Remember anything else?"
"Nope, drawing a blank, sorry."
"Darn. Well-" Marble suddenly stops, and lifts a paw pointing forwards. I had my eyes on him for the entire time we talked so I hadn't even realized we'd arrived. "Look! We're here! Aurial town!"
I look forward to see a vast town standing on spires of ground reaching up from a bottomless abyss below. There's many wooden bridges that are well supported connecting each house together, held together with rope. There's a bridge leading from where we stand to a building with a Corviknight's face painted onto a sign hanging just above the door. I swallow my fear of heights and we step onto the bridge together.
"Why is this whole town built over a bottomless pit? This doesn't seem the slightest bit safe." I make the mistake of looking down as we're crossing the bridge. I'm shaking but Marble on the other hand crosses fearlessly with no cracks in his stride.
"Oh, it's totally not safe! But there's a good reason why this place is built like this- This whole place used to be just a normal town and then one day out of nowhere, legendaries came to evacuate everyone. And then once everyone was out- A giant sinkhole swallowed the ground up! I remember it as clear as day-" Marble continues. "The legendaries consoled all the other Pokémon, Regirock brought the ground back up for the houses, so no one's personal belongings were lost, then they all left. We all had to take our part in building bridges and platforms to get back to our houses."
As we walk into the building creaking open the door and hearing the bell chime, Marble finishes off with this; "You know now that I think about it, the legendaries never did tell us why a sinkhole was here and how they knew about it before it happened…" Marble looks up, slightly lost in thought with a blank expression.
In the building a Corviknight sits behind a desk looking at us and at papers laid about. Windows to the left and right peer out into the abyss below.
"Hey. Don't stand so close to the windows." The Corviknight's voice booms. I promptly step back.
"Troublesome boy. Who's this you've brought?"
"They're someone I found while out in the forest. They collapsed on the path and I'm taking them here to get checked at Audino's- Is that ok?"
The Corviknight grunts. "Hmph. Fine. You may go." Marble goes behind the desk and out the backdoor. I follow but I get stopped just before the door by the iron bird.
"You. What is your name?" Why is this guy so intimidating, what's his deal?
"M-my name is Walker."
"Will you be staying long? I record the name of everyone who enters and leaves this town. It's a small town and it keeps track of the troublemakers. Like Marble. He's a handful."
"I'm not sure I'll be staying long, but I'll have to pass through here again if I want to leave I'm sure."
"Alright. Don't go causing any trouble with that hooligan, got it?" I can't imagine Marble as a bad guy. He seems nice.
I open the door and the whole town is opened up to me. A massive wooden platform acts as the plaza, built around a centerpiece of a statue sitting atop earth extending up from the abyss below I assume. A Lucario holding a sword and a shield with a ring holding a swirly stone. There's a stall with a Bewear selling clothes, a Bisharp dicing up berries and serving them into drinks in the building just beside the clothing stall.
Wait. Where's Marble?
"Hey! Give me that back!"
Just ahead I can see Marble bouncing up and a Noivern hanging a badge just out of his reach. "What, this little thing? It's not even a real one and you know it. Heheheh… You know how much trouble you could get in if the guild found out someone was running amok with a fake badge and taking on jobs that they could be doing." The Noivern replies smugly. The rest of the Pokémon in the plaza by now have left to ignore the situation, the ones that stay are the ones sitting at Bisharp's bar, looking back with disgust.
Marble continues to helplessly jump up and down trying to snatch it back from the Noivern. "But I need it! It's not yours, you- You have no right to take it!"
"I think I'm doing the guild a favor, keeping someone that's not qualified from being able to do jobs." This could get really ugly really fast. I start walking and then running over after Marble tackles Noivern in the knee. Noivern recoils a little from the hit and they both stare each other down with fury.
"Why you little-" Noivern reels back for a punch but stops as he sees me and his arm falls back to his side.
"Stop! Stop messing with him!" I shout. Marble turns to look at me shocked and a cross of guilt fades over their face. Noivern raises a brow.
"Who the heck are you? This is none of your business, run along. Unless you're a friend of this idiot." This Noivern has a very punchable face. I was about to but I thought better of it since there's people watching and I don't want a bad first impression in this town.
"This is none of your business either. Ever heard of picking on someone your own size? It's a really common expression." I bite with my words, Noivern wasn't expecting it, they cross their arms and tilt their head back.
"If you're gonna try and pick a fight with someone, pick it fairly."
"Tch. You're lucky there's people like Corviknight around else you'd be knocked to the next week." Noivern begins to saunter off away.
"Hey! You're forgetting something!" Marble pipes up. "Ugh, here." Noivern flicks the badge back at us and I catch it in my paws and hand it off to Marble. Pokémon start coming back into the plaza and everything's back to normal after a few whispers and murmurs pass. Marble struggles for a moment, and then puts the pin in their chest fluff.
Marble looks with guilt like they just robbed a bank. "Sorry I… Wandered off without you."
"It's fine! That guy was being a total jerkwad." I say, trying to be reassuring, which seems to have worked because Marble seems to completely swing out of that slump at full force. It's jarring.
"Well! Now that that's over, we can get you to Audino's to get you fixed up." Marble starts to walk forward and I follow behind.
"Erm, I feel fine actually, all I ever had was a headache. Is there somewhere else I can stay?" I don't wanna be cooped up for a day for just a headache.
"Oh!" Marble pivots and walks the other way suddenly and I stumble a little trying to keep pace. "Well, then we can stay at my place!"
"W-wait really?"
"Yeah! I don't have an extra bed but I can make my own place on the floor for a while, I can go ask Corviknight for another!"
We made it to Marble's place. The house is like a rundown shack, patched up with Spinarak web, leaves and wooden planks. One hole on the front of the shack is left open with a curtain, creatively making use of it as a window. On the inside, however…
"Woah… All of this is yours?"
"Yeppers!"
There's trinkets everywhere. A few bags of items, a map with X's in various places, a book titled 'Mystery Dungeons for Dummies' sits among a bunch of other books. Marble empties out a crate full of tools and hops into it, yawning. "Oops, I almost forgot!" Marble stumbles out of the crate and goes to the far end of the room, pulling out a drawer and opening a box with some weird markings.
"Here, I have some apples in my mini deposit box, take one!" He tosses it and I catch it. "Figured you might be hungry after all." Marble puts the mini deposit box back and then curls back into the crate.
"Oh, thank you." I didn't realize it but yeah, I was pretty damn hungry. I chow down on the apple pretty quick and fall into the hay bed.
"Goodnight Walker, see you tomorrow!"
"Night." I roll over, trying to get used to lying in a hay bed. I think about my situation. All in all I'm probably doing way better than most. I made a friend, I have a place to stay and food to eat. Other humans would probably be making an utter fool of themselves, maybe also making themselves look crazy or something, like culture shock. Something itches that isn't hay. I can't imagine why I was brought here. I toss around again on the hay bed. Maybe Marble would know, looking around I can see they have all sorts of tools, all leaning towards cartography. If for some reason I was brought to fix some kind of conflict they'd probably be the one to know. That's a stretch.
"Marble, are you still awake?" No response. Guess he's asleep. Oh well, I'll ask next time when it's appropriate. I'll get the hang of this Pokémon thing pretty quick.
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"Damnit Victini! How could you mess that up!?"
"Sorry! Sorry! I forgot, I thought it was just like all the other times we've brought humans, this is the first time we've ever tried anything like this!"
"Well, look! They're sleeping now. Now's your chance to interrupt their dream, give them the gift!"
"... Ok, I'll do it."
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
"Hey. Hey! Can you hear me?"
"Augh, what the hell-?"
"Hey, it's me again. The Pokémon who brought you here."
"Ugh, what do you want again? More questions? I don't care to answer them, I was enjoying a peaceful sleep and I'd like to go back to that."
"Sorry, it's important. I forgot to give you something last time we met and because of that, it'll start off weak. I'm giving you a gift."
"A gift? What's the catch?"
"There's no catch! I just forgot to give it to you last time. Remember when I said E. S. P.?"
"Yeah, you meant that as in the Pokémon I was gonna be, Espurr."
"Yes but not entirely- That was also the name of the gift you were GOING to be fated with. I'm gifting you a sixth sense, the gift of being able to see other Pokémon that are gifted."
"Wh- What do you mean?"
"Well- Sorry, what? Oh come on- Sorry! No time to explain it, Jira just called for me again while in the middle of something, but I've explained it well enough and the rest you'll get on your own. Good luck!"
"Ugh, seriously!?"
-o-O-0-O-o-O-0-O-o-
Tin Yurl leaves a note, it reads: "3zneruyc". Decipher it for a treat!