Well, here we go chapter three, please tell me what you think.
XXXXX
While Luna hadn't slept well the night before. Between her brother's suddenly sullen mood, more so than usual almost, and the excitement of what would be their first official treasure hunt, with a client and everything. The Poochyena had found herself full of the same manic energy that usually caused her to tap her paws and shake around to an invisible rhythm.
That of course, was why she'd grabbed her bag and slipped out of the house, which Corbeau insisted was called a Chateau. Without her brother noticing, or at least she hoped she had, cutting a mad dash through the woods in an attempt to burn off some of that excess energy.
It was a couple hours before any of her friends would possibly be awake. "Except maybe Haru," she thought to herself. She hadn't known the Buizel long enough to pick up his sleeping habits. Though even if he was awake that knowledge wouldn't help her, she didn't even know where he was camping after all.
Thus without much option Luna splayed out on a fallen log to wait for the rising sun, stretching out to her full length with a yawn. Before she could get well and truly comfortable there was a sound. Like the crack of thunder, it was something stepping on a twig in the underbrush. Luna's ears swiveled attempting to find the source of the noise.
It was too dark to easily make anything out and the sound seemed to bounce between the trees. Slowly Luna began to build up electricity in her maw, the beginnings of a Thunder Fang, in an effort to both shed some light and to ward off any would be attackers.
"Hold on now," a gentle, husky sounding voice called out from the darkness. "I'm harmless, see look." A spot slightly to the left of Luna began to light up with a quick flash that momentarily blinded the poor Poochyena.
"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to frighten you." When the spots cleared from the Poochyena's eyes she got a good look at the source of the light. An Ampharos was standing a ways away, a brass ring topped staff cradled in one arm, the other reaching lazily into a bag dangling at her side. The red orb on the end of the Ampharos's tail was the source of the light that was now filling the clearing.
"Didn't think anyone would be out here this early," The Ampharos commented. Luna released the charge that'd be building in her mouth, the fur on her face tingling as the energy dissipated.
"Not a lot of people would be," Luna said before resting back on the log. Whoever this pokemon was probably didn't mean to bother her. "So what are you doing out here?"
"Just exploring the island," The Ampharos laughed gently before plopping down beside the log. "This place is really beautiful."
"Yeah, it is," Luna sighed. The Ampharos was right of course. But when you've spent almost your whole life, or at least what you can remember of it, stuck in one little spot you tend to forget things like that. As eager as they were to leave Hopeberry island, Luna could still see the Wonder of the place. Even more so with Haru around, the Buizel reacted to everything he saw with an exuberant curiosity.
There was a sound of rustling as the Ampharos pulled something out of her bag, a small greenish yellow orb that she halfheartedly tossed over to Luna. Luna fumbled with the object for moment before getting a good grip on what had turned out to be an apple. She actually recognized it as a "pomme sucrée," her brother was constantly trying to buy them, but given the distance of Hopeberry from Chaton, where they were grown, it didn't happen very often.
"Where did you get-" Luna started to ask before the Ampharos interrupted her.
"Bought them before coming to Hopeberry," She said. She reached back into her back pulling out another of the greenish yellow apples and taking a bite out of it. "Me and my brother used to eat these all the time." The Ampharos sighed holding the apple she's bitten into out in front of her examining it closely. "There was a tree out in our yard that grew them, when they ripened we'd go out and pluck them off the tree, and he'd just grin the whole time, it was one of the few things that could get him to smile." The Ampharos continued to reminisce while Luna started eating her apple. The apple itself was as sweet as she remembered them being. Twizzler would probably like them a lot actually, Luna thought. "Do you have any siblings?" She asked tiltiing her head back to look at Luna.
The question caught Luna off guard. She hadn't expected the Ampharos to ask her any questions, though it only seemed fair to answer if she was willing to share as much as she was.
"yeah, my older brother, Corbeau." Luna began to think about her brother, if he found out she'd come out here this early he'd probably be upset. Not upset enough to actually try to stop her, but the Furfrou was always being over protective of her. "Who's probably waking up and realizing I'm not home." Luna sighed in realization. The Ampharos just laughed, just the sound of it almost made Luna want to join in.
"I'm sure he won't mind to terribly," The Ampharos chuckled lightly before standing up. "As it stands though, I'd best be on my way, I enjoyed talking with you Luna." She vanished from Luna's sight rather quickly not even the light from her tail remained after a moment.
Luna was about to shrug off the encounter and leave before she noticed something, sitting on the ground where her companion had been sitting was a small blue orb. She picked it up and was about to return it to the Ampharos, whose name she hadn't even gotten, when she realized it was too late for that. She sat back down and examined the orb itself. She didn't actually know what kind it was, Cream would be able to tell her later she assumed, but she really had no other choice but to hold onto it.
XXXXX
Later, after the sun had fully risen, Luna met up with the others. The four of them were sitting around a table eating breakfast. Well Luna and Haru where, Twizzler and Cream barely pecked at there food as they were going over the map.
Haru was focused on eating some kind of pancake made from millet flour and covered in oran berry syrup. The Buizel became incredibly excited when he found out they had them here and ordered them immediately. Cream seemed to find the whole thing adorable though she had long since stopped paying attention to anything but Twizzler and the map. Luna's own food, Some contraption made of granola and peanut butter that Chip had wanted her to try, hadn't lasted all that long after arriving. Luna pushed the finished plate away and turned to Cream and Twizzler.
"So have you about figured it out yet?" The Poochyena asked, tail wagging in anticipation. Her tail thumped softly into Haru's leg causing the Buizel to grimace before scooting away from the offending appendage.
"Yeah, it'll be a quick trip," Twizzler paused a moment scratching her beak idly. "Well, getting there anyways, no idea about once we're actually inside."
"What if there's nothing there when we turn up?" Haru asks through a mouthful of pancake.
Luna nodded her head towards the Buizel, Haru had a point what if they place had already been found. Cream flipped the map around so that Luna and Haru could get a better look at it.
"See I don't think that'll be a problem, for one thing it's at a spot that doesn't get much traffic," Cream started to explain before pointing a smaller diagram on the map. "Plus, there's a door with some kinda tile moving puzzle. I can't guarantee we'll be the first to find this place, but at the least there's probably some stuff still in there."
Haru shrugged, lifting his plate into the air away from Luna as the poochyena attempted to take a bite of his pancake. Foiled in her attempt she resorted to pouting at the Buizel until he lowered the plate. "That works for me then, are you two gonna actually eat something before we leave though?" Haru asked, face creasing in concern. Cream and Twizzler froze for a moment, the two pokemon turning to look at each before turning back to the Buizel.
"yeah," Cream answered laughing sweetly before shaking her head and digging into her own food. Twizzler quietly joined in as well devouring some monstrosity thatin Luna's opinion had been made with far to much sugar.
Cream's brother Chip rolled by to take all their dishes when the quartet had finished and left tossing out a quick "Hey," before disappearing to the back of the restaurant leaving the four alone again.
"So what do you guys think we'll find in this place?" Haru asked as Twizzler rolled up the map and stuffed it in a small satchel. The question got everyone thinking, Luna included. What could they possible find in ruins that most likely hadn't been touched in decades if not centuries.
"Pearls, i hope it's pearls." Twizzler, deep in thought, answered. "Or diamonds."
Luna nodded her head in agreement, still trying to think what she'd want to see her self. It finally came to her after a moment, she vaguely remembered a necklace she'd seen ages ago. A golden chain, wrapped around beautiful bright blue, red and green gemstones, the blue gems stuck out in her head the most. She'd asked her brother about the necklace once, it had only served to sadden the Furfrou who locked himself in his room for the rest of that day. Luna hadn't asked again after that.
"Sapphires, I hope it's sapphires," Luna said the thought of the blue gems capturing the imagination.
"Gold, old gold, coins from ages past." Luna glanced over at the white furred Vulpix as she answered. Cream's answered made since to Luna, the Vulpix had always shown an interest in old stuff, particularly valuable old stuff. It was probably one of the reasons she'd agreed with Twizzlers idea of being a treasure hunter, much closer than Luna's own reason. Cream at least was interested in all the treasure they might find, Luna just wanted a way off Hopeberry island.
She needed to stop thinking like that. Otherwise she'd just get upset and be of no help to anyone, they had a job to do after all didn't they.
"Well, everybody ready?"
XXXXX
Twizzler had been right, they'd found the place easily enough. A small cave like structure hiding a door hidden in the brush. It was by a beach on the north side of the island. The door itself was nothing special, all solid stone except for the tile puzzle Cream had mentioned. The puzzle itself seemed to be a number of tiles also stone, or possible coral, Luna couldn't quite tell. Cream went to work on the puzzle immediately.
Times like this were why Luna was so glad for how clever her Vulpix friend was. The Poochyena would never have been able to wrap her snout around this. Haru seemed as intrigued by the puzzle as Cream was, Twizzler however was off to the side staring out into the woods with a perplexed expression.
"Whatcha looking at Twiz?" Cream whispered to the Piplup. Said Piplup jumped in fright at the unexpected noise before turning around.
"Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry, you didn't answer the question though?"
"Thought i saw someone, nothing there though." Twizzler answered before looking over her shoulder once more.
"And done." Cream called out as the final tile slid into place revealing a, what had Cream called them, Luna tried to remember. A petroglyph, that was it, a petroglyph that greatly resembled the Legendary Kyogre. It made sense given the islands connection to the Legendary, a temple to the lady of the sea was the only other settlement on the island even.
There was a loud rumbling as stone began to shift and the door that had blocked there way sank into the floor. Behind the door had been a long narrow tunnel, dark sea foam colored bricks, and all along the corridor where the walls met the floor every few feet where long thin tubes that seemed to give off a faint blue light that illuminated the path ahead.
The four of them slowly, cautiously, made their way down the passage. Twizzler was leading the way with Haru right behind her talking quietly with Cream. Luna quietly took up the rear and mostly tried to stay out of everyone's way while examining yet more petroglyphs, mostly of various water type pokemon, carved into the walls.
"So i talked it over with my mom," Cream began to whisper to the Buizel beside her. Trying, and failing, to be as quiet as possible. "After we get back from this, no more sleeping in the woods."
Haru looked confused for a moment before the realization hit him. "Really?" He asked, surprise evident in his tone of voice. Cream nodded her head several times in affirmation.
"You'll be sharing a room with Chip, but he's already ok with it so we're all good. For however long we'll still be on Hopeberry anyways." The Vulpix seemed more excited than Luna was used to seeing her. Cream was a good pokemon, but she could be as distant as Corbeau sometimes, so it was nice to see her excited about something for a change. Haru actually seemed embarrassed, the Buizel pulled up the hood of his hoodie trying to hide his face. He failed miserable, the hood completely unable to obscure the water type's smile.
As they continued down the path the tunnel began to widen, opening up into a wide room. The room was made of much of the same sea foam brick as the tunnel had been, lit by the same lights as well. Though were it differed were the pools of almost deep blue water and the smell of sea salt. At the far end of the room was another large stone door like had been at the entrance. Though this one was a dark blue carved through with red line in the shape of Kyogre, much like the petroglyph on the entrance had been. To either side of it were large wooden, though Luna couldn't tell what kind of what wood, waterwheels sitting in their own pool . Neither wheel was turning but it looked like they still could.
"Another door?" Twizzler moaned in disappointment. "I was hoping for less doors and more," the Piplup trailed off looking around the room.
"Treasure?" Cream spoke up laughing at Twizzler as the Piplup dejectedly kicked a small rock into a nearby pool. Haru slowly walked to the left waterwheel trying to get a better look.
"Well everybody, spread out and lets try to open this door." Twizzler declared. The Piplup moved to join Haru by the edge of the pool. Twizzler didn't actually make it to far before seemingly tripping and slamming into Haru. The poor Buizel was sent sprawling into the pool vanishing beneath the water.
"Haru!" Twizzler cried out scrambling to the edge to help the Buizel. Said Buizel easily floated to the surface looking none the worse for his quick dip into the pool. "W-well at least we know the waters safe," she said apologetically shrugging at Haru who simply scowled back for a moment before he began to smile excitedly.
"There's a tiny little tunnel down here that i can just about fit through. I think it's connected to the door." The Buizel started to explain. "I bet there's something on the other side."
"You feel up to searching it?" It was Cream that asked the question, leaning over the rim of the pool trying to get a glimpse of the passage Haru had described Luna joining her quickly after that. She could just about make out the entrance when Haru gave Cream a little salute before diving back under and splashing all three of them with water.
Luna watched the Buizel through the murky waters as he attempted to push into the small passage. It only took a minute for the struggling water type to slip through and vanish to the other side. "Well he's in, so do we just wait for him to come back or keep looking around the room?" Luna asked tapping her paws slowly against the ground. The Poochyena was beginning to get antsy, a whole lot of sitting around instead of moving probably.
"I could check the other pool?" Twizzler asked. The piplup was kicking her feet absently in the pool haru had fell in.
"Sure." Cream waved at the pool. That was all the impetus Twizzler needed to dive into the opposite pool. Soon the piplup disappeared into yet another tunnel leaving Cream and luna alone in the gateway room.
"So what do you think this place is actually for," Luna asked glancing around the room. She couldn't see anymore petroglyphs, but the room seemed the same as the rest of the place had been.
"I'm not sure, maybe it's some kinda reliquary," Cream's answer was cut off as one of the waterwheels began to turn slowly. A loud grinding sound echoed through the room as the door began to shift slightly opening a crack.
Haru quickly bobbed out of the water by the moving wheel, looking frantically back and forth before catching sight of Luna and Cream. "Oh thank Arceus, I thought i'd set of some kinda trap or something." The Buizle began to relax before noticing a conspicuous Piplup shaped absence. "Where's Twizzler?"
"She's in the other pool," Cream answered before shaking her head and glaring at the Buizel. "What did you do?"
"Oh, well there was a small room on the other side, and a whole bunch of writing on the walls, super faded. I think it said something about turning a wheel, too much water damage though." Haru climbed out of the pool stopping for a moment to shake off the water that had clung to him before rejoining the others. "Whosoever idea it was to carve a bunch of words underwater should have been told why that was a bad idea. Anyway i tried to get closer and there was this tile on the floor. Only it wasn't a tile, it was kinda sorta a switch or something."
"And you stepped on it." Cream had dragged out the first word she'd spoken in response to the Buizel. Said Buizel could only laugh nervously and scratch the back of his head before trying to bury himself in his hood.
"Well, whatever he did it moved the door so it's probably a good thing. I hope." Luna attempted to placate Cream though there was little need for it. Everything had settled into a comfortable silence until Luna remembered the small orb the Ampharos had dropped that morning. The Poochyena tried to pull the small orb out of her bag, only to have trouble doing so, reminding Luna that she really needed to find a bigger bag if she was going to do this more often. The one she had was small and could barely hold anything, though she couldn't find it in her to part with the thing. After only a bit of struggling she managed to free the orb from the small bag.
"Cream, can you take a look at this? Someone dropped it in the woods this morning." Luna asked passing the orb over to the Vulpix, Haru leaned in to try and get a look as well. Cream rolled the orb a bit in her paws, examining it closely.
"It's an escape orb i think." Cream said, she sounded less confidant than she actually probably was. Luna had learned by now to trust the vulpix's judgement on what something was. Cream carefully handed the orb back. Luna knew what an escape orb was, though she's never actually seen one, it was like a psychic types teleportation. It would shunt pokemon, usually a small amount guided by the users intent, out of an enclosed space like a cave or building.
"Don't lose that, those are useful in places like this." Before the Vulpix could ask Luna anything else about the small orb there was a loud grinding noise as the second water wheel began to turn. The door let out an ear piercing screech as it slid fully open before them. Moments later Twizzler splashed out of the pool flopping none to gently onto the ground.
"Ow," the Piplup grumbled. "I meant to do that," She called out to no one in particular. Luna and Cream just shook there heads at the Twizzlers antics before helping the Piplup up. "So, there was a switch in there, and a whole bunch of words i couldn't read. Since i couldn't understand the words i just stepped on the switch to see what would happen." She offered in explanation.
"And if it had been a trap instead of a door switch?" Twizzler's face fell at Cream's questioning glare.
"We probably wouldn't be having this conversation." Twizzler said sullenly. The Piplup sighed theatrically before pointing to the now open door. "But i can see that it did work out for the better, and behold an open door." Her enthusiasm was likly to get them dropped into a spike pit or something equally as dangerous but it most certainly was infectious. "Come on, treasure awaits!"
The four of them passed through the now open door with no issue. It opened up to a large Open chamber. The chamber itself, though covered in dust was dominated in the center by a large statue of some kind of canine made of faded stone, with a massive crest and mane flowing behind it. There were two trailing ribbon like tails from behind, though one of the tails had snapped in half and was lying on the ground.
The most surprising thing they could see from the entrance though was sitting at the foot of the statue. A skeleton was sitting there, as if at rest, wrapped up in a tattered cloak made of some dark blue material. There was a hat made of a similar material nearby along with a staff sitting up against the statue next to the skeleton.
"Well...um, lets...look around?" Twizzler seemed to be just as surprised as Luna and the others to see the skeleton, but was also the first to remember why they'd come down here. Everyone nodded in agreement and split up to search the room.
Luna found herself seemingly pulled towards the skeleton. With a closer look Luna could just about make out dozens of little lines in the tattered cloak, all made of a lighter blue thread and seemingly stretching the length in random patterns. The design almost reminded her of rivers, or maybe canals. Despite the intriguing pattern and the weird sense of nostalgia it gave her the cloak wasn't what had Luna's attention, it was the staff beside the skeleton. It was made of some burnished blue metal, topped with a much smaller and thinner version of the same crest the statue had, said crest almost resembled a handle. Luna gripped it deftly by the middle in her jaws before giving it a twirl, it had a good weight to it and was surprisingly balanced despite the crest.
Luna took a quick look around the room to see if anyone else had found anything interesting. While Cream was just wandering around aimlessly, not having found anything interesting herself, both Twizzler and Haru were preoccupied with something at the back of the room.
Gripping the staff tightly Luna cantered over to join them curious as to what had caught there attention, Cream reaching the pair shortly after Luna did. On the wall before them was a metallic plate. Gold in color, probably actually gold but Luna couldn't tell the difference. The plate seemed to be inscribed with writing, which would have been great in Luna's opinion, if said writing hadn't been done in Unown runes, which none of them could read at least not well.
"It takes the deep blue sea."
Which none of them could read...except Haru apparently. While the three of them were busy staring at the Buizel in shock he continued reading the plate.
"And sings the oceans song."
Whatever the words were about they seemed to be a poem, though Luna wasn't an expert on poetry by any means she certainly hadn't heard this one before.
"Plays a sweet melody, That all will sing along." Haru finished reading and turned to the others just in time to catch their slack jawed expressions. "Guys?"
Twizzler was the first to actually regain enough sense to speak. "y-you can read that stuff?"
Haru seemed surprised at the question, reeling back slightly. "you can't?" The Buizel asked the shock was even more evident in his voice.
"Haru, i grew up in the Temple on the island here, they tried to teach me that stuff for a year. I could never quite wrap my head around it." Twizzler began to explain while Cream began to rummage in her bag looking for something. "I'd have been able to piece together eventually, like...a week from now, and it'd have been all fragmentary and barely understandable."
"Luna and I wouldn't even be able get that far with it," Cream said offhandedly still searching through her bag. "Though admittedly i haven't had much of a chance to learn and Twiz is a rather poor teacher. Here hold this up too the plate." Cream passed over a large sheaf of kraft paper to Haru before returning to her bag and pulling out a good sized bit of charcoal and handing it over to Twizzler. "Get me a rubbing of that it might be important."
"huh, well at least that means i'm helpful," Haru commented jovially as he held the paper up against the plate.
Haru and Twizzler quickly went to work making a charcoal rubbing of the plate. Luna meanwhile was trying to puzzle out what poem could have meant. It had to be describing something right? It brought up a melody, and a song, maybe the poem was about an instrument. Or maybe the poem was just being overly metaphorical.
It was in the midst of this musing that the Poochyena noticed something out of place. It was such a small thing she almost missed it at first, one of the bricks in the wall was jutting out, just a little bit.
"Hey guys, brick."
Everyone turned to look at Luna, confusion evident on all of there faces. They continued to stare while Luna tried to figure out why they were staring. It only took the Poochyena a few seconds to realize her mistake.
"Oh er, that was really vague wasn't it," She said. "One of the bricks under that plate is out of place."
The trio looked Luna, to the brick she began pointing at. The three of them picked up on it quick enough with the Poochyena's help.
"This has to be where the treasure is hiding guys." Twizzler called out triumphantly before attempting to pull out the brick with her bare flippers. She failed, miserably.
"Here, move over i have something that might-" Haru handed the finished charcoal rubbing to Cream before reaching into the pocket of his hoodie and pulling out one of those strange trowel shaped knives Luna had seen the Butterfree from yesterday throwing around. He must have kept it after the fight. The Buizel slid the tip of his knife into the gap between the brick and the wall and began to pry at it.
It didn't take very long for the Buizel to pry the brick loose. Haru took a step back as the brick clattered to the ground revealing a small azure colored harmonica wrapped in a shimmering blue veil like piece of cloth.
"Guys" Twizzler called out, shock evident in her voice.
"That's an Aqua Monica."