The gentle twittering of Pidove roused Hawthorne from his sleep. He yawned, shook out his leafy antlers once and stretched out each graceful leg in turn.
Slipping into his delivery harness, he frowned as he realized Pekka hadn't come to wake him per usual.
Argh, I must be running late, then! I do hope Pekka is alright. Hawthorne had no doubt the Accelgor could fend for himself, but then again, you never knew. Bad things happened all the time.
Telling himself not to be so negative, Hawthorne quickly turned out of his comfy stable and into the brisk fall morning. Everything looked just as cheery as the last morning. Orange and red leaves danced in the breeze as the occasional flock of birds fluttered by, calling out to each other. The only thing missing was his surly, gray and red friend.
Pekka was definitely one for solitude- perhaps he'd slipped away early in the morning to have some time away from Hawthorne's chatter.
"Pekka?" He called, but there was no response. Oh well. I guess I'll have to do delivery on my own this morning.
Hawthorne headed over towards a small post sticking out of the ground. At the top perched a rectangular box with a vertical slat on the front. The stack of today's papers were already sticking out of it.
So… what would be the easiest way to do this? Frowning, he leaned forward to try and take the stack in his mouth-
"Hawthorne!" Hawthorne jumped at the sharp tone. A very disheveled looking Pekka broke through the bushes a half-moment later.
"Oh, good morning, Pekka! I was wondering where you'd gone off to-"
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Sorry I'm late." He moved quickly between Hawthorne and the mailbox, gathering the papers in his arms.
Hawthorne waited expectantly for him to deposit the papers safely into his messenger bag, but Pekka didn't move. Instead, he was regarding the deer with a wary expression.
"Um… Pekka? Are you alright?"
Accelgor pinched his eyes shut and heaved a breathy sigh as if he was experiencing a headache. "Okay, Hawthorne. I know it's our job to deliver the papers every day, and I know you're probably not too happy I'm making you late, but I think… we should take a moment of silence before we go out."
Those words made the Sawsbuck's stomach knot. "What- what do you mean by that?" He asked, unable to keep the anxiousness out of his voice.
A moment of silence never alluded to anything good. It was usually very sad.
Pekka blinked hard again. Hawthorne had never seen his friend so emotional before, and it only made him dread whatever news was coming his way with every passing second.
"Hawthorne… Queen Perry is dead."
His stomach plummeted to the center of the earth and out the other side. The emptiness of shock was already threatening to swallow him whole.
Queen Perry, the singular Pokemon who'd made all this happen… dead. He could already feel tears brimming in his eyes.
"Wh-what?! That's not possible! She was in perfect health! W-we would've seen a tragedy like this from a mile away…" He broke off, trying to hide a sob that hiccuped in his chest.
Pekka's sad eyes met his, and the Accelgor hopped over and placed his arms comfortingly around Hawthorne's chest. "It's going to be okay, buddy. We just have to stay calm. We'll find them." He gently brushed the tears off Hawthorne's face and moved to his side, sliding the papers into the Sawsbuck's messenger bag.
"For now, we have to be strong, okay? You can take the afternoon off." His voice held a gentleness Hawthorne rarely heard. Hawthorne was grateful for it.
He started to nod, but something Pekka had said was still nagging at his brain. "Pekka, what did mean buy 'we'll find them?' If the queen is…"
He trailed off as he felt the Accelgor's steady hands falter. The pause loosened his grip and sent a single paper spiraling perfectly down in front of Hawthorne's hooves.
Hawthorne hadn't seen today's papers yet. He had assumed the front page would be relating to the death of Perry, since Pekka got up before the sun every day, but nothing could have prepared him for the shock.
Right there, in sprawling, sharp letters.
QUEEN OF MAGISTRATE FOUND DEAD
MURDER INVESTIGATION ONGOING
Hawthorne's stomach dropped into nothingness, his tears evaporating as fast as they'd come as the claws of shock took hold.
"Hawthorne!" Pekka said quickly! "I- I'm sorry I didn't tell you- I just didn't want to upset you before your morning job-"
Hawthorne turned as if Pekka hadn't spoken and looked in the direction of Magistrate.
The spires of the tallest buildings just barely poked above the top of the trees. It was barely a half-hour's walk from here. Terrifyingly close.
Suddenly, every whispering breeze seemed like the sound of a vicious creature crawling closer, every rustle of the bushes the hiding place of a knife-wielding monster waiting to jump out.
"We have to go," he hissed. "We have to warn everybody! We're so close to the city! What if- what if-" He pranced anxiously, picking up his hooves and crushing the dead leaves underneath him.
"Hawthorne! Stop moving!" Pekka snapped urgently. The papers were still dangling half in, half out of the bag. Hawthorne had danced out of the Accelgor's reach without noticing.
Suddenly, a heavy gust of wind howled through the trees and yanked the papers out of the open bag, sending them sprawling up, up, way above the trees and scattering across the forest.
"The papers!" Hawthorne shrieked and took off into the forest with the wind at his back.
"No! Wait! Come back! Haaaawthooooooorne!..." Pekka's cries were caught up in the breeze and tossed away effortlessly as the messenger plunged deeper into the woods, chasing the hundreds of papers with only the fear that something was lurking there, waiting for him, to propel him onwards.
The sands were restless today. A sudden wind had begun to blow across the desert, making it near impossible to do anything without getting a faceful of grit.
Chiluly muttered under her breath and burrowed deeper into the sand, until only her head-stalks poked out with their vibrant pink flowers.
Finally. Maybe some peace and quiet. It had been a terrible week. The sand was annoying with its constant getting in your everything. The Sandile and Darumaka were annoying with their constant chattering and arguing and fighting. EVERYTHING WAS ANNOYING. Chiluly wanted to march up there and shut them all up herself, but getting mixed up in the middle of a turf war was- wait for it- ANNOYING. A nap would do her good.
She sighed and pulled herself deeper into the sand. For a moment, everything was blissfully calm and quiet. The sound of the howling wind was muted under the warm sand blanket.
Of course, that didn't last long. Chiluly jumped as something brushed against her exposed head stalks that was definitely not sand.
Forcing herself upward, she snapped, "Get out of here! How many times do I have to tell you stupid birds- huh?" Nothing flapped away in a panicked explosion of feathers or squawking, but the annoying itching persisted. Too surprised to come up with a smart remark, Chiluly reached up and felt around.
Wh- paper? Frustration filled her. Those damn littering humans. Soon there would be dunes made not out of sand, but out of their carelessly cast aside garbage. She yanked it from her thorns and brought it down so she could look at it.
Two things immediately shocked her- one, it was written in a dialect she could read, meaning this flyer had been produced by another Pokemon, and two… Well, it was telling her in big bold letters that Queen Perry was dead. Sorrow swept through Chiluly. She'd never met the Samurott queen because she lived in the boundaries of the human world, but she'd heard wonderful descriptions and stories from the travellers from the faraway edges of Unova.
Chiluly looked farther down the paper and took in a few more surprising details. It happened last night. How had the paper travelled so quickly? Perry had been murdered. Chiluly blew sand out of her face in shock. What kind of deranged crazy would do that?
And finally- rewards were being offered to those who found her killer. Big rewards. This piqued her interest. Yes, she was sad about the murder but… getting enough wealth meant maybe she could get out of here and move to the Pokemon cities. To be fair, she could get up and move any time, but she had no idea how those cities deep in the wilderness even functioned.
Did she need currency to buy a home? Pay rent? Get a job? Or did she just show up, and somebody would have a place for her? Chiluly frowned and picked at the edges of the paper absentmindedly. She wanted to go, she really did… but as soon as she left the boundaries of the Desert Resort her plans fell to pieces. A sudden wind picked up, stronger than usual, and the flyer was nearly ripped from her hand.
Storm's brewing.
Sandstorms weren't uncommon- if you wanted to be that person, you could say they were happening constantly- but the large ones were dangerous. She needed to find shelter. Behind her, the silhouette of the ancient ruined castle loomed in the distance. Yes, they were creepy, but she'd rather spend an hour in a musty old building that was suffocated by sand. Muttering, she tucked the flyer under her arm and started towards the ruins.
She'd barely made it halfway when something flashed in her peripheral vision. Growling, she turned and flexed her needles. Stupid Solosis. They think it's funny to try and play pranks, huh? "Scram!" Chiluly shouted, waving the paper in the direction of the glow.
For a split second, it stopped.
And then, it moved closer. For a second, her stomach dropped. There were lots of things living in this desert. Not all of them were friendly. She'd heard of the Sigilyph, the protectors of the ruins, killing those who strayed too close to the ruins when they were mistaken for ill-willed intruders. Or of massive golems who only showed themselves to you in your last living moments. Or the Gothitelle, who lured those who strayed from their friends…
"Gothitelle don't actually do that," Chiluly muttered to herself. She wanted to back away, or to run, but she found herself frozen on the spot. And if they do...?
"Hello?" A voice yelled, cutting through her morbid, panicking thoughts. "Where did you go?" The voice was too afraid, too innocent.
It's trying to lure me!
The light moved closer and closer in her direction, the sand around them growing thicker with each passing heartbeat.
"Can you see me?" The voice called again. Suddenly, the violet light grew brighter, stinger Chiluly's eyes. "How about now?"
"Would you stop that?" She snarled in response. "You're going to attract every hungry predator living in this desert!"
The light faltered for a moment, flickering like firelight, and the silhouette of the approaching Pokemon finally became visible. Violet flame flickered against her face.
"What… what are you?" She breathed in horror. She'd never seen a creature anything like this in the resort.
"Oh! Uh… my name's Burnout." He extended one of his limbs as if to shake her hand, then quickly pulled it away as if he'd just remembered fire danced on the tip of it.
"Um… Chiluly," Chiluly said after a brief pause. She glanced towards the castle, just barely out of reach. "Look, can we finish this inside? I'd rather not swallow any more sand."
Burnout nodded gratefully and hurried after her as she hopped into the crumbling doorway.
Chiluly and Burnout paused to rest in the empty hall of the decaying building. Chiluly was staring out into the storm, lost in thought, when Burnout asked, "Wait! Are you looking for him, too?"
She turned back to see him staring at the newsletter still in her hands. "The murderer? Not really. I mean- I dunno. I'm not some kind of vigilante, and I'd rather not get myself killed."
"Oh." Burnout shifted almost uncomfortably. There was a moment's silence. "I'm actually looking for somebody else. But- it might be related to that," Burnout blurted.
Chiluly whipped around to face him, her eyes narrowing. "What?"
"Wait, no!" the Chandelure cried. "I- I meant he might know how to help, not that he was involved!"
The Maractus glared at him, watching his every move carefully. If he wanted to, he could send her up in flames in a heartbeat. But why hadn't he already…? "Then, where is this helpful creature hiding?"
Burnout hesitated for a barely a heartbeat before saying, "Somewhere in here." He glanced down the long, winding tunnels that lead deeper into the crypts.
Some stale, ancient breeze whispered from deep below them and Chiluly barely stifled a shudder.
"Fine," she said, hiding her fear. "Let's go. You lead the way."
Chiluly had lost all sense of time. Had it been hours? Days? Weeks? Had she just walked into a deadly trap? What if he was leading her into an endless maze only to leave her for whatever monster he'd spoken of earlier?
"Oh, finally! I think it's this room." The Chandelure's uncharacteristically bright voice sliced through her wary thoughts. They stopped in front of a massive stone door. "You sure?" She grunted. "There's not even a door handle. How are we supposed to get in?"
"Umm…" She could almost see the frown on his face. "Oh! That's right!" He said as if he'd suddenly remembered something.
Floating upwards, he traced the circular carving on the door with one of his ominous purple flames. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with the sound of stone grinding against stone, the door slowly began to open.
"Ah, y'know, ghost powers," he said with a nervous laugh. That only unsettled Chiluly more.
Ghost powers? Am I about to become one of them? Her choices had been narrowed down to two. One, stay out here, unable to find her way back out, and die. Two, go inside and most likely die. Seemed like a bit of a stalemate.
Chiluly took a deep breath, trying to keep it from shaking, and shrugged. "After you," she muttered, trying to seem unruffled.
Burnout nodded and floated into the room.
Chiluly followed him, her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness that was even more perpetual than before.
Burnout noticed her squinting and flushed. "Uh-! Sorry." Reaching out a limb, his flame flared brighter and brighter until the entire room was illuminated in a gentle purple light. The first thing Chiluly noticed was… how sparkly it was. It took her a moment to register that the room was filled with gold. Piles and piles of coins, antiques, gemstones and even gold-plated coffins. Well, those creeped her out.
"What is all this stuff?!" the Maractus marveled. She unconsciously reached out to the nearest pile of riches before quickly pulling back her arm.
Reshiraa knows this room is cursed and booby-trapped to Hell and back.
"Okay, so where do we find this sucker? Does all this belong to him?"
"I mean, technically…" Burnout started. She chose to ignore that slightly suspicious sounding comment.
Shuffling farther into the tomb, Chiluly brushed against a staff, causing it to clatter to the ground. Frowning, she leaned down and hefted it off the ground. It was nearly twice as long as she was tall. The head was carved into the shape of a glittering Stoutland head.
"Eek! You- you really shouldn't touch that. Anything but that!" Burnout cried, flying towards her and trying to wrench it out of her hands.
She raised it above her head and he grabbed for empty air. Despite the Chandelure merely inches from her face, the room seemed to drop ten degrees in temperature. She ignored it and jabbed the staff at him. "What is this? Why is it so important?"
"N-nothing!" He wailed. "Please, put it down!"
Suddenly, the staff was yanked from her hands. "Hey!" She snapped. "What-" She whipped around and her blood went cold.
The staff was floating in midair, seemingly suspended by nothing. A dark hand materialized and grabbed it out of the air.
Burnout screeched from behind her and she turned to see tendrils of darkness curling around his arms.
Something cold lapped at her torso and she looked down in horror to see more hands slowly rising from the tomb. "What the hell is this?!" Chiluly snarled, trying to cover her crippling fear with anger.
"I told you not to touch that!" he wailed, tugging helplessly at the darkness.
"WHO DARES DEFACE THE RELIC TOMBS?" A deep voice rumbled, making the walls shake. She felt its echoes in her soul.
"Oh c-c'mon! Y-y-you know me! It's Burnout!" Burnout cried, his voice reaching a desperate edge. The voice did not respond, and the tendrils climbed faster. "She- she didn't mean to! I tried to tell her not to! She didn't listen!" he continued.
Chiluly squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the cold hiss against her neck. So this is how I die, huh? It was almost entirely dark, ominous blackness flowing over more and more of the room.
"A bounty!" Burnout shrieked. "I found an opportunity! You could add even more to your tombs! Please! Please, let us go!"
He was in hysterics, and for a moment, Chiluly felt a flicker of pity for him in her final moments. Or so she thought.
Suddenly, the advance of the shadows stopped.
"Just like old times…?" Burnout squeaked in barely a whisper.
The omniscient tomb-voice made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a scoff. And then, quicker than it had come, the darkness retreated.
"What-?" Chiluly turned to see it wasn't escaping in every direction like how it had approached, but instead, flowing back to one singular treasure.
A gold-plated sarcophagus, propped up against the wall, glittering with hints of blue and black.
Ohh no. Oh no no no.
Chiluly had heard the myths and legends of haunted treasure, the kind that lured the tomb raiders and even the simply curious to their deaths. But she'd never thought those stories were real.
Something flickered in the coffin's depths. Blood red eyes, staring down at her. She flinched back unintentionally.
"Oh, Ph-Pharaoh! See, there's- there's a murderer on the loose and I knew you were just the right person to come to!" Burnout chattered on pointlessly, obviously trying to calm his own nerves.
The spirit didn't even blink in his direction. Instead, one of its inky black hands snaked out and snatched the flyer from her hands before she could even register what was happening. The chilling eyes scanned the sheet from top to bottom as two more hands appeared. One retrieved the staff Chiluly had originally picked up, and the other reached across the room and pulled another staff from behind a pile of ornaments. It looked nearly identical to the first, except in the place of the Stoutland head, a Liepard head glared down at them instead.
Once the creature had finished reading, it simply dropped the paper carelessly, where it fell slowly through the air and landed below Burnout.
He made no move to pick it up.
"And you're considering these rewards noteworthy to me," the tomb-keeper growled.
She wasn't surprised to hear that his voice sounded like that of the omniscient voice from before, but with significantly less reverberation.
"But- but that's where we come in!" Burnout piped up, his flames flickering. "You're the best negotiator there is! When we used to hunt, you could make them pay you double with just a couple words! It'll be easy enough to catch the snake, and then we just hold onto it until they agree to pay us what we want!" His eyes glowed with excitement, his stammering suddenly disappearing.
It was the most passionate Chiluly had seen him, in all their sixty minutes of knowing each other.
Pharaoh looked down at them with blatant uninterest. "No. Leave."
The stone door of the tomb ground itself opened, and she scrambled for the exit. Burnout didn't move.
She was halfway out the door when she remembered she actually had no idea how to leave the ruins themselves. "Uh, sorry," she called, peeking into the room just enough to see the two spirits. "But I need to go. How do I get out?"
Pharaoh narrowed his eyes. "Just keep walking. You'll find it eventually." Chiluly huffed, trying to cover her terrified adrenaline with indifference, and blew out the door.
It took her no more than five minutes to get hopelessly lost. However, it also took her no more than five minutes to be found, so maybe things weren't as bad as she hoped.
An exasperated scoff made her head dart up from her slumped position against the wall. Pharaoh and Burnout were approaching.
Chiluly perked up, curious as to how Burnout had convinced him to join the bounty hunt.
The Cofagrigus had chosen to slough off most of his harshly glittering adornments, leaving only a comparably simple gold plating.
"Mortals give up so easily," he commented as they drifted past. Scowling, Chiluly scrambled standing and bounced after them as quickly as she could.
"Hey! How the heck am I supposed to get out of a haunted crypt by myself? That's not even-"
"If you wanted to find your way out badly enough, you could've," Pharaoh drawled, waving the Stoutland-headed staff in her direction.
Chiluly sighed and shook her head, deciding not to comment. It appeared they were letting her tag along on their bounty hunting for now, so she decided it was best to keep quiet.
Sometimes Ghosts forget not everybody has supernatural powers.
Hawthorne finally stopped, panting, bow-legged, and utterly exhausted from his fruitless chase. He'd bounded through the forest, trying to collect as many papers as he could, but he hadn't realized just how far he'd run fueled by adrenaline and fear.
He'd spooked when he found himself at the forest's edge sometime later, overlooking the human cities, and quickly turned around, but, too exhausted to run all the way back, had set out at a grudgingly slow trek back to the stables. Along the way he'd stopped every so often to retrieve loose papers that had blown across the forest.
Guilt settled like a stone in his chest. How would anyone find out about the news now? Well, word of mouth… but rumors were sneaky and unreliable.
Hawthorne jumped a mile in the air as yet another flyer blew past him, but as soon as the surprise passed he sighed and turned to meander after it. The dawdling breeze led him past trees and bridges, and finally, too… he frowned and cocked his head.
In all his exploration of the forest (even if it was admittedly limited), he'd never found this crossroads path before.
Shaking his head, he leaned forward again to try and catch the paper and instead let out a squeal of terror as a rather sharp blade flashed through the underbrush and impaled it with a single swing.
Hawthorne's legs buckled in horror and he backed away from the blade as far as he could without risk of collapsing. The murderer was here. They'd found him, so far from home, and there was nowhere to run…
"Pl-please don't hurt me!" Hawthorne wailed, ducking his head. His legs shook, a combination of the awkward position and the sheer terror running through him.
"You're the murderer, then? You don't seem like the type." Hawthorne's body froze, only his eyes daring to dart upwards again as the other emerged from the shade of the trees.
An Escavlier, all sharp edges and shining blades. He reminded Hawthorne vaguely of Pekka, in a strange way.
"Y-you're not gonna hurt me?" he squeaked.
The Pokemon shook his head. "Something tells me you're not in the position to kill anyone. So, no, I don't think so."
All the air left his body in a thankless breath of relief that hurt his chest. "Oh, th-thank goodness, I- I-" Hawthorne broke off, not knowing what to say.
The Escavalier seemed unfazed. "Great. Do you know the way to Magistrate City?"
"Y-yes! I can take you there if you'd like-"
"Oh, take us too!"
A new voice broke in, causing Hawthorne to squawk and swing his body to face the new voices.
A Maractus and two imposing looking Ghosts emerged from the shadows of another crossroad path.
"Wait, this is about the whole queen situation, right?" The Maractus asked, frowning. "I, uh, only heard the last part of what you guys were sayin'."
Hawthorne shook his head nervously.
"Sweet! We've got some bounty hunting to do, right guys?" The Pokemon elbowed her companions, but the Cofagrigus ignored her and the Chandelure only gave a nervous laugh.
Hawthorne took her friendliness as a promising aspect, feeling his ears perk up. "Oh, okay! Well, we could all go together, right? I know the way around here." Suddenly, a thought struck him. "We- we could find Perry's killer together! We all have our strength, a-and-"
"Uh, sorry, but this bounty-hunting thing is kind of an individual activity," the Chandelure said, though with notable nervousness.
"What about those of us who are in it for the money?" he continued, though he seemed more concerned about the ghost at his side, who still hadn't uttered a word.
"You can have my cut. If- if we find him," Hawthorne blurted. "I don't need it. It's more about stopping a bad guy, right?"
"I am in this for honor. You three may split our earnings amongst yourselves," said the Escavalier with levelled coolness.
For a moment, the quiet was almost suffocating.
Hawthorne found himself regretting his choice to get involved. How could he ever stand up to a killer? But, these Pokemon seemed strong. And he had been overwhelmed with the sudden urge to do something-
"Well then. We must be getting to Magistrate," said the Cofagrigus, making him jump.
But as soon as the words sunk in, Hawthorne's heart lifted. "R-really?! Okay! Let's go!"
The rest of the group put forth some kind of agreement and together they turned as Hawthorne led them back towards the city.
"Hey! I'm Chiluly, by the way," the Maractus said and she hopped up to match his pace, giving him a smile.
"O-oh! I'm Hawthorne. It's nice to meet you," he responded, catching her contagious smile. They continued to make small talk, and Hawthorne found himself comforted by the strange crew around him.
Even though he barely knew them, surrounded by the climbing shadows of the forest, he'd never felt less alone.
