Chapter 6

At the Beginning of the Day

"Hey, it's time to get up. We've got a mission to do."

Terron felt someone nudge his side. Feeling tired and not wanting to wake up, he started pushing away whatever was bothering him. The nudging ceased, causing Terron to smile as he started to fall back asleep.

"WAKE UP! IT'S TIME TO GO ON OUR MISSION!"

The sudden shouting caused him to jolt awake. He reflexively rammed his fist into the source of the noise.

"OWWW!"

Terron immediately looked toward where the noise came from. Much to his surprise, he found Zekra a few feet away from him, holding her snout with her paw. Small drops of blood were splattering onto the floor around her. It didn't take Terron long to figure out what had just happened.

"Wait, that was you yelling into my ear?!" Terron cried. "Why would you do that?!"

"Well, you wouldn't get up!" Zekra said defensively. "I talked to you and I pushed you around, but nothing worked! So I did the next best thing!"

"The next best thing was nearly making me deaf?" Terron asked incredulously as he rubbed his ear. "That's what your brilliant idea was?"

"You didn't have to punch me at least!" Zekra then said. "You gave me a nose bleed!"

"How were you expecting me to react?!" Terron shouted. "By calmly waking up?! It's your own fault you got hurt! Be a little smarter next time!"

Zekra glared sharply at the Cubone, an aggravated growl escaping her maw. She crouched down low to the ground, claws slowly coming out of her paws.

Terron, upon seeing this, backed up into a wall. He recognized Zekra's stance to be the one she used when hunting down the Rattata in the Grey Lands. His eyes grew frantic as he saw Zekra's claws glint in the sunlight coming into their room. The Cubone wasn't sure how badly he'd get hurt if was scratched up by such claws, but he didn't underestimate them. Besides, he knew the Zorua would attack him with more than just claws.

Terron had seen what she did to those Rattata.

The bloody corpses they became were on his mind now.

"Wait, don't kill me!" Terron said hastily. "I'm sorry I said this was your fault! It's not your fault! It's mine! I just got startled is all! Please don't murder me!"

Zekra frowned, but she did get out of her hostile position and had her claws go back into her feet. Terron felt better upon seeing this, but he still kept his distance from the Zorua until he was sure she wouldn't try to attack him off guard. Zekra wiped the excess blood off her mouth.

She sighed.

"No, you're right," Zekra said. "It is my fault I got hurt. But, thanks for apologizing about what you did anyway."

"You're welcome… I guess," Terron said awkwardly.

Terron glanced at Zekra's still-bleeding nose, starting to feel the guilt of giving that to her now that his anger and fear were gone.

"I think we should get you something for your nose," Terron suggested.

"Nah, it's fine," Zekra assured. "This isn't that bad. It'll heal up in a few minutes. We should probably get some breakfast though."

Terron nodded in agreement and grabbed their Fellowship bag from off the floor. He put it on so that the two wouldn't have to come back for it and headed for the door. As soon as he opened it, however, he and Zekra found themselves staring at an astonishing sight; a massive amount of Pokémon walking throughout the Fellowship base.

Everywhere the two looked, there were Pokémon filling up the spot. Almost every single section of the walkways in the tree was occupied. The immense traffic of Pokémon went in several directions and blended with the various chatters of different voices. Terron and Zekra stepped outside of their room to get a better view of all the Pokémon. Thankfully for them, the walkway in front of their room was not occupied by others.

"Wow… I didn't know the Fellowship had so many members," Zekra remarked. "There's so many different Pokémon…"

"But why are there so many in this tree right now?" Terron then asked. "We didn't see this many when we were here yesterday. And even at this time, there weren't any other trees crowded like this."

"Well, we were only around here in the early morning and afternoon," Zekra reasoned. "We never saw how it was during this time since we were in the other trees. I think Éclair was mentioning that this is where a lot of Pokémon have their rooms and everyone gets up around now, now that I think about it. Sooo, guess this is the morning rush."

"No wonder why Team Valor wakes up way earlier than everyone else…" Terron said, amazed by the sheer amount of traffic.

"Looks like we'll have to get through everyone though if we want to get some breakfast," Zekra said in dismay. "Oh boy…"

With reluctance, the two ceased taking in the view and made their way to the moving crowd of Pokémon. They stopped in front of the passing crowd, watching as everyone moved with haste. Everyone seemed so much taller than the two, giving Terron the dreadful thought that he and Zekra might get trampled if they attempted to join the mob. He almost wanted to wait for everyone to clear out of the way, but unfortunately, some impatient Pokémon were behind him and Zekra.

"Come on, quit jamming up the path!" a Lairon yelled as it started shoving the two forward.

Terron and Zekra stumbled into the crowd, immediately losing sight of one another. Terron attempted to look around for Zekra, but he was constantly pushed forward and wasn't able to see much with so many tall Pokémon surrounding him. He tried to fight against the current of traffic, but found that doing so only caused groans of complaint from others and him crashing into various Pokémon.

"Watch it!" a Monferno shouted as Terron ran into it. "Pokémon are trying to get to breakfast! If you want to go up, take the other stairway!"

"Sorry, I'm just looking for a friend!" Terron explained awkwardly.

"I don't care!" the Monferno stated in annoyance. "Take the other stairs! You're getting in everyone's way! Especially my way!"

Not wanting to argue with the fire-type, Terron turned around and followed the flow of traffic to the bottom of the stairs. Though he still found walking through the crowd to be a huge hassle since the Pokémon would almost trample him, it was still less aggravating than fighting against the flow. Eventually, Terron made it to the bottom where everyone started to disperse. Whether they went up to another staircase where the bridges were or wandered outside, mostly everyone was heading for the mess hall. A few Pokémon seemed to head elsewhere, but Terron didn't recognize any of those Pokémon to be Zekra.

"Zekra!" Terron called. "Where are you?!"

"Over here!" Zekra's voice cried.

Terron looked around for a minute until he spotted Zekra. She was in an open space in the middle of the tree, where no one else was for some reason. Terron hastily made his way toward her.

"Hey, you made it!" Zekra said happily. "For a second, I thought you got trampled or something!"

"I almost did… several times," Terron said distastefully. "But how'd you get down here so easily? You don't look like you had any trouble at all."

"Oh I had trouble… but then I just jumped on top of someone's head and used everyone's heads to get across the crowd," Zekra said slyly. "Crowd jumping. Thankfully, no one was too upset by that."

"Sounds like fun," Terron stated dully.

"Yes it was!" Zekra cheered. "But, now that we've gotten through that insane crowd, how about we go get our breakfast?"

"Yeah, I like that idea," Terron replied.

The two then headed toward the cafeteria, following the less chaotic crowd into the mess hall that was quite a distance from their tree. Once they managed to get inside the tree, however, they saw a huge line formed behind the counter. There had to be at least a hundred Pokémon in line. It stretched around the room and even went upward to the higher sections of the tree. Terron and Zekra felt their jaws drop as they saw such a massive waiting line.

"I don't think we're going to be able to eat soon…" Terron said.

"Yeah… maybe we should get our mission and then get some breakfast," Zekra suggested. "Maybe the line will be a litter better then…"

"Oh yeah, we have to pick out missions," Terron said in realization. "Éclair was mentioning that. Think she said it was back in the tree where Len's room was. Guess we'll have to do some backtracking, but it's better than waiting in this."

Terron looked at the line in disgust before making his way back to the tree where Team Valor's office and rooms were. The two could have gone to get their mission before since the tree was right next to their own, but Terron didn't mind their wasted time. At least he knew now that getting the mission selected first thing in the morning was probably a good idea.

When the two entered the correct tree, they found a large Bulletin Board at the very bottom where they stood. Surprisingly, no one was around to look at the missions, meaning the two could take their time with choosing their own missions. Several pieces of paper were posted onto the board with pins, all being written in the Footprint runes. Behind the board, tacked onto the wall, was also a map that was basically a larger version of their personal map. The two approached the board, staring at all of the assignments. Terron peered at the words he couldn't attempt to read.

"Well what do they all say?" Terron asked.

"There's so many of them to explain," Zekra replied in wonder. "So many different things we can do!"

"Like?" Terron asked.

"Some pretty basic things," Zekra explained. "You know, rescue missions, item hunting, surveying new locations, stuff like that."

"Hmmmmm, how about an item hunting mission?" Terron suggested. "That seems easy enough for a first mission and maybe it'll be fun."

"Alright, let's see here…"

Zekra spent a few moments reading through all of the assignments, scanning their descriptions to see if one of them suited their tastes. When Zekra finally did find a mission, she ripped it off the board and set it on the ground for the two to see.

"Here's an interesting one," Zekra said. "It says we need to go search for some item that a Floatzel named Jet lost while in a mystery dungeon. It's something called a Rescue Stone, which I guess must be pretty valuable. And it's somewhere inside of a place called Overgrowth Jungle. That looks pretty easy. And plus, it's a jungle. We've been in a forest, so I'm sure a jungle can't be that much different!"

"And where is Overgrowth Jungle?" Terron then asked.

Zekra picked up the assignment and brought it over to the large map. Terron followed her, and upon coming closer to the map, he saw how it was different from their own map. It was almost the same as the personal travel map, but far more detailed. It had more colorings to show different sections of Shiron, the names of some of the island-like pieces of land scattered into the seas near the region, and even the areas the other Fellowship Associations covered. According to the map, the five Fellowships of the land each took care of a specific area. Four of the five each took care of the north, east, south, and west sides of the land while the fifth one was guardian to the lands not governed in the middle of the region.

There was also a large dot on the map that indicated exactly where this particular base was located throughout all of Shiron, perhaps to help save location hassle. It showed that Aurora Town's Fellowship apparently governed the west side of the land and the islands in the sea that were near the west coasts.

Zekra overlooked the entire map carefully as she browsed through every single landmark there was. Terron simply stood by and watched since he obviously couldn't read the words on the map.

"Oh! It's actually pretty close!" Zekra cried after a while. "It's right here, see?"

She put her paw over a small portion of the map. Just like she said, it only seemed to be a couple of inches south from where Aurora Town stood according to the map.

"That is pretty close," Terron said with a nod. "Alright, let's do that mission. Similar environment, easy task, and close to here. That sounds like the perfect idea of a mission."

"Yes! Our first mission!" Zekra said happily as she rolled up the mission and handed it to the Cubone. "Let's celebrate with some breakfast!"

Once Terron put away the assignment, the two eagerly headed to the mess hall once again. When they got there, there was still a line, but thankfully it appeared to be shorter and moving at a steadier pace. Seeing this, the two got in line and patiently waited for their turn.

When the two finally got to the front of the line and ordered their meals, about fifteen minutes had passed. They were quick to order their food thanks to how hungry they had gotten and once they had received it, sat down at a table in haste. The two immediately began eating their meals, Terron being too occupied with his own food to be sickened by Zekra's food.

However, what he did notice was that someone was looking at him from another table across the room.

King.

The Bisharp was having breakfast of his own, but Terron couldn't tell what it was from where he sat. All he knew was that King was staring in Terron's direction with his usual glare, seemingly not blinking. Terron didn't know if King really was watching him or if it was his imagination, but it did cause Terron to feel a bit tense. He did his best to ignore it and eat his meal.

It was then that Terron remembered something regarding their mission.

"Hey, how long is it going to take to get to Overgrowth Jungle?" he asked the Zorua next to him.

Zekra swallowed the meat in her mouth and pondered for a bit.

"Uhhhh well if it's still about mid-morning now," Zekra mused, "and it's about a few miles away… uhhh, we should be there a little before noon."

"Wait, how do you even know what time it is now?" Terron asked curiously. "I mean, you guys don't have any clocks or anything, do you? How do you know it's still the middle of the morning and not noon already?"

Zekra blinked. Her expression became puzzled.

"I don't know what a clock is…" Zekra answered oddly. "But, I know what time it is since I can sense it. Pokémon just sort of know what time it is, thanks to our instincts. It somehow knows when dawn will be coming soon, even when we're asleep. We can even use it to serve as an alarm so we can get up at a certain time."

Zekra stared at Terron.

"Do you humans not have it or something?" Zekra then asked.

"No, we don't," Terron answered. "We just have clocks to keep track of time. I guess they're like your time instincts, except they're more accurate with what time it is. Like… you say it's mid-morning right now. Well, on our clocks, it would say it's ten thirty. And what that means is that it's ten hours after the start of the day… even though the sun hasn't risen yet. We call the start of the new day, a time where the sun isn't out yet, twelve AM, and-"

"Wait, you start your day before dawn?" Zekra interrupted. "The beginning of the day to you humans is in the middle of the night?"

"Sort of," Terron replied. "I mean, we don't get up in the middle of the night to start our day… that's just when the day starts. We usually get up after the sun's come out or something. But yeah, midnight is when the day starts. Midnight is what we call twelve in the morning…"

"But that's not morning," Zekra then stated. "That's still night time."

"Well humans call it morning," Terron insisted.

"But that just contradicts everything you just said," Zekra said. "You say the day starts in the middle of the night, yet you call that time twelve in the morning… which you also say is midnight. Sooo you're saying that your day starts at midnight… the middle of the night… yet you call it the morning like when the sun's out. And not only that, but you don't even start your day until after the sun rises, yet you keep referring to the 'start of the day' as the middle of the night when no one's awake…"

"Look, I'm not the one who came up with the time tracking system," Terron stated. "But it's easy to understand. Especially if you have a clock to help you keep track."

"Well maybe for you, understanding that is easy, but for me it isn't!" Zekra explained, unable to wrap her head around the idea. "It's so weird! Why would you start the day when the sun isn't even up yet?! Dawn is the start of the new day! A day starts when there's light! And then it ends when the sun goes down! Then the night gives us time to rest until the start of a new day! While it's altered for nocturnal Pokémon, it's still as simple! Why would you humans overcomplicate such a simple understanding?!"

Terron didn't respond right away. He looked down at his bowl, staring at the half-eaten fruit. His eyes were in a pensive state.

"Well, when I look at it now, I guess it does seem pretty complex," Terron said quietly. "I guess in a world without clocks, this time tracking idea humans came up with can be difficult to understand. Not to mention, it'd be impossible to use since there aren't any clocks in this world."

Terron picked up a piece of fruit and rolled it around in his hand.

"Guess if I want to continue living in this world, I'll have to learn how Pokémon keep track of time," Terron continued. "Just wish I knew how…"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Zekra assured. "I mean, you're a Pokémon now. Maybe you'll just develop the time instincts instead of relying on your weird 'clock' thing you were mentioning. Everyone's got it, so maybe spending time here will make you more like us. But until then, you've got me to keep track of time the Pokémon way. So, you can always count on me for that!"

"Yeah, I'll remember that," Terron said with a small smile. "Just need to get rid of my human understanding and try to accept how Pokémon see it for now... then hopefully I'll be able to keep track of time the Pokémon way."

The two then continued their meals, moving onto lighter topics such as their opinions on their new room and what they should do for the rest of the day if they had enough time after the mission.

Once Terron and Zekra finished up their meals, they brought their plates in back to the Wigglytuff who served them. The line had mostly vanished since everyone had received their meal, so the two were quickly able to return their used dishes without waiting too much. Once that had been done, they started to go outside to start their mission.

"Hey, you two! Wait!" the Wigglytuff cried from behind the counter.

Terron and Zekra stopped and turned around to see what they were being called for. They watched as the Wigglytuff came hurrying over before stopping in front of them. It panted to catch its breath as it held out some items in its hands. In one hand were a few small apples and in the other was an item that made Terron's eyes grow wide with wonder.

"I saw you children had your bag with you and realized you were going on a mission soon!" the Wigglytuff said. "And I thought you guys might need some food!"

"You know, we never really thought of that," Zekra said bashfully, feeling embarrassed about forgetting an important item needed for dungeon crawling. "Thanks. We'll just put these in the bag."

Terron opened up their bag and allowed the Wigglytuff to deposit the fruit inside with tender care. After it had done that, it looked over at Terron with a smile before handing him what was in its other hand. It was something that Terron had secretly been longing for ever since yesterday.

"And I got this bone for you," the Wigglytuff added to Terron. "I realized you were a Cubone after a little while and found it odd how you didn't have any sort of weapon. So, I took one of the bones from the kitchen that we normally throw out and figured you could have use for it! How is it?"

This particular bone was more club-like and fit the more standard Cubone weapon shape compared to Terron's other weapon. It was filled with marrow rather than being hollow like a bird's skeleton and fit much better in his hands. He gently tapped the bone into his palm and could feel its sturdiness. This one would most definitely take more damage and give more damage to others than the previous one. Terron felt a smirk creep up onto his muzzle. That strange feeling of powerfulness came back again.

"It's perfect," he said. "Thank you."

"Well I'm glad to hear that," the Wigglytuff smiled. "And come back if you ever need any more bones in case that one breaks!"

Terron nodded in approval before he and Zekra finally left. It was time for them to begin their first mission.

Evergreen Pass

Once the two had left the Fellowship and figured out which way was south, they exited out of Aurora Town. In order to get to their destination, they had to take a certain trail, which their map named 'Evergreen Pass'. It was very similar to the landscape the Gray Lands had, however this place had a dirt path running through the grass that stretched on into the distance. Otherwise, it was just like the endless grassland Terron was all too familiar with. There weren't any trees growing nearby nor any other kind of vegetation. This path was a near perfect replica.

"So looks like we've got about four apples to eat while in the dungeon," Zekra said as she peered through their bag while they walked, which was her turn to carry. "And of course, the berries and scarves we got from Emdox last night. Hope that's enough for this place."

"We made it through the other dungeon with nothing," Terron replied calmly. "I'm sure we can make it through this one with those supplies."

"I suppose," Zekra shrugged. "I'm just a little worried, is all, since this is our first mission. Aren't you worried?"

"Well, a bit," Terron admitted. "But I'm sure that we'll do fine. We just have to look for this item, right?"

"Yeah, a Rescue Stone," Zekra said. "According to the description on the paper, the Floatzel doesn't know where it is inside the jungle. So we'll have to search the whole place. Don't know how big the jungle is, but I'm sure it can't be that big."

"And what exactly does this stone look like?" Terron asked curiously.

"Well... to be honest, I don't know," Zekra answered nervously.

Zekra attempted to laugh as if trying to make the situation seem funny, but Terron didn't think so. He felt slightly agitated at the thought. He had no idea what this stone looked like since he had never even heard of the item, and he had been heavily relying on Zekra for aid with that. However, now it was revealed she didn't know either. And according to him, that was a serious problem.

"How are we supposed to know what to look for, then?!" Terron cried. "It could be any rock we find in there for all we know!"

"Maybe we can just look for special rocks," Zekra suggested awkwardly. "I mean, it sounds special. So maybe it looks special. So maybe we can just pick up every odd looking rock we find?"

"Gah, I guess it's the only option we have," Terron muttered in agitation. "How many do you think we can fit in the bag?"

"Hmmmmmm," the Zorua said before opening up the bag again and looking through it. "Well with all of our items in here, I'd say about twenty if they're pretty small. That should be enough."

"I hope so," Terron said in return.

The two continued travelling down the road without much else to talk about. Occasionally, they'd stop to take short breaks and to take turns with who would carry the bag, but otherwise the two moved at a relatively fast and steady pace in silence.

After walking for quite a distance, Terron and Zekra finally came to a place that was quite different than the rest of the trail. A few feet away from them stood a large amount of thick leaved, dark trees. So thick, in fact, that neither the trunk nor the branches of the trees were seen. The entire sight the two Pokémon saw was just a thick horde of jade. The trail they stood upon lead into a single large opening within the denseness that resembled more of a cave entrance than anything else. They couldn't even see what lay beyond the entrance. It was pitch-black. Going in meant complete trust of knowing there was something within. Terron and Zekra felt heavy anxiety come over them as they heard the sounds of primal roars from within.

"Well, this is it," Zekra said. "Somewhere in there... there's a stone that got dropped. And we need to find it."

"Right," Terron said before going over to Zekra and reaching into the bag strapped onto him. "You want to put the scarfs on now before we go in?"

"Sure," she said with a nod.

After digging through the bag for a moment, Terron managed to pull out the two pieces of cloth that were meant to protect them. One was a bright pink color that reminded Terron of the Pecha berries he had eaten numerous times and the other was still pink, but somehow darker. He held them both out to Zekra.

"So which one do you want?" Terron asked curiously.

"Well, this one is the Pecha Scarf from the picture it has on it," Zekra said as she pointed to a tiny berry symbol on the lighter-colored cloth. "So I would guess the other is the Persim Band. Hmmmmm… guess I'll take the Pecha one. That fine with you?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Terron said as he handed her the scarf. "I don't really think it matters too much. Though hopefully these will come in handy somehow."

"And can you help tie it on?" Zekra asked. "I don't have hands unlike you. And even if I did, it'd still be easier if you tied it on."

With a nod, Terron carefully tied the scarf around her neck so that it wasn't too tight, but it wouldn't come off easily. Once he had done that, he took his own scarf and tied it around his neck. Despite being told that it would help him, he didn't feel very different. The only difference he could feel with this band was that his neck was gathering more heat now. However he put that aside as the two of them looked into the opening.

"You ready, Terron?" Zekra asked.

"Yeah, whenever you're ready," Terron replied.

With a deep breath, the two then made their way into the gaping entrance of the Mystery Dungeon.