Chapter 3: Calm Before the Storm
Laura had, at first, been highly interested in the adults' conversation. First of all, they were very cool to look at—so many wild and crazy colors! Some of them were furry, some were hairless, one had feathers, and one of them looked like she was part plant! She knew that they probably weren't the most interesting or "weird" beings out there, considering some of the stories Mommy told her about her work… but since she and Mason thought Laura was still too little to actually go out and help Mommy herself, she'd mostly only seen humans so far. She didn't really get why—the non-humans she'd seen so far hadn't been scary, and neither were these creatures; they actually looked like something that she might have made up herself while doing paintings of fantasy creatures as she tried to speculate on some of the crazier things that her family or the servants might have seen when they weren't at home.
The second thing that interested her about the adults was their reaction to her and Paula. They all seemed wary around the two of them—which wasn't anything new, since adults were always like that around her—but at the same time… she could tell that the wariness wasn't of them, but for them. For both of them. They were genuinely worried about the two of them, and when Mr. Drowzee was trying to comfort Paula earlier, she could tell that it was, for the most part, because he didn't like that she was sad… no strings attached, no fear at her crying: he just genuinely wanted her to smile again. It was a very refreshing experience, even as the tension still present in the room nagged at her.
But as the conversation went on and the tension started to lessen… she found herself quickly becoming bored. She didn't know what Mr. Drowzee was talking about. He was throwing her and Paula's names around, but the stuff he was saying didn't make any sense. She'd never even met Paula before today, so how could they be part of a "team" together? And that bag that Mr. Drowzee had that he claimed belonged to the two of them looked way too heavy for her—and like it was supposed to go over the shoulder, rather than hanging sensibly around a waist like her pocket did. It was confusing, and boring, and it didn't seem like it was going to stop being that way any time soon.
With that in mind, Laura sat back up—slightly startling Paula as she did so, as she had forgotten the small Pokémon (who was maybe called a pichu, or something?) was using her as a pillow. Thankfully, this didn't make the yellow creature cry… although her eyes did begin looking suspiciously shiny… so Laura had her full, uninterrupted attention when she quietly said, "C'mon, let's go explore."
Paula's ears perked up at the word and she gave an excited smile before her expression drooped again as she glanced at the adults. "But… would that be okay?" she wondered. "I don' wanna get in trouble…"
Laura cocked her head in confusion. Why would they get in trouble for exploring? But… if it would stop Paula from feeling so worried… "We won't go far; we won't even go back outside," she assured. She pointed at the hallway behind them. "We'll just go down there a little."
Paula glanced between the destination and the chattering adults, squinting her eyes in concentration as she debated on what to do. On the one paw, the possibility of making these strange adults mad. On the other paw, the chance to get a taste of the life Ricky wrote about in his letters. On the one paw, continued boredom. On the other… nah, who was she kidding—anything that prevented boredom automatically won out.
"Okay, let's go!" she jumped up in excitement, turning on her heel and rushing toward the hallway her new friend pointed out. "Race you!"
Laura started in surprise before a huge grin bloomed on her face and she giggled as she hurried after her fellow child.
Paula sighed and flopped backwards onto one of the beds they'd found, pouting in disappointment. So far, this whole "exploration" had been really boring. She'd lost the race despite her head start because her legs were so tiny compared to the… she thought the others called her a human?... child, so that meant she had to let her pick which room they would look at first after she'd skidded to a stop in the middle of the hallway upon seeing two doors right across from each other. The fact that she'd picked the room Paula would have wanted to pick first anyways—the one on the right—didn't make her feel any better, because a loss was still a loss. And the room turned out to be really boring. All it had in it were some straw beds, a water basin, and a boring book. It didn't even have any pictures in it or anything—which had instantly made her new friend lose interest in it—and it wasn't even written in any cool languages, like those footprint runes that Ricky had accidentally sent in last week's letter home. The handwriting was kind of terrible, too, so even though her parents and everyone always said how "advanced she was for her age" when it came to reading—she could read the entirety of her favorite "The Adventures of Mighty Magikarp" book, all ten pages, all on her own, after all!—she couldn't actually make out any words beyond "Bidoof's" and "Diary." Which meant that it probably belonged to the bidoof who was still talking with the adults in the other room, which made it instantly uninteresting because she was still mad at all of them since they were strangers.
The next room, containing the bed she was currently flopped down on, wasn't any more exciting. The only thing different about it was that it had fewer beds and a table instead of a water basin. It even had another boring book in it! And this one was even more impossible to read than the last one, since even though the handwriting was a lot better, it was in that loopy-script that only mommies and grandmas used. Which made it doubly boring, and doubly impossible to read, even though she could admit it was also doubly prettier to look at.
…There was also a window in the room, which she guessed was kind of cool except for the fact that it was nighttime now and she couldn't actually see anything when she looked out of it.
She heard a soft "thump!" from the bed beside hers and looked over to see the human sitting next to her, playing in the straw a little bit and tying some pieces into knots.
"Hey, is your name actually Laura?" she asked, suddenly realizing that she'd never actually gotten confirmation of that fact.
The human dropped her straw in surprise. "Yeah?" she said, sounding confused. "Didn't you already know that?"
Paula puffed up her cheeks in annoyance, accidentally setting some sparks off from her electrical pouches. "Well Mr. Drowzee said that, yeah, but he's a stranger. Stranger aren't s'pposed to use your name until you or your mommy or daddy or brother or aunties or uncles or cousin Felix or his brothers an' sisters or cousin Bradley or his brothers an' sisters tell them first," she huffed.
"Even if everyone already knows it?" the human asked, sounding awed by this new information.
"Especially then!" Paula nodded decisively. "Otherwise they're being really rude!" But then she frowned, thinking about something, and amended, "Unless they're a teacher or Saint Christopher, Lord of the Delibirds—they know your name because they use magic lists, so that's okay."
"Wow…" the human breathed out in amazement, her eyes wide with wonder. But then she shook her head, coming back to herself. "Well… um… hi, I'm Laura!" she introduced herself, sticking out a hand for Paula to shake.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Paula said solemnly, carefully sounding out the words as she grasped Laura's hand in her paw and gave it a single shake. Then the two immediately dissolved into another giggling fit before racing out of the room and down the hall to the final, unexplored room at the end.
Honestly, neither of them had high hopes for its contents and were mostly continuing their "exploration" for completion's sake… and to continue avoiding the boring adults hanging out in the other room. This is why they were completely surprised when, upon entering, they found that the room was already occupied.
Paula immediately ducked behind Laura—who had stopped stock-still upon entering the room—and grasped some of the fabric covering the girl's legs as she peeked around them to get a safer look at the stranger occupying one of the room's two beds.
She lowered her voice close to a whisper as she asked her friend, "Who do you think they are?"
Laura, who seemed apprehensive, for some reason, and had brought her arms up to hug herself as she warily looked around the room, startled and looked down at Paula before giving the room a more thorough look and finally spotting what caught the pichu's attention.
"Oh…" she breathed out, seeming puzzled—but less wary. She tilted her head, thinking it over, and then dropped her arms and shrugged. "I dunno."
The two pondered the sight before them a moment more before they heard something that made them break into giggles again.
"They're snoring!" Laura exclaimed in glee, listening to the soft rumbling noise interspersed with gargling sounds and lip smacks from all the drooling this new stranger was doing.
"They're even noisier than Daddy is when he's nappin'!" Paula added, the sights and sounds quickly dispensing her previous wariness about the stranger and causing her to step out from behind Laura. She crept closer to the strange pokémon, careful to be quiet so that she wouldn't wake him even as she was feeling braver and intent on getting a closer look. Laura quickly followed suit, dropping to all fours in a crawl so that she could be at a better eye level.
"They're the bestet colors ever," Laura mused as she finally reached the pokémon in question and leaned in closer. "White, an' gold, an' bluey green…"
"Those are boring—orange is way better!" Paula interjected, shaking her head in a pitying manner.
Laura just gave a huff at Paula's naivety and rolled her eyes before returning her attention to the snoring creature before her. They shifted a little in their sleep, causing the tag-like features hanging off of the points on their golden head to come into easier reach of tiny, human fingers. "I wonder if its as silky as Mommy's dresses…" Laura wondered aloud as she reached out and made contact with it. But she was only able to give it a tiny poke—not nearly enough to give her any concrete data—before the creature's eyes squinted shut in minor annoyance and they shifted again, rendering the tags unreachable from her current vantage point. She pouted briefly at the lack of an answer, but then, strangely, her eyes widened in fear and she flung herself as far away from the sleeping pokémon as possible.
"L-Laura…?" Paula asked, startled by the sudden movements and becoming afraid herself. "What… what's wrong?"
"N-no…" the human groaned, clutching her head. "No!"
"Laura?!" Paula tried again, resorting to ineffectually shaking the girl's leg in an attempt to snap her out of whatever this was when the human became silent and unresponsive for a few moments. But then Paula fell back with a squawk of surprise when the girl's head suddenly shot back up and she looked frantically around the room, seeming a little dazed and pausing briefly in confusion on Paula before her gaze cleared again and settled on the sleeping stranger. Her features sharpened into an angry glare—one that was admittedly quite frightening for a toddler—and she opened her mouth, as if to give an angry shout. But before she could…
"Oh, thank Arceus! There you are!"
A few moments earlier…
Chatot had been just as panicky as the others when they realized that the kids were missing, but he knew that panicking would get them nowhere. So, just as always, he strove to be the voice of reason and authority needed to get everyone back on track.
"EVERYONE QUIET DOWN!" he ordered, his wings ruffling in agitation until everyone complied. "Panicking won't help us find them any faster! We need to think rationally about this."
He glanced around the room, taking note of any exits or hiding spaces and thinking back on what he'd seen of the children's demeanors and abilities thus far.
"…All right," he began, addressing the assembled once more. "It is unlikely that they went far. Even if they did, somehow, make it all the way back to the entrance, from what Drowzee said, Paula would be unlikely to cross over the grate on her own. Laura would have to carry her—but Laura already said that she was tired from doing so earlier, and it is unlikely that she would be recovered enough to do so again, especially as she would have had to contend with climbing the ladders first. Therefore, only one person needs to check the upper levels; everyone else should split into smaller teams and make a sweep of this level. Laura is still big enough that she should be easy enough to find, but with Paula's smaller size it is entirely possible that she is hiding somewhere—"
But he was cut off when a faint "No!" sounded from the hallway to the crew rooms.
"…Or they could have gone off to explore the living areas," Chatot muttered, immediately dashing off towards the sound, the others following quickly behind.
As he'd hoped, the sight that met them when they reached Team Rainbow's old room was that of two children—along with their legendary guest, who was still in roughly the same position he'd been in when Chatot had seen him earlier.
"Oh, thank Arceus!" he breathed out, letting his barely contained panic melt away to relief. "There you are!"
At the sound of his voice the two children immediately stopped what they were doing and looked over at him. Laura's expression went from angry to surprised, and Paula's went from nervous to… well, actually, her expression didn't really change all that much; it simply switched focus from her friend to him as she grabbed onto Laura's leggings once more and tried to hide behind the curve of the human's knees in order to get out of the sights of the multitude of strange adults in the hallway.
"You two can't just wander away like that," Chatot scolded, the relief at having found the two of them giving way to panic once more as his mind was assaulted with visions of what might have befallen the two, tiny explorers if they actually had managed to make it outside the guild. "You need to ask permission, or to at least tell someone where you're going first!"
Paula looked like she was about to start crying again from the scolding, but Laura just cocked her head in honest confusion. "But how do I do that if I don' know where I'm goin'?"
Chatot opened his mouth to respond, but then paused as he thought over her answer. He then dropped his head into his wings and gave a resigned sigh at the child's logic. "Just… please don't wander off again without telling someone first, all right, Laura?"
Laura gave a very put-upon sigh before reluctantly agreeing. "Okay," she said, before suddenly remembering something and exclaiming "Oh! Oh, wait, no! You're not s'pposed to say that!"
Everyone just looked at her in utter confusion, so she huffed. "I didn't introduce myself yet, and neither did Mommy or… or any of those other people on Paula's list that I don't actually know, so you're not s'pposed to use my name!"
"Y-Yeah!" Paula said, suddenly perking up and gaining a bit of bravery at the fact that she was being better behaved than the actual adults were. "You're being rude right now! An' that's bad!"
Neither of the girls noticed how hard the adults they faced were trying not to smile at how adorable the two of them were being—or at the subtle confirmation that, as weirdly coincidental as it was, Laura's name was apparently still "Laura" during her first incarnation. Luckily, they didn't have to struggle for long as Wigglytuff, with his seemingly oblivious demeanor, immediately stepped up. With all seriousness and grace, he told the girls, "You're absolutely right! That was very rude of us. Can you forgive us, friendly-friends?"
Laura scrutinized him for a moment before sharing a glance with Paula and nodding, if a bit reluctantly. "I guess so," she said. "But only if you tell me who all of you are first."
"Oh, of course!" Wigglytuff assured enthusiastically before he began doing so, starting off with Drowzee, "This is Drowzee, a new explorer who is visiting my guild for a while…" and, after going through introductions for his apprentices and head of intelligence, finishing off with "…and I'm Guildmaster Wigglytuff!"
Paula gasped, her eyes sparkling with glee at the information as she finally realized something. "You're the Wigglytuff?! An' this the Wigglytuff Guild?!" she demanded. At Wigglytuff's proud nod, she gasped again. "That's so… so cool! Way cooler than the dumb Torterra Guild that Ricky goes to…"
"Oh my gosh, I've heard of that place!" Sunflora suddenly exclaimed, startling everyone present. "It's about as famous as the Wigglytuff Guild, but no outsiders really know how it runs. It makes total sense that the leader of Team Spark-Seed would have graduated from such a place!"
Paula rolled her eyes. "It's not that 'mysterious.' It's mostly just really boring," she stated bluntly. "They don' ever even get visitors like you do, who're just allowed to sleep whenever they want, even all the way through important grown-up meetings," she explained, pointing at the sleeping legendary.
The others followed her paw—except for Laura, who deliberately looked anywhere except that direction—and winced at the reminder of how serious this situation was, and how they still hadn't decided how much to explain to the kids about what was going on.
"Ah… Yes, well, that's a bit of a special case," Chatot finally said, taking one for the team. "This pokémon is known as Jirachi… have you ever heard of him?" The kids shook their heads, and he winced; unfortunate, but not unexpected. "Well, Jirachi is known as the 'Wish Pokémon.' As the name implies, he sometimes grants wishes for others. But this ability takes a lot of energy, and so after he grants a wish he has to sleep for…" Chatot paused in his explanation, wincing again as he realized that he didn't know the exact mechanics of how Jirachi's powers worked, or how long he typically had to sleep in order to recharge. "Well… after he grants a wish, he has to sleep for… some period of time," he finally compromised.
"So… that means he just granted someone's wish?" Paula asked, while Laura pretended not to be interested in the conversation even though she actually was.
"Precisely," Chatot said, pleased at how clever Paula was for her age. "And the wish in this instance actually had to do with you two, Paula and L—" Chatot's eyes widened and he cut himself off so abruptly that he actually started coughing as he recalled that Laura hadn't actually introduced herself yet. "And the, er… the young lady beside you," he recovered, rather lamely.
Laura, having caught the hasty correction, easily put two and two together, blushed, and mumbled out, "…My name's Laura."
Chatot gave a genuine smile at this, saying warmly, "It is very nice to meet you, Laura."
Laura gave a small smile back before giving a reluctant look in Jirachi's direction, sighing, and resignedly re-entering the conversation. "So… was the wish to bring us here or somethin'?" she asked, "'Cuz this place doesn't look anywhere like where I was before…"
Chatot winced again—even as half of him wanted to smile at how clever Laura was, as well, to have pieced that together the way she did. "Well… yes, in a manner of speaking," he said.
"Oh, okay," Laura said, apparently unconcerned by the fact that she had abruptly been yanked away from her home and brought to this strange place filled with strange creatures now that she had a little bit of an explanation for what caused the change in scenery and company.
Paula, however, did not take it nearly as well. "But… b-but," her eyes, predictably, filled with tears, "but if he's sleeping now… then does that mean we can't go home?!"
Chatot's feathers ruffled in agitation as he frantically looked around, practically begging for someone to step in and help him explain. But, really, how could anyone explain the complexities of the situation? About the fact that it wasn't so much that the girls were simply in a different place than they were used to, but a completely different time as well? Should they even explain something like that? How much could toddlers really understand about such things?
"Well… er… not right now, no," Chatot finally had to say. Then, before Paula had the chance to really react, he hurriedly added, "B-but as soon as he wakes up, you'll be able to!"
That sentiment did nothing to assuage Paula's feelings, as she immediately started crying again, causing fat tears to roll slowly down her cheeks.
"A-and in the meantime, we'll take good care of you here, in the famous Wigglytuff Guild! D-Doesn't that sound nice?!" he desperately continued, his voice growing louder to be heard over the pitch of Paula's wails… which only grew louder the more he continued talking.
Bidoof, who had slowly tried to move towards the back of the group in shame over the fact that he'd inadvertently caused his friend all this distress in the first place, couldn't help but look over at Jirachi in amazement. "Golly, I'm surprised that he can sleep through all this…" he muttered, not actually expecting anyone to hear him because of how loud the pichu was being.
Unfortunately for him, he happened to say that at the exact moment Paula paused to take a breath. This meant that she heard exactly what he said, and it made the gears in her mind start turning…
"S-so… so do you think if I was even louder, he might wake up faster…?" she mused, her voice watery, as she turned a contemplative look towards the sleeping legendary. It was a look that filled the assembled with dread, especially when she opened her mouth, as if to take a deep breath in preparation for a scream the likes of which none had heard before—despite living in close quarters with Loudred.
But, luckily for them, their hearing was saved when, before Paula could actually make use of her breath aside from making herself well-oxygenated, Laura piped up with, "No, it's not the right time for him to wake up, yet."
"H-hey hey? And, how do you figure that, Laura?" Corphish quickly asked, attempting to prolong the conversation which had, at least momentarily, distracted Paula from her—admittedly reasonable—tantrum.
But Laura just huffed, puffing up her cheeks in annoyance and crossing her arms, refusing to elaborate.
"B-but… he will wake up?" Paula demanded to know, her voice still wavering with unshed tears.
"Of course he will!" Chimecho jumped in, quick to assure her. "But in the meantime… why don't the two of you have something to eat?"
"H-huh? Eat?" the child duo turned to her in surprise.
"Yes! Are you hungry? I know it's a little late right now… but a small snack should be okay, right?" she asked the two of them, giving an exaggerated, conspiratorial wink.
Paula sniffled a little, wiping her eyes as she considered the offer. "…C-can the snack be Yellow Gummis…?" she wondered.
"Absolutely!" She nodded, before turning to Laura and guessing, "Though, I suppose you'd prefer Plain Seeds for your snack, right?"
Laura tilted her head. "What are Plain Seeds?"
Chimecho—along with everyone else, really—was so shocked at the girl's reaction that she nearly fell out of the air. It had never occurred to her that any iteration of Laura could possibly be ignorant of what Plain Seeds were. But upon further thought… she guessed it wasn't actually all that strange. After all, this version of Laura was from her very first life. She hadn't even known what pokémon were, so how would she have known about this world's native plants?
But she quickly pulled herself together enough to say, "Well… it's a type of food that I think you'll like. And if it turns out you don't, then I can get you something else, okay?" she added, despite being ninety percent certain that, lack of prior knowledge or not, there was no way an iteration of Laura would ever dislike the foodstuff even though literally everyone else found it disgusting. So much so, in fact, that a glance at Paula revealed the tiny electric-type making a disgusted expression, but otherwise making no comment or giving her friend any warnings in fear that if the human refused to at least try them, then maybe Chimecho would make her eat them instead.
Laura seemed a little on the fence about it. "Is it really okay for me to eat something?" she asked. "I already had my meal today… won't that mess up your, um… that thing… when you write it down on your papers, and then Mommy comes an'… um…"
"No, no, don't worry—it'll be our little secret," Chimecho assured the human, winking again. Laura hesitantly nodded in assent.
Chatot sighed, glad that the drama seemed to be over for the evening, and that things could start winding down soon. "Yes, and while you two are eating, we'll work on setting up some more beds in here so that you and Drowzee will be able to go to sleep afterwards and—"
But as anyone who has ever interacted with small children could tell you, mentioning sleep was exactly the wrong thing to say, as it set off another tantrum—for both girls this time.
"No!" Paula screamed, dropping to her stomach and banging her little fists on the ground. "I don' wanna go to bed! No! No! Nooo!"
Laura went in the opposite direction, springing up and stamping her feet as she shouted, "I don' wanna stay in this room! No! No! Nooo!"
Nothing anyone could do, no promises of any snacks or assurances that the beds were really, really comfortable and that they could get them tons of blankets and pillows to use calmed the girls down until Drowzee finally, desperately, offered, "H-how about after you finish your snack, I tell you a bedtime story?"
Paula's tantrum paused, and the sudden lack of noise make Laura's abruptly stop as well. Paula lifted her head a little, bringing one of her wide, wet eyes into view. "…Can I pick the story?" she asked.
"Yes, of course, any story you want," Drowzee sighed in relief.
Paula sat up fully, her tantrum completely forgotten. "I wan' my second favorite one! The one about the dis… uh…" she paused, screwing up her face in concentration as she carefully sounded out "the dis-em-bodied krabby claw that grabs you and squeezes until you die!" she demanded, sounding extremely proud of herself for getting the pronunciation correct.
Drowzee's face fell. "O-oh… That's… that's not really… that's supposed to be a horror story, so maybe that isn't the best…" he trailed off, feeling mounting horror as he saw Paula's face screwing up in displeasure once more and the tears starting to fall from her eyes again. "I-I mean of course I'll tell you that story!" he said, backtracking immediately. "It… it really is a good one! …Even if no one actually finds it scary," he finished in a mumble too small for Paula to hear over her sudden exclamations of joy and demands that Laura go get a snack with her so that they could finish quickly and get to the storytelling.
The rest of the night passed without much incident. Snacks were had by all, and, to no one's surprise, the first incarnation of Laura adored Plain Seeds just as much as the incarnation they were more used to—if not more, since they actually had to caution the child more than once to slow down her rate of consumption before she started choking. Guest beds were quickly made and lined with a multitude of pillows and blankets, and the girls got into them more or less willingly—even if Laura did pause first to stare mulishly at Jirachi for a moment before pointedly turning her back on him once she was actually in bed. A not-actually-all-that-scary scary story was told, and the only screams heard were those of laughter at just how bad the story was at being a member of its particular genre.
When the girls fell asleep shortly after the tale's conclusion, everyone figured that, just maybe, taking care of these child-versions of their friends wouldn't be as hard as they'd feared.
Unfortunately for them, it turned out that the relative ease of this night was just the calm before the storm.