Wardens Eternal

Chapter Twelve: The Ruins

"You got us kicked out Martian," Scarlett chastised her partner as they made their way downhill to the crossroads, "We just got kicked out of the guild."

"You say that like it's a bad thing, I don't see why." Martian deadpanned, "We didn't go to the guild to join them originally remember? We came here to take a look at the jobs and missions available to all teams on the first floor but that was it."

"Yes, but they gave us a room, three meals a day if we wanted it, training and paid for our uniforms and gear. I just feel like a thief leaving them like this." Scarlett argued, the fact she was walking away wearing her new vest was starting to toy with her guilt.

"What Training?" The Blue Warden scoffed, "I was the one training you at the dojo on our own time. The guild didn't teach us anything that's going to help us do our jobs, nothing on how to fight, how to avoid traps, how to patch ourselves up, nothing."

"I. . . You're right, we didn't learn anything from them." The vulpix sighed, "But shouldn't we at least pay for our uniforms and stuff? We owe them that much."

"And they owe us like nineteen thousand coin." Martian reminded, "That's more than enough to repay our would be debts five times over. We're still getting the bad end of the deal here."

"But don't we have to stay until we've completed our training in order to be an official team?" Scarlett asked, "I mean, we can't be one without that apprenticeship right?"

"Official according to who? Chatot?" The luxio countered, "Once we prove that we can be relied on to do what needs to be done, People in their right minds won't care if we're on someone's official list that no one else ever reads or not."

Scarlett mentally scolded herself for being so naive and gullible, shamed at the fact that she had let herself be manipulated by Chatot so easily. She should have seen what was going on right away, after all she had seen her mother do it to other Pokemon dozens of times, she should have known the signs by now.

Maybe leaving the guild was for the best, but that left them with another problem. . .

"Where are we going to live Martian? We need someplace to call home."

Now it was Martian's turn to scold himself, of course they needed a shelter and a base of operations. While he knew he was used to sleeping in the harsh elements every night, it wouldn't be fair to his partner.

Home

Martian froze in place. The word sounded, sour, in his mind. Strangely familiar but foreign at the same time, Had he had one before his memory loss?

The former human began to feel his amnesia partly tear as if it had been forcefully grinded between two stones. That's when he began to recall fragments of the memory, details, useless on their own but maybe. . .

Stone,

Moss,

Old,

Brick,

Damp,

Torches,

Doors,

Wood,

Minimalist,

Metal.

Water,

Running water,

River,

Trees,

Forest,

Falling,

Falling forest? No, that can't be right,

Falling. . . Falling what?

The frustrated luxio slammed a paw into the ground with a low growl once he reached the crossroads. His ears instantly picked up the sound of something wooden to his left, and his entire head snapped to face the anomaly before he forced himself to calm down.

Just a Roselia dumping the water from the well into her own wooden pail, nothing to be worried about.

Wait!

Falling water,

A Waterfall.

The luxio's anger shifted into accomplishment as his snarl changed into a grin.

"Scarlett, can you grab the map?" Martian chuckled as he laid down on his belly.

"Why?" The vulpix asked as she used her paws to slide the map free from its place on the luxio's uniform, "What do you hope to find?"

"A waterfall in a forest somewhere," The luxio replied tracing every river he could find on the map with his claw, "I don't remember everything, but I think I visited a structure built near a waterfall, ruins probably. A potential base maybe."

"Ruins?" The vulpix asked again, "I don't know Martian, most ruins are either mystery dungeons or too unsafe to make into a home. Never know when they might collapse on top of you in your sleep."

The fire type's words failed to connect with the luxio's ears as the Blue Warden continued to scour the map for whatever he was looking for. It wasn't that he was ignoring her, it's just that he had devoted every bit of focus he could muster to the task at hand.

Martian's paw almost danced across the parchment as his eyes followed every little detail faster than Scarlett thought possible. Either he was blindly hoping that the odds would be in their favor, or he knew it was worth finding from experience. The vulpix's hesitation at the thought began to shift to imagining what it could mean if they found something like the ruins Martian described.

The kitsune's paws and tails were having trouble staying still again. . .

Wardens Eternal

As it turns out there were only three waterfalls on the map located near a forest area so that already narrowed the search area down quite a bit, especially since one of them was already right in the middle of another settlement. That left the Wardens with two waterfalls to search.

Due to its relatively closer location to Treasure Town, probably no more than a half hour or so if they took a shortcut through the forest, the duo agreed to check out Shienweld Falls first. No one knew who gave the waterfall such a weird name since no civilized pokemon had lived in the area at all.

All the more reason to check it out as far as they were concerned.

First it was the towers of stones stacked atop each other as simple markers for a path that really started to inspire Scarlett. They were on a trail, someone had been here before them a long time ago? What else might they have left behind up ahead? The vulpix was ecstatic to find out.

A few rotting fence posts,

Some flat stones in the path,

An old tree stump or two that had been cut down,

A few old ruts from what looked like a wagon wheel weathered down over time. . .

The vulpix could hardly hold back her excitement any longer the minute she began to hear the waterfall, giving in and running ahead of her teammate to get the first look at the mighty cascade and the ruins that would be standing alongside it.

What was she going to find? What was going to be the big finish? Maybe a long forgotten vault filled with so much treasure she could swim in it? Or maybe some sort of majestic palace fit for royalty? She could only imagine as she raced around the corner and reached the waterfall. . .

Absolutely nothing. No palace, no ruins, no treasure, just her shattered dreams and a few trees. The vulpix felt like crying, all of that build up and anticipation was for nothing. Even with the colossal size of the waterfall crashing down in front of her in a display of nature's power and grace, everything seemed pathetically small in comparison to the massive hole in her heart.

The fire type remained stationary, broken and sobbing quietly when the former human managed to catch up. He too was disappointed at their apparent failure, but not enough to silence his gut instinct that he was missing something. He knew it was here, he recognized those trees and rocks, he had climbed the stone ramp that seemed to lead up to the waterfall.

No, not up to, into!

The luxio smirked, it wasn't a failure quite yet.

The electric type jogged over to the edge of the waterfall, close enough he could slip between the falling water and the stone cliff without getting pummeled to death. Now all he needed to do was find the-

Rattle!

Found it.

Using his mouth to secure his grip on the pull chain, Martian backtracked slowly, tugging on the trigger while taking care not to slip into the water until he started to hear the gears moving above him.

The saddened vixen outside failed to hear Martian's accomplishment over the continuous roar of the waterfall, at least that was until the cascade split into two. Eyes wide in amazement, Scarlett could only watch in awe as a roofed bridge emerged from behind the falls until it reached the stone ramp offering safe, dry passage to whatever was hidden in the Cliffside.

Martin was the first to reach the top of the ramp, before turning around and gesturing to his partner to join him. It took a few seconds for the vulpix to get her stunned body to obey her commands again, but all of the anticipation and excitement she thought she had lost returned in full as she ran up to join him. She could see some of what was inside, gears, chains, stone bricks, it was better than she could have dreamed!

Just one more thing to address,

Martian huffed as he secured a stance before inhaling as deeply as he could, filling his lungs with a mixture of air and raw accomplishment before letting loose. The roar seemed to shake the earth and trees as several wild pokemon fled from his unbridled cry of victory.

How could she have dreamed so small?

AN: If you can figure out what's behind the name Shienweld, Please do not spoil it for everyone else, just PM me about it OK?