Wardens Eternal

Chapter Thirteen: Missing Person

It took almost three weeks of constant work, but Scarlett was quite pleased with how well the two of them managed to clean out most of the old ruins. Removing a few centuries worth of dust, cobwebs, and filth had been difficult, especially when the vulpix made the mistake of trying to burn the cobwebs, filling the air with the smell of burning dust.

Eventually the two had restored most of the base into a habitable living space, but it would still take more before it would feel like a true home. So far they just had the bare essentials like piles of straw for beds and the like. It wasn't hard to find new furniture and decorations to improve the base, it's just that they didn't have enough coin to afford all of it at the moment. They'd have to buy it a little at a time as they earned more coin.

Not that they were in any immediate rush to find work, there was an abundance of wild game for food and fresh water at their disposal so they agreed to spend a few days training before heading back to Treasure Town.

Martian's training became increasingly tough for the vulpix, often ending with the fire type bruised and sore, but far more mature and strong. The training they had done in the dojo was merely the tip of the iceberg compared to the intensity and raw spirit of the sparring the duo would participate in now. Scarlett began to fight more instinctively, more fluidly, no longer needing to manage every detail in every situation.

Not that she was perfect, The fact she had began to get used to the taste of blood was a hardened reminder that she was by no means unbeatable. Still, she had grown to the point that whenever she would get into a fight, she was fairly confident that she could come out on top most of the time.

Especially when she managed to counter one of Martian's attacks and land a blow on the luxio, catching him off guard during one of their spars. He was quick to recover, but not so fast that Scarlett missed his proud smirk. There was no mistaking it, he was very proud of her, and that made her feel great. The vulpix instinctively dodged the electric type's follow up attack, she wasn't going to make that mistake again. . .

Wardens Eternal

About a week had passed since then, and it was time for the Wardens to finally look for work. Unfortunately, that meant that they had to return to Wigglytuff's guild to look at the jobs posted there. Martian and Loudred did exchange expressions of mutual dislike as the Loudmouth pokemon reluctantly opened the main gate, but thankfully that's where the hostilities ended.

Now all the had to do was find work that suited them. Most of the posted jobs were small time glorified errands, like delivering a package to a location that the Pelliper Mail was just too lazy to fly to. The most paying job available was to provide security to a merchant's caravan, but that would take them weeks if not months. Scarlett wasn't sure if she was comfortable with the idea of having to basically babysit some miser for that long.

"Not a good day for finding work," Martian growled, "I'll take a look at posted bounties, if that doesn't work out we could just enter a Mystery Dungeon and collect any loose coin or supplies, That's got to be more productive then if we took one of the errands here."

"Is it okay if I go talk with Chimecho?" The fire type asked, Martian may have made some enemies here, but she liked to think she had made some friends before getting kicked out.

The luxio huffed, but quickly calmed down and acknowledged the vulpix's request. As much as he held a grudge against this place, he couldn't let his opinions dictate who Scarlett could make friends with. It just wouldn't be fair to her.

"Scarlett! Great to see you!" The Chime Pokemon beamed once the vulpix approached her desk, "I was getting a little worried about you when you haven't been around the past couple of days. Thought something happened."

"Good to see you too." The fire type responded, "Martian and I've been busy trying to set up a really cool base, so we've been pretty occupied. No need to come to town until today."

"Oh, good." The physic type replied in a bit of a hushed tone, quickly glancing around before leaning closer to the kitsune and whispering in a troubled tone.

"I'm not supposed to do this Scarlett, but about a week ago a group of Pokemon came in and handed this job letter to be posted. Chatot wanted it up right away but Dugtrio and I've been holding it behind the counter here for you. You needed to know about it before anyone else." Chimecho explained as she slipped the rolled up parchment to the confused, and now slightly afraid fire type.

One small peek at the contents of the page, and the entire world seemed to fade into a cold, black void of nothingness. She knew the world was still there, but her brain wouldn't let her see it. Her whole world had been confined to the letter in her paws.

Scarlett didn't remember leaving the guild after that, how her coworker came to her side and removed the parchment from her grasp and lead her outside. It wasn't until she stepped completely into the sunlight, until she felt the star's warmth against her fur that the black void her mind had imprisoned her in dissipated.

Martian had unrolled and flattened out the cursed letter in front of them in order to discuss it. At first glance it looked like a fairly straightforward Missing Persons report, the thing that worried him was the fact that his partner's face took up the uppermost portion. Scarlett was the missing person.

"Name Flaris, Red Vulpix, Female, Age 17, Missing for three months, believed to be heading towards western coastline." Martian read out loud before he scowled, "Sweet innocent confused girl ran away from her loving home, please bring her home before something terrible happens to her as she can not defend herself."

Martian laughed a little at that, obviously whoever wrote the poster wanted it to be as much of a tear jerker as possible. Still, the amount of exaggeration used to try and invoke sympathy was so absurd it was almost comical.

But that didn't change the fact that frightened his partner. The fact that the past that the restrictive life she had left behind was back to retake her. No doubt the five digit reward would attract a lot of attention to her trail too, gullible exploration teams who want to do the right thing and hired thugs alike.

"Well, there is some good news at least," Martian summarized as he turned to his partner who kept her head buried in her paws, "They're looking for someone named Flaris, some small petite little rich girl. I don't know anyone by that name, how about you Scarlett?"

The vulpix managed to pick her head up and grin, at least Martian still had some faith in her, but as impressive and as powerful as he was, he was only one Pokemon out of the dozens that would be looking for her.

"I still look like a rich girl though don't I? I mean, yeah my fur isn't perfectly clean but it's still got that upper class healthy shine to it." Scarlett sighed as she laid her head down again, "People only one good look at me to realize I've had my fur groomed so much that it stays this way. Not sure what I could do to change tha-"

The vulpix's complaint's were abruptly ended with a surprised giggle as her partner almost playfully pounced on her without warning, the former human's paws danced around her accompanied by very small, harmless electric jolts. The fire type could only half heartedly attempt to fend him off or escape the tickling. Hopefully he couldn't see how much she was blushing under her fur when he finally stopped.

"What were you saying about your fur staying some way?" Martian asked trying to hide how much he just enjoyed surprising her like that. He failed.

Puzzled, Scarlett managed to stop panting and used a paw to pat the top of her head, pausing to find it now unkempt. Her first instinct was to immediately groom herself, but she managed to catch her reflection. She looked more like a tomboy now, more practical, and far less like someone raised with manners and etiquette.

She didn't look like Flaris, instead she began to look more like Scarlett. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep this look from now on. . .

But that didn't mean that she would forget Martian's tickling, oh no, she was going to get her revenge when the time was right. . .