AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Oh it has been too long. MUCH TOO LONG. Sorry about not writing a chapter in like... *checks notes* holy crap 9 months?! Well sorry about that... I've been held up by college, medical issues (turns out I'm celiac, google that if you are curious), and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's just been a rough past few months. But no matter what happens, I still can't keep this story off my mind. Its like Dual Realities is a sentient creature that wants to be let out of my head! And if I don't let it out it eats my brains! Not unlike a zombie I suppose.
Lemme go on a lil' rant.
I don't know if I will be able to churn out chapters consistently like in the past. I'm still dealing with the stuff listed above, but I had a week of break from college (I have summer classes :P) and decided "might as well". Though I will say, a significant change in my mindset has occurred since then. I've been often concerned with writing the "perfect chapter" and making sure I get everything right. I usually will get a beta reader to help me proofread too.
The issue is that I'm often too worried about failure and making it perfect rather than having fun and letting my creative juices flow. This leads to me delaying the story because I will deliberate over one line like fifty times or worry about wether an interaction is perfect or not. And I just end up stressing over the story rather than enjoying the process and having fun!
I've decided I'm not going to do that anymore. I want to just get the story out and tell it to people. If people like it, then great! If people don't, then oh well, I'll do better next time. This chapter follows that philosophy for the last quarter of it, so hopefully the ending doesn't seem too messy or anything. But I decided that I'm gonna have some fun writing, so hope you have fun reading too :D
Amongst the plains and plateaus of Veridis Field...
Veridis Field is a large grassy plain sparse with trees and the occasional raised rocky plateau. Each plateau, supporting a mini-forest with tall deciduous trees and thick shrubbery atop them.
Stella the Eevee, Cress the Quilava, and Talia the Nidorina trekked along a dirt path that winded through the plains and between the rocky plateaus. Each was about as tall as a two-story building, so they were much too tall to climb over.
The group periodically sighted a variety of different ferals; from groups of ponyta galloping in the distance, a pair of graveler fighting over some limestone rocks, to a lone nickit, who curiously stared at the trio from one of the forested plateaus above.
Nobody seemed to be too interested in striking up a conversion, everyone was still exhausted from yesterday's battle. Though it wasn't completely silent. The air was filled with the occasional chittering of ferals, and leaves rustling in the wind. A rather relaxing ambiance.
Though eventually, Cress was taken by boredom. He held his breath and sent spouts of fire whistling out of his back. Instead of the monotone one-note whistles he produced in the past, he figured out how to play two different notes at the same time by igniting two different flame vents. But they seemed slightly off tune and spaced out a bit, like he was struggling to get each one out.
"Wow!" Stella marveled. "You've gotten a lot better at that. Sounds much more like proper music when you can play multiple notes at the same time."
"Certainly," Talia added, "I've watched your practice before, but I don't recall you being able to make multiple notes before."
"Hehe thanks." Cress seemed a bit embarrassed. "I've been working hard on getting better with it! Took me a while to figure out how to do two notes at the same time. It's really hard. I sorta have to..." Cress looked up and to the side as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "Like tense up the different flame vents on my back by different amounts. The more tension I put on one flame vent, the higher the pitch it makes!"
"Oh wow," Stella interjected. "So that's how you do it."
Cress nodded. "The hard part isn't the muscle movement, but like the multitasking. It's like trying to do one thing with one paw and another completely different thing with your other paw. But instead of two paws to work with, you have five paws. There are the main two vents on my head and three main vents by my tail."
"Oh I see," Stella mused. "So you're basically like a walking instrument now! Cress the musical quilava!"
Talia snorted at the idea while Cress giggled.
"Well… I'm not that good yet," Cress remarked. "Those notes were off tune."
"But you're getting there," Stella insisted.
Cress scrunched up his face. "Eh, I guess so..."
"Hmmpf," Talia sounded. "When you're fighting, you're way too confident. But with anything else you're not confident enough. You should place more faith in yourself. You're too humble. Though not perfect, it sounds fine, Cress."
Cress grinned. "Aw thanks Talia, means a lot coming from you."
Talia closed her eyes and gave a smiling nod.
The three continued to trek in silence for a brief moment before Stella groaned and shook her head side to side.
"Does your head still hurt Stella?" Cress asked.
The eevee nodded. "Yeah, a bit. But at least it's gotten a little better. Definitely overworked myself in that fight yesterday."
"Hmmmm..." Talia mumbled. "We should have a psychic-type nurse take a look at you when we arrive. They could help ease your headache. Since it's related to the scarf, we may learn something too."
"Yeah... that would definitely be nice..." Stella's voice trailed off as she stared out into the elevated forests, watching the wind rustle their way through the trees' leaves. She was a bit nervous, not knowing if she could really find any answers from this 'Deldrick'. But all she could do is wait and have faith.
"You know this is nice. Just having fun talking with you two. Not too different from yesterday..."
"Oh, you mean when we were conversing yesterday on the road to the dungeon?" Talia asked.
"Oh… no no. That's not what I meant," Stella said. "I mean, yes it's like that. But that's not what I was thinking about specifically. That's the day before yesterday for me. I meant my yesterday. In Syllose City."
"Ah that's right," Talia said. "You live a day as your human self while you sleep. I keep forgetting. It's still a rather difficult premise for me to wrap my head around."
"Yeah, I feel the same way..." Cress added.
"I can imagine. It took me a while to get used to it myself, but I think I'm mostly adjusted now. It doesn't feel as weird anymore, switching between two and four legs. Though whenever I wake up, I kinda need a moment to get myself mentally adjusted to a different body. But after that, I'm all good."
"Ah I see," Talia mused. "Though what was it you were saying about yesterday? It's always very interesting to hear stories from your world."
"Ooo me too!" Cress exclaimed. "There's so much weird stuff that you humans do!"
"Oh… well, really I just went out with some friends. We went to a café and had some smoothies together. After that-"
"A… uhh… a smoothie?" Cress interrupted with a puzzled expression.
Stella gave Cress a bewildered look. "Wait… You guys have pasta but don't have smoothies in this world?"
The quilava shook his head.
Talia chipped in. "Never heard the term before."
"Me neither," Cress said. "It's a really weird word. Smooooooothie. Smooooooothie."
Stella giggled at Cress's attempts to pronounce the word. "Well… I guess that makes sense. After all, you guys haven't invented blenders. They are these machines we use that blend together berries..."
As the trio hopped across a small stream, Stella gave Cress and Talia a quick rundown of what a blender is and how it's used to make smoothies.
"So basically it spins so fast and cuts up the berries so much that they just… liquify?" Cress asked.
Stella nodded. "Mmhmm. That's the basic gist. For some flavors, the baristas will actually mix in a bit of condensed moomoo milk so it tastes all smooth and creamy! Pecha berry smoothies are my favorite."
"Oh I'd love to try it out!" Talia exclaimed. "Perhaps we could attempt to have a bisharp help us, and make our own smoothies! Ironically, pecha is my favorite berry as well!"
"Ooo that sounds like an idea! But uh… what's condensed moomoo milk?" Cress asked. "What makes it different from regular moomoo milk?"
"Oh uhmm..." Stella stuttered for a second as she tried to think. She really wasn't sure how condensed milk was made. "I… It's like a sort of caramel milk cream I guess. Not really sure how they make it. I'll have to check later."
"Mmmm caramel milk cream... That sounds so yummy..." Cress's voice trailed off as he dreamed blissfully of sweets and other tasty treats.
A short while later, the trio rounded the corner of a large plateau, revealing the town of Luminaire just in the distance! From what Stella could see, it was a relatively large town, situated by the coast. It was filled with a variety of unique looking buildings, just like Collis Village; much different from the monotonous square pillars of buildings from her world. In addition, it seemed like once again, the town was built to match with the terrain. There were a few large plateaus in the middle of the town, but there were ramps and stairways to access the top of them, where there were even more structures and buildings.
"Woah… is that it?..." Stella muttered. "I mean, it's not nearly as big as Syllose, but still, it's huge! It's amazing to me that pokémon built all that."
"Excited?" Talia asked.
Stella shook her head. "Nervous. I'm worried that I'll get lost or somebody will realize that I'm a human like you guys did."
Talia shook her head. "Don't worry Stella, we'll make sure you don't get lost. Not that it's easy to get lost in the first place. And as for hiding your identity, don't worry about it too much. When we first met you, it was obvious that there was something a little off about you. The way you walked, how you seemed to be unaware of a lot of common knowledge... But now you make for quite the convincing eevee!" Talia playfully ruffled the fur on Stella's head with a claw.
"Hey, knock that off!" Stella giggled as she flicked a paw at her head. "But you really think so?" Stella asked.
"For sure!" Cress chipped in. "I mean, you've grown so quickly! Going from knowing no moves to being able to fight off a pseudo-feraligatr in just a week! You'll be fine Stella! You're quick to adapt!"
"Well, I had Talia's and the scarf's help for that one… But still. Thanks for the reassurance guys." Stella closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief before opening them again. "Right. Let's get going then!"
In the town of Luminarie…
The closer Stella got to Luminaire, the more she realized that it was much larger than she initially anticipated. Sure, it may not even be close in scale to Syllose city, but as a tiny foot tall eevee, the sheer size of both the pokémon and town itself was overwhelming!
"Woah okay… this… this is awesome!" Stella exclaimed as she sprinted a bit ahead leaving both Cress and Talia behind.
A polished cobblestone path made of stones of varying colors and materials, lead straight into Luminare. A few tall buildings, varied as much in shape as their inhabitants, flanked the main road leading into the middle of town. Trees and other shrubbery lined the side of the main road alongside the buildings, bringing a shade of green to an otherwise already colorful city. Again, like the tiny Collis Village, there was a strange chaotic regularity to the buildings; varied in shape and structure, but not in such a way that they interfered with each other either aesthetically or functionally.
For example, there would be a few buildings in succession that would be shaped like pokémon heads. But in other spots, all the buildings along one side of the street would be a silver gray or tangerine orange! It's almost like there was no city planning, and yet everyone seemed to agree as to how the city should be built. It could only be described as orderly chaos. Not bad chaos though. More like… playful!
Luminaire wasn't as packed as Stella expected, with plenty of open space to wander around in. All sorts of pokémon passed by Stella as she soaked in the environment. So many pokémon she'd never seen in Alterra before. Granbull, azurramil, donphan, grotle, boltund, and…
"WOAH!" Stella was so distracted, she barely noticed the giant tyranitar walking straight towards her! She barely dodged out of his way.
"Oh! My goodness little lady," the tyranitar said, "I hope you aren't injured!" The tyranitar wore a tiny black fedora and a long crimson red scarf. They took off their fedora and gave a tiny bow with their head. "I do apologize for my carelessness."
"Oh uhhhh..." She was lost for words, not expecting this humongous pokémon to be such a gentleman, nor call her "little lady." Though she supposed that to him, she was rather small.
"Uh… no worries sir. I'm perfectly fine. Really I should be the one apologizing, I was kinda spacing out there."
"Ah, then I suppose it would benefit the both of us to practise attentiveness eh?" The tyranitar let out a hearty laugh. "If you're fine then, I apologize for my hastiness, but I must be off! I'm rather late for a meeting!" The tyranitar bowed their head again. "Toodles!"
"Oh right... Bye then!..." Stella exclaimed awkwardly as the tyranitar turned around and ambled away at a brisk pace. Stella had to quickly backstep to avoid getting whipped by the tyranitar's tail as they turned.
Cress and Talia approached Stella.
"What was that all about?" Cress asked.
"I'm not really sure… Nearly got run over I guess." Stella said before turning to face Cress. "We apologized to each other. Not much else to it."
"Ah good. Glad you had that handled. But please make sure you stay close to us Stella," Talia said. "Wouldn't want you getting lost on your first day here."
"Right, of course…" She had a sheepish look on her face "Sorry my bad… Got a little distracted there." Stella said as she glanced towards where the tyranitar ambled away, before turning back to her friends and following them down the busy street.
Stella made sure to follow Cress and Talia more closely as they led her past a few more buildings, and under a massive, arched stone bridge, which connected two adjacent plateaus. It reminded her a bit of a highway underpass.
Eventually, they arrived at the foot of a large plateau on one edge of the city that dwarfed the surrounding buildings. A set of stone stairs wrapped around and climbed up the side of the tall stony mound. She could barely make out the roofs of a few small buildings at the top.
"That's the guild up there at the top!" Cress exclaimed.
"Wow, so you guys just built around and on top of them huh..."
"Not just around and on top, but also inside!" Cress explained.
"Inside?" Stella asked.
It didn't take long for her to see what he meant. There were some wooden and stone windows carved into the side of the plateau at various heights.
"Wait a second…" Stella muttered. "Is part of the guild built inside of the plateau itself?"
"Yep!"
"Okay, that's... That's actually really cool. It's like an underground base, but not actually under the ground. An above ground underground guild. A guild that is built under the ground up there, but above the ground we're standing on…" Stella giggled to herself. "Phew, that's a mouthful."
Talia was already walking towards the base of the stone steps when she turned around and snickered at Stella's musings. "Well then, shall we?"
Once they reached the top of the stairs, Cress and Talia led Stella towards a large blue and purple stone building and walked inside. A scizor and auduno stood off to one side of the room, discussing what sound like business matters to Stella. But otherwise, the room was mostly empty save for a large reception desk, passageways on both sides, and a potted oran berry plant in the corner by the entrance. A clefable seemed to be rummaging through some papers behind the desk.
Presumably upon hearing their footsteps, the clefable addressed the trio without lifting their head up, "Hiya folks! I'll just be with y'all in a moment! Just spilled my papers everywhere and need to get all situated here..."
*rustle rustle* *rustle rustle* *rustle rustle*
"There we go! All collected!" The clefable lifted their head, clutching a pile of weathered parchment in their hands. They seemed to be surprised to see the three pokémon.
"Oh, trainee team B4! Cress and Talia! How did it feel to get practical experience in the field? Oh and who's this sweet lil' gal you brought along with y'all? Oh gosh, eevees are always the cutest!"
"Oh… I uh… I ah… Well… My name..." Stella was too flustered to reply properly.
With an amused smile, Talia spoke in her stead, "Claire, this is Stella. We met her during our stay in Collis village. We brought her along to talk to the guildmaster due to… special circumstances."
"Special circumstances?" She asked.
Cress stepped in. "Madam Dravae asked us. Can't really talk about it too mu-"
"Aw say nothing more!" Claire the clefable interrupted. "If the old bird said so, then it must be super important! I won't bother about it. But could y'all wait a short bit? Deldrick is in a really important meeting with Team Fleetfoot's leader."
Stella let out a frown. She was really looking forward to finally learning more about her scarf.
"Flint?" Cress asked.
"Yea, somethin' about a mission gone wrong earlier thi..." Claire's eyes went wide as she put her hands over her mouth. "Oops, I don't think I was supposed to say anything about that."
"Gone wrong?!" Talia blurted out. "What do you mean?!" Her normally cool demeanor was replaced with one of flusteredness as she stumbled over her words. "Flint, Lexi, and Torri, are they okay?"
Stella was taken aback by Talia's sudden mood change as she leaned towards Cress. "Hey Cress, who are they?"
Cress seemed worried as well. "Friends of ours… Also… Flint is Talia's brother."
Stella's eyes widened as she glanced back at Talia. No wonder she was so worried.
"Oh gosh, I forgot you two were siblings. Don't you worry yourself Talia. Everyone's fine. All of them were knocked unconscious by some bandits on a mission earlier today. Only Lexi has a scratch across her back, but that'll heal after a few hours."
Talia breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew, thank goodness. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."
"What?" Cress interjected. "Knocked out by just some thieves? Team Fleetfoot?"
"Well apparently it wasn't just some thieves if they could bop Team Fleetfoot. Flint and the others only came in just a short bit before you guys did, so that's all I know."
Claire leaned forwards a bit and started to whisper. "But could you mind keeping the news on the down low? You can ask Flint yourselves about it later, but Deldrick said to keep it hush hush for now until after he's sussed out what happened."
"Hmm…" Talia had a pensive look. "Certainly Claire. How long would you say it's gonna take them in there?"
"Oh geezums… Let's see… Since it's a debrief and…" The clefable paused for a moment to think. "About another twenty minutes I'd reckon then…"
"Ah good, not long then," Talia said.
"Oh nice!" Cress exclaimed. "Sounds like plenty of time for us to get our new equipment." He hopped in place a few times excitedly before stopping and giving a sheepish look. "We uh… lost a few of our things in the last dungeon," he said before letting out a nervous laugh.
"Remember Cress, we wanted to get Stella's headache checked out first," Talia said. "We can do that afterwards."
Cress bit his lip. "Oh yeah I forgot..."
Stella saw Cress's disappointment and shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'm feeling a lot better now."
Talia raised a brow. "Are you sure Stella?"
Cress's eyes lit up.
"Positive," Stella replied, "We can wait a bit before checking me out. I'm sure a short twenty minute trip won't kill me." In reality her headache was still bothering her quite a bit, but it hurt her more to see Cress upset. Besides, this was the first time she ever saw a city filled entirely with just pokémon! She wanted to see more of what Luminarie had to offer.
"Ah great then! But before I forget..." Talia pulled out a small journal out of Cress's bag and handed it to Claire. "Here's the survey report. Could you please update Collis Valley's volatility rating to a tentative A-?"
The clefable's eyes widened. "Oh my, was it that bad?"
Stella slowly nodded. "You have no idea."
Just a few paces away from the base of the Luminaire surveyors guild, was the town's local scarf-maker. As the trio approached, Stella could see that the storefront had a large open stall with a wooden counter, so instead of going inside the shop, you'd do business from the outside. Conveniently, there was a small tarp roof covering the area just in front, protecting anyone if it ever rained.
A bored-looking sylveon sat on the counter, lazily staring off into the distance until he saw the trio approach him.
"Oh hey. It's Cress and Talia. Was expecting you two yesterday."
His dull and uninspired voice threw Stella off. Aren't sylveon supposed to be super happy and bubbly all the time? But neither Cress nor Talia seemed to acknowledge his unusual demeanor, as if it was just normal.
"Yeah sorry about that Syllus," Cress said, "we got a bit held up on the road yesterday in a rough dungeon. Ended up losing a bag and both of our scarves actually."
"Yeowch. Bummer man. But hey, lemme see if Dereese or Ave can get here real quick. Your stuff is ready in the back, but not sure where it is exactly."
With one of his ribbons, he pulled a rope down that was hooked to a pulley. The pulley was strung along the ceiling inside of the store. It apparently was hooked up to a bell in the back, because a bell rang as soon as he pulled the rope.
"Dereese, Ave!" Syllus shouted in an apathetic tone. "Cress and Talia are here for their pickup."
"Ah yes, the bell tolls for moi~" A voice spoke from behind Stella.
A cold shiver ran down Stella's spine before she yelped and quickly turned around. Standing behind her was a mimikyu in a pink auduno costume carrying a small satchel on their back.
"Hehehe sorry friend, just a habit of mine!"
"Dereese, don't scare the customers," Syllus said with a small chuckle.
"Oh sorry darling, you know I can't help myself!"
Dereese walked (do mimikyu walk?) towards the counter and hoisted themselves up by using pitch black tendrils that protruded from the bottom of their costume.
"I just came back from some shopping and saw the perfect opportunity! You know me! It's in my nature."
"And that's why I love you honey boo!"
The mimikyu and sylveon embraced with ribbons and black tendrils and nuzzled each other.
Cress whispered to Stella. "They make a cute couple don't they?"
Stella nodded hesitantly as she stared. "Yeah, definitely an interesting couple…"
Just then, a ribombee whizzed in from the back. "Ooo ooo customers! Cress and Talia! Nice you see y'all again!" They spoke rapidly with almost no stops between words like a kid on a sugar rush!
The ribombee suddenly flew up to Stella and held out a hand. "Hiya I'm Ave! Nice to meetcha friend! Love your scarf! Pretty design!"
"Oh uh… hi, thanks! My name is Stella." Stella awkwardly held out a paw to shake the ribombee's tiny hand.
"Oh Stella nice! Also cute name!" Ave turned to Cress and Talia. "Lemme go get some of your stuff in the back!"
"You can just go and get Cress's goggles and their scarves," Dereese said.
Stella turned back towards the mimikyu, only to find themselves wide-eyed at their sudden costume change! Deresse was now wearing a costume that depicted an eevee just like Stella! Complete with tall pointy ears, a cream-colored fuzzy collar, black sewn-in buttons for eyes, and a bushy fabric tail!
"I already have their bags right here." Dereese moved backwards a bit, revealing two sturdy looking bags from underneath their fabric. A light purple-ish messenger bag made for a biped, and a darker blue bag with straps made for a quadruped. Cress's and Talia's faces lit up as soon as they saw them.
"Sure thing boss!" Ave exclaimed.
"Wha…" Stella remarked to Dereese as Ave zoomed to the back. "I only looked away for a second. How did you… how did you change so fast?
"Do you like it?" Dereese asked gleefully, seemingly dodging the question. "I love making different costumes of all sorts of pokémon."
"Uhm… yeah actually! I'll be frank, it looks really cute with the button eyes."
"Eeeeep!" Dereese let out a gleeful shriek! "Oh I'm so happy happy HAPPY!" Dereese hopped and twirled in place, causing the costume's ears and tail to flop about. "To have an eevee tell me my eevee costume looks cute just feels so great and amazing! I wasn't sure about this one, but now I know for certain my costume is great and AMAZING!"
"Oh of course your costume is amazing honey!" Syllus commented.
"But you say that about all of my costumes you silly!"
"Because they are!"
As Syllus and Dereese chatted among themselves, Stella turned over to Cress and Talia, where they were putting on the dark blue and light purple bags respectively.
"Wow, you guys look good in those!" Stella exclaimed.
Cress nodded with a wide grin. His bag was fitted onto his back with straps that wrapped around his belly. The bag itself was spaced between the heat vents on his rear and head. The dark blue coloration meant that it blended in very well with the color of his back fur. "It's super easy for me to put it on without anyone else's help." He stood up on his rear legs and stretched a bit from side to side. "I'm still pretty flexible, and it doesn't rub up against my skin too much!"
Talia's bag was wrapped around her shoulder and hung somewhat loosely at her side, but there was a belt strapped around her waist that kept it relatively pinned down. "Certainly. Was tired of my old bag hitting my side whenever I needed to sprint." Talia adjusted the belt at her waist a little before turning to Dereese and nodding. "These ones fit much better now!"
"Oh lovely! I'm glad that the extra effort we put in was worth it!"
At that moment, Ave flew out from the back, carrying two scarves and a pair of goggles. "Here they are!" the ribombee exclaimed as they placed the items on the counter.
Cress and Talia picked up and put on their respective scarves. Talia's scarf had a violet and lavender alternating wavy pattern. Cress's scarf on the other hand was orange with red swirls dotted about.
"Those definitely look much better than your previous scarves!" Stella turned and gestured towards the goggles. "Though whose are those?"
"Ah!" Cress exclaimed. "Those are mine!" Cress slipped on the goggles over his eyes. The lenses were thick and had a silverish metal rim with small metal bolts fixing the lenses in place. They curved outwards and left plenty of room for Cress to be able to see his peripherals. "How do I look?" Cress asked with a gleeful smile.
"Really cool actually!" Stella exclaimed. "But what do you need goggles for?"
"It's for when I'm using flame charge! The light and heat irritates my eyes a bit when I'm covered in flame, so these should make it much easier for me to see where I'm going!"
"Oh that's neato!"
"Yes yes quite so." Dereese said. "Since you are surveyors, we made sure that your equipment is extremely durable! Your scarves' and bags' fabric are infused with ground up kommo-o scales and ducklett down. So they are fire-proof, water-proof, shock-proof, tear-proof, and everything proof!."
Stella let out a long whistle. "Phewwwww! That's a lot of… proofing."
With Talia and Cress satisfied with their new equipment, the trio said their goodbyes, and returned to the administrative building at the top of the plateau.
"Is he done yet?" Stella rushed inside and asked the clefairy as soon as they reached the top. She was eager to finally learn more about her scarf.
"Oh my someone's excited!" Claire exclaimed. "I think so darlin', I just checked up on 'em a few minutes ago and they seemed to be finishing up. I'm sure guildmaster Deldrick wouldn't mind if I had y'all wait outside his office for a small bit." Claire picked up some papers and walked out from behind the desk and towards an opening to a hallway behind her. "Besides, I need to file some things for your survey report."
With a smile, Claire led the trio down the main hallway of the building. Since there weren't any doors to speak of, Stella was able to glance into the few rooms they passed by. In one room a reuniclus was using psychic to move a bunch of files between various shelves. In another, an auduno seemed to be conducting an interview with a chimchar and piplup.
It wasn't long before they arrived at a set of stairs, which led them to the second floor. After a right turn at the top, the group arrived at a wide set of metal sliding doors. "Oop here we are folks!" Claire exclaimed. Conveniently, just at that moment, a lucario and a swampert walked out through the door.
"That's Deldrick right there," Cress whispered to Stella, gesturing towards the swampert.
"I'll leave you folks here, I've got some papers to file! Best wishes with your assignments!" Claire exclaimed as she hobbled away down an adjacent hallway.
"...but I'll make sure we look into it sir," Flint said as he shut the sliding door behind him. "Armor like that had to be custom-built, and there's only a few pokémon that could make something like that."
Deldrick nodded and spoke with a rough, deep voice, one that seemed to command authority, and yet, the way he spoke made him seem a bit laid-back. "Ay do that. It concerns me that we got a bunch o' hooligans like that running around." The marshtomp put a hand on the lucario's shoulder. "An' don't sweat the loss. You'll get 'em next time Flint."
"Yes sir." The lucario nodded before glancing over and noticing Talia and the others just outside. Deldrick followed his gaze.
"Oh hey sis!" Flint exclaimed. He walked up to Talia and crouched down, putting a paw on her head. "How did the training expedition go? Love the new equipment by the way!"
Talia shrugged. "It went okay, all things considered. Had to label a dungeon as A- on volatility."
"Yeowch." Flint turned to Cress. "Wow it's been a while Cress! You've grown a lot! How are you mate?" Flint held up a paw which Cress promptly high-fived.
"Pretty good!" He replied.
As the three chatted among themselves, Stella glanced over at Deldrick, immediately realizing that Deldrick was staring intently right at her. The two locked eyes for a split second, making her instinctively gulp. To have a large muscular pokémon be so close to her already felt rather intimidating, but the small scars and scratches on his face, presumably from many battles, added further to that.
But the way he looked at her… wasn't as rough as his appearance. She wasn't sure what to make of his expression in fact. Confusion? Surprise? Contemplative? He had a slight head tilt and squinted, like he was trying to get a handle on who she was.
"Oh and who's this?" Flint asked as he turned to Stella, snapping her out of her daze.
"Ah, this is Stella, a friend of ours," Talia explained. "We met her during our time at Collis Village."
Flint nodded. "Well, welcome to Luminaire Stella!" He looked between the three of them. "Wait a sec… you have a group of three now. Are you three looking to make an official team together?"
"Wait… a team?" Stella asked.
Cress shook his head. "That'd be a fun idea, but not really yet. We actually brought Stella here as a request from Madam Drave."
Deldrick raised a brow and crossed his arms. "To meet me I 'uppose?"
"Uhm, yessir," Stella said nervously. "We were wondering if you knew anything about this." Stella propped up the front of the harmony scarf with her paw.
Deldrick nodded. "I do. Quite a bit." He started to stroke his chin and closed his eyes in contemplation. "Could we talk in private?"
Though it was phrased like a question, his voice was so deep and forceful, that Stella couldn't help but feel like she was being told a command. "I uh…" She hesitated for a moment, unsure about talking to such an intimidating pokémon by herself.
He noticed her hesitation. "If you don't mind, that is."
"Well maybe…" Cress was about to speak, on Stella's behalf, noticing her discomfort, but then Talia put a paw on Cress's back, stopping him. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Talia interrupted.
Stella raised a brow of astonishment at her.
"Besides," Talia continued, "Cress and I need to talk to the quartermaster for some supplies. We lost our old equipment in a previous expedition."
"Oh, I should come along so we can catch up too!" Flint exclaimed. "I haven't talked to either of you in a while! It'll be nice to exchange stories. I wanna hear about what you two got up to while you were in Collis Village."
"Yeah that would be awesome!" Cress exclaimed. "I'd also love to hear about Fleetfoot's recent expeditions!"
As Cress and Flint chatted between each other, Talia whispered into Stella's ear. "I know this is personally important to you, so I thought it might be best to give you some privacy for this one. So if you feel like it, you can tell us about it later. Okay?"
Stella nodded, starting to understand Talia's intentions.
"And don't worry, he may look tough and can be pretty tough, but he's very understanding and well-meaning."
Stella tensed up as soon as the others left and Deldrick closed the metal sliding door behind her.
"Please, take a seat." He said, gesturing to a medium-sized cushion on the floor. Stella presumed it was there from his previous meeting with Flint. Deldrick sat on a larger cushion right across from it.
Deldrick's office was huge, at least, for Stella that is. The center of the room seemed to be a meeting spot of sorts with a few cushions strewn about. She noticed a semi-open bin nearby had a variety of cushions of different sizes and colors inside. Along one wall was a large desk with a map of the entire continent. There were various notes and tacks pinned into it. Stella's head was then drawn to the sound of flowing water. There was a small fountain in one corner of the room that released a constant stream of clear, running water.
After taking a brief moment to take in her surroundings, she sat across from Deldrick. She never had been called to the principal's office in school before, but she assumed this is what it must be like. That is, until she saw his sullen, melancholy expression. It was at complete odds with how he held himself in front of the other pokémon. He seemed to be staring in no particular direction as he kept his sad, pensive look. The two sat in silence for several awkward seconds.
"Hey… is uh… is everything okay?" Stella asked.
Deldrick took a quick look at Stella and quickly recomposed himself, taking a deep breath, and rubbing his face with one of his giant arms.
"Ay, pardon me young one." He took a deep sigh. "I was expecting you to be someone else."
"Someone else?" Who was he expecting instead of her?
He shook his head. "Ah, never mind that. Stella was it?"
Stella nodded, still wondering about his previous statement.
"I take it you're human?"
Stella's eyes went wide and a shiver went down her spine. How did he…?
"The scarf," he said, reading her expression. "It's the mark of a human who came from the other world." He crossed his arms and chuckled to himself. "Can't believe she remembered that letter from all those years back..." In his brief pause, Stella thought she could ask one of her many questions, like how did he know about her world? The human world. And what was his connection to the scarf? But she hesitated, still unnerved by the huge pokémon to get any words in.
"Tell me Stella, how did you come across that scarf?" He asked, with a curious look. "I'm sure you know already, but that's no simple scarf."
Stella was about to speak, but sighed and hesitated. She wasn't entirely sure if she trusted Deldrick yet. Sure, he was the leader of the surveyor's guild and seemed to garner a lot of respect, but he knew way too much about the harmony scarf for it to just be simple curiosity.
"Maybe if you start from the beginning?" He asked upon noticing her scrunched up expression.
Stella realized that she would have to say something. It's not that she thought he had any malicious intentions or anything like that. It was just that she didn't feel comfortable giving him more information yet while she knew nothing. She'd answer his question eventually, but she wanted to know some things first. In particular, she wanted to know the answer to one very specific question that stuck in the back of her mind ever since Talia read his letter. Would he take it the wrong way though? With her thoughts gathered, Stella took a deep breath.
"Deldrick look…" Stella started.
He tilted his head.
"I… I… was actually hoping I could get some answers from you."
"How so?"
"It's just that… I've been in this world for only about a week now, and though a lot has happened since then and I've learned a lot, I still feel like I know next to nothing. I don't know why this scarf is stuck to me, why it keeps transporting me between both worlds, why I'm an Eevee…"
As Stella continued to speak her mind, her voice became increasingly distressed and her eyes started to tear up.
"I mean at least I can go back to see my friends but like why is this happening to me of all people!" Stella began sobbing. "That dungeon we went to yesterday we nearly died in! Is this scarf really supposed to be for some legendary hero? Am I really up for this? I don't know! Why me!? Just…"
Stella stopped herself with a sigh and wiped her tears off with a paw. "Sorry I'm just…" Stella sniffed during her pause. "I don't know why I did that. Sorry. I guess I needed to get some stuff off my chest. A lot more than I thought. Didn't realize I was that pent up."
Deldrick shook his head. "No, I understand. It's a lot for you to go through."
"Yeah I guess… It's just that, sure, I've been having a lot of fun here, I mean other than yesterday. Becoming a Pokémon has been such an amazing experience for me. But like, I just have so much on my mind with no answers and it's been driving me nuts… So yeah, it's been pretty overwhelming."
The swampert nodded in understanding and smiled. "Tell me then Stella, what do you need to know?"
"Thanks I uh…" Stella shuffled awkwardly in place for a moment, feeling a little bit embarrassed after bawled her eyes out in front of the marshtomp. "I think this scarf may have something to do with my dad, since it seems like it might have been his."
Deldrick's eyes went wide.
"Do you know anything about-"
Without saying a word, Deldrick stood up and walked to the back of the room. He seemed to be mumbling to himself. "I knew she felt familiar…"
"Uh… you okay there?" Stella asked. "Something wrong?"
He rummaged beneath his desk for a brief moment before coming back with what looked like a gray messenger bag. On it, engraved in yellow, were the initials G. R.
"Do you recognize this?"
Stella gave a few confused blinks. "I don't think so. Should I?"
The swampert gingerly reached into the bag with one of his large hands and pulled out a small photograph. "Please, take a look." He placed it on the floor so Stella could take a closer look.
Stella felt like she was having an out of body experience from sheer disbelief. Somehow, she was looking at a photo of her and her parents. Her human parents! Though she seemed to be only a toddler in the photo, riding on her dad's shoulders.
"I… I don't understand." Stella looked up at Deldrick with sheer bewilderment. "These are my parents… How… Who… Are you?"
"Look 'ere." Deldrick pointed at one point in the photograph. Stella looked where he pointed and saw a tiny mudkip being held in her mother's arms. "That's me," the marshtomp explained.
Stella's brain stopped functioning for a moment as she tried to process the meaning of this. "I… I thought I asked for more answers, not more questions!"
"Stella, I was your father's pokémon partner."
Stella blanked for a moment trying to process what the marshtomp had just said, but the words flew over her head. "Huh?"
"Garret Reeves, your father, was my trainer. In the other world."
Stella was speechless.
"I've got some explaining to do…"
