Before I knew it, a month had passed. Time flew by as Nyne and I worked for Siruis' guild—The Valiant, as I was informed it was named. Through it all, Nyne and I retrieved lost items, arrested criminals, and explored the dungeons around Lazuli Town for some extra cash and loot. Lyridia's Den, especially, had whole piles of poké just lying around.
Buizel started to teach me how to read the footprint runes everyone wrote in. And his partner, Nina, helped quiz me whenever we met on our errands. Nina was a really nice Nidorina that I always caught helping someone or another. Half of the time she came back at the end of the day without doing what she set out to do because she got side-tracked helping someone else on the way.
I had asked Buizel what Throh meant that day. His comment about shapeshifting hadn't set right in my gut. Buizel snorted derisively and explained it like he was laughing at Throh's stupidity.
"It's a common misconception, really. The Zorua, your pre-evolution, can shapeshift into other Pokémon. Not perfectly, usually, but well enough." At which point I asked him about evolution and he would have had to put another poké in the look-at-Sindri-like-she's-crazy jar if only I thought to make one. Buizel took the time to explain what it was and how it worked in various ways for other species. When he finally looped back around to Zorua and Zoroark, he finished explaining Throh's idiocy.
"Unlike their pre-evolution, Zoroark don't actually shapeshift. Zoroark are masters of illusion and trickery. Rather than become another Pokémon, they cast an illusion so real, you're almost forced to believe it's true. Which is what I notice you doing a lot when you're scared- throwing up an illusion of the surrounding area to make yourself invisible."
And then another month passed in the blink of an eye. My time with Nyne and the guild became routine and comforting. Tyra and I often talked until Nyne was antsy to leave. The elderly dinosaur was kind enough to let me talk her ears off should I need to. Which was something I appreciated when Nyne said something boneheaded and I flew off the handle.
The anger that rose up so easily seemed to get better with each passing day. The more I accepted life without memories and in Lazuli Town, the more the anger subsided quicker. I was grateful for its diminished presence. I never wanted to lose control of myself just because something made me angry.
One day, as Nyne and I were deciding on a dungeon to take on, Lilly bounced up to us with a sunny smile on her face.
"Hello you two!" she cheered.
"Good morning, Miss Lilly," I replied. Lilly laughed and wagged her stumpy hand at me.
"Sindri, dear, I've told you. It's just Lilly." I nodded, but it didn't sit right with me to just call her Lilly.
"What's up, Lil's?" Nyne asked, snaking around me to be a part of the conversation.
"You two are wanted in Sirius' office. He has a mission for you two." Nyne's jaw dropped and his eyes sparkled with joy. I felt my face pull into surprise. A mission? What was that? Didn't we go on those every day?
"Really?! Oh my gosh! Yes! Thank you Lilly!" Nyne was almost shooting off fireworks with the sparks he was coughing up. Lilly took a step back to protect herself and smiled once more.
"It wasn't my decision, silly boy. But go, go before he gets huffy." Nyne darted down the hallway, leaving me behind with Lilly. We sighed in unison and then laughed together.
"Thank you, Miss Lilly." She shook her head and placed her cheek on her nub.
"No problem, Sindri. Take it easy, okay? If this mission Sirius sends you on is too much, you can always come back to the guild and take a stab at it another day. Okay? Your safety comes first."
"Yes, ma'am," I replied, leaving quickly so Lilly couldn't see the tears forming in my eyes. She didn't need more things to be concerned about. Especially not my easily touched heart.
In Sirius' office, Nyne was already waiting and ready to hear the assignment. Sirius looked up from the map on his desk as I entered and then back down. He never really looked at me for long, I noticed.
"So what's the mission, eh Master?" Nyne asked enthusiastically, his front paws shifting where he sat.
"There are some ruins I want you two to explore." Sirius pointed to a spot on the map that was hazy and unfinished. It sat between an orchard and a mountain. "They were discovered about three weeks ago when a team went too far down the Druddigon's Teeth mountain range. So far, no one has been able to open them."
"You want us to give it a go?" I questioned. "What makes you think we'll get into them?"
"I've watched you two these past two months." Sirius smirked at us. "Nyne, you've improved your battling style with a partner at your side. And Sindri, you've not only stopped his gambling habit, but I know you've pulled him out of a couple bad scrapes. You two also completed that quest in Pansage's Labyrinth, the one that everyone else kept getting lost in. I'm sending you two because I believe you're clever enough to do it. Any more questions?"
"Judging by the distance, we'll be away for a few days." Nyne traced a path from Lazuli to the hazy spot. "Are you okay with us being gone for more than one day, Master?"
"I won't say it doesn't make me uneasy…" Sirius looked us both in the eye. Those red irises still made dread crawl up my spine sometimes. Especially when he looked so serious. "But, I believe you two will be alright. Worst comes to worst, you two can't enter the ruins and you come home. Or maybe you do enter the ruins, but you get lost in them. Which is why I'm sending this with you."
Sirius pulled a familiar looking orb from his desk. The footprints around the middle spelled out 'Escape Orb. Twist when in danger.' Sirius handed it to me and looked back at the map. He pointed to a path different from the one Nyne traced out. It went around the orchard instead of through it.
"Some troubling reports of stolen items and half-seen Pokémon running through the heart of the fruit forest have come in. I don't want you to lose your things or to have to worry about defending yourselves from assailants. Go around the orchard instead. It may take you an extra day, but it'll be safer."
"Understood," Nyne said and goofily saluted Sirius. Sirius smirked and waved us out of his office. Nyne pranced out with his tails held high. What a dork.
With a quick stop in our room to grab our bags, we set out into the town. Since I had taken over our finances, we had built up a pretty decent savings. We had enough in our account to pay for the trip and more. Well, that and Throh didn't show up to beat Nyne to a pulp anymore. I hated to admit it, but seeing the color drain from that Pokémon's face whenever we passed him around town was amusing.
"G'day, g'day S'ndri. Nyne." Cinccino called to us from his stall, waving an arm. "Two bags t'day? Where are you two off to that requires two bags?"
"We," Nyne puffed, "are going on an official guild mission." I rolled my eyes and Cinccino chuckled.
"Are ya now? Then I s'pose you'll need some food and some travlin' supplies. How far are you travlin'?"
"The edge of the Druddigon's Teeth," I answered. "Sirius wants us to check out those ruins that were found." Cinccino tapped at the counter and thought for a moment.
"That'll take a day to get there," he mused.
"Actually, we're going around the orchard, so add another day."
"Alright, alright. So, a healthy bag of fruit for you two, plus some watersk'ns to stay hydrat'd. You'll want a tarp in'case it rains or it gets cold. That'll come ta 'bout 478 poké. You want me to wrap it all up for ya while ya stop at Chand'lure's place?"
"Thank you Cinccino," I said with a smile. Cinccino was one of my favorite people to talk to. He never tried to be pushy about selling his wares, which usually made me buy something petty to show my appreciation. "Will you add a Spurn Orb to our order? Just in case."
"On it. That'll make it a straight 500. See ya soon." Cinccino waved us off and I dragged Nyne to Chadelure's bank. He pouted as we entered the purple and grey tent. Ever since I'd scolded him, Nyne didn't like to sit through Chandelure's teasing about his gambling.
"Good morning, Chandelure," I greeted. Chandelure bobbed his familiar hello.
"What's the order for today? Withdrawal or deposit?"
"Unfortunately we have to withdraw today. Could we have 600 poké please?" Chadelure bobbed a nod and a stack of gold coins floated from behind the counter to on top of it. We counted them together and agreed on our amount.
With a quick stop to grab our stuff from Cinccino and pay him, we were out of town. Setting out so early was a great start. With all day to travel, I thought, we'd make it to the orchard by that night. Nyne must have noticed the happiness on my face because he turned around to face me.
"You're certainly in a good mood today, Sindri," he commented.
"Why not? It's such a nice day today." Nyne gave me a weird look as a smirk wormed up his snout.
"You've changed." I stopped short.
"What?" Nyne's smirk widened into a smile.
"You used to hate going out to dungeons and places not that far away from Lazuli Town. Now you're all excited to explore ruins a day away." My face grew hot and I started walking again.
"So what? I was just new to this world. Now that I know this place better, I'm not so scared of it… At least not since I've got you to count on." Nyne laughed and little embers filled the air between us.
"You've always got me to count on, Sindri. Remember that." Warmth spread in my stomach as Nyne stated his friendship so plainly. Such a dork.
"Come on, you dweeb, we've got a lot of ground to cover."
The sun was just setting as we finally reached the forest of fruit trees. Calling it an orchard would have been an understatement. It was huge. The trees alone were double the size of the trees in the forest I had woken up in not so long ago. Nyne whistled at the thick trunks that formed the forest edge.
"This is one big orchard."
"You can say that again." It took both of us a minute to take in the sheer size of the fruit trees before I dropped my bag to the ground.
Spreading out the tarp Cinccino sold us, I took a seat and sighed in relief. My feet were killing me. All day trekking through the country was so much worse than going through the nearby dungeons for a day. Nyne laid down next to me, providing a bit of extra heat.
"Hand me a pecha berry, would you?" I dug one of the peach shaped berries out for Nyne. He had a sweet tooth the size of his head. I preferred the yellow, pear-shaped ones that weren't quite as sugary.
"Hey Nyne, why do you think the ruins aren't accessible yet?"
"Maybe cuz it's cursed," he said off-handedly.
"Shut up, there's no such thing as curses." Nyne laughed and finished off his berry, nosing another out of the bag.
"We'll figure it out tomorrow," he replied. "Don't worry about it. You're clever and I'm unfailingly intelligent, so we'll be sure to figure it out."
"Nyne, you are a dunce," I laughed. His face screwed up and he started to protest, but a snap silenced us.
Both our gazes shot to the orchard. Thoughts of the curse Nyne joked about flew through my mind. Don't be silly, I told myself. There is no such thing as curses. Even so, he and I hardly dared to breathe as our eyes darted back and forth across the dark spaces between the trees. I thought I saw a flash of white and icy blue. It disappeared so fast that I wasn't sure I had seen anything at all.
Nyne let out the breath he'd been holding and laughed. "We're a pair, ain't we? Getting scared at a piece of fruit falling off a branch." His laugher was infectious and soon we were on the ground with tears in our eyes. There was nothing in the orchard that would harm us… nothing this close anyway. Sirius had said that the trouble was in the middle of the forest.
Eventually we had relaxed enough to watch the stars shine into view. With Nyne curled up by my side, I let out the last of my anxiety with a breath. It had just been a fruit. There was nothing out there to steal from us. Nyne's soft snoring filled the silence. A star shot across the navy carpet of the sky. I made a wish for our mission to be successful. I'd take all the luck that I could, even if it meant wishing on a shooting star. I was just beginning to fall asleep when something brushed my ankle.
Thinking it was one of Nyne's tails, I batted it off and rolled over. The light touch came back and I batted it away again. Why wouldn't Nyne just keep his tails to himself? It returned and brushed up my leg. Fed up, I shot up and was about to push Nyne across the tarp, but I froze when two pupil-less eyes stared into mine.
The glassy white orbs belonged to a mass of shadow that refused to take a shape. Three more sets of the same glassy eyes opened at various parts of the blob. My mind refused to function, to come up with a name for the creature—or creatures –in front of me. The eyes looking into mine flashed and a grin of razor teeth spread underneath them. The feather light touch on my ankle hardened in a painful grip.
I yelped, but another shadowy strand shot out and clamped my jaw shut. The mass of shadows turned for the trees and dashed towards it, dragging me with them. I scrambled to dig my claws in the ground, but its strength was surprisingly tough. I managed to hit Nyne before I lost my grip and the shadow creatures dragged me through the underbrush into the forest.
The last thing I saw before the foliage closed around me was Nyne's horrified face barely catching a glimpse of me as I disappeared.
Hey guys! Back with another chapter! Little shorter this time, but oh no! What's gonna happen to Sindri?! Guess you'll have to see in the next chapter ;). And YAY for literacy! Remember kids, reading is good for you. Especially languages you're not familiar with. Go learning! Hop y'all like the update and I hope you tell me in the reviews what you think, or any issues with the grammar/plot holes/formatting issues. ~Ravinae