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step four

Don't Rest Until Safe

It was late afternoon by the time David crawled out of the fissure. The orange sunlight that filtered down through the trees lit the half-beaten path in a warm, lazy glow. Sobek was busy collecting a few dead branches and driving them into the ground around the fissure as markers.

"There," he said, stepping back. "Kinda hard to miss now, huh?"

David tilted his head. "Didn't you say kids sneak out to this place to fight the wilds? Doesn't this just scream out, 'Hey! Look at this!' and then they get lost in the dungeon."

Sobek blinked for a second before his face fell, glaring at David, "Kids are kids." He stormed off.

"Right." David shook his head and caught up, Caterpie creeping alongside him. "So it seemed to be noon back in the dungeon? …if we went back in at night, would the not-sun be out?"

"No clue," Sobek said plainly, shaking his head. "Rule-of-thumb is not to go into dungeons at night. Weird stuff happens then."

"Such as…?" David lead on. Sobek sighed, shaking his head slightly. "Oh, come on, Sobek. You dragged me through some sort of magical-cursed place of weird after—" He glanced to Caterpie. "It's an honest question!"

"You guys aren't...?" Caterpie started, then stopped as David looked back down. He only met David's eyes for a second before shying away.

Sobek shook his head. "Your mother thought we were and, well—oh. She's… she's coming to us…" His voice cracked into a whimper and he and David unconsciously took several steps backwards as Butterfree blurred towards them between the trees.

The two flinched, bracing for anything she could say at them. But she immediately landed, holding her child to her with a wing and only sobbed gratitude towards the two. Caterpie was quiet, tearing up himself with eyes closed, silent.

David sighed quietly, acknowledging Sobek's nod with one of his own. He noted Sobek was edging away and silently agreed that leaving now was probably the best thing to do.

Subtly, they turned and stepped away—Butterfree cut them off.

"Oh!" She said through her tears, "Oh, no! I can't let you leave without me thanking you!"

"Uh, that's okay, ma'am," Sobek said quickly, voice with more than a little squawk to it. He cleared his throat. "It's good to see you back with your son. We, uh—there's really no need for a reward."

"Nonsense! You saved my precious baby. Even if I don't have anything that thanks you nearly enough but… Ah! Here! Take this," She handed Sobek a small pouch. "A few of the berries we were collecting before this horrendous accident. It is the least I can give."

"Uh, thank you," Sobek said, slowly setting the pouch down next to him. "It was just great to find him unharm—"

Butterfree's attention snapped to her son, "Have you thanked these brave two Pokémon for rescuing—" She cut herself off, head snapping up. "Oh! I almost forgot, may I ask your names?"

David and Sobek exchanged unsure glances.

Sobek hesitated a moment too long, David spoke first. "I'm, uh. I'm David. This is Sobek."

"Thank you David and Sobek," Caterpie looked up to the David with wide eyes, still shivering from his experience in the dungeon. The tears were still in his eyes, and between them and the attentiveness of his antennae and how tall Caterpie was trying to stand, David guessed it was admiration. …and that made him a bit uncomfortable.

Still, he'd rescued a defenseless Caterpie from some fissure after he had suffered some sort of identity disorder minutes after awakening with memory loss. That was a good thing, right?

"Yes, you two are heroes today!" Butterfree added on, patting her child on the head.

Heroes. that felt about right. Somehow.

...heroes.

David bashfully rubbed the back his neck, "Well—" He cut himself off as Butterfree's eyes sparkled again.

"Oh, David! That reminds me! In your rush, you had forgotten your club! It was too heavy for me to carry myself but it should still be right where you left it. I pushed it under a nearby bush, just in case." Her head tilted. "I must say, I've never heard of a Cubone charging into battle without his club before."

"Ah, well…" David started, suddenly interested in making sure his helm was seated right. "It's—it's like Sobek said. Grass types, don't like them. Eheh. Can't really club them, you know..." He waved dismissively and shot an annoyed glare back toward the fissure. "It was a tactical choice; speed was an issue and I can run a little bit faster without it. But you're right; my brother would have my helmet if I left it behind again."

"You have a brother?" Butterfree more jabbed than asked. Sobek tossed him a quizzical glare.

"I'm—he's on an adventure right now. Well, technically we both are. Nevermind, it-it-it's a bit odd and, um… it's hard to explain."

"Hmm, well I hope he's doing as well as you are then, David," Butterfree smiled, her eyes losing most of her franticness with the gesture. "Cascoon included." She laughed softly, motioning to the sheer layer of silk on his hide. "But we must be off now. Thank you and farewell! Say goodbye!"

There was a solid four seconds of hesitation from Caterpie, still looking up to the two with large, teary eyes. "…thank you. G-goodbye…." With that, the two turned and headed on their way down the path.

David took in a deep breath— Sobek elbowed him, breathing quietly, "No-no. Wait. Wait…. Wait for it…." The two disappeared around a bend. "And they're gone." Sobek sighed, groaning as he collapsed onto the ground. He shook his head. "That was way too much of a hassle for just three berries. Yeah, we saved the kid, but you're right, David. That Butterfree is a few eggs short of an Exeggcute." He looked up, "Did you make up that bit about your brother or are you remembering something?"

"I made it up," David said, then laughed. "I panicked. It—it wasn't it obvious, right?"

"No-no, you sold it. Just… don't let it come back to bite you."

David blinked, eyes confused at what he meant by that. "…sure." The Cubone looked around, "Do you remember where I woke up? I… I kinda would like my club back."

"Sure, sure, no problem," Sobek nodded, hopping back up and pointing through the trees. "We're actually closer than you'd think. Come on."

Sobek took the lead this time, David following him silently through the trees. He paused in one of the clearings, sighing softly in the warmth of the real sun. It didn't exactly energize him, but if he closed his eyes and stood there, just listening to the soft wind and the songs of the bird Pokemon in the area—the warbling tune with the occasional half-word that he had woken up to. Then, if only for a moment, he felt the weight of everything that had happened over the last few hours lift off his shoulders.

It felt almost like he wasn't a Cubone, almost like he wasn't really anything. …just that he just was.

"Feel the difference between the real one and the fake?"

...at least for a moment.

"What?"

"The sun," Sobek clarified. "The real one feels just a little different than the fake one of the dungeon. It's always a good idea to know that feeling by heart. Sometimes you think you're out of a dungeon, but you're really not. If there's a sun, it's a way to check it."

David grumbled, "I don't plan on going back into any Mystery Dungeon, Sobek." He scoffed. "I've had my fill, thank you very much."

"Mmmm," Sobek shrugged. He swatted David on the shoulder. "Come on, you can sun yourself when you get your club." He hesitated for a second before heading off. "The silk's dried; it'll crumble off easily when you get around to it. That Wurmple must had been the first to fall into the dungeon." David reluctantly followed. They passed through a few bushes, Sobek nearly tripping out of the last. "Found it!" He picked the club up and passed it to David.

David looked it over. It was a femur of a larger Pokemon, like all Cubone clubs. One end had been worn down to a blunt point while the other had the knobby bit of the joint on it. Sobek watched carefully as David passed it between his hands, trying to get a feel for it as well as finding the best spot to hold it.

After few tosses up in the air and a few clumsy catches, he shouldered it and laughed slightly. "Okay, thanks. Thanks a lot."

"Feel a bit better with it now?"

After a heavy pause, David sighed. "I'm not sure what I feel, just that I'm really tired."

Sobek scoffed, but grinned. "Rough day." He glanced away, frowning. "…hey, David. You don't actually have a place to stay, do you? Yeah, stupid question. Follow me."

David hesitated, more to shift his club than anything else, "Uh, where to?"

"You'll see," Sobek half-smirked over his shoulder, "Don't worry, it's not that far. It took us longer to find the ravine than it would to get there from here."

"Hey, isn't there someone we should tell about the big hole of crazy in the middle of the woods, anyway?"

"Ah, right." Sobek flinched and bit his tongue for a moment. "Yeah. I'll take care of it. Don't worry." He seethed quietly.

David frowned, trying to read Sobek's face but failing. "Um…?"

"Don't worry about it, David. I… guess I was heading in that direction anyway."

"So there is someone to tell about all this?"

Sobek didn't answer, he was putting far too much effort in pushing through the grass as it grew higher around them. David followed slowly, glancing around. A few wild Pokémon wandered about. A few Weedle and Wurmple on the trees, a Pidgey somewhere up in the higher branches sang its warbley song. Around an extremely tiny pond to their left, a small grove of Bellsprout spread their leaves in the afternoon sun, one uprooting itself to move out of the shade.

Sobek noticed how long David looked at them, "Don't worry about the wilds out here, they don't attack unless you tick them off." He let off a heavy sigh, "But yeah, I just need to stick a notice on the town's bulletin board."

"A town?" David tilted his head, "Is that where we're headed?"

"Uh, no," Sobek said, a little too quickly. "No, we're not headed to the Square. Nearby, but not to it. I said I'll handle the notice thing. Don't worry about it."

The trees were thinning, but that only made things a bit harder due to more and more shrubs growing in the way of the two and it wasn't long until David was eye-to-eye with a Silcoon as it woke. The eye promptly shut, the silk taking on a brighter sheen.

"Relax, you just spooked it," Sobek sighed, pulling David away. "Besides, we're here."

David turned to find himself on a forgotten pathway that forked off to their left. As they walked towards the fork, he noticed pavestones set in the ground. Old, cracked, and surrounded with smaller stones that had been worn and broken by time. Little shoots of grass and shrubbery poked through where they could.

The fork was actually a T-intersection, with the path he was on being the stem and the one running perpendicular, the cap. More pavestones, larger ones this time, marched by stock-still to the right, disappearing downhill and around a bend, while the stragglers on the left were smaller and less in-tact, abandoned in the battle against grass and time as the path faded. A similar fate was met on the branch they had emerged out of.

This was once a road. Not a large one, but an important one. And it was still used, if only occasionally. There was an extreme lack of shrubs on the path, the stones didn't have that much moss on them and the grass wasn't that tall. Shorter still on the path they had arrived on. So the road came in from the right and immediately took a hard left for a while, then left the traveler on their own.

But where was it going to? The pavestones more-or-less stopped right at the base of the intersection, right at the fork. This road wasn't built to go somewhere; it was built to come here. The fork was only secondary.

So what was here? There wasn't anything along any of the three roads, just a clearing in front of them, right at the root of the intersection, short rocks jutting out of the ground with a gap right in front of them, a very small path, then a stony hill in the center….

A grin slowly spread on David's snout. He glanced to Sobek, "You're kidding, right?" Scoffing, David stepped through the opening—the rocks were a fence, that hill is a house.

The clearing was covered here-and-there with encampments of chest-high grass, but the dirt was too stony for anything larger to take root besides a few low bushes and the ivy that was climbing the house. And it was indeed a rather earthen house. The walls were rock and the dirt that held it all together was crumbling adobe that the ivy dug and clawed away at. The path lead directly into the adobe, but it was a darker brown than the rest with several half-dug holes into it. A few other darker patches spotted the house, and, almost triumphantly, a small flower had somehow made its way to the roof, the little scout's small red petals bobbing in the light breeze.

"You like it?" Sobek called from his spot against the fence.

David laughed, glancing back, a wide smile on his face, eyes sparkling, "Ah. Yeah. Actually. This is pretty neat." He paced to the side, the fence had once encircled the entire clearing, but some of the stones were now missing and the shrubbery was making an effort to invade the stronghold. There didn't seem to be a way into the house itself, though.

David froze for an instant, "Wait, who owns this place?"

"You, I guess. If you want it," Sobek shrugged whimsically as he met David at the front of the house. "For real? I don't think anyone really owns it. I mean, really, follow the road and you'll hit the Square in an hour or so, even when you're not trying, but I've never seen anyone around up here." He glanced around, slightly confused. "Yeah, it's strange. It's the larger wilds that like to use the path, but no one else comes this way that I've seen. Anyway, give me your club for a second."

David shied away, holding his club protectively, "Why?"

Sobek's narrowed his eyes. "Because I showed you this place so you can sleep on the roof," He said flatly. He huffed. "The pointy end, use it to make an opening in the mud here."

"Oh." David blinked, glancing between his club and the wall before taking a stance in front of it. Gripping the club with two hands, he pulled back over his shoulder—"You know it, what if they sealed this because there's something really bad—"

"Yes. Let's seal the evil spirits in a house made of rocks an easy walk away from town. That'll hold it for all eternity."

David looked over his shoulder at the cross-eyed Totodile and laughed, "Aheh, yeah, that's kinda silly, isn't it? Alright then." He took the stance again, drawing back the club over his shoulder, then stabbed the wall with all his might.

"Any luck?"

David pulled back, the club digging out a little dent. "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh no. …adobe's a bit tougher than I thought it was."

"A-do-wha?"

"Adobe," David kicked the wall, "That's what that stuff is."

"…I thought you couldn't remember anything," Sobek said carefully.

"That's…" David blinked, then tilting his head and rubbing his jaw in thought. "Huh. …well, I remember how to talk, right? I know what I am, I know what you are. How did I remember those?"

Sobek rolled his eyes, "Okay, point. So what is adobe?"

"I don't know."

"David."

"I don't! I just know that stuff is called adobe," David scoffed, glaring at the wall. "I mean, dried mud isn't that strong, I know that much."

"How? No, seriously. How? How do you know? Is this like an on-sight thing? But then back in the dungeon, you said I was acting like a Tauros would pop out. Yeah—that's weird—David, how do you know anything, if you can't remember anything?"

David blinked, this time more startled. "I don't know?" He laughed, shaking his head. "Wow, how does this amnesia thing really work?" He looking over with tired eyes. "Sobek, I swear, I can't remember anything. At least nothing about me. But… I dunno. I don't know, these random things pop into my head for a split-second…." His shoulders hung with a heavy sigh and looked over the sealed door again. "Okay, I've got an idea."

Taking his club in hand again, he lined it up with one of the half-dug holes at the bottom of the wall and struck it a few times. Sobek glanced away, lost in thought, frowning.

On the seventh swing, David lost his balance as the club found the other side. "Ha-ha! Got it! Okay now to widen it enough to get in…." He frowned and glared at the rest of the adobe above him. "…this is going to take a while to clear out, I need to carve out a ladder. And then there are all the windows ughhh..." He flipped up his helm and rubbed his temples. "I guess it's a fixer-upper." He met Sobek's questioning glare. "What?" Sobek shook his head apologetically and looked away. David sighed quietly and chipped away at the hole.

After a minute, "Hey, Sobek. Thanks."

"Don't mention it, any—" Sobek cut himself off. He sighed, then looked back to David. "No, not anyone would do that, but I like to think of myself as a nice Pokemon."

"Yeah—with me thinking I was human, that's why I want to thank you." David snorted. "Sorry. Dust. …yeah, I really just want to know why I thought that."

"Do you still think you're human?"

"Now that I had a moment to think about it?" David shook his head. "It doesn't make sense. I mean, if anything, I'm a Cubone." He tapped his helmet and held up the club. "Where did this and this come from? I mean, one's a skull, the other's a fe—" he scooted back as the dirt around the hole collapsed. He and Sobek exchanged glances.

"Hit it with the knobby end," Sobek said, reaching for the club. "Maybe the rest will collapse."

"I don't want it to completely collapse, I just need a hole big enough to get in there," David said quickly, leaning away from Sobek and keeping him at a distance with a foot. "Deal with it tomorrow. Find something to use as a door."

Sobek sat back up straight and blinked, frowning. "A door." He repeated silently when David looked away. He shook his head. David pried more of the wall off and cleared it as it collapsed.

The Cubone peered inside, laughing slightly. He pulled back and sneezed, "Air's a little stale and there are a few holes in the roof, but it's completely untouched!" He grinned at Sobek, clearly excited, and then dived through the gap, squirming a little before he popped through.

Illuminating by the sunlight fighting through the cracks, it was a single room with a mostly earthen floor, save several large, worn-smooth stones in the ground. A single rock sat in the light to the side, almost as tall as David and sprouting the solitary plant life in the room, little green infiltrators. A large slab of stone sat in the far back of the room.

And that was it.

David giggled and stuck his nose out the hole, "Sobek, ya gotta see this!"

"I'm good," Sobek sighed. "I've a strict one-cave-a-day limit."

"But it's so cool!"

"But there's nothing in there!" the Totodile whined and held a pained expression for a second before his face cracked into a laugh. "You like it then?"

David squeezed back outside, "You have no idea! Why did they seal this up?" He started to pace around it again.

Sobek took a breath, then swallowed it and let David take a lap around the house. Somehow, this little hole in the ground had lifted the Cubone's spirits to the point where he was genuinely happy. …or it was just a distraction. Either way, for better or for worse, this was the first time Sobek had seen David not in a gloomy state.

"Hey," Sobek finally said. "I'll leave you the berries, I'm gonna knock off for the night. You gonna be alright?"

"Well, I'm going to see if I can open one of the windows, maybe two, for some air circulation—oh. Yeah. Yeah!" he beamed. "I'm good." He sighed, and looked up to his house, then double-taked as Sobek nodded and walked off. He caught up. "Sobek! Uh, you're going to be around, right?"

"I'm gonna swing by in the morning," Sobek said in mock-chide, then grinned. "I figure you're going to need a bit of help getting situated—don't you even think about roping me into fixing this place. You Cubones obsess over this sort of thing. Even if you can't remember, it's obvious you're no different."

"Well still. Thanks again, Sobek," David held out his free hand. "Even with you dragging me to the hole of crazy, it was almost fun."

Sobek tilted his head, looking at the hand, "Almost?"

"Well, you also almost got me killed by Sunkern zombies… shake hands? …that's a thing right?"

"Shake—" Sobek blinked in revelation. "Oh! Yeah, that." He shook David's. "Yeah, that's a thing. Not exactly a common one around here. But yeah, it's a thing."

David sighed, "You scared me there for a second."

"Why?"

"Nevermind," David dismissed it with a shake of his head. "See ya tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow," Sobek nodded and turned, walking down the straight-away path.

David turned back to his house, grinning slightly, "So, this place is mine now." His grin faded. "Sobek's right, I have walls, but no furniture. Unless I'm right when I thought that big rock was the bed. I really don't like the idea of sleeping on hard rock." His shoulders slumped. "Hokay then. Bedding. Warmth. Fire. …homeownership." He chuckled to himself and walked back up the path, then stopped halfway there.

He looked around. Sobek had disappeared into the forest. The clearing was empty save him and the satchel of berries next to the house. There weren't even any wilds around.

David set his club down and took off the skull, pointing the nose at him and looking it over. It seemed like the average Cubone skull—but what does that mean? What exactly does 'average' mean?

No. No, he was tired. He didn't want to think about that today.

He pulled off the last remnants of silk and shook himself; it all crumbled away, just like Sobek said it would. With a hand he rubbed his eyes, then his nose before looking to the sky and finding the sun low in it.

Sunshine.

It was sunny, warm. There was a light breeze, a few clouds. The trees rustled, the grass waved.

But it was just him, him and the sun.

Closing his eyes, he soaked in the sunshine and he faded away, if only for a few minutes, until a cloud covered his new home in shade.