step five

Sometimes You Have No Choice

It was a harpy's song that woke him. A screeching noise that sounded through the small windows he made last night and reverberated off the walls and then again off the inside of his helmet, and then again in his skull. A harsh string of notes that sounded less like a song and more of a small creature in desperate search for its head.

Now he knew why Sobek disliked Pidgeys so much….

Blearily, David pushed himself up, grumbling as he pushed up his helmet to rub his eyes. He froze before pulling his hands away, studying them for a long second. He slumped and sighed.

Brushing off a few loose leaves from his arms and back, he grabbed his club and took stock of the interior.

Not that it changed that much since last night. All he really managed to do before dark was find a nice, soft bush and pillage it for its branches before knocking out small holes on opposite sides of the house to get some sort of air flow going.

Yesterday's dinner was one of Butterfree's berries—a pecha, if he was right. Today's breakfast will be the other one in the bag. Save the sole oran for when he needed it, and he wasn't entirely sure on what the fourth was. Then again, with that Pidgey he might need that oran after all.

Time. What time was it? Early. Probably. He could feel the faint draft against the stale air of the house and it smelt of morning dew. Very early then.

Exactly when was Sobek supposed to get here again? …maybe more noon-ish? That's probably enough time to widen the western window, then the sunset could shine directly into the house and he wouldn't have to stand outside to feel it. He could work on the eastern window while bathing in the sunset. Maybe even enough time to figure out where a few of the cracks in the roof were. Had to fix those before it rained. With all the excess adobe mud he's breaking off, he could repurpose that into sealing the leaks. …at least he thought it would work.

It does rain here, right?

Why wouldn't it rain? There are clouds right? Get a big enough cloud and it rains. That's how it works.

…right?

Window. Roof. Sobek. Yeah, there should be enough time for that.

Holding the berry in his mouth, he pushed aside the dirt he had shoved in front of the entry and wiggled through it. The air was crisp and clean, invigorating after being inside. The morning mist had settled and the dew sparkled in the sun as it poked over and through the tree tops.

Taking the berry in one hand and club in another, he stretched, wincing as his back cracked a little, flinching as his tail did a lot.

"Right. Bed is too much rock, not enough leaves. Noted," He winced again as he realized how sore he was. His tail especially, after waking up sleeping on it. "Still, wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. …maybe some of the tall grass would work better…." He glanced at the closest patch on the other side of his fence, whining slightly, "I'll wait for Sobek on that one. …it might be dangerous to wander into tall grass on my own…."

In the meantime, pecha berry. Not like an oran berry—it has a pit in the middle, found that out the hard way last night. Split it down the middle, pull out the pit, enjoy.

Shaking out his legs, he tossed the pit away and bit into the flesh of the berry.

"Nnngh…."

David spun, hopping away. He scowled, "Sobek. …Sobek? Are… you asleep?"

He cautiously approached the little crocodile. Sobek sat against the house, eyes closes, tail curled around him, far enough to the right of the entry for David to miss him coming out. Aside from his nose twitching, probably where the pit hit him, he was completely still. He was holding a cloth rutsack in his arms, something new from yesterday.

"And… you're completely zonked out," David rolled his eyes before taking another bite of the berry. He glanced at the cloudless sky, admiring the deep blue. "Maybe it's later than I thought…?" He shrugged, rolling his neck. "Eh, whatever. He let me sleep when he got here, I guess I can let him snooze. Not like I'm going any…" A large shadow flitted over the grass in front of him, arcing back around the house, then over again, "…where….?"

It took him a moment to look up to see a Pelipper circling around above, gliding down and down, ultimately landing on the ground just outside the fence, looking through the gate at David with a blank expression in its eyes.

David blinked, rooted still.

…was it a wild? It was rather far inland for a wild seabird. Then again, he wouldn't know where the sea was so that doesn't really mean anything. Then again, it had a pack on its side. Slim chance a wild would have one of those.

…was this its roost? Doubtful. Unless it nests on the roof of the place. But that would have trampled that flower up there, so that wasn't it.

…did it own actually own this land…?

Its beak went to the pack on its side and, after some fishing inside, pulled out an envelope and looked back to David. It didn't move, eyes still empty.

"…it's a mailman?" David said quietly in realization. "Not exactly a messenger Taillow, are you?" It stood there, looking at him, unmoving. "Oh. Right." He shook his head at himself and ran down the path. The bird's eyes were indifferent, but studied him as it lowered the envelope into David's hand.

David quickly looked it over—maybe papyrus than actual paper, but it was an envelope, the flap sealed with a bit of tree sap. …a… blank envelope? Back up to the Pelipper, "…this can't be for me. …is it?"

The albatross turned, taking a few steps and opening its wings.

"Hey-hey-hey-hey!" David bolted forward, ducking under the wings and cut it off, "At least tell me who sent it!"

The Pelipper's eyes glanced away and slowed. Expressionless, it turned to look back at the house. "Do you not know anything of that place?"

David glanced at the house before giving the bird an incredulous look. He planted the point of his club into the ground and leaned on it slightly.

"…depends," he nonchalantly started. "Just from looking around, it was important at one time. Not anymore, but not too long ago. There's nothing wrong with the house, seems structurally sound, probably wasn't abandoned due to that. Any damage it has is just weather damage from lack of upkeep. Ground's a bit gravely so it clearly wasn't a farm."

…are farms a thing here?

David shook his head at himself, "I've been told that only the wilds use these roads, but I found cart tracks down the other branch last night." David glanced to the bird, half-smirking at the odd look it was giving him. "My guess it was someone outside the town, since everyone there seems to avoid this place."

The Pelipper looked away, "Most have chosen forgotten about it."

"You landed on the road, not on the fence; so you clearly haven't. …and that alone says something." David mused, giving the mailman a few seconds to meet his eye. "Well?"

"You're… very observant." The mailman bluntly took off, circling upwards slightly before disappearing over the trees, back towards the town. David's face fell as he watched it, half glaring, half sighing.

"Sobek, what have you gotten me into?" he scowled, rolling his shoulders as he headed back to the house. Grumbling to himself, he shoved the other half of the berry in his maw before tearing open the envelope and fished out the letter inside.

"What?" He blinked, then lifted up his helmet, eyes narrowing at the lines.

"What?" He blinked, then rubbed his eyes before studying the letter closely. "…what. Sobek! Sobek! Sobek, wake up! Wake! Up!"

Red eyes bleared awake. "Swha…?"

David shoved the letter in front of them, "Read."

"Huh...?"

"Mail-Pelliper just dropped this off a minute ago."

That got him awake, "To here? To who?"

"I'm guessing the bright blue blob against the dark brown blob; from the air you probably stick out like a sore thumb. Read!"

"Okay! Okay!" Sobek scowled, rubbing his eyes before looking at the paper. "….okay…. 'We heard about you from the Duchess and how you aided her. Ergo, in her name and with her word, we enlist your help. A wave of energy pulsed through our dungeon, fusing two of our brethren together, but it is incomplete, not enough to form Magneton. We employ your aid at Thunderwave Cave. Your discretion is appreciated on the matter.'"

"Read the first line again."

"'We heard about you from the Du—'"

"The one before that! Did they really spell out 'BZZZZZKRGZ'?!" He held up the other half of his breakfast, "Or is this thing fermented?"

"It's the Magnemite 'hello'," Sobek said matter-of-factly, eyes skimming over the letter again. "There's one at the end as—wait you can read footprint runes?"

David shrugged at Sobek's shock, "Yeah, I was surprised too. Amnesia didn't take that away either."

Sobek slowly frowned, looking back down to the paper. "…have you ever heard of… nevermind."

"Next thing I was going to ask you," David sighed, stifling a laugh. His face fell serious and he sat down across from Sobek, "So the insane Butterfree yesterday is a Duchess? What."

Sobek frowned. "Um. What's a Duchess?"

David half-spoke, then swallowed his words. Frowning, he looked away to muse, speaking wordlessly to himself as he drew lines through the air. After a minute, "…I hear the word, and I think… Kings, Nobles, Knights, Castles. Counts. Dracula. With me?"

"Oh, oh! I get it, I get it!"

David sighed with a satisfied smile, then his face crashed with an epiphany, "Wait—why is the amnesiac explaining something?"

"You have line-of-sight memory."

"Line-of-sight?"

"You see something, you hear something, you remember something. But not before," Sobek shrugged. "Thought I'd let you give it a try." He shook his head, "Besides, I've only been here a month or so."

"Nothing in town about a Duchess?"

"I, uh," Sobek glanced away, "I avoid the Square. It has…. There's something… I'm not much of a towns-Pokémon." He shook his head and looked back to David, "So a Duchess is someone important?"

"Okay, let me try it this way. We rescued a Duchette yesterday… Dukette… those aren't words—a prince basically. The son of a ruling family… royalty…?" David nodded to himself, "Royalty."

The two blinked as a sudden looming sense of dread came over them. Sobek paling for a moment, David, a little longer.

"Uh, David?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"So… someone that important would have people serving them, right? I mean, they're like a leader of… of… of a Guild. Or a, um, member of the council of a Guild…."

David frowned slightly, "What's a Guild?"

"Guilds are—uh," He cleared his throat and picked up on a renewed tempo, "They oversee large groups of Rescue Teams. Rescue Teams basically do what we did yesterday and they report to a Guild for jobs and so on. David. Anyway! What concerns me is, 'We heard about you from the Duchess and how you aided her. Ergo, in her name and by her word, we enlist your help.'" He looked up, seething, "That is… not a request."

David choked, his face going white again. "Woah! Woah-no-no-no-no! I'm not—we are not a Rescue Team!" he scooted away, "All I want to do is—is-is fix up this house, regain my memory, and live a nice, happy life. Okay? That's my goal. No more zombie Sunkerns. No more kamikaze Pidgey. No more Mystery Dungeons!"

"But she thought we were a team, David!" Sobek sighed, looking back to the letter. "And she's referred us to someone—"

"I don't care!" David shouted, leaping up, "That thing said 'dungeon.' I'm not going into one of those again! Not now! Not ever!" David stormed off.

Sobek shook his head, eyes darting over the letter over and over again. "…I don't think we have a choice in the matter."

"What!?" David roared, spinning his heel. "What do you mean 'we don't have a choice?! We have a choice! We're not a Team—we can say 'no!' I'm not going into another—wait, no!" he snapped his claws and pointed at the envelope, "There's no address on it—even if I am from this area, there is no way for them to deliver stuff to me out here because they don't know I'm here! That's not for me! That's not for us! And even if it is, it's for you!"

"David, if it came here, it's for us—let me explain!" Sobek sighed, rubbing his eyes as he stood up himself. "I had to go to the post office to register that dungeon we found yesterday. …I might have mentioned you were staying here—" David slammed his club to the ground, pacing off, fuming. Sobek sighed again, but nodded in understanding, "I didn't think that something like this would come in, David!"

David bit his lip and paced back. He snatched up his club and drummed his claws against the bone—then tossed it down again, throwing up his hands, "DAAH!" He huffed, shaking his head, eyes exasperated, "Not…! Not your fault. Not mad at you. Trying not to, at least. Okay? Okay." He snorted and scowled to the sky, "I lost my memory, had some sort of mental breakdown, was threatened by a Butterfree, dragged through a dungeon where I almost got killed by Sunkern, and had a rough night sleeping. Nowhere along the way did I say: hey! I wanna do it again!" He sighed, hanging his head. "I am not going."

"David—"

"No! Seriously!" His eyes snapped to Sobek's, "There's nothing on the envelope—nothing to say that this was really for us. Also, side note, what's royalty doing in the middle of the woods without some sort of guard?"

"It is just Tiny Woods."

"Not a guard for the wilds, Sobek!" David groaned, "A guard for whatever enemies a Duchess might have. And don't ask me who'd that be—I have no idea."

Sobek tilted his head, eyes narrowing in thought, "That is a good point." He shook his head and hopped up. "You really don't want to go—"

"No!" David scoffed. "Listen, you just said that there are other rescue teams—can't you just pass it off to them and let them get them—wait, where are you going?!"

Sobek turned, "Thunderwave Cave."

David scoffed and rolled his eyes, "I figured!"

"You can stay, David," Sobek shrugged, heading back down the road.

David threw his hands up, "I know I'm staying, why are you going?!"

Sobek sighed harshly and faced the Cubone again, "…listen. David. I'm trying to give you some slack after everything yesterday. I really am. You're right. You didn't deserve to go through all of that and the timing of this is terrible."

Sobek held up the letter, voice growing stern, "But this is a directed rescue request. It came to us, and only us. Even if by accident…" He bit his lip. "David, you just said so yourself; Butterfree's royalty—or at least we think so. This is basically a royal order then. So… I'm going to Thunderwave Cave." He scoffed. "…shouldn't be that hard."

"Can't help but notice the word 'Thunder' is in the name," David butted in, voice flat. "You're a water-type."

"Well, you're a ground-type, maybe you should go?"

"I am not going. What I still don't understand is why you are."

Sobek scowled, "Because I'm pretty sure not doing it means bad news for us, and if we pass it off…." He shook his head. "There are issues with that. The main one? We are not a Rescue Team. So what, exactly, are we doing with a Job Letter?"

"That's not our fault. I'm telling you, there's not even an address on the thing; we can just say it came to the wrong place!"

Sobek groaned, putting his face in his hands. "That's not how it works, David…! Look, I'm sorry I dragged you into this, okay? When I get back, I'll go and sort out this mess."

"Go sort it out now, then!"

Sobek frowned, his eyes glaring as he started fuming, "David, do you know how long it would take me to explain what's going on? Literally two days—and that's if I'm lucky! In the meantime, there are two Magnemite in the middle of a dungeon, stuck together, one 'mite short of being a 'ton. Meaning they can't even move. Remember yesterday when I said Caterpie believed the dungeon's walls would eat him?"

Sobek glared, foot tapping. David jumped for an answer, "Uh—you said it wasn't the walls?"

"Yes—no. I said that?" The Totodile frowned, glancing away. "...I did say that—it's not just the walls. It's the entire dungeon."

"Umm?"

Sobek sighed, "Spend too long in a dungeon, and a few things happen. First, you starve to death, no surprise. But you go hungry far faster in a dungeon than normally. Magnemite don't need much food… I'm… not actually sure what they eat, but—"

"They don't, they recharge by resting against natural magnets. They literally run off magnetism, and they evolve when three gain enough of a charge that they can't handle themselves. Between the three of them, they create a magnetic sink that they orbit around and are linked through." David flinched. "…woah."

Sobek blinked, jaw dropping a little bit, "…sure?" He recomposed himself, shaking his head. "But see? Line-of-sight, David. Anyway.

"Second, the walls start moving. At first it's out of the corner of your eye, then the room you're in starts shrinking. You gotta keep moving, otherwise you get trapped. Survive that long? The air itself starts moving and there's a galestorm and there's no avoiding that other than leaving the area of a dungeon entirely.

"Get caught by either of them and, if you're lucky, you get tossed out of the dungeon. If you're not, you get stranded in there. You wake up, trapped in the dungeon, with no supplies. Maybe you find the exit, you most probably won't. That's where Rescue Teams go in. But if you don't get rescued… if you're lucky, you die. If not, you lose your mind and become something just above a wild Pokemon. An irrational.

"David," Sobek said carefully, eyes dropping to a glare. "Getting help, getting an actual Team to do this would be a waste of time, for us and what little time the Magnemite have left. And… with whatever you said, if three are needed to stabilize a Magneton, what's going to happen to just two? Nothing good. I am going to Thunderwave Cave; you can work on your house. I'll see you later." He turned and marched down the path.

"And what if you get killed in there? What then?"

"David!" Sobek snapped over his shoulder. "It's a rescue operation—risk is part of the deal! We might not be a Rescue Team, but we're the only ones who can get there in time. They need help, and I'm not going to just sit and let Pokémon die when I can do something about it."

He huffed, taking several calming breathes as he waited for David to move. The Cubone stood still, eyes slowly clouding over before he snapped to and glanced away.

"Alright then," Sobek said finally. "I'll–."

"Wait," David sighed. Sobek glanced over his shoulder to see the Cubone walking back to the house. "…let me get the berry satchel."

Sobek hid a relived sigh, "You're coming?"

"Just this once," David insisted before he squeezed into the house. "Then we sort the mess out with Butterfree. Then no more dungeons."

"I vote for this plan," Sobek scoffed, grinning as David popped back outside with the small satchel. He opened his rutsack for David to drop the satchel in, then shouldered it again. He met David's eyes; the terror from yesterday was gone, replaced with frustration. "Ready?"

David rolled his shoulders, claws drumming on his club again, taking a minute to steel himself.

"No. Let's go."