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step fourteen

Sometimes Things Just Can't Be Planned

David picked at his food.

It was white and orange and brown. A thick stew of starchy root vegetables, mushrooms, and an assortment of meats cooked by a fire for hours on end, served in a clay bowl packed with big spiral noodles and bread of a muted blue color on the side. The bread was just as large as the bowl and the bowl was just large enough for David to not hold in one hand.

But he wasn't hungry anymore.

He wanted to eat it. The veggies just fell apart in his mouth and the meat just melted. The entire thing was so savory he had to quickly scale down on how much he as eating at once and there wasn't even too much broth to it. It was the single most delicious thing he ever had, and even if he did remember everything by tomorrow, he'd still mean it.

But he wasn't hungry anymore. He just rolled around the sausage with the soup spoon. His bread roll had only small nibbling taken out of it.

It tasted like chesto nuts.

Dimas had returned shortly with a stack of stew bowls in his arms. He planted them on the table and disappeared again, only to bring back more. He urged them to enjoy to their hearts content and then left before David could put any words together.

Seve had insisted, Dimas had said.

"I'm going for a walk," David said to his bowl. "I'm not really that hungry." It concurred. He looked up to his team. The Minun had pulled Sobek back into the stable, to under the cart where the world was that much smaller for them. David had followed with three bowls of stew. Much good as it did them.

If anything, the Minun was the only one on track to find the bottom of the bowl, but her initial enthusiasm and sloppy eating had slowed. Her eyes were now fogged over and distant. She fidgeted with her unused wooden spoon.

But Sobek just gnawed on the bread. David couldn't both carry the huge basket and manage the huge-er door, even with the Minun's help. So he just grabbed an armful of rolls. Still, he managed to bring at least seven over a few trips. He now only counted two. The lid was still on Sobek's bowl.

For his part, the Totodile had snapped out of his shock fairly quickly, mumbling something about a bad memory from his childhood. With his family. It took a moment for David to remember—it seemed so long ago now, when they were in Thunderwave Cave. For David it wasn't even a full day ago, back when Sobek told him how he had lost his mother and….

The squabbling Minun had refused Sobek's answer and it took a few minutes for David to quiet her down.

So there they sat, under the cart, ignoring their meals, the silence, and, if just for a moment, each other.

David prodded Sobek's leg with his club. "Sobek, you're not going to sleep the rest of the week if you keep eating those."

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm fine with that." He nodded at nothing. "I'm fine with that now."

"I… I'm sorry—"

"No!" Sobek snapped right alert with a shake of his entire body. "Not that! That is not your fault! It's its fault."

"Then what is it, Sobek!? W-what is this thing that's jumping out of my nightmares into everyone else's dreams—"

Both the Totodile and the Minun jumped forward to clamp his mouth shut.

"David." Sobek whispered quietly, nervously. "Here's how this thing–no! Nonono, don't ask what. You can't ask what." He swallowed nervously. "Listen. Ignore it. Listen to me and ignore it. It will get bored with you, okay? It gets bored, and then it goes away. But even then, just don't. Think. About it. Because if you think about it, it finds you again. It found you once—it finds everybody once. It finds everybody once. We just got caught up in it because that's what it does. Don't let it know that you're aware it's there, that's all you can do."

"Look." Sobek sighed a long and exasperated sigh as he stepped back. "I'm sorry, David. I really, really am. I don't know how it found you so quickly… but it's going to be a few weeks before your dreams will go back to normal… well, be normal. Whatever normal dreams are for an amnesiac. Just don't let it get to you. It only affects your dreams, and just your dreams."

"If… if Darkr— …then the Shade Scarf, it just keeps it from jumping out of my—"

"David. I don't trust Dimas—not at all, not after that! But he's absolutely, honest-to-Arceus right about that scarf. It, well, found you. It… the scarf keeps it from getting out to us, but it already… found you."

A heavy silence immediately set in as Sobek awkwardly looked away. The Minun was clearly biting her lip in a bid not say anything.

"So that's it then?" David scoffed. "Something is taking control of my dreams, so I'm forced to wear a scarf that just contains the nightmares inside my head—and this is before I'm told that it even exits! But that doesn't matter, because I have to pretend none of it ever happened for the rest of my life? Pat me on the head while you're at it. Tell me I'll be a good sport if I just sit on my hands after that entire scene back there."

Sobek huffed. "I'll admit it, David, there's five thousand ways Dimas could have done that without… that. Seve though? I'm okay with Seve. Seve is okay. Dimas, no. No, no, no. We'll take the—I'll take a scarf. I'll take the food. But only because I think Seve wouldn't mind giving you one of the scarves if we just asked—Dimas thinks he's the only one who can see it, but that's because I'm trying not to get its attention. Tapren houses are warded against this th—ahem—I mean that not all of us can live in in a house covered in quality dreamcatcher charms. ...but yeah. I don't like this either, because now we have to hide both scarves from our biggest friend right now. Scarves, from Seve, food for Seve, but no. No. I can't trust Dimas anymore. Not one bit, not at all."

"Aye, aye," the Minun nodded. She growled, sparks flying from her cheeks for a moment before she caught herself. She mimed slashing her cheek, scowled, and shook her head before finally returning to push the potatoes around the bowl.

Well then. If Sobek is this adamant about distracting David from talking about his nightmare, David could at least complicate this distraction: "He's just trying to protect his brother—"

"He slashed me, David!" Sobek snapped. David and the Minun jumped slightly. Potatoes slopped down from the cart's underside.

"Eheheh. Err. Oop?"

"He attacked me." Sobek hissed. "You too, David. Don't forget that, but… fine. Fine. Go on and hate me for all my experiences traveling, but at least know that was not a pulled punch! Totodile scales are tough—of all Pokémon, you should know that!" He ran a hand over his cheek again, the wounds had closed but orans could only do so much for regrowing scales. The Minun swatted his had away from the scars.

"You both do realize that wasn't an accident? That that wasn't him overreacting?" The Totodile glanced between the two of them. "He's been waiting to do that—that bubble he hit David with? Loud enough for me to think he barely remembered he was in public. I don't think he likes us. I don't think he wants to do anything with us. But, ignoring the thing we are never going to talk about ever again, we saved his brother. Xenia just can't—hospitality, David. It's the world's most ancient custom and it just can't be refused on a whim. So, Dimas has to be the gracious host, and he hates us for it."

By now it was clear that Sobek had baited David into launching this outburst and the Cubone could only backpedal so fast, "I-I'm not defending him! I don't trust him now either! But maybe saying he hates us is a bit too m—ut?"

"Da—pffff—sorry! I was aiming for your shoulder, I swear!"

"…chestos. Right. Ah, sorry, you were saying?"

"I, well, heh. Um… it's-it's nothing." Sobek sunk into hands, his rage had ran out of steam. "It's just a feeling I have. His ramblings don't really sit well with me."

"You speak Tapiocan? …Tapioca?"

"Tapreen. It's Tapreen. Every single time—nevermind—I meant that he hid these scarves from Seve, what else does he really know? He seems…" Sobek glanced to the house door. "Listen. I thought I had a read on Dimas. I thought I knew how to negotiate with him. But then he blindsided me. That makes him dangerous. We need to be incredibly careful around him."

"That's, um, a bit extreme."

"No, it's not. Remember how Seve said he doesn't sharpen his claws? Dimas' are a bit short for a Lombre. Not clipped short or grown short, they're sharpened short. He's got this tick where he whets them against each other, only does it when he's frustrated, I can only imagine why. You didn't notice that?"

"I, uh, didn't." David coughed. How did he miss that?! He knew the weakness but missed the threat? And all the little things on their way here, like the holes Dimas put in back of the driver's seat, how David not did put it all together?! Yet Sobek's been up under the seat, barely aware of anything, and he still somehow picked up on it?

"I realize you're disturbed by the nightmares, but trust me, it just sounds worse than it is. You're too stubborn for it to do anything to you, don't go losing sleep over it. …also don't literally lose sleep over it. Dimas is the one we need to be careful of. He's very unhappy with us. Infuriated. I thought we'd be fine so long as we didn't make too much of a bad joke or be too disrespectful. But the first thing he does when I ask a question…? Tell me that's sitting right with you, go on."

"Well. No. But… Um. I'm-I'm gonna go for a walk, if-if that's okay?"

Sobek balked, then forcefully set down his bread. "Okay? Now that's—no! No, I don't think that's okay! David, this is literally the—listen to yourself! In the last five days, we either have been: Chased," he tore off bits of bread and bounced it off David's helm with each point, "lost in a mystery dungeon—twice even. We've been threatened, scared out of our minds, bickering endlessly," On that one he stuck his entire face into the hole he tore within the breadcrust. "Or in a coma for four of those days. I'm not kidding, this is literally the first time all three of us can just sit and talk without something wanting to kill us. The two of us included."

"It's three days."

"What?"

"I was out for three days."

"That was more than three days." Sobek looked up, the blue hunk of bread stuck over his snout. His eyes were unevenly focused. "That had to be more."

"Chall said three."

"Feels like ten!" Sobek let out a long groan as he slumped further down against the wagon wheel. "If anything, I've been putting up with the Minun more than you—yeah, since this is our first official Team-meeting thing," he pulled off the bread and tossed it aside. "I present the first issue: we really need to just give her a name. Something, anything. Mr. Amnesiac! I say 'Electricity', you think…?"

"You're putting way too much effort into not talking about—"

"Line-of-Sight magic! Let's go!"

"Alright, alright! Jeez. This worked so well the first time—power. Um. Battery. Magnet. Iron, switch, sparks, lightbulb, nomel, ground, red—isn't nomel a berry?"

"I think you threw yourself off with lightbulb. Rubori glow brighter in thunderstorms." Sobek groaned. "Nevermind, it was a dumb idea anyway." David scowled in return. "It's just… you should have seen the fit she threw to find us, by the way. Half the hospital acolytes paralyzed, the other half running to keep their ankles away from her. I almost—I almost fell asleep, and then I'm being shocked awake by a Minun mummy."

She snickered.

"That's not funny. Being peeled off the ceiling was not funny. Being dragged halfway through the entire hospital until we found his room was. Not. Funny."

Her snickering only grew louder.

"So she forced her way onto the team." David less asked than observed. "I'd been wondering."

"Personally, I think we need her. We can work around each other, David, but we're not quite a team unless we work with each other. Together. She literally stepped between us before, uh, Seve showed up and between her antics at the hospital and…." He swallowed his words, then nodded. "Thanks, Minun, for the help back there. We'd all be in much worse shape if you didn't stick around when you did."

A sheer absurdity of events, Seve had said. If a single thing didn't go the way it did, would the three of them even be in the Square right now?

"…yeah. Sobek's right. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Thank you."

The Minun smiled. For a moment, the stubbornness in her eyes slipped and a trace of a heavy weariness came over her. She looked away to fuss over the bandage on her ear.

"I think she's genuinely worried about us, David. Don't really know why she is, or why she's so determined to stick with us either."

By the way Seve had talked, she was older than the Sneasel was but David just couldn't tell. Her fur was so messy before and now covered in so many bandages that really the only tell he could find of her age was her constant chiding and cynicism.

Did Minun lose their positivity with age?

Wouldn't that be Plusle?

bonk

That was the whole bread husk that time.

"Don't go blanking out on us, David. Not after the thing that absolutely didn't happen."

"I wasn't blanking out I was-I was-I was blanking out, fine." He shook his head. "Ah, ha. Ha. Ha, yeah yeah. But no, I can't think of any reason why we shouldn't have her on the team. Though she can probably do more than just forcing us to get along—she kept Lino from losing control of the cart back there."

David nodded, more to himself than anything. "So. Um. We'll figure out a name for you later. But, er, listen. We're still trying to, um, figure out what to do. I'm, I'm thinking detectives because that sounds interesting and I think I like helping Pokémon in trouble. But, well, Chall is right. We'd do a lot more good out there if we hire our skills out. Right now, 'ace detective' is, eheh, not one of them."

"You mean all we have is you, the crazy-doctor-medical-rescue-Pokémon… thing."

"And all that worldly experience I so immensely hate you for. That has to be useful."

"Prooobably not as much as you expect… at least not anymore. I was really little last time I was in the Square. Or the Duchy."

David scoffed and turned back to the Minun. "But how does that sound? Freelancing? Is that's a word? That is the word—we'd be like a Freelancer Support Team. That has a nice ring to it. It's something to start with at least."

"Tch!" She straightened her hat to show a wild grin and eyes beneath. She would have seemed confident and excited, if not for the mess of the food on her face. David couldn't help but laugh a bit, but he had a more somber question.

"What about your friends back at the Cave?"

She faltered at that.

Sobek bolted to his feet. "That's right! That chaos back at the Cave—I never did ask about that!"

"Nnnngghhh." She pulled her hat back over her eyes and shrunk away.

"What about the Magnemite?" David pried. "The yellow markings on them—you guys painted them, why? What do they mean? Why don't you want them to know about it?"

"Tck, tck, tssssgrrrrrr…"

"Woah, okay, easy," Sobek pulled David back. "Something we discovered while you were out: her Dungeon Phage makes saying anything beyond the short, little sounds she makes painful for her."

"She can get close if she tries."

"Okay, so, David. David." Sobek was biting his lip. After a moment, "Gaah, okay, listen." Sobek had his attention, but there was a heavy pause where the Totodile just had his mouth open with no sound. "David. I was downplaying her racket when I said she was worried about us. Those, uh, Pokémon that—Whismur. She'd silence a Whismur. That's how loud she was. She didn't stop until she found both of us and threw even louder fits when they tried to get us to leave your room. …I think the only reason they let her stay was she was almost hemorrhaging from her eyes at that point."

The Cubone swallowed dryly. "As… as in, bleeding…?"

"I-I'm not sure how I feel about all that, honestly." Sobek mumbled with a roll of his shoulders and a flinch of his tail. "I'vvvve just been trying to forget that ever happened at all."

"…what can we do to help her?"

"We can't."

"What?"

"It's… it's not just in her head, something a psychic could help her with. The Phage… it does something I don't know—

"Does the thing in my nightmares have anything to do with it?"

"You'd think, but no. My, uh, Dad… he was the expert in Parapsychic… nevermind. But, um. I was little at the time when he explained the Phage was to me, but even then I knew I didn't want to know. I still really, really, really do not want to know because she her entire face was flowing red and I want that out of my head!"

Sobek shuddered horribly and ducked into a ball, arms over his head. "I just want it out, I just want it out, I just want it out—it was horrifying…."

Dungeon Phage. A Phage is a sickness. A disease.

There was a lecture—was it a lecture? He remembered it. Learning, but… but...!

He blinked harshly. "Dungeon Phage. Dungeon Phage?"

He lifted off his helmet and let it clatter on the ground, hands going to his temple and eyes. The clattering caught the attention of the other two. "Sobek, if-if we're not talking about… then there's something else, what happened back at the cave. With-with elekid and me trying to shake off its electricity. It's… it set something off. It was just line-of-sight stuff before but now….

"I think I have the anatomy of what seems like every single Pokémon, and hundreds of diseases that can affect them, wedged into my head. I can look at a Nidoran, and something tells me to check for signs of the Snow White—this-this-it's an infection of the nasal poison glands, comes from eating pre-ripe berries and fruits. It spreads to the brain, turns them rabid, and then it kills them….

"I have—I've seen it happen. In person, I think. I… missed the symptoms. I attributed the congestion to something else and because… and because of that…." He opened an eye to the Totodile. "It's so simple to set this… Pokémon dictionary off—Lombre's—no. That doesn't matter anymore. But, I'm getting absolutely nothing about Dungeon Phage. If I know one rare single sickness about one single Pokémon or-or-or a fatal weak point in another, then why don't I know this disease that can affect every single one of them?"

"I don't know," Sobek replied. He looked back to the door to the house. "Well. I do know. And you know what I'm going to say. And I know what you're going to say back to that. Let's just not talk about this. Not here."

"Agreed." David took a breath, but let it go. What is it going to take to convince Sobek he wasn't human? If anything, it's Sobek's insistence that is going to get them into trouble. But he was right. This wasn't the time or the place to just start bickering over it again. "It doesn't hurt her to understand us, right Sobek?"

"I, uhhh, never thought about that actually."

David turned to the Minun. "When I… when I say words, like this, you're not, um, in pain? Talking hurts, but listening doesn't, right?"

The Minun's eyes narrowed into an unamused glare. She stuck a finger on his forehead and shoved him awzzzap!

…

…

…

Bap!

"Ow?"

"Okay. So. We have now learned something. No zapping David's head without his helmet on."

"Ehehehehehhh, doy-o."

"Don't just doy-o me! You gotta stop just zapping everyone!"

"Am I taken a no?"

"Uh, yeah, that was a no you took. Are you alright?"

"Okay as rain wasn't left." Blink. "Rightward rain." Blink. Sitting up. Easy, easy. "I will thought?"

Head shaking, "I think?"

David shook his head.

"Uh huh." Sobek nodded. He handed David his helm. "Stop taking this off. You're immune to electricity—mostly. You're not going to be immune to whatever hits you next. I've bonus points to cash in, remember?" He sat down and completed the circle. "Hoo. Okay. For real this time. First team meeting.

"I'll, uh, start. I guess. Since David is still a bit frazzled. For now, we'll just call you Minun. If you can put together a name or like one we come up with or something, we'll call you that. Sound good?" She nodded.

"Which also brings up the issue of the Team name."

Glances left. Glances right.

"This hereby concludes the discussion of the Team name.

"Moving on. Just to let you know Minun, David is our leader here. I know, I know. But I'm better on the flank than taking point. And, hah, you would make a better face than I do. …the 'face' of a Team is the Pokémon who does the talking."

Minun sniggered.

"I'm serious! I just mention it because when we, you know, talk to a client as a Team, it's so, so important that David does all the talking. And that includes all those faces you've been making."

"Hmph!"

"Aren't you taking this a bit too seriously, too soon?"

"Too seriously?! Tshhhhahahah! No! Wait! Okay. Okay. Sorry. R-remember when I said I helped with my mum's Team when I was little? Right?"

David leaned over to the Minun. "Sobek's mother was a leader for a pretty major Team, I think?"

"The best team, David. Without her, there never would had been a Guild! Uh, where was I—there-there were these little junior teams they set up, for adventurous children, you know? Usually do odd jobs like deliver a package or find some lost item or whatever—there was a post board with requests but the junior teams never lasted long. But occasionally there was this one group that was doing really well. Like, they could become a proper Team.

"So, mum takes these super-junior teams and sits with them face-to-face for their first actual negotiation for a proper job. But, guess what? They just couldn't understand they couldn't all just talk at once. It-it was a test of group chemistry and to see if they knew that they could say 'no.' But, in the end, they'd embarrass themselves and they sign up for something they learn they can't possibly do. Those Teams broke apart quickly after that, they just couldn't stop blaming each other for it.

"So. If we do this one simple thing, just let David do all the negotiating, we'll be instantly better than most of the Teams out there! Plain and simple!"

David looked to Minun, she mirrored his frown.

"Youuuu are literally just saying, don't be a kid."

"I'm saying we need to get this agreed upon now. This way, we won't make fools of ourselves later."

"The fools being the kids you're basing this entire speech off of. As much as we bicker, that was just between the two of us, Sobek. Well, mostly from me because I refuse being forced into possibly dying. I feel like I can bite my tongue. Uh, I'll figure out how to, at least. But when I risk my life next it'll be by my choice. Still, I'm, err. We decided I was, what, eleven?"

…and eleven was pretty much young adult for a Cubone.

"Well, that was my guess; we didn't really agree on anything. …Chall."

"And you're… you got your head spine starting, eyemarks go over the eye, too many teeth to not be on your seventh set at least, point of the chest crest below the sternum but it's not angled. That's around thirteen. Fifteen at most. Stronger legs than arms instead of equal—I got it. You've been more on land than in water so it's throwing some evolution markers off. Fourteen. You're fourteen and a half years old with a weird delay on the Croconaw chest pattern developing."

"…thereabouts. I lost track, I don't like towns—hey, can you not do that whole… thing there? That's weird. Even for you."

"You're only year or two older in Cubone years. And for Minun, um—my point is we're not kids, Sobek, and we're not going to put ourselves out there as a team of children."

"Mhmm." Minun nodded.

"But. B-but—you see…."

"You're doing that thing again where you take one niche fact and apply it to everything as rule." David paused, but Sobek just shifted his jaw, unsure how to respond. "But you know, I actually do like the idea of one of us talking for all of us. It's just, uh, not maybe something we don't need to worry about right now?"

Sobek stopped himself from interrupting. David carried on.

"Um, but I don't think I can wing the whole talky-thing. Let's be real here. Whatever is in my head is an encyclopedia, not a guide book. I don't know countries or laws or whatever. Chall thinks I'm from the Abbey, but I don't even know what that really means, or where it'd be on a map! …can you at least tell me why you don't want to be the talker-mon?"

Sobek just turned away. "I know my weaknesses. Or most of them at this rate. Look. It's best for the team this way, okay? Trust me on this"

"Tck." Minun shook her head. Sobek glanced over his shoulder to look between her slanted frown and David's own confused one.

"…I guess we'll come back to this when we get more members of the team. Ah, I left the bag up on the cart. Be right back."

More members. That… that wasn't something David had considered yet. Then again, this entire team thing was something he'd hadn't given much thought towards. The entire Private Detectives idea literally came from Sobek joking around to cope with his nerves. David just thought it was funny.

But Sobek is taking this much more serious than David could even imagine.

"Hey, Glorious Team Leader," Sobek called from above. "Since my point is moot, lead the meet!"

David blinked. "Er. Well." He fidgeted with a piece of bread. "I think we should talk about, er, the things we need to get done soon. Right?"

"That's a good place to—oof! …start." Sobek hopped back into the circle to start messing with his bag. It looked a lot better now that the Lickitung had her way with it. Worn, but not ragged anymore. The patches made it somehow look dependable. "Mind that first step down, its higher than I thought. Go on, David. Leaderize. You're doing good."

"Like the hou—base. Like the base." Base had a good ring to it. Less homely though. It would only a base when it wasn't the house. There, fixed. Wait. "Needs a lot of fixing to be done, but, well, that needs things to fix it with. So, um, maybe not the base at the moment."

It was clear to him now: he had no idea what he was doing. No idea what he was supposed to be doing. He swallowed. There was a twisting fear at the base of his spine, cold and prickly and spreading and pulling at his stomach.

He didn't want to be here right now.

He just wanted to fix his house. That's really what he wanted to do. Yeah, he thought the detective thing was fun. Sure, he wanted to find some way to help injured Pokémon because that felt like the right thing to do with the encyclopedia in his head.

But really, right now, he wanted to be left alone fixing his house. But how would he do that without money? How could he get home without walking for a few hours…?

…encyclopedia is such a clumsy word though, but what else was he going to call it? A dictionary? That won't work; dictionaries just have quick, well, definitions, not swaths of information.

An almanac? Almanac is a cool word, but almanacs are like crop planting dates, weather patterns, star stuff, prices of goods—

"Goods—I mean, supplies." That was it. "We need supplies, and we need our first job. I think that's a great place to start." He actually thought it didn't even needed to be said, but stating the obvious was part of being a leader, right? "The Square is… gigantic. Even if we don't get out of the eastern sections, there has to be at least some errands we can run."

And even if it doesn't work out, he can at least say he tried! And then he can go right back home with a handcart of window shutters, a few of those floor tiles to sleep on, and maybe even a chunk of orange stone to carve his name in.

This was an acceptable comprise.

"Sobek, what do you—are as white as a sheet. Sobek? Sobek, breathe! Breathe!"

"I… it's not there."

"What's not there? Sobek! You need to breathe!"

"It's not there." He repeated and swallowed. "It's. Why is it not there. Why is it not there!?"

"Talk to me, Sobek! What's not there?"

"Team registration form."

"Huh?"

"The Team. Registration. Form! It's not there!" The pack flew into the stable wall. "I-I-I—the second night after th—Minun dragged me into your room, I went and got the team registration form—I-I-I got sick of not being able to sleep. Everyone was asleep, Minun, you, of course, why wouldn't you be, I think that was the evening where Seve visited and fell asleep on his feet?

"I snuck out and went up to the—one of the acolytes mentioned there was a Grimoire Archive higher up in the spire. I—the—Grimoires—Look. I spent the entire night bickering with Spiritombs to get the right Registration forms. Ohohohoho, every time! Every single time, junior registration, apprentice registration, ninety-percent guild fee scams! No, no, no, and no!

"But I got it. I finally got it! Independent. Team. Registration—not even Standard Independent, International Independent because you're the leader, David, and you're apparently from the Abbey so I got International! And I had them, and I put them in this bag and I had them for us to go over and fill out and now… and now… now…."

Sobek panted. The tiny dots in his eyes slowly expanding back to normal. His shaking ended with one last horrible flinch and a sharp inhale. "And now I don't have them anymore."

"Sobek, if you dropped them at the hospital, I can maybe figure out a way to let someone there know and—"

"Go on your walk, David. Just go on your walk."

"Is there any way I can get a copy, that—"

"David. Go on you walk."

"Um. O-okay. Is there anything I can—"

"Just go."

"But—"

Minun pulled at his arm. Her frown was slanted again and she shook her head. She had grabbed a small pouch from Sobek's pack and handed to him. Coins clinked inside.

David took a breath to—

"Don't."

…David swallowed.

He only hesitated twice on his way to the stable door. As Minun closed it behind them, he decided that was four times too few. Or, at least once too many. He didn't know. He raised his helmet to rub his face.

Between his claws he saw the Dawnfall Lighthouse as it loomed over him again, its lamp wasn't lit yet. A sister spire of the Windfall, that Kirlia had said. He wasn't right up against it, but he still had to crane his head up to see the top.

The Kirlia also said something about the Heavenwind? And Groudon? Maybe David really should have stuck around and listened. Groudon seems to have some sort of connection to the Square. But then he wouldn't have caught Sobek going off on his own before the elevator arrived and….

The hat next to him sighed loudly. It looked up to him. The frown was slanted the other way and it was clear it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Minun met his eyes, but they held no bitterness. They were just worried. Not too much, but worried enough.

David didn't know what to think.

"Yeah." David turned away. "Yeah."

He took a deep breath. The air was slightly salty.

"I don't think that was a good team meeting." That… wasn't the thought he wanted.

Minun just nodded in response. She pulled at his wrist, heading away from the Lighthouse.

"We heading to the marketplace?"

She nodded. "Triangle."

"Oh, so you can say that word."

She glanced back, "Tree-gall? ...Trin-a-ell. Troy-u-g—pfffffff."

But now she couldn't.

"Tray-an-guul. Ah! Tray-an-guul!" She seemed satisfied with that one.

David huffed. "Let's just... let's just go."

/*

* Since the last few chapters have had enough loose ends (and this story suffers from multiple long hiatuses), here's some bonus Dramatic Irony for Sobek's sake:

* When you're heading into unknown danger, it's good to stash an important document away somewhere safe so long as you remember that said document is there. More importantly, it's good to remember that you don't actually have the papers on you.

* Sadly for Sobek, his papers are several miles away near a dirt hill pretending to be a house, hidden away while David ducked inside to grab his satchel. Sobek just realized this, and there are only so many lies he can spin before David catches onto the plan of making him a leader of a Team five days—I mean, three days earlier than David has any reason to think.

* Thanks for reading.

*/