Chapter 2: Registration
"Cheri, wake up."
The small orange lizard could feel someone nudging her as she lay on her bed. "Five more minutes. . ." She mumbled as she tried to bury her head into her pillow.
"If you end up sleeping in, you won't be able to register yourself for the guild, Cheri."
Cheri's eyes flew open. "Wait, what? What time is it? Am I late already!?" She looked to the lucario who stood over her bed chuckling.
"You've still got about an hour till registration, but it helped to get you out of bed." The lucario stepped away from the bed, briefly glancing back at the charmander that lay in the bed before taking in the rest of the room. The room was fairly plain only having two small chests on either side of a cotton bed that sat against one wall. The other side of the room had a small practice dummy in the shape of a kangaskhan that had been beaten to the floor, with some small scorch marks on it.
"That's not funny Uncle Daemon." Cheri was rubbing her eyes as she continued. "You made me think I was already late to go to the guild's training camp." She looked at the taller pokemon accusingly.
Daemon touched his paw to his chin in mock thought. "Yes, but if I left you to sleep until registration, you wouldn't have gotten to eat breakfast before you went, now would you?" Daemon then looked at the young charmander seriously. "Also, if you want to become as good of a rescue team member as myself, you'll need to start waking up nice and early to get things done. After all, what do I say about being on time?" Daemon looked at Cheri with his arms crossed over his chest waiting for her answer.
Cheri bowed her head and sighed. " 'If you're not ten minutes early, you're late.' But I hardly see your point. I could have woken up in half an hour and still have been able to -"
Daemon cut Cheri off. "The point is practicing for when you will have to wake up at the crack of dawn. Now, do you want to go eat breakfast, or are you planning to stay in your room till the registration starts?"
Cheri jumped from the bed. "Of course I want to go eat right now."
"You should really chew your food more or you'll choke on your apple Cheri." Daemon glanced at Cheri worriedly before taking a small bite out of his own apple. She was seated on the other side of the small table that just about filled the small eating room.
"I'm just really excited to go to the training camp, because then that means I'll be able to join or form my own team within the guild just like you did." Cheri wore a large grin before eating the other half of the apple in one bite. "By the way, where are all the others? Usually someone would stay behind to clean up the base, or make sure I didn't get into trouble."
Daemon took another bite from his apple before replying. "There was a small cave-in near Mineral Town that had trapped a few pokemon. Naturally I volunteered Team Aura, though I couldn't go myself because I've got some responsibilities to take care of."
Cheri narrowed her gaze at the lucario, clearly annoyed. "I'm not a hatchling Uncle Daemon! I'm nearly a year old. I can handle going to training camp myself." She was ready to defend her position, until Daemon chuckled.
"While my responsibility might also involve you, I've been asked to help out with some of the camp training for the day. Also, I know you're nearly a year old. I wouldn't have let you go anywhere near the camp today if I didn't think you were capable." Daemon bent down and grabbed a small satchel from underneath the table before looping the strap across his body. "Now, we should probably get going. There's probably only twenty minutes till registration starts and it's about a five minute walk from here to the guild hall."
Cheri sighed before she asked. "What are you gonna be doing at the camp on the first day? Some sort of battle training?"
"You'll find out after the introduction." With that, Daemon started to walk towards the door with Cheri following swiftly behind him.
The inside of the base had a large, open area that was only occupied by a large desk and table. There were various doors on the around the room that led to the various team members rooms, with a hall in one corner that led to the front door. The majority of the light in the room seemed to come from torches positioned between each door.
Exiting Team Aura's base, Cheri could see a good portion of the valley in which the Gallant Guild resided. Amongst the many teams in Gallant Guild, Team Aura was one of the few to have a base built into the side of hill near one of the nearby plateaus. It could be said that the base was well hidden, since the only sign of occupation was a wooden door on one side of the hill.
The valley itself though was loosely wooded, snaked here and there by a few thin rivers and dotted by a few hills. The sun had barely risen over the eastern plateau to shed light into the valley as well.
Cheri followed Daemon as they crossed through the grasslands, not seeing much of interest. She had followed various members of Daemon's team into Valor Town, the small town that lay next to the Gallant Guild Hall, before and had just about memorized all the different little cottages that she would pass on her way there from Team Aura's base.
Valor Town itself was fairly open, popping up from the sparse woodlands with small buildings and stands. A few other early birds were up already as well though, and were haggling with shop owners for goods.
The only building of any real note in Valor Town was a large, green dome shaped building near the center of town that served as the headquarters for the Gallant Guild. There was a small light blue protrusion on top that seemed to run from front to back as well, which, to Cheri's memory, served as the top floor to the hall.
Of note, the entrance was a fairly large gate bordered by two large braziers. Entering the guild hall, Cheri was amazed to see that many of the in-hall vendors and services were occupied as pokemon were darting around getting the last of the provisions they needed before they went out on their missions. Many pokemon were swarming the two sets of stairs that ran on opposite sides of the hall that served as a method of transportation from floor to floor, though the middle of the hall was fairly open itself, only housing a small message board and circular staircase down towards the infirmary.
Daemon directed Cheri towards a small room on the first floor that seemed almost hidden behind one of the curved staircases that led up.
"The book keeper will have your paperwork, so just tell her your name when you walk in. I'll be by in a little while, I just have to finalize some paperwork." With that, Daemon set off up the nearby staircase, leaving Cheri just outside the meeting room.
Better walk in and register then. Cheri walked into the room and was quickly greeted by a large, elderly ursaring standing behind a small table.
"Welcome! You must be Cheri?" The large ursaring smiled down towards the charmander. "Daemon gave me your paperwork yesterday. I just need your print on the bottom to finalize your registration." The ursaring pulled out a small sheet of paper with some fields already filled in. At the bottom was a small blank spot for Cheri to sign.
"Umm, thank you." Cheri popped her claw into a small ink well before stamping it down at the bottom of the page and then cleaning her paw. "By the way, what's your name? Uncle Daemon hadn't mentioned it to me this morning."
The ursaring looked the paper over one last time before replying with a smile. "My name's Ursa, not the most original name mind you, but still better than some of the things parents will name their children nowadays." Ursa then pulled out a small blue slip of paper from a folder. "This is yours. It's an identification tag for the time being. Sir Gallant will be by in a few minutes for the introduction and he'll tell you what you'll be doing for the day." Ursa filed away Cheri's registration paper before picking up a small box and heading towards the door. "By the way, feel free to socialize with the other registrants. while you wait for Sir Gallant. We weren't expecting anymore pokemon to show up." The ursaring then left the room with the small box in her arms.
Taking in the rest of the room, Cheri was slightly surprised. There are only five other pokemon who registered this month?! She was shocked that there wasn't a larger number of pokemon trying to enter the guild. In all, she could identify them as a venonat, a machoke, a furret, a sneasel, and an oshawott. The venonat, machoke, furret, and sneasel seemed to be having a heated debate, while the oshawott seemed to be sleeping in the corner.
He's not taking this seriously at all, is he? Cheri just sighed to herself as she walked over to the four who were having a discussion.
"I'm telling ya', the colors are for identifyin' the weaklings and the strong." The machoke said looking toward the venonat and furret. "I put down my prior dungeon experience as intermediate and they gave me a red card." The machoke was pointing to a small red card in his right hand. "And my friend Azazel put himself down for intermediate too, and he has a red card." The large muscular pokemon looked at the sneasel who was also holding a red card in his claws.
"Well, I suppose you're right. Me and my friend put ourselves down as novices and got green colored cards." The furret spoke up, gesturing towards himself and the venonat.
"It seems obvious that they plan to separate the stronger pokemon from the weaklings so that they aren't held back." The sneasel sneered as he looked down at the furret. "They'll probably just let us join a team without the need for any training, knowing how strong we are."
What a condescending little- Cheri's thought was cut off though as the sneasel seemed to address her.
"What about you, shorty? What color card did the ursaring give you for your skill level?" The sneasel, whom Cheri inferred was named Azazel, asked her.
"Oh, umm, I got a blue card, though I'm not sure what skill level was on my form cause my uncle filled it out." Cheri spoke somewhat shyly, nervous since she hadn't actually looked at the form at all before putting her print on it.
"Hmph. He must have put you down under no experience. You don't look particularly strong." Azazel glared down at Cheri.
She was about to give a retort before a gallade sauntered into the room, beaming with a large smile on his face.
"Good morning! I am Sir Gallant, leader of the Gallant Guild." The gallade bowed to the pokemon present in the room. "I'd like to cordially welcome you to this month long training camp where you'll be able to better yourselves and eventually join a rescue team."
Sir Gallant seemed to take in the pokemon present now as his eyes drifted to each of them, before settling on the oshawott who still seemed to be sleeping in the corner. The sneasel and machoke started to snicker while the furret and venonat seemed to look in different directions awkwardly. Cheri just stared at the water type with disappointment. Sir Gallant seemed slightly amused though as he walked over and nudged the oshawott slightly on the shoulder. "Sir oshawott, the introduction for the camp is starting, you should probably pay attention."
The oshawott jumped, clearly startled before looking up at the gallade.
"Oh, sorry. I must have fallen asleep after giving my form to the ursaring." The oshawott bowed his head a bit. "It's good to meet you though, and I'm really excited to be here." The oshawott smiled up towards the gallade.
"Oh, no problems. But, I'll go ahead and start laying out how the camp is going to work for the next thirty days." Sir Gallant walked up to a small podium in the corner of the room and picked a paper up from it. "Yes, you'll be spending the first half of camp training here at the guild hall before the second half of camp, where you'll be putting the skills you learn into practice, albeit, with a little supervision." He then put the paper down before continuing. "For today though, you've been split up into three teams so that each of you can experience a real mystery dungeon today."
The six pokemon in front of the gallade looked to each other intrigued, and a bit nervous. Sir Gallant smiled warmly before continuing.
"To elaborate, three team leaders from the guild have volunteered to take you into mystery dungeons today." The gallade then pointed to the back of the room where a haxorus, a lucario, and a typhlosion stood.
Wait, Uncle Daemon is here? Cheri looked at the lucario between the haxorus and typhlosion carefully to confirm that it was Daemon. Mmmm, I hope I didn't get put on his team.
Sir Gallant then walked to the other side of the room to stand in front of the team leaders. "Daemon of Team Aura, Liam of Team Inferno, and Hack of Team Trinity Fang have volunteered for the day to take you into Tiny Woods, Valor Mines, and Evol Temple respectively." The three aforementioned pokemon stepped forward a little bit. "Those with blue cards will go with Daemon, those with green cards will go with Liam, and those who have red cards will go with Hack." Sir Gallant smiled down to the six pokemon in front of him. "Good luck. I hope each of you stays safe and is able to show off your skills to each of your team leaders."
Cheri walked over to Daemon a little frustrated. She noticed that the oshawott had followed her over as well, though he seemed a bit star struck as he stood in front of Daemon.
"It's nice to meet you sir!" The oshawott looked up at the lucario, obviously excited.
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Otto." Daemon looked down at the oshawott who seemed slightly surprised.
"You... you know my name?"
"Of course. I looked over your registration form before coming to the room."
"Wow. I can't believe you took the time to learn my name." Otto looked up at Daemon with stars in his eyes.
"I don't see what the big deal is. He's just a team leader. There're lots more such as Hack and Liam over there." Cheri started to vent some of her frustration, knowing that Uncle Daemon had purposefully put himself in a position to oversee her for the day.
Otto looked at Cheri with shock. "Daemon's not just any leader. He's the leader of Team Aura, the strongest team in the guild. He's gotta be, like, one of the strongest pokemon in the whole kingdom."
Cheri just brushed off the comment. "Really, I couldn't care less. What I do care about though, is why he made sure that he would be my team leader for the first day!?" Cheri looked up at Daemon with an accusing look on her face.
"Now Cheri, be nice." Daemon chuckled a little to himself. "You were the one that wanted to participate, I just wanted to make sure that you stayed safe on your first visit to a mystery dungeon." Daemon then looked at Otto. "Which reminds me, you don't have much experience with mystery dungeons, right Otto?"
"Oh, umm... I've never personally entered a dungeon, but I've been training to join a rescue team for a while." Otto looked down nervously, afraid that the lucario might make fun of him.
"Oh, it seems that you're in the same boat as Cheri then. She's never stepped foot into a mystery dungeon either." Daemon smiled down at the charmander now.
"Not for lack of trying." Cheri mumbled to herself.
Daemon picked up the bag that Cheri had seen him take with him earlier that morning before pulling out two light red scarves. "Before we get going to the Tiny Woods, I think I should give you each a pecha scarf to help you with any poisons there might be inside the dungeon." He knelt down and tied one scarf around Cheri's neck and the other around Otto's.
"Thank you Daemon, sir. I'll make sure to keep it safe while we're in the dungeon." Otto was beaming, looking at the scarf affectionately.
"Yeah, thanks Uncle." Cheri growled a bit as she fiddled with the scarf adjusting it to be a bit off center with the point.
"Uncle?" Otto looked at the charmander, a bit confused.
"My Uncle Daemon here raised me since I hatched." Cheri said, a bit exasperated. "He's looked after me like a baby my whole life, too."
"Wow, that . . . that's awesome!" Otto looked at Cheri awestruck. "You were able to be raised by one of the strongest pokemon in the whole guild!"
Cheri sighed. "I suppose, but I still feel like he babied me too much."
Daemon patted Cheri on the head a bit, whilst pulling the bag over his body with his other paw. "Well, I wouldn't have had to keep such a close eye on you if you had kept yourself out of trouble."
Otto looked confused. "What kind of trouble could she have gotten in?"
Daemon looked at Cheri with a grin on his face as she blushed. "Oh, nothing much. She just nearly burned down the guild hall once when she lost track of me in the dojo." Cheri blushed even harder now.
"Watcha got here Daemon? Two little munchkins who don't know a thing about dungeons?" The haxorus, Hack had walked over, looking at Cheri and Otto with derision. "Don't know why you requested to look after the beginner group, but I'll take the experienced group any day." Hack said as he started to chuckle.
Daemon seemed to sigh before responding. "You know Hack, you really shouldn't be using the training camp as a recruitment field. Also, you should know better than most that some pokemon will inflate their skill level to look good on paper." Daemon smiled coolly at the haxorus.
Hack grumbled. "To each his own I guess. I'll see just how strong the sneasel and machoke are in Evol Temple. Lots of strong dragon types in there." The haxorus walked back over to the machoke and sneasel who were waiting by the door to go.
Daemon sighed as Hack walked away. "Honestly, it's a wonder he's as capable as he is when he cares about brute strength so much." He then looked back down at Cheri and Otto as they had waited for him to finish his conversation with Hack.
"Not a very friendly leader is he?" The oshawott was looking towards the door that the red team had walked out of.
Daemon chuckled before responding. "Well, he wears on you after a while. He's got fairly loyal teammates and a second in command that keeps him in check for the most part." The lucario started to walk towards the door now. "We should probably get going though. It's about a two hour walk to the Tiny Woods, and we wouldn't want to get back too late, or someone might start to worry."
A/N: So, this took a while cause I went back, rewrote it. Thought about how I wanted things to go. Split the chapter in half since the second half wasn't done yet. Rewrote it. And now, after spending various amounts of time debating minor details, here's chapter 2. Enjoy!
I'm being serious though, Otto was a mudkip in the first iteration and I tried to make Cheri a bit more bratty with Daemon. As said in the previous couple sentences though, the next chapter is about written, I just wanted to expand on the dungeon a little and maybe mess with the main characters a bit earlier than I had originally planned? Well, we'll see. Chapter after that, I'll go ahead and introduce Cheri's brother.