Yanma, Cyndaquil, and Ralts
"Hmmm…" Yanma paused and hovered where he was four feet in the air. He examined the forest around him. He could do this in one look, but he still turned on one spot. When he was facing the other direction, the smaller microbug dragonfly darted out of its hiding spot and shot away.
Laughing heartily, the Pokemon insect flipped in place and raced after it upside down. The dragonfly noticed and freaked out. Trying to escape, it zigzagged in and around trees to lose its predator. But the Yanma was not deterred. He could have caught it when he first spotted the prey. That was no fun, though. Instead, he held back just enough to keep pace with the microbug.
Even though it was a simple thing, he called out, "There's nowhere to hide, fool, and you can't run fast enough! I can see through your mistakes. You will soon be mine!"
The forest was spooky, even in the day. Bushes grew where trees didn't, making it hard to see far. Below her paws, old leaves and sticks were impossible to avoid, making crunching and crushing noises that could make her easy to track. Hidden rocks had sharp points and many bushes had irritating prickly burrs. She was lost. But even if she could find her way, it might not be any better if she went back.
Cyndaquil had gotten into trouble back home. She hadn't meant to. She had just wanted a closer look at the old vase. A beautiful old object, it had a colorful painting of Latios and Latias on it, flying in a pastoral paradise. Maybe it was just imaginary, but maybe it was a real place. There were stars in the sky of the vase, but not in the same positions as they were in the sky above Treasure Town.
Thinking about this, Cyndaquil had wondered if she could take measurements of the stars and figure out, by math, where the Latis were. That would be a great discovery, one made not because she was a great explorer, but because she was a nerd that the young explorers liked to make fun of. But in trying to measure the relations of the stars, she had knocked the vase off its stand. It had shattered into many sharp fragments.
The whole town had been excited about the discovery of the Lati vase, making its discoverers even more famous. They were a band of strong explorers, but kind and generous to everyone. Thus, everyone loved and admired them. She had broken their precious vase.
As another bunch of leaves crunched under her dark blue paws, she shuddered and wondered if she should have gone somewhere other than these woods. She had just gone in one direction and wound up here. But she was afraid of what these woods would become at night, when it would be harder to see and the nocturnal Pokemon would tease a lost person.
"There's nowhere to hide fool," a crazed shout came through the trees, "and you can't run fast enough! I can see through your mistakes. You will soon be mine!"
Someone was after her? Cyndaquil ran ahead, sending leaves and dirt flying. But when she passed through a bush, there turned out to be a slope behind it. She curled her body up and rolled down, crashing into another bush. After peeking around, she decided to remain curled up and hiding. Maybe whoever it was would pass by without finding her.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear," Ralts murmured to herself on her way through the spooky woods. She wasn't supposed to be here on her own. She was supposed to be with her teammates. Then again, it wasn't her fault she was alone.
She was part of a large and famous explorer team, large enough that there was talk of splitting the guild and team to have smaller, more manageable groups. Today, she had been put with one of the potential leaders of the new groups, Gastly. However, Gastly didn't like her and he creeped her out. So she had been ditched partway in the woods.
Before they had left, her teammates had done something worrying. "Let's forget about the job and go looking for that cave," Gastly had said. "There should be some great treasure in there."
"But what about the client?" she called out to them. It was a very recent posting; a Cyndaquil had been seen going into the woods alone this morning. And she knew that the lost Pokemon in question was inexperienced in being in a Mystery Dungeon.
"Why should you care what we do now?" Gastly retorted. "See ya, loser."
"Or maybe not, if she gets mauled out here," one of the others had joked as they took off in another direction, making the others laugh.
It would have been easier and quicker for her to go back home. But then something terrible might happen to Cyndaquil. So Ralts carried on, looking for signs of the Fire Pokemon and hoping to at least find her before it got dark. When it got dark, the Ghost and Dark types would come out to harass strangers and she would be in a lot of trouble.
The pink horn on her head was picking up strong fear and uncertainty among the mix of feelings floating around the woods. And the signs were getting more recent; Cyndaquil's path wasn't straight and occasionally got caught in circles, so she had been able to catch up. Ralts shuffled through the underbrush to get to the lost Pokemon.
"There's nowhere to hide fool, and you can't run fast enough! I can see through your mistakes. You will soon be mine!"
Was that Gastly? The Ghost could disguise his voice. When nothing immediately happened, she got worried about Cyndaquil and hurried on.
Yanma snapped at the dragonfly, eating it soon after. That was a good snack, but he needed more for a meal. He flew around in apparently erratic patterns. Since he could see everywhere around him, he had to cover a strange path to see potential prey. Darkness would come soon, so the insects were stirring. This was the best time to hunt for them.
He spotted a horsefly moving about. He darted after it immediately. Now what to taunt it with?
"Cyndaquil?" A rustle of leaves announced a Pokemon coming towards her. "There you are."
"Leave me be!" She sent up flames from her back and neck. It was a defensive measure she did without thinking.
"Whoa, watch out for the leaves. I know you're scared, but I came to rescue you."
She uncurled a bit and saw a Ralts smiling at her. But there was no one with her. "You did? Where's your team?"
She blushed a bit. "Oh, that's a long story. I'm with Team Marvel."
Cyndaquil rolled onto her paws and winced. "What? I… I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."
Ralts looked confused. "Sorry about what? People get lost in these woods all the time, so it's no big deal."
"No, about the Lati vase. I'm sorry I broke it."
She put her hand to her chin. "I hadn't heard about that. What happened?"
"I was in the museum trying to determine the stars on the sides, and it fell off and broke. I didn't mean to knock it off; I thought it was secured better."
Oddly enough, she smiled. "That one? That was a copy of the treasure that was found."
Cyndaquil sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "A copy? But I thought it was the only one."
"The team leader gave it to Smeargle and he made several exact copies. They've probably replaced the one you broke already."
"Huh. Well now I feel silly." She thought about it, then asked, "Do you think I can get one of those copies to study? I think I can find where they are if I can positively identify the stars."
"Really? That would be a great discovery, maybe even a new land. I'm sure the museum would let you. I mean, if I came with you. They're trying not to let anyone know about the copies. Bait for some thieves, you see. But we'd best go back to town now; night will fall."
"Okay. Oh, but what about that voice? Someone was threatening me earlier."
Ralts was quiet for a moment, sensing the nearby woods. "I don't sense any hostility," she said, looking around. "There's some nocturnal stirring. Maybe they were just playing pranks on you."
"You could fight off any bad Pokemon though, right?" Cyndaquil asked, nervous.
"Um, actually, I don't fight much. I'm better at hiding and finding stuff. I was just going to teleport us back, once we got to a clear spot."
"I guess that's good," she said, nervously looking about.
"You will be mine, fools! Mwahahahaha!" the strange voice echoed through the trees again.
Cyndaquil curled up again. "Eeek! There it is again!"
The voice made Ralts flinch, but she still didn't sense hostility. A feeling of enjoyment and pride did come through, extremely fast. When she looked up at the source, a Yanma flew by them, sideways. "Excuse me!" she called out, but he flew by.
And reappeared quickly. With his wings humming, the Bug hovered and moved about. "Huh, what? What's you calling me for?"
"What are you yelling for, Yanma? You scared us."
As Cyndaquil uncurled, Yanma did a flip. "What, oh, sorry. Nobody pays attention to me anymore, so I get bored and yell at bugs I'm hunting. There were two fat scrumptious horseflies just passing by. But I'm very sorry. Did I really scare you?"
"Yes," Cyndaquil said, a little mad that it was just some careless Pokemon. "It was mean of you, just yelling at dumb insects and scaring us without reason."
"Sorry, sorry," he repeated. "It gets boring around here, and most of the Pokemon around here are selfish and rude. So I have to play by myself all the time. But if I go to town, wow, there is so much stuff going on and so many Pokemon about that my head spins and I get all excited and wind up hurt or getting chased out of town. But I'm not selfish or rude. Here, I give you this as an apology. I found this treasure the other day, and it was all pretty, but I can't use it or I'll have to give up my other treasure. Here." He tossed down a pink collar with a little bell attached.
"We accept your apology," Ralts said. She turned to Cyndaquil. "Right?"
"Yeah, I guess."
She nodded, then looked back to the wild Pokemon. "Do you know of any clearings around here?"
"Clearing, clearing?" He tilted his head, then spun about. "Go that way. There's a pond not that far. You should reach it soon… oh hey, what's that?" Yanma sped off backwards and vanished into the trees.
"He was strange," Cyndaquil said. "Let's go; I don't want to be in these spooky woods in the dark."
"Right." Ralts picked up the bell collar and handed it to her. "Here, you take it."
"Oh, um, thank you. For everything." They went to the pond, then teleported back home.
Although Ralts didn't get a regular reward for the rescue, she got a special award from the Guildmaster for doing it solo. And Gastly? He got into a world of trouble for ditching a teammate in a dungeon.
...
Cyndaquil Leaf Green entry: It is timid and always curls itself into a ball. If attacked, it flares up its back for protection.
Emerald entry: A Ralts has the power to sense the emotions of people and Pokemon with the horns on its head. It takes cover if it senses any hostility.
Yanma Emerald entry: It can see 360 degrees without moving its eyes. It is a great flier capable of making sudden stops and turning midair to quickly chase down the targeted prey.
Oh hey, what's that? !