Pignite, Prinplup, Seel, and Spheal
"What do you want?" the Prinplup at the door asked. She looked at him suspiciously. "We deal harshly with traveling salesmons, you know."
The Pignite nodded. "I know, but I'm not here selling things. I'm an explorer and I'm looking for the leader of this village to answer some questions."
Pulling a fin up and raising her head, she said, "Well there's no need for you to go looking for the so-called leader. I'm the one you'd want to talk to; the rest are all worthless. What is it?"
He gave her a skeptical look, but didn't say anything this time. "I'm looking for the entrance to the Arctic Palace for an important mission. Do you know where it is?"
The Prinplup sniffed. "Why would you care about that place? It's an old empty shell only inhabited by crazy Pokemon. You can't even recruit them to get them properly civilized, I hear. But I do know some great dungeons to explore, if you'll willing to follow me into them."
"Nah, I'm only interested in the Arctic Palace," he said, shaking his head. "Thanks anyhow, m'am."
She rolled her eyes and slammed the door on her igloo.
This time, the dead end didn't bother him much. It'd been happening all too much in the past couple of days. The first few times, he'd taken up the Prinplups' offers of going into other dungeons in hopes they would spill the info he actually wanted. But they were all proud creatures and were easily provoked into being hostile. Was it a cultural thing? Somebody needed to get the Piplups into a warmer community to break that cycle.
The Pignite explorer shrugged and walked off to the next igloo, getting an apple to snack on. Although this was a village, all of the snow-built homes were quite far apart. But given the attitude that many of them were sporting, it made sense. If any of these Prinplups met, he'd bet that they'd be fighting within minutes.
At the next igloo, he got pretty much the same deal. The Prinplup there thought that he had been sent by one of his neighbors as an enemy, then said that he was the most important one in the village but not the leader. He offered to take the Pginite to a secret dungeon that was not the Arctic Palace (but one that he had been in just yesterday evening), and told him to get lost when the offer was declined. At this point, the explorer was thinking that he and his partner would be best off just scouting the area around the palace dungeon to find the way inside. Maybe even making a new entrance; his inner fires were burning strong thanks to his ample supplies, but they might need the firepower inside more.
He heard some upbeat music, which was odd considering the chilly atmosphere of this place. Following it, he came upon a snow structure that was much like a storefront booth, with the shopkeeper's home and storage behind it in the main structure. On one of the snow counters, there was a strange gray and black device from which the music came from. The two shopkeepers weren't Prinplups, thankfully. They were a Seel and a Spheal, passing time by dancing to the music.
The Seel noticed him first and lifted up a white flipper to wave. "Ah, good afternoon, dear traveler! Welcome to our Kecleon Shop!"
Stopping his spinning in place, the speckled Spheal noticing him and smiled. "Welcome!"
The Pignite couldn't keep from smiling. "Good afternoon. I notice that your Kecleon Shop is strangely short on lizards."
"Lizard!" the Spheal said.
Laughing, the Seel said, "We're a franchise, see. It took some convincing, but we got the connection. I'm Macy and this would be Will. May we help you with anything on this wonderful day?"
"Help?" Will echoed.
They were already more helpful than the Prinplups. He tapped his head as a sign of respect. "It is nicer than other days, but it's still really cold."
"But that's what makes it so wonderful," Macy said cheerily, dancing a bit more to the music.
"Wonderful!" Will said, clapping his fins together with a big grin.
"I suppose I should have expected so much," he said with a chuckle. "If you could help, that'd be great, but I'd take some extra goods if not. I'm Blaine, an explorer from the south. I'm doing some important research for my guild, and if that radio is any indication," he pointed to the music device, "then you may know something of use to me. First, I'd like to know if you know the leader of the village."
"Don't see the leader," Will said, surprisingly not echoing this time.
Macy nodded. "Right, that won't do you any more good than seeing the villagers. He's an Empoleon and he's very stubborn. Mad most of the time too because the Prinplups don't give him the respect he believes that he is due."
"No respect."
Blaine glanced around, thinking. "Is that so? Why are they all here? They don't seem to get along."
The Seel slid closer and put her flippers up on the counter. "They're supposed to be protecting something around here, but I think that they've forgotten what over the generations. They've created this legacy of pride and suspicion that makes them not even trust each other. Really, the only reason we're going great business here is that they would rather buy from those outside their clan than to support a rival among their own."
"I think the village will break up soon," Will said. "Then we'll invite other Pokemon to move in and make this a great town."
Macy nodded. "Yeah, that's the plan."
Feeling impressed at these two, he bowed his head. "Well best of luck in that venture. This area could use a reliable town and this would be the best spot to have it."
"Oh yes it's great! We have the icy ocean to swim in and hunt for fish, and we have four major roads that all pass through here, and the glaciers keep away the worst gales and storms. I go swimming every morning and evening... oh, sorry, I don't mean to prattle," Macy laughed at herself, in a great mood.
"No problem," Blaine said. "The friendly chatter is better than what I'm getting elsewhere. And since I can't trust these Prinplups for information, do you know the way into the Arctic Palace? It's supposedly a human ruins, and you have a human device here."
"Oh yeah, but we got the radio from some traders," Macy said, looking at it. "Along with the music discs; sorry. But you know what? I think that the entrance to the Arctic Palace is elsewhere, in another dungeon."
"Elsewhere," Will echoed.
Blaine rubbed his chin. "That would make sense. Any ideas on where?"
"Will?" Macy asked, then glanced up at Blaine. "Don't worry; he's actually really smart, the one who came up with our plan. He just likes to be playful."
The Spheal rolled around, going under the counter and emerging out in front of the stall. "I hear some things from local explorers," he said. "None of them are that great, but some speak of the dungeon known as Glacier Gate. It is a puzzle dungeon, and several teams have solved the puzzle hoping for treasure. Instead, they found an extensive tunnel that heads to the north, then enters a massive dungeon that is thought to be the most difficult one in the area. Glacier Gate is directly south of the Arctic Palace, and the tunnel is straight."
"Glacier Gate, huh? It sounds like a strong possibility. Could you show me where it is?"
"Get map!" Will said, rolling to Blaine's other side.
"We do have maps of the area on sale," Macy said. "Cheap too, at ten Poke."
"That would be helpful," he said. And rather like shopkeepers, giving him a lead but then asking him to buy the item needed to follow up on it. However, it wasn't that bad. "While I'm buying stuff, can you get me a dozen apples and two dozen berries? I don't mind most berries, so it can be a mix of what you have in stock."
"Wow, you feed an army?" Will asked jokingly.
"Just myself," Blaine said. He slapped his stomach. "In a cold place like this, I need to keep my inner fires going strong."
"Of course," Macy said. "Well thanks to the franchise, we have a great inventory. Let me go in back and get our berries."
After getting the goods, including a map, he was able to get Will to point out the locations of Arctic Palace and Glacier Gate. It was much as he said: the Gate was directly south of the Palace and while the tunnel had to be long, it was a dungeon arrangement that he saw occasionally. The Spheal then offered to show him the house of the Empoleon leader anyhow on his way out of the village. Since it might be helpful later on, Blaine agreed and said goodbye to Macy the Seel, then followed the rolling Spheal to the east.
The igloo that the leader lived in was built on top of a large mound of snow. While it wasn't any bigger than the others, it was certainly higher. Will explained that each generation of leaders tried to make the mound higher, but few thought to make it bigger so the houses had gotten smaller. A village law prevented others from making their house higher than the leader's.
While they were there talking, a Prinplup came up to them. "Hey, what are you doing talking to that idiot?" she asked. "You're not going to learn anything useful from him."
"Hey!" Will said, smiling.
"Well he's been kind," Blaine said. "But if you do know anything useful about the Arctic Palace dungeon, I'd love to hear about it."
"Hear, hear!"
"Forget about Arctic Palace," the Prinplup said, shaking her head. "It's much too much work for too little rewards."
"Work?" Will looked between them.
Blaine nodded. "Ah, then it must be something for better teams than those I've seen around here. Me and my partner should do just fine."
"Just fine," Will said in agreement.
That made her furious. "What, are you calling me weak? I am the most vital member of this community and saying something like that is nothing less than a challenge. You will battle, now!"
He put his ebony hoofed paw to his chin as Will rolled out of the way. "You think that I didn't come up to the arctic prepared for such a possibility?" He accepted her challenge to battle and quickly had her defeated. When she fell unconscious and he was certain she wasn't faking, Blaine turned to the Spheal shopkeeper. "I suppose it might be good to stay away. A real shame, as the supplies would be good."
However, Will laughed and clapped his fins. "No worries! The others will hear that she got defeated by a Fire Pokemon and be more disgusted at her than you. You may get another challenge if you do come, but that is no issue, I see. You and your team would be most welcome to our shop anytime! Good luck in your travels."
Smiling, he bowed his head. "Thank you. I'm going to meet up with my partner to review what we've both found, but we will probably be back to stock up before the dungeon runs. Enjoy your cold weather."
"Most certainly." Will then rolled back to his shop while Blaine left town to find his exploring partner. Glacier Gate was certainly the most promising lead on Arctic Palace he'd found yet.
…
Pignite B2/W2 entry: The more it eats, the more fuel it has to make the fire in its stomach stronger. This fills it with even more power.
Prinplup Diamond entry: It lives alone, away from others. Apparently, every one of them believes it is the most important.
Seel B2/W2 entry: The colder it gets, the better it feels. It joyfully swims around oceans so cold that they are filled with floating ice.
Spheal B2/W2 entry: They can't swim well yet, and they move much faster by rolling. When they're happy, they clap fins.
I have now covered all the starter Pokemon! Not the biggest category, but it's done and others are coming close to completion. At least until they bring out a sixth gen... at least that shouldn't be for a while yet.
Also, to the person who suggested that this was too long and would take a year to read... oh dear. That's not the point of this project. And I'm certainly going to continue my actual lengthy fics because that's just how I work. But thank you for the consideration.