Chapter 16: Firelink
Pyre was on Cobalt's tail, both rushing through the cave. "Umm you know where we're going right, Butterfree said tiny woods but this looks like a cave?"
"Don't worry, this is just the entrance to the dungeon." As he spoke he came to a stop before what appeared to be an opening in the cave leading to a bright sunny clearing, in it's center was a descending stairway.
"Now I'm more confused than ever."
"Well we're here, so just stick close and I'll explain everything." Cobalt led Pyre down the stairway. At its bottom it opened up to a massive beautiful forest. "It's crazy you've never been in a dungeon before, have you just been living under a rock?"
"I don't think I've been to this part of the world before, so that's probably it."
"Okay, you might have hit your head pretty hard, these things are all over the world, and there's a lot of 'em." They wandered through the heavily forested area, taking twists and turns through long corridor like openings in the trees or otherwise walking through massive clearings. "First off, nobody here is friendly, a lot of the pokemon in dungeons have been tainted by the calamity."
"Calamity?" Pyre stopped with a confused look on his face.
Cobalt stopped as well. "You….don't know about the calamity? Okay, that's not good. I'll explain that later then. For now just now that a lot of pokemon are just really aggressive these days, again at least the dungeon ones are." Cobalt started walking again. "So I'll start with what's most pressing, you asked about the lightless weavile, well not much is known about them aside from the fact that they come directly from the calamity itself somehow. And because of that they're aggressive to everyone but other tainted or lightless pokemon. If what Alakazam said is true, the calamity's taint progresses like a disease, and can only be stopped when the one inflicting it is defeated."
"So basically if someone goes tainted for too long they'll become lightless?"
"Exactly. But, as far as we know, there's no way to save someone who's become lightless. They get this mark on their face, and have a seemingly unbreakable will to serve the calamity."
Before their conversation continued a voice was heard nearby. Someone was calling for help.
"Did you hear that Cobalt?"
"Yeah, I think we're close to the next stairway."
"The what? There's more stairs? Uuuugh that's so dumb, I don't wanna walk that many stairs."
"Don't worry too much, Tiny Woods only had like three floors. Besides, you aren't gonna leave Caterpie are you?"
"My friends would say I don't know them so I shouldn't bother, but yeah I can't just leave them!" Pyre nodded as they rounded a corner and came into another clearing with a stairway in its center.
"Come on! We need to catch em quickly." Pyre followed Cobalt down the stairs again. However once they reached the bottom of the stairs Pyre was baffled by an almost identical area to the last they were in.
"But didn't we?"
"No time to explain, this is normal, now hurry!" Cobalt rushed off following the plea for help. Pyre chased after him. "Something's wrong, there should be tons of pokemon here. Maybe they all fled to Firelink Square."
"Please don't be mad, but what's Firelink Square?" Pyre felt blind, like everything around him was new and wrong, but somehow he felt at home.
"Well it's the safest settlement on the continent, it used to be Pokemon square, but just before the calamity released it's horde unto the world three brave warriors built a massive bonfire of sapphire flame in the center of town. Then they went to fight the calamity themselves. They…never came back, so we changed the name to Firelink Square." Cobalt glanced back looking toward Pyre's tail. His eyes widened a bit. "At least that's what Whiscash says, I wasn't born until a bit after that. So I don't know for sure."
Something about that story felt familiar to Pyre, but he didn't know why, and he couldn't remember why his memory was failing, even though everything felt so familiar.
After a few minutes they came to where the voices originated, another stairway. He didn't wait for Pyre to catch up, he just rushed down. Pyre followed behind a moment later.
This time they came to a single large opening. No branching paths, nothing but the clearing. Well that and five pokemon. Three weavile's surrounding Caterpie and.
"Ivy!" Pyre called out with a smile. But his smile soured. As Ivy collapsed to the ground, one of the weavile had injured him greatly. By the time they turned to face him, they were too late. Pyre was right in front of them. His eyes had taken on a red hue, and his tail was tinged with that familiar black flame. "I'm not losing another one." Without warning Pyre slammed his fist into the lead weavile, a d carrying the momentum pushed his fist down suddenly smashing the dark/ice type into the ground.
"Eclipse is in a bad mood it seems." One of the other two spoke, not yet effected by the Charmander.
"Brother that's not!" The other was suddenly launched back first into a tree by Pyre's tail. The Charmander locked eyes with the final weavile who stumbled back out of fear. "Not…Eclipse…"
"Pyre, I've got him, help Caterpie and that snivy!" Cobalt jumped onto the weavile.
The Charmander immediately lifted Ivy onto his shoulder, and carefully let caterpie on his head. "Got em."
"Where are the other pokemon! What happened to Tiny Woods, where is everyone!?"
"Gone, fled before we arrived, we were here for leftover berries and apples, a few orbs if we could find them."
"So they escaped, thank goodness."
"Hehehe Moon and Swindle probably got them before they reached that repulsive place anyway. They've been hunting down those that flee the dungeons."
Cobalt raised his head up and abruptly slammed it down into the weavile's head knocking him out immediately. "We need to get out of here, before more show up."
Pyre nodded as they started their trek out of the dungeon. It took some time, given the added weight of their injured friend and Caterpie. Once they got outside Butterfree was waiting.
"Oh my Caterpie! Oh you saved my sweet little Caterpie." They proclaimed happily as the caterpillar hopped off of Pyre and scuttled over to their parent. "Oh please, I must know your names so I can thank you properly."
"Name's Cobalt, a pleasure to meet you. I'm just glad we saved Caterpie."
"I'm Pyre, and basically what he said, I'm glad we saved Caterpie too." Pyre gestured to Ivy on his shoulder. "And this is Ivy, he was protecting Caterpie until we got there."
"Thank you Pyre, Cobalt, and Ivy, without you my sweet Caterpie may never have come home to me."
"No worries, it was all in a day's work really!" Pyre smiled. "Gotta help people that need it!"
"We should probably head to town before anything else happens. I can take us there." Cobalt spoke up again and motioned for them to follow.
*Later*
They arrived at the large walled off area Pyre saw when he arrived. The gates opened as they approached, and they were hurried in.
"Found some new arrivals eh Cobalt?" A bisharp spoke from the wall as they entered.
"Yep, sorry if we're overflowing."
"Everyone is welcome, you know that, welcome to Firelink Square guys, Cobalt can help you get settled I'm sure."
Just a short distance away was a large spaced out area full of buildings, some shaped like pokemon heads, and others looked more like simple shacks.
"What's with the heads?" Pyre didn't beat around the bush with his question.
"Those are rescue team bases." Cobalt didn't explain further. "Please tell me you know what rescue teams are."
"I'm guessing they are teams….that rescue pokemon from dungeons?"
"Got it in one, you're learning." Cobalt smiled back as they approached a group of clustered together buildings, each shaped like a pokemon head. "These ones are shops. While this whole place is called Firelink Square, this little space was Pokemon Square."
Pyre counted buildings shaped like the heads of Kecleon, Kangaskhan, Gulpin, Persian, Wigglytuff, Makuhita, and Polteageist.
"That's the Kecleon Shop run by the Kecleon brothers. Kangaskhan Storage, run by miss kangaskhan. Gulpin Link Shop, run by gulpin. Exuberance Bank, Persian runs the place. Wigglytuff Camp Corner, Wigglytuff is the owner. Makuhita Dojo, kinda self explanatory. And the Polteageist Café, our newest addition, run by you guessed it Polteageist." Cobalt pointed to each respectively. "You'll get better acquainted while you're here. Just north is whiscash's pond, and just passed the town is Pelipper Post Office, they deliver the mail."
I'm the center of the square was a massive bonfire, it's flame a brilliant blue just like Pyre's tail.
"And that's where we get our town's name." Cobalt turned away. "I'm gonna see about setting up a home for ya, feel free to meet everyone." Cobalt strolled away.
"Hey Pyre, I think I'm alright enough to walk." Ivy spoke up from his shoulder, and Pyre gently let the snivy into the ground.
"Okay, as long as you're sure. Lets go meet some people!" Pyre turned to the closest shop and approached.
The two Kecleon brothers smiled happily at their approach. "Hello! Welcome to the Kecleon Shop! I'm Green!" The green brother spoke.
"And welcome to Kecleon Wares, you want TMs we got em! And I'm Purple!" The purple brother chimed in.
"Um I'm Pyre, I'm new here, and this is my friend Ivy."
"Ooh newcomers, ya know normally we don't do this." The two look at each other and nod before green continues. "But you look like a cutie, we'll give ya something on the house." Green pulled a white scarf out from under the counter in front of him.
Purple spoke up again. "It's a Defense Scarf, so you can stay safer, and we'll get to see ya again cutie!"
Pyre blushed as he took the scarf. "This is really generous thanks so much! I don't exactly have anything to pay ya with though, so I should probably go now."
"The scarf is on the house handsome. But Thanks! Please come again." Green smiled as they walked off.
"They seemed nice!" Pyre smiled heading toward the Kangaskhan building.
"They wanted to fuck you so bad."
"Get your mind out of the gutter." Pyre chuckled.
"All I'm saying is they definitely wanted to spitroast you."
"But you said they wanted to make with me, now they wanted to cook me?" Pyre looked confused.
Ivy let out a sigh. "Bless your giant innocent heart."
"What? Seriously, what do you mean."
"Hello there! Welcome to Kangaskhan Storage. Call me Auntie Kanga!"
"I'm Pyre."
"And I'm Ivy, we're new around here."
"Well, I'm certainly glad to see two sweeties like you in town, it's so dangerous these days don't you know?"
"You're a nice lady Auntie Kanga!" Pyre smiled. "Umm do we have to pay for storage? Cause I uh don't have money, but I also don't have anything to store."
"No need little one, it's all taken care of, when you've got something to store I'll make sure it's safe." Kanga smiled back.
"Thanks, well don't want to take any more of your time, so we'll be going now."
"Thank you, sweetie. Come again!"
They moved forward to the Gulpin shop.
"She was nice!" Pyre smiled at Ivy again.
"Can't disagree this time, she seemed far to happy to be lying."
"Welcome! This is the Gulpin Link Shop. I'm Gulpy, and I can help you link moves and learn new ones, for a price."
"Pleasure to meet ya Gulpy, I'm Pyre, and that's Ivy!"
"New arrivals are so numerous these days, so good to see so many safe here in Firelink Square."
"We just wanted to introduce ourselves, don't think we need to learn or link anything right now." Ivy interrupted.
"Well if you want to link some moves, come see me again!"
They walked away rather abruptly, heading toward the persian building. "Welcome. This is Exuberance Bank. I'm Felicity." The Persian spoke up from behind her counter. "Names so I can open an account when you have money."
"Pyre and Ivy, but uh how."
"Wealth is my business, so I can smell it on you. Your poverty stricken fate will change soon."
"That sounded rude, was that rude?" Pyre turned to face Ivy.
"A little yeah."
"Do not take it the wrong way, I am saying you will have much better luck with your funds soon. But since you lack funds, our business is concluded. I await your next visit."
They walked away, slightly stunned by how blunt the Persian had been. And they stepped up to the Wigglytuff building.
"Welcome to Wigglytuff's Camp Corner. I'm Wiggles. We establish safe zones in the world for specific groups of pokemon that either can't, or do not wish to make the journey to Firelink Square."
"Pleasure to meet ya Wiggles, I'm Pyre."
"Ivy, a pleasure."
"Friends are my favorite, I'm so glad we can make new ones, and homes for them. However, I do have many logistical issues to deal with, so I'm afraid if you have no business to provide, I am rather busy. I'm sorry."
"We understand, thanks for your time." Ivy carefully pulled Pyre away.
"Thanks! Come back soon!"
They turned south and walked toward the dojo. Upon arriving Makuhita spoke. "This is Makuhita Dojo! Only through rigorous training can we become stronger! I am Sensei Maku, I welcome you to grow your strength, with a gift." He held out three bronze colored tickets and Pyre took them happily. "This is the currency of the dojo. You bring tickets. I let you train beyond your limits. You grow stronger. Others see your strength. They come to join the dojo."
"Ooooh I like it, let other people advertise how great this place is. I'm definitely coming by after I'm all settled." Pyre smiled. "So you best be ready for me!"
"The eager student is a teacher's blessing." Maku took a bow. "I will work to be a worthy mentor."
"Got one last place to check right? The Polteageist shop?"
"Yeah. See ya Sensei Maku!"
"See you later. Come back soon if you want to keep getting stronger."
And they strolled away toward the café. Beside the door was a flier detailing a sad event. A worker had passed away not long ago while away from Firelink. And Pyre felt his entire being tense up, there was a picture on the flier. A fennekin, almost identical to Cynder.
Pyre felt himself begin to hyperventilate as tears began to form in his eyes.
"Here, let's go in and sit down." Ivy led him inside the café, it was rather quaint, like a diner out of an old movie. They both hopped onto stools beside each other.
"It…looks just like her Ivy."
"I…I know…" Ivy looked annoyed. "Ugh, I wish I knew how to help you." The grass snake hugged him. "This is all I've got."
"Welcome to Polteageist Café! I'm Kettle." A Polteageist spoke as they approached. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Hey, Charmander?" Pyre looked at them. "What's your favorite berry?"
"Now isn't the…"
Ivy was cut off. "O-oran berries…" Pyre sniffled.
"You wait right there then big guy." Kettle floated back toward the wall and levitated a cup filling it with what appeared to be a frozen beverage. They then placed an orange berry into a small blender before pouring it into the drink. A few moments later they set down the drink in front of Pyre. "An oran shake. On the house. Keep your smile up cutie, from what I saw before ya got here, you look better with a smile than tears."
Pyre sipped the drink and wiped his eyes. "Thank you. I really needed this I think." He sipped it again. "This is really good!" He started to smile again.
"See, there it is. I knew you'd have a nice one to look at." Kettle smiled from within their little teapot. "So, who are you fine guys?"
"I'm Ivy, and this handsome sad guy is Pyre. We just got here, and we're waiting to hear about our living situation. This mudkip offered to help us do that while we met everyone."
"Well, you guys can wait here for Cobalt, this is where most people he brings in stay. While he gets them a home."
"Everyone here is so nice, it makes me so happy." Pyre smiled wide again.
"Well, since I've already given you one thing on the house, how about a meal for the two of you as well?"
"That's probably a good idea, I'm pretty hungry. How about you Pyre?"
"Starved!"
"Then let's fix that shall we!" Kettle gave each of them a menu.