The sun rose over the city, giving its light to the land once again. The radiance of the celestial body shone across the fields and into the homes of the people, causing them to stir and prepare themselves for another day of work. The beacon atop the castle refracted the sunlight, making the woods nearby seemingly glow with prismatic colors.

In the training fields near the castle the numerous squires were still asleep in their small cottages, a few stirring as the light hit their eyelids. A few others simply turned away and went back to sleep.

A Ponyta and a Charcadet woke up as soon as the light hit their eyes, slowly getting up and stretching.

"Morning, Ced…" The Ponyta stood up and shook some of the straw from the bed off of her.

The Charcadet grumbled and nodded in return before standing and looking around. He had almost forgotten about staying here and was confused at first when he saw his surroundings. Eventually, he sighed and looked around at the other sleeping Pokémon. "Do you think we should wake them up?"

"Prob'ly." She walked over to Bran and Walter, her hooves making soft clopping noises on the floor as she gently nudged the two. Meanwhile Cedric did the same with Draco and Guinevere.

"Oi… oi, stop poking my back…" Bran said as he tried to swat the hoof away. After repeated attempts he gave up, sitting upright and looking up at the flaming horse. "Alright, I'm up!"

"Good. We all need to get up early now that we're squires. Think of how much we'll miss if we sleep in!" She backed away from the Pikachu as he got out of his bed and went to wake up his Munchlax partner, who was… more difficult to awaken.

Cedric was having more luck with Draco and Guinevere, being able to easily shake them out of their slumber.

Guinevere slowly stood up before shaking off and yawning. "Where did… how…"

After a bit of confusion she finally remembered what she was doing here and her face lit up. "Right, we became squires yesterday! I almost forgot!" She giggled as her tail went off like a rocket, pouncing at her partner. "Get up, get up! We have things to do!"

"AGH!"

Draco could barely react before the Rockruff landed on him, the force making the both of them roll off of the bed and onto the dirt floor. "Ow… I'm awake."

"Oh, good. Now I just have to wake him up." Gracia continued to poke at the Munchlax, eventually causing him to stir with a poke to his neck. "Come on, get up! I will kick you out of this bed!"

A sigh came from the Munchlax as he lifted himself out of the bed, scowling up at the Ponyta. "You don't have to yell."

"How long… ugh, never mind." Gracia sighed and shook her head as she stepped back to talk to her partner.

After a short bit of stretching Bran finally spoke up again. "We should probably get our armor on, eh?" Everyone nodded in agreement and went over to where they'd set their leather cuirasses the previous night, slipping them on and tightening them to a snug fit. Draco knelt beside his partner to tighten it around her midsection with a rope.

"What now?" Cedric said after a yawn. "Do we wait for Sir Goodwind?"

"He might not be here for a while. I say let's get something to eat before we have to do anything."

"Walter, is there ever a part of you that isn't thinking about food?" Bran said as he glanced over to his partner.

"Well, do you have a better idea?"

Bran was about to argue his point when his stomach growled.

"…No."

"Then let's go. The mess hall should be open right now." The Munchlax walked towards the door and opened it to let everyone out.

There were fewer Pokémon out in the training field right now than there were the previous day. That would most likely change as the day went on, but for now it was oddly quiet. Almost relaxing, even. The few Pokémon that were on the field already were preparing for the day, running laps around the field and stretching to wake themselves up properly. The loudest place right now, though even that wasn't unbearable, was the mess hall. It was constructed similarly to the smaller houses, with log walls and a roof made of thatched straw, and a few windows for air circulation. Most of the Pokémon that had just woken up went here first, and lively chatter filled the air because of it.

The six of them entered the mess hall and went to the back, where a Gourgeist wearing an apron was giving out breakfast to the squires. As they all stepped up, the Gourgeist greeted them with a warm smile before handing each of them a wooden bowl full of porridge made of grains and milk, with some berries added for flavor.

"Hey look!" Cedric pointed at the grains in Bran's bowl. "It's you!"

"Shut it!" Bran returned the joke with a quick elbow to his side. Despite this, though, he didn't seem to mind it that much.

When they all got to an empty table big enough for all of them, Gracia decided to ask a question. "Hey, why are you called Bran, anyway? It's not a normal name."

"Aye, I get that a lot." He huffed as he started to eat his porridge. "It's the name my Pa gave me when I was born. Whenever I asked him about it he said that bran is a hardy crop, and that's what he wants me to be. Hardy. Tough. Not a trait you'd think a shopkeeper would have, though."

"Huh? You're a shopkeeper?" Guinevere looked up at him from her bowl, berry juices and milk lining her mouth.

"It's the family business. Steiner Traders, down on North Street. You heard of it?"

"Oh, I've been there a couple of times. I almost got run over by a swarm of Pichu when I went last time, though…" Gracia shivered a bit at the memory.

"Aye, that'd be my little siblings. Lots of little paws helping out, but a lot to keep track of. Part of why I ran off to join the knights. I'm not cut out for merchant work."

"I see… Well, good luck with that. You'll need it, from what I've heard."

After a bit of silence while the group ate their breakfast, a familiar figure entered the hall. His midnight feathers and plated armor reflecting the light coming in made him recognizable to all, especially his squires. He approached the group, speaking to them with his deep, droning voice. "Enjoying your breakfast?"

"Sir Goodwind!" Cedric was completely still, the tone of the Corviknight's voice giving him the impression they were all in trouble. The others were more of the same, staying silent while they waited for him to say something.

Hm? What's the matter? Do you think you're in trouble for eating breakfast? That's why the mess hall is here."

"I-I thought you'd be mad at us for not waiting for you, Sir!"

"Of course not. If you had, we'd have left before you could eat anything. And with what you'll be doing today, you'd have preferred to have something in your stomach."

"Huh? Oi, what are we doing, Sir Goodwind?" Bran leaned on the table as he looked up at the corvine.

Their mentor flashed a small smile at him. "If you're all finished, come with me and I'll show you. But be forewarned: this is likely the most important job in the kingdom."

--

"You know, when Sir Goodwind said this was probably the most important job in the kingdom, I thought…" Bran raised his earth-shattering tool above his head in some kind of heroic pose. "We'd be fighting back bandits or wild Pokémon that wanted to get into the city." And then he swung the hoe down to break up the soil. "Not tilling farmland."

"He wasn't wrong, though." Gracia walked by with a yoke around her neck, pulling a plow behind her as Cedric helped to steer in the back. "Where else does the city's food come from? Caves?"

"Aye, aye, I know. I'm not complaining about that, it's just… not what I was thinking." He sighed as went back to work, tilling the field like the farmer he was helping taught him to. Walter and Guinevere lagged behind him a bit, burying seeds in the newly tilled land, though Walter was the one doing most of the heavy lifting. The sacks of seed were far too large for the Rockruff to move, even if she wasn't unnaturally small. That didn't stop her from trying at first and almost crushing herself under a sack of tomatoes trying to prove a point. To his right was Draco, doing much of the same, striking into the earth to uproot any weeds that had sprouted up and upset the dirt. Unlike the others, however, he didn't say anything while he worked. He was silent, aside from the occasional humming of a song that he heard a few days ago. Bran thought about it for a moment… Draco never really talked, did he? Aside from the occasional agreement or yelp of pain when he got hurt or hit something, the only time he'd heard the Riolu speak was when he told Bran his name. The rest of the talking for his team, really, was done by Guinevere. "Oi, Draco. What are you thinking about?"

"Huh?" Draco stopped swinging and looked over at the Pikachu. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're always so quiet. You never talk to anyone, so there has to be something going on in that head of yours. So what is it? A girl that caught your eye? Your folks back home?"

Draco pursed his lips slightly as he was suddenly battered by questions. "Just… everything happening, really. I don't know, there's a lot to think about. And… I just don't like to talk?"

"Ah, is that it? A mon of action, or just shy?"

"I… guess both."

"I see." Bran sighed and continued to work in silence for a while, his curiosity now piqued. "I'm not trying to force you out of your shell. I'm just curious about you, is all. You're the one I know the least about in our group." He put the farming hoe on his shoulder and looked over the line he'd dug up. "So where are you from? You can't be from the mountains from what I know."

Draco looked back at him and thought to himself… it wouldn't hurt to be honest, right? So he decided to come clean. "…I don't know."

"What?" The Pikachu looked at him incredulously.

"I don't remember anything past a few weeks ago. I don't remember where I'm from, who my parents are… anything."

"I… oh, Morrow… I can't imagine what that's like…" The Pikachu glanced away, now feeling a bit bad for pressing.

"It's not fun… the first thing I do remember is waking up after Gwen found me in the woods."

"Oi; hold on, she found you in the woods?" He asked the Riolu, who responded with a nod. "Well, you're just full of mysteries, aren't you?"

Draco was about to answer when a sharp yell echoed over the area.

"MORROW DAMMIT!" The Diggersby farmer the group was helping with his daily chores cried out, throwing a shovel almost like a spear at a raised piece of earth.

The squires all looked at each other before Guinevere spoke up. "Uh… sir? Is everything alright?"

"No! There's Drilbur in my field! I thought I'd finally got rid of them but there's always one I missed! They always come and try to nibble on my crops, and just one can ruin a whole harvest." He sighed and put a paw to his face. "I've had enough famines for one lifetime, but with how important these farms are to Heliond…"

"Oh… do they always bother you like this?" Guinevere asked as she approached the area the Drilbur had been.

"No… something has them riled up lately. If I knew what, I'd get rid of it and drive them back out." He looked back up at all of them. "Don't suppose any of you have a way to find them?"

Everyone looked at Draco, making him shy away a bit.

"Guys, back off. He probably can't use that weird magic from the fairy tales." Bran stepped closer to the Riolu, trying to avert everyone's gazes away from him. Draco quietly thanked him for that, though he wondered what he meant by 'weird magic'.

"Is this where it was?" Guinevere said, standing over the small clump of dirt where the Drilbur had fled.

"Yep, that's where I saw it. It could be anywhere by now."

Guinevere looked down at the dirt patch and slowly lowered her head towards it, trying to find any useful information on it or anywhere around it. She took a deep breath as she couldn't find anything… then paused.

She could smell something. Something that wasn't farmland, or anything else like it. The smell of a Pokémon. She took a couple more sniffs around, then of the nearby air. There was a certain direction where the scent lingered, and it became stronger when she faced the center of the field. It was still faint, but she could still tell there was something there. "I think I found something!" She began to run towards the center of the field, zigzagging around trying to find the source of the scent. Eventually she stopped with everyone behind her trying to keep up, her snout nearly buried in the dirt. "Here!" She began to dig into the earth, eventually uncovering a hole leading down… with a small, white face sticking out.

"DRIL!" The Drilbur panicked and dug its way out of the hole, running off into the distance.

"Ha! By Morrow, I wasn't expecting that! You've got a nose like a tracker!" He laughed before pumping his paw into the air at the fleeing mole Pokémon. "And stay out, you little parasite!"

"Won't it come back, though? All we did was scare it off?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. Drilbur are timid things. As soon as they know you can find them easily they won't come back." He sighed and stretched. "Mmmh. Well, I wasn't feeling this generous before, but all of you have been working so hard that I'd feel bad letting you go empty-handed. And I think I can spare a few lumins…" The farmer reached into a small bag on his side and dug around for a while before pulling out some golden coins. "Here we are. Ten lumins for each of you. Get yourselves something nice." The coins were all minted with the image of Heliond's king, a Pokémon the coin labeled 'Seren, 56th of King's Line', and had a bit of weight to them.

"Haha! We just got paid!" Bran playfully punched Walter in the side, celebrating this victory. He'd been paid before while working at the shop, but it felt good to get paid for doing something different.

"Thank you, sir!" Cedric and Gracia said simultaneously, respectfully bowing their heads.

"Of course. I'm going to put in a good word for you all to that knight when he comes back around…"