The large blue land shark sighed tiredly. The kind of sound you make when you know you'll be stuck somewhere a long while with no end in sight. That was, of course, the situation Cleo found himself in now. The end of the school year was always the hardest for him. Many times, he would lament the loss of his students who chose not to finish his course, or simply couldn't handle the task. And the rare instances of pokemon flat out failing the exams. Yes, it was all too common he was forced to say goodbye to pokemon he had secretly hoped would stay, every year only a few of the selected students would make it into his guild.
But that wasn't the only thing he disliked. He thought about the kids he said goodbye throughout the year as he skimmed over essays and recommendation letters. He really, really, really, despised this task come June. It was difficult to pick only 6 pokemon to join his guilds course. I really need to hire someone to do this. Heh, I say that every year.
First, he had to sift through hundreds of recommendations. Teachers and parents are desperately trying to get a mediocre kid into the program to make themselves look good. He usually ignored these, but he still gave them a fair chance. Then, there were the essays, the meat of this process. Young, newly graduated students wanting to expand their knowledge on mystery dungeons and become Guild Members. The essays often bled together, rarely sticking out. Many of these upclass kids never had to solve a problem in their life, having nothing to write about. Every few years or so, Cleo was forced to accept a snotty kid of some high noblemen or politician, and they would quickly drop out when they realized they actually had to work.
And other essays just repeat a similar cycle, the same words, the same dreams. Don't tell his wife, but sometimes the grumpy garchomp would just pick a random essay and accept it, when no one else was impressing him. I mean, it wasn't unfair was it? Sometimes it even worked out.
He quickly wrote up the acceptance letters for the few surprisingly noteworthy applicants. He rubbed his weary eyes, happy to be done with this. Of course, he doesn't regret taking the opportunity to run this amazing guild after his father had passed, but he does miss the days of simply being a rambunctious guild member working under his old pop. A tapping sound at the window behind his desk alerted his attention.
"Ah, Crooks. Just in time, kiddo" He spoke flatly while rolling the window open, letting a younger spearow fly inside.
"Damn, you look beat man. Hard to think you can conquer a dungeon like no tomorrow, but get tuckered out from some reading" the teenager stated, noticing the Guildmasters disheveled state. Cleo only grunted, he also missed the old delivery bird. Crooks was good at his job, but boy was he a snarky little thing. Most would never dare to speak to a large and popular Guildmaster this way, yet the bird saw him as no threat.
"I am doing my job, Crooks. I'd like to see you do what I do in any given week. Tell me kid, have you ever had to find a lost child in the deepest part of a dungeon before the sun even rose, rush back to a Guild to report your adventure in the books, remember you had a class to teach, deal with budget relocation due to rising costs, and not even getting a break until midnight?" he sneered at the bird. Sure, maybe he was being rude, but he's had barely a wink of sleep the past week since the year ended. He was crabby.
Crooks ruffled his wings nervously, knowing he had messed up, but not admitting it, "Whatever man, Just give me the acceptance letters so I can get them out. Don't you dare make me fly too far either, I'm tired dude"
Cleo snickered, feeling as though he had somehow gotten revenge, "Sorry Crooks, these guys are all over the map. Almost makes a complete circle, we're getting diverse this year" he watched in amusement as the bird read over all the addresses, groaning.
"Ffffuuuucccckkkk you suck so much. Ah shit wait, is Breezy here?" he craned his neck in both directions, relieved when he didn't see the Guild Master's wife. She would always scold his poor language and attitude.
Cleo ignored the teen and looked beyond the window, it looked to be about noon. Crooks would likely get a letter or 2 out, then have to perch for the night, getting the rest the next day. The spearow flew out at high speed, leaving Cleo alone again. He leaned back in his chair, free from any duties, at least for a while.
He thought about the students he picked. For a couple of the students, he had intense gut feelings that he had to pick them. Why? He wasn't sure. He also had some gut feelings that this year would be different, that something big would happen. It unnerved the land shark, who was so devoted to a strict routine.
The young mienfoo trudged home, carrying a large bag of groceries. Thankfully, her fighting type blood made it no issue, she was always in top shape. The day has been great so far. She did her dojo routines in the morning like usual, completed some yard work around her little hut, bathed in the warm sun for an hour or two, and ended the day with some shopping. Ruby lived in the outskirts of a small but lively village. Her house was a wooden hut built many years ago, its age was obvious. Try as she might to upkeep it, she was only a kid still. Logs were skinned or rotten, there were holes and splinters in the porch, and it was either too cold or too hot inside. But, it was her home, she lived here for as long as she remembered. Behind the little shack were many trees leading into a dense forest, and a couple of small mystery dungeons she had discovered.
She arrived just as the sun was dipping past the horizon line. To her surprise, however, she saw another pokemon on top of the roof with a disgruntled look on his face. She trotted up and set the bag of food on a porch chair, "Uh, hello?" she called up.
The bird startled and leered down at her, "Sheesh, bout time. I was convinced my leg was being pulled, this place is a dump, no offense. Hell, no mailbox? Making me wait up here?" he snorted.
Ruby kept looking up confused, "Sorry, we don't get a lot of stuff. Who are you?". Instead of responding, the bird craned his neck into a carrier bag he had around his small body, and dug around until he pulled out a small letter. "It's from MoonGleam Guild, congrats bro", he gave the mienfoo a look over, thinking. Whatever his thoughts were on the girl, he didn't voice them. "Whatever. You should invest in a mailbox so us mail birds can do our job right. I pride myself on standard performance you know, I take this shit seriously" he said, before getting ready to take off for flight.
"Wait! You were waiting here? No one else was home? There wasn't a sandslash here?" Ruby interrupted his take off.
"Nope. Sorry my man. Laters" before Ruby could say anything else, he flew off into the twilight sky, disappearing into the trees. Well, that was a weird interaction.
She looked at the letter in disbelief. She wasn't sure if she was mad or appreciative for the spearow hinting that it was an acceptance letter. Ripping it open, she read it, confirming the facts.
Dear Ruby,
After carefully reviewing your application, the MoonGleam Guild is excited to welcome you aboard the extensive training program. The course work will be rigorous and unforgiving, much like real expedition work. This is why we are picky about our students, we only select pokemon we truly believe will make great expedition members at our guild one day, like you.
You are now expected to arrive at MoonGleam Guild in MoonGleam City at the beginning of September, and not a day later. When you arrive, bring this acceptance letter and other personal belongings. Standard furniture and appliances will be provided for you. You will be responsible for buying and keeping basic expedition gear.
Congratulations, MoonGleam Guild.
Ruby read the letter a few times. Something felt…wrong. She knew she should've been ecstatic and jumping for joy, she had just been accepted into the most prestigious school as a nobody hick. But she felt lonely, sad, and scared instead. Her gaze lingered back to the shack. The mail bird said he hadn't seen her Dad. She wasn't surprised, but she was disappointed. Despite promising he'd be back tonight, he was known to be flaky. Hell, maybe he did come home while she was gone, and immediately had to leave again.
Despite having a poor relationship with the man, the little girl inside of her wanted to share this exciting news with her Dad. To hug and jump and cry with him. But she couldn't, because he was a traveling doctor. Always going to new towns and countries helping the less fortunate. He was a great man, everyone would say. He's just busy, others might tell her. But he's never really tried to be there for his daughter, opting to stay out of town as much as he could, for months at a time. Ruby wished he were here, so badly.
Pushing aside her childish thoughts, she reread the letter once more, noting the list of supplies at the bottom, everything she had to get somehow. It included things like a treasure bag, special food items, stationary and pencils. She focused her thoughts on what she had to do now. She was honestly expecting to get declined, and keep working here in her tiny town. But now she had to figure out where to buy these items and what else she had to pack, and she had to figure out travel plans. She wasted no time getting back inside, nearly forgetting her groceries. The sun dipped right below the Earth, coating the house in darkness as soon as the door closed.
…That was, until she noticed an oddity in the distance. It was the moon. It should have been a normal half full moon tonight, but instead, it was a pale but visible red. Ruby's eyes glared towards the odd phenomenon. Sure, red moons happen every now and then, some science mumbo jumbo a girl like her wouldn't understand. Weird…did Lunala do this?
Still gazing, she saw a small white specks cluster in the sky under the red moon's light. Those were the lunatone, they came out almost every night, assuming it wasn't cloudy. Despite only being able to see them as little dots due to the distance, Ruby could feel their movements were confused yet curious. The lunatone of all pokemon would know what stage and cycles the moon should be in, were they perhaps scared of this sudden switch?
Ruby watched for a minute more, watching the white dots fly across the red backdrop of the moon. Some stayed, others fled, apparently not liking the moon anymore. Ruby chose not to get scared of it though. Strange things happen all the time in this world, things she couldn't even hope to comprehend. She supposed there's been weirder things than a big rock glowing a new color. With a somewhat unsettled last glance, she closed the door for real this time.
…
The large lion's eyes never once left the sight of the red moon. He did not move from his lying position, he did not even blink. He only watched intently from the edge of his cliffside.
Sometimes, one of the lunatone he saw every night near the cliff would glance his way nervously, before doubling down and looking away. He ignored the lunatones behavior, he had no qualms with these pokemon. They rarely engaged or bothered one another. The lunatone would come out each night the moon was visible, gathering energy from its light. Tonight, of course, Soleago could sense the unease in each one of them, and he could tell the moons were hoping for some semblance of explanation or comfort from the lion.
He briefly considered leaving his mountain, something he rarely did, to find his sister. He may not have shown it, but he felt afraid. He may have been the pokemon of the sun, but he knew the importance of the moon. You cannot have day without the night, and vice versa.
But he chose to stay on his mountain for now, to observe anything he could see. After that night, the moon returned to its regular cycle, and he heard nothing from his sister Lunala. Even after a month had passed, and the lunatone had forgotten all about that night, and the common folk chalked it up to weather, Soleageo laid there each night in unease.
The fighting type was woken up by the campy radio host's voice blaring on her radio clock. Why did I ever buy this shit? I don't even like this show.
"GGGGOOOOODDD morning all you hard working folk. What's the time Ted?"
The other nearly identical voice piped in, "Lookin' like 8 in the morning Bill, lord Arceus I hope today goes quick"
"Awww and why's that? Big plans tonight?"
"Wow, and I thought you were my friend here! Did you really forget?"
"Oh that's right, what was it? Your ma's birthday? Gonna celebrate that later mommas boy?"
"Yeah yeah, after I'm done with your mom that is", the two hosts erupt in some tacky laughter at their dumb (and frankly unfunny) joke set up. Ruby just silenced the damn radio, who actually likes this trash?
While the two hosts were busy sipping their coffee and cracking jokes for their living, Ruby got to work. But as she was brushing her teeth, she heard the front door. She spat without even rinsing and ran, knocking into her sandslash father.
"Dad! You're home! I was so worried, didn't you say you'd be home last night?" she exclaimed while hugging him, not caring about his quills.
The rodent took a second to respond, not 100% there, "uh…didn't I send you that letter?"
"Letter?" she cocked her head.
The sandslash thought a little harder, slowly, "no wait, I gave it to Gloria to mail. Huh, guess she forgot" he shrugged.
Ruby's blood ran a chill, but she kept composure. Of course you trusted Gloria. Gloria had been her Dad's girlfriend for 2 years now, and, for whatever reason, she hated Ruby. How her Dad remained oblivious and believed they loved each other, Ruby will never know.
"Anyways, the trip got delayed, one of our other traveling doctors got sick with something, then became super paranoid. Aaanddd I guess we just got distracted too, hehe" he laughed without a care, as if he hadn't just willingly left his daughter alone in the dark for a month.
He continued talking, walking farther into the house to sit on the leather couch, "You haven't met him, Craig. Man, the place we were at was beautiful, but it freaked him out. It was a small village next to this mountain, I don't remember the name. But apparently that was where uh…what's her face…Lunla? Loonana? Lives. The moon there was so big and bright, kinda awe inspiring ya' know? Now, Craig is an umbreon so he's all into the moon and stuff. But one day he stopped being his usual self yeah? Started going on about how 'somethings wrong with the moon'. None of us believed the guy, he was probably just on some local drug he shouldn't have"
Ruby thought about it for a second, "did you see that big red moon awhile ago?"
His face contorted, "oh yeah, that happened a little after he went bonkers. Made him real sick, coughing and groaning. Weird eh?" he stretched, cracking his joints, "Anyways, I spose I should tell ya, I gotta get going again in a couple weeks, sorry kid".
Ruby's heart sank, but she didn't say anything, and just nodded. Of course he has to leave again…
She decided to wait until dinner to tell him the exciting news. While he definitely looked surprised, she couldn't easily read any other emotions from him. Happy, sad?
He set down his drink, "Aw kiddo that's…that's amazing. Guess we should start….huh. I uh, I guess you probably already got all ready?" he asked, and Ruby nodded. His nose twitched, his feelings still unclear. "Arceus. I'm sorry kid, wish I woulda been here. And I probably won't be able to see you off, you know"
"You know, Dad, you could skip out on your next trip to celebrate with me. Arceus knows you have enough money to miss a couple days. I mean-did that come out mean? What I meant was….uh…", she word vomited before she could stop, and now it was too late. Her dad looked at her with furrowed eyebrows.
"I can't just skip it! Those other pokemon need me!" he retorted.
Now her blood felt red hot, "This pokemon needs you! Me! I know your work is important but this is a big deal for me, why can't you-"
"Ok, stop it. I do not like this attitude of yours" he interrupted her, rubbing a claw to his forehead.
She waited with baited breath, until he finally looked back up at her, "Do you even like me?"
"Ruby, I love you. I'm going to bed, this night isn't what I wanted" he sighed, and got up. She watched sadly as he scraped his unfinished meal in the trash, then disappeared the rest of the night.