With a thud, the gangplank fell to the dock, bridging Riolu's ship and Tenea City.
Looking at it from this far away was odd. It seemed to be much more vertical than Ingen— the skyscrapers were deliberately built to make the settlement visible from miles away, but that was offset by how much more compact it appeared to be. Over the course of less than 10 blocks, skyscrapers gave way to medium-sized buildings, to small residential homes, to straight wilderness. The contrast was jarring compared to what Riolu was used to, where any direction you walked would just take you to more city.
Still, Riolu was more than willing to take it on. He patiently got in line behind all the other Pokémon, slowly disembarking from the ferry. While the 20 hour trip was exhausting, the last thing he wanted was to draw attention to himself when he was almost out.
A quick nod to Swampert and some anxious steps over a board later, he made it. Tenea City- the largest settlement in Varin and the continent's de-facto capital. It was the center of exploration for the entire continent, a major trade port, even a massive criminal underworld, and…
…What should he do?
He paused midway through the dock, just looking up at the looming skyscrapers. Mom was always insistent that he master his aura before he could be trusted to learn anything about her career.
In a city like this, was there any place for him?
He was pulled out of his thoughts as a Lairon jostled him, causing him to hurry up and pause his existential crisis until he was at least on solid land.
Riolu needed a plan, that would be a good starting point. He remembered what Venusaur said, about how the guilds out here would be willing to look the other way. Even if they weren't, the odds that information about him being missing made it all the way here already were low.
So, that meant he needed to track down the local guild.
He walked deeper into the city, looking for anything that clearly denoted guild. From what he knew, guilds rarely looked anything like each other and were always obvious- giant cloth heads of the guildmaster's species were weirdly common, a trend he'd never understand.
After sweeping through eight different streets, he decided to settle. There was a shorter building that looked like an office with the Federation badge plastered over the entrance. It clearly wasn't a guild, but it must've had someone he could talk to if the line of Pokémon waiting outside the doors were anything to go by.
He stepped into the line, right behind a very tired looking Scyther. The bug type was tapping their scythes against the wall of the building, occasionally taking a few steps forward when the line moved. When Riolu stepped up behind him, he shot him an amused stare.
"Oh, what are you doing here?"
Riolu flinched slightly at the Pokémon's words, not expecting the Scyther to talk to him. "I umm… wanted to talk to a Federation representative?"
"I saw you in Ingen the other day. Riding a cart pulled by a Rapidash."
Riolu's heart sank as he looked up at the Scyther. He was familiar, wasn't he? When he was driving back from the last aura lessons, that was one of the Pokémon he saw out on the street.
"Y-yeah. I was there. Yesterday- or two days ago?"
Riolu mentally begged Scyther to not press the issue any more. Scyther, oblivious to Riolu's mental begging, continued to press the issue.
"Then what are you doing all the way out here?"
"Well… what are you doing?" Flipping the question on Scyther was probably not the best tactic Riolu could have employed, but saying the first thing that came to mind was much more important than saying the best possible thing.
"Well I'm glad you asked," Scyther said, smugly. From the red bandanna dangling over his neck, he pulled out a scroll of paper. "I just happened to have finished taking the Federation Officer Examination, receiving only perfect marks."
Riolu's first thought was that Scyther seemed to be a little stuck up, but this was quickly overcome by his second thought— that Scyther being stuck up was very helpful in not having to answer questions about himself.
Though to be fair, Riolu did know about the FOE. Getting perfect marks was supposed to be extremely difficult. Sure, his mom got a perfect as well, but that was because she was her. For normal Pokémon, that was pretty much impossible.
"So, you want to become a Federation officer?" Riolu asked.
"Mm-hmm. And with how desperate all these Varinians are, they're pretty much guaranteed to take me."
Most of the other Pokémon waiting in line shot Scyther a dirty glare, not that he seemed to notice or care.
"Well… good luck."
"I won't need it, but thank you." Scyther, finally tired of his self-aggrandizing, crouched back down to face Riolu. "I'm guessing you're not here to become an officer?"
"Uh… no. I wanted help signing up for the guild."
"Hmm…" He leaned in closer to Riolu, studying the Pokémon. After a period of mental deliberation, Scyther nodded. "Okay, I think see it. Good luck to you as well."
"R-Right. Thanks."
After a few moments of silence, a shrill voice from inside the building shouted "NEXT!", giving Scyther his cue to go in. With a confident swagger, he stepped inside, leaving behind Riolu and the ten other Pokémon who got in line after him.
The next five minutes were just Riolu awkwardly looking around, not wanting his gaze to linger on any one Pokémon for too long in case they thought he was staring. Eventually though, this state was broken by the door slamming open, and Scyther storming out.
"Think I'm not fit to be an officer well I'll show them-"
As Scyther angrily began hovering away, the same voice from earlier called "NEXT!" Yet, Riolu wasn't quite sure where to go. He could just step inside and get the extremely basic intel he wanted, or…
He took off from the line, running after Scyther.
"Hey, wait up!" Riolu waved down the bug type, who looked back over his shoulder with a confused glare.
"What, here to gloat at me?"
"N-no! I was… wondering what you were gonna… do now." As he spoke, Riolu quickly realized that randomly yelling out to someone he just met was not in fact a normal thing Pokémon did.
"…Nova Town," Scyther responded, after a moment of deliberation. "If these Tenean self-righteous nobodies think they can do better than me, then I'll go somewhere where they're forced to take me."
Riolu nodded. His knowledge of Varin wasn't the greatest- Ingen didn't pay much attention to the frontier continent- but he heard snippets about the cities. Through all of them, he'd only heard about Nova Town once. It was the newest city, if it was even big enough to be called that.
"Uh… You think they'd take-"
"Take someone like you?" Scyther finished, with the same amount of self awareness one would expect from someone who ten minutes ago thought a good score on a test could guarantee him a cushy administration job. "Absolutely."
"Right, I-" Riolu stopped mid-sentence as he reconsidered what Scyther was telling him. While that wasn't what he meant to ask, it was a good point— Tenea City might be able to run background checks, and from what he could see they weren't exactly struggling for Pokémon. But if he went to the frontier city of the frontier continent, then he might find somewhere he can actually be safe.
"…I think I'll check it out."
Scyther gave a smug grin, before turning back around. "As I thought. If you do make it out there, feel free to have you and whatever team you end up joining say hi."
As Scyther hovered away, Riolu was left in the middle of a street, a new plan in mind. He'd spend the night here, and start heading to Nova Town tomorrow morning.
Even if it was mostly at Scyther's recommendation, there was something exhilarating about being able to just… decide you want to go somewhere. He really was free.
Unfortunately for Riolu, having the freedom to make your own choices didn't change much about his present material conditions. With no Poké to his name, he settled with sleeping on a bench in the city's central park.
At night, Tenea City was a fair bit colder than Ingen, which meant he had to curl up over himself to stay warm. Even then, it wasn't great, but hopefully it'd be over in eight hours.
As he was lying there, he heard the sound of footsteps drawing closer. His eyes creaked open, and he saw an Armarouge standing ahead of him. While the park itself was near pitch black, the Pokémon's open flames meant they were pretty easy to recognize.
Armarouge wordlessly took the blanket draped over his chest plate like a sash and threw it in Riolu's general direction, before taking a seat at the other end of the bench. Riolu had to fumble a bit through the blanket to get his head to stick out, and look at the stranger sitting across from him.
Riolu waited for him to say something, or even react to his presence aside from the initial act of tossing a blanket on him, but nothing came. Instead, the Armarouge just looked straight ahead.
After a few more minutes of zero words being exchanged, Riolu decided it was up to him to break the silence.
"…Thank you."
Armarouge nodded, still not looking at the Pokémon next to him. "Where are you from?"
"…An old city. Needed to get out."
A part of Riolu thought he was really sleek and cool with that. Keeping his full identity hidden, but still giving this Pokémon who might be willing to help him the gist of his situation. However, his self-pride came crumbling down as Armarouge spoke again.
"Ah, Ingen then." For the first time in the conversation, Armarouge turned to look at Riolu. "Am I right to guess you're not interested in staying here?"
"I… well-"
"You wanted to leave a city that was too developed for your tastes, only to end up at one of the other most developed cities in the Federation's domain. If your plan was to stay here, I would be forced to ask what the hell you are thinking."
Riolu didn't know how to react, was he that easy to read or was Armarouge just really good at it?
"You're- yeah, I was… gonna head to Nova Town tomorrow."
"Much smaller than Tenea," Armarouge mused, getting back up to his feet. "My brother is the assistant guildmaster there. To thrive there requires a… different lifestyle."
Those words caused seeds of doubt to creep into Riolu's mind. Or, more accurately, caused the seeds of doubt that he'd been aggressively shoving out of his thought process for the last 24 hours back into his head. He was traveling off to a new city based on the words of one random Pokémon he met, he was already in a brand new continent, and he still barely-
"I think you should talk to him, he has a sixth sense for telling who can last out there," Armarouge interrupted. "Tell him I sent you." Content with his good deed for the evening, Armarouge started walking away, leaving behind a confused and slightly warmer Riolu.
As Armarouge walked away though, Riolu could faintly see a letter in his hand. And while it was pretty much impossible to see through the darkness, he could swear it almost looked like it was stamped from Ingen.
Questions kept swirling around his mind, but the two days of traveling and dealing with abruptly moving to a new place had already caught up to him. No amount of concern or uncertainty towards the future could stop him from falling asleep on that bench tonight.
A/N: Apologies for the general slowness at the moment, rough couple weeks.
Ch 4 - Where the Grass is Green - 11/25/23