Hello! Friends, friends! Welcome to Sean's Day Becomes More Complicated!

This is a bit of a long author's note, so I don't blame you if you wish to skip. It's mostly be thanking you all.

I am enjoying this all so much ^^ I will put a second specific thank you to TheCrazyAnimeFan01 for both being here since the start, aaand, inspiring me.

I like to pretend I have everything ever planned out to such intricate detail, but when I started this story the plan that was there was… well, not so well developed. It's much more developed now, and this is because of the simple support I was given. TheCrazyAnimeFan01, even if they didn't actually say or do anything that normally would lead to these ideas, the simply fact that someone was interested made my mind go into overdrive thinking of twists and ideas I could do.

Without them, and without ALL of you, this may have been a lot more boring. To give an idea on what I mean, I didn't intend on Drowzee getting away originally. He was going to be fought at Mt Bristle in the same way with Sean pretending he had the Dimensional Scream to convince Rai he knew where to go. The inspiration you all gave me pushed me towards a much more interesting angle, so I thank you all.

Anyway, I've waffled on for long enough, time for the story!

Sean couldn't claim to know just how big this world was.

In his experience in geography, a continent was quite a lot larger than the map implied it was. At least most continents were.

Each dungeon they had gone out to explore were within walking distance of the town. Sometimes it was a few hours, but they could always make it there, get through the dungeon, and back all in a single day.

And the Craggy Coast itself was equally as close.

"I'm not sure if we're just a lot faster," Sean mused as they walked along the coast, listening to the waves crash against the cliffs and certainly not Rai still talking to Grovyle. "Or just because we don't take breaks. I thought humans were meant to be the endurance hunters though, I got winded in my second dungeon, but now I can walk for kilometres with no shoes and be fine. Such a weird place."

He was not offended that Rai barely spoke to him; the shinx focusing instead on barraging Grovyle with a million deadly questions.

No, he was worried. And not an inane fear that Rai liked Grovyle more, that was not even on the cards, more that he'd ask too many questions and Grovyle would let something slip.

To be hit with this many questions would be daunting, even for one without something rather large to hide like Grovyle.

Not that he was paying much attention to how Grovyle answered. No, just a glance here and there whenever it seemed appropriate. It would be suspicious if he completely avoided Grovyle's existence, so a cursory glance now and again was the right action.

Sean's tail swish and flicked.

"The last I heard from my sister, she had gone to the Water Continent," Rai said, winding down on the latest story that he was telling to Grovyle. He had already covered his loss of his treasure in the Beach Cave incident. Sean nearly using a move in town on Drowzee. Everything but the Ditto's secret from Boulder Quarry. And a basically everything else Sean had gone through with Rai. Now he was talking about personal stories. "She's an incredible luxio, I wonder if she's evolved all the way yet… Oh, I've been talking so much. What about you, do you have any siblings Grovyle?"

"Never asked me if I have siblings," Sean thought mutinously as he also thought. "Because you have 'amnesia' you lipid fool."

Sean glared down at the ground. His feet paws were poking their claws out and he took the effort to force them to retract.

"No, I am an only child, as far as I know," Grovyle replied, nodding down to Rai. Then he looked across. "What about you Meowth?"

Sean didn't react, still not particularly used to being addressed as Meowth, as well as doing his best to ignore the pair. "Hmm?" he asked when he realised both pokémon were staring at him. "Pardon? I didn't catch that."

Rai opened his mouth, almost like he was going to say something, but faltered and closed his mouth again as Grovyle repeated the question. "Do you have any siblings?"

Sean felt trapped, boxed in, outwitted in a game he didn't know he was playing. "What does he mean by that? I can't say yes, cause then Rai would know something is up. Do I say no, that's a lie though, would Grovyle be able to tell!?"

"Uh, I…"

"You can't say amnesia. So, say something NOW!"

"N-no. Probably." He gave a weak shrug while mentally lambasting himself for backing out of the lie. "Come on, you lie basically every day. Grovyle isn't that scary, who cares if he knows? It wouldn't completely wreck the entire world if the story changed like that would it?"

Unable to take that chance, Sean smiled vacantly until Grovyle looked away.

"HE KNOWS!"

While Sean began a whole new tirade of mentally screaming two words, Rai took Grovyle's attention again and began spelling out how their first outlaw mission went.

The chatter was a pleasant hum in the back of Sean's mind as he continued to freak out over possibilities and suspicions he had no idea were feasible or not.

Still, despite the chaos of Sean's mind, the waves continued to crash against the cliffs as the Craggy Coast drew closer.

"I believe this is the entrance to our first challenge," Grovyle said, hopping up to a sheer opening into a dark cave. Sean grimaced as he looked at it, the entrance giving the feeling of a jagged hole torn into the side of a cliff. It was not particularly inviting and Sean felt like something was missing, but he couldn't put his paw on it.

"Hoo." Rai breathed out. "This is the start, really. The start of our first expedition!" He turned back to Sean, beaming brightly and Sean lavished in it. "Let's do our best Sean!"

Grovyle twitched, eyes flicking to Sean in a moment of puzzlement.

Sean's smile at being noticed again grew wider, until it froze into a rictus grin. He realised what Rai had said as Rai realised as well. "Oh, oops," he giggled embarrassed. "I get so used to calling you that." He turned to Grovyle, still smiling. "It's only fair if I tell you my name too! Just in case you hadn't heard it already. I'm Raigeki, but I prefer Rai." He held out his paw to take and Grovyle clasped it in a clawed hand.

While Sean stewed in the fact he was only learning that now, Grovyle nodded. "Well met Rai," Grovyle said, briefly hesitating as he turned to Sean. "And to you as well Sean." Sean shivered, Grovyle's voice had lingered in the air, over his shoulders, his name bared for all to hear. "I must apologise for not disclosing my own name, I am a private person."

"Oh!" Rai's ears shot up. "I wasn't meaning. I didn't mean. I wasn't thinking to." Each sentence stopping and starting as Rai grew more flustered.

Thankfully, Grovyle laughed. "It is more than alright. I apologise for my own rudeness in turn. I hope you will forgive me in time."

"Already." Rai nodded, then turned to the dungeon entrance. "This is a true expedition…"

He seemed to freeze, eyes being drawn into the dark cave, the yawning chasm pulling him in, pulling him towards an uncertain future. An exciting future.

"Let's go already!" he yelled passionately. "The rest of the guild won't be waiting on us for sure!"

Rai raced to the mouth of the cave and began hopping from left to right. "Hurry up you two!" he moaned, unable to contain himself and sparking several times.

"Ready?" Grovyle asked, chuckling, as he turned to the meowth who was playing it cool. "This will be an adventure I'm sure." He nodded towards Rai who whined at them to hurry up. "Alright Sean?"

"Right," Sean replied, feeling his throat try and restrict to stop the words. He realised he hadn't spoken directly to Grovyle up to this point and couldn't meet his eyes when he did so. "Craggy Coast awaits." He hurried forward, smiling far too widely at Rai once he reached him and quickly stepping further into the cave.

Rai waited for Grovyle, and the two of them entered right after Sean, watching the meowth's tail flick back and forth as he did his best to appear natural.

"This is going to kill me," Sean thought, grimacing as Rai and Grovyle began to talk again. "Through panic or whatever is going on there, I'm not sure."

He resolved to keep his eyes fixated on what was in front of him and ignore what was behind. He had the bag, he had the items, and Rai was strong enough to fight even without Grovyle.

Sean knew he was the one who needed the help, but he wasn't accepting it from Grovyle.

The cave was a new low when it came to dankness.

The Beach Cave was wet, Drenched Bluff and the Waterfall Cave were slimy, this cave was wet, slimy, and salty.

So much salt, Sean feared he was going to absorb it through his feet. Even breathing was uncomfortable with how the scent of salt permeated everything.

"I'm going to smell like this for weeks," Sean moaned. He had fallen back into line with Rai and Grovyle fairly quickly, not willing to put himself in the line of fire just to avoid maybe interacting with Grovyle.

Rai remained between them, however, that was unchanging.

"It probably will," Rai replied, nodding wisely. Sean took it vacantly, moving on to the next problem, until Rai's tone registered with him.

"Hey!" he snapped. "What are you implying there?"

"In all the time I've known you," Rai replied with a smile. "You bathed once. In the hot springs, and only when we were washed there by a trap."

"…Saved your life," Sean mumbled, turning away with a pout.

"Sure did!" Rai agreed, grinning brightly.

"You don't bathe?" Grovyle asked, staring down with concern after dispatching a whiscash with Bullet Seed.

"Weirdest meowth ever," Rai said. "I get not wanting hairballs, but he prefers the water I think."

"I don't like this water," Sean growled, flicking a foot to free it from something particularly offensive.

"Did you know Sean can swim!" Rai gasped, turning his full attention back to Grovyle as he found another thing to tell him of.

"Indeed?" Grovyle looked over Sean again, appraising him. "Interesting."

"I thought so too." Rai nodded. "Swam in our second dungeon to save a lost psyduck. Even saved me from drowning when I fell in." Rai trailed off into embarrassed laughter and Sean sent a smile his way before going back to glaring at the surroundings for surrounding them.

Sean wasn't sure what to take from Craggy Coast. The place was unpleasant, every dungeon was unpleasant, but the dungeon itself wasn't much of a problem.

It was almost relaxing, adventuring with Grovyle. He was so powerful, often with a type advantage on top of it all, anything Rai didn't scare off, Grovyle easily laid low.

Sean was not relaxed though. Grovyle made the dungeon easy but strung his nerves like a harp each time Rai began to say a little too much.

"We talk every night, well not for the last few because Sean's been uh… tired."

Didn't help Sean's nerves that Grovyle kept looking at him each time Rai would talk about him.

"He almost used a move on Drowzee in town, but he didn't! Everything worked out fine, even though Drowzee did get away…"

What was worse was when Rai realised he had been excluding Sean from the conversations and tried to add him in.

"Remember when we fought Litleo, Sean?" Rai asked, tearing his eyes from Grovyle for a few seconds to grace Sean with his attention.

Sean flinched slightly, startled at being addressed so suddenly. "Oh, yeah definitely! Big battle, I was only mostly useless."

"You weren't useless!" Rai immediately said, annoyed and also resigned to this discussion.

"Ah." Sean patted where his nose wasn't. "I said mostly."

Rai gave him a flat look. "Don't get cute with me, there is no way I could have done that alone."

"You are the cute one here," Sean said, smirking as Rai puffed up. "Can't turn that talk on me, I'm the master here."

"I'm learning though," Rai warned, grinning again. "I'll figure your 'sarcasm' out one day."

"Hmm," Sean hummed before glancing to Grovyle. Things weren't different, but he felt a little better now that Rai had finally remembered he existed. "Litleo was our first real battle together," he explained to Grovyle. "At least where I did something of use."

"He distracted Litleo," Rai interjected, happily knowing Sean was embarrassed by praise. "Tricked him into lowering his guard, and got him with a Sleep Seed. I was barely conscious at the time, but he got me some berries and I was back up."

"Just in time," Sean cut across, pushing the credit back. "To knock him out right as Litleo was getting up."

"An impressive win," Grovyle said, nodding down to the pair. "Some of the greatest teams are built from a common foe."

"Have you worked with anyone before Grovyle?" Rai asked innocently as he absentmindedly zapped a krabby. "

Grovyle was silent for long enough that he could only answer with. "Yes. Some time ago."

Rai nodded and didn't press further. Grovyle's clipped tone was warning enough.

Not to be stopped by awkward silences, Rai had enough of those in the first week with Sean, he decided to change the subject. "Sean's been doing really well though." The shinx smiled as he felt Sean's eyes bore into the back of his head. "We went to a dungeon called Waterfall Cave not long before the expedition crew was announced."

"Indeed?" Grovyle asked pleasantly, keeping his eyes on the walls around them. He scared a gastrodon off with a quick Bullet Seed. "Preparing for the expedition?"

"Well," Rai trailed off awkwardly before righting himself. "We took two jobs that day, hoping to look like we were really dedicated."

"Understandable," Grovyle said nodding. A hint of a smile even twitched at his lips. "It appears to have paid off well."

"Yep!" Rai beamed, sending a Thunderbolt at an enemy to send it skittering for the depths. "It wasn't looking too good at first," he explained as Sean cut in.

"We searched the dungeon three times looking for those two!" Sean frowned as the memory of what followed came to him. "I bet Floatzel knew we were there too."

Rai nodded, solemn. Turning back to Grovyle, he explained. "We were looking for two lost pokémon, but as it turned out Floatzel had kidnapped cherubi!"

Narrowing his eyes, Grovyle asked. "And you caught him?"

"We did." Rai nodded and looked to Sean. "We ended up going to the end of the dungeon and accidentally triggered a trap…" he trailed off, looking hopefully at Sean.

Happy to continue, even if he concealed it, Sean brightly explained. "Was some sort of water trap on a big gem. Pushing it in triggered the trap and washed us all the way to the hot springs."

"His first bath." Rai contributed. "Also saved me from drowning."

"Ah yes." Grovyle nodded. "You mentioned that earlier I believe?"

"Did I?"

"You did," Sean said flatly. "You said everything. Well… mostly everything."

"Not my fault!" Rai said. "Grovyle asks such good questions and I had to tell him… most of it, you know?"

Rai was looking at Sean, Sean was looking back. There was something in the yellow eyes of the shinx, something pleading.

Sean turned away and Rai frowned.

"We got directions from the pokémon at the hot springs," Sean continued with a cough. "And hunted Floatzel down just as he was handing Cherubi over."

"And we battled him!" Rai yelled, jumping forward and sparking dangerously. "Floatzel and Staraptor. They tried to fight back, but Team Ion was too good for them!"

Grovyle chuckled at Rai's exuberance and sidled next to Sean, making the meowth truly uncomfortable. "You have quite a partner there," he said, and Sean nodded stiffly.

"Yep," he croaked, cleared his throat, and tried again. "Yep." Still croaking.

Grovyle gave him a curious look, but before he could do anything, Rai returned. "I didn't get to tell the best part!" he said excitedly.

"Hm?" Grovyle glanced back up to Rai.

"That battle was when I figured out how to use Thunderbolt!" He fired the very same at an enemy creeping up on the pair, knocking it flying with a screech. "And Sean too!" With that, Sean's interest was piked.

"Huh?" he asked dumbly. "Me? When did I do anything besides Scratch?" He extended his claws and channelled some Power through them to demonstrate. "I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything fancy."

"You did seem pretty mad," Rai agreed, shaking his head. "But no Scratch attack I've even seen involves a long, black, blade thing. That was definitely a new move!"

"Long black blade?" Sean repeated, glancing at his right paw. "…Are you sure?"

"How don't you remember?" Rai cocked his head, concern filling his voice. "You nearly cut Staraptor's wing off. That's what scared him away in the first place."

"Everything is a bit of blur after I realised what was going on with that whole 'deal'," Sean admitted, getting another concerned glance from Rai as well as one from Grovyle. "It's nothing," he insisted, recoiling at the concern. "I just got really angry, and we were tired from doing the same dungeon three times!"

"I guess…" Rai mumbled. They all stood in silence for a moment; Grovyle decided to break it.

"That does sound like Night Slash," he said, perking Rai up and getting a disbelieving look from Sean. Privately, Grovyle took it as a victory. The meowth had barely looked at him at all, and only for brief periods. He was fully staring at him now.

"You've seen a Night Slash?" Rai asked eagerly. "I've only really heard pokémon talk about it in the streets, or the guild. You don't get many Dark-type pokémon in Treasure Town. And the poochyena brothers have never showed it off."

"They likely cannot learn it, despite the matching typing," Grovyle explained. "I have seen a Night Slash before. Many times. I once helped someone learn it."

As soon as the last words left his lips, Grovyle froze up. Rai, ignoring any odd reactions in delight, immediately squeaked. "You can teach SEAN!"

Sean froze as well, and the two met eyes for a moment, looking away quickly. "He doesn't need to take that time," Sean quickly said. "It'd probably take days, if not weeks, and Grovyle has better things to do."

Rai pouted and looked to Grovyle who had regained his composure. "I…" he hesitated, receiving the full brunt force of Rai's hope. "Could give a tip or two." He ended.

Rai immediately beamed again and ran around Grovyle in happiness. "Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Sean this is great!"

He tackled Sean in happiness before rolling off bashfully. "S-sorry. I'm being a bit… much again."

"I'm fine," Sean said, pulling himself into a sitting position. Grovyle stretched out a clawed hand and Sean took it without hesitation, getting hefted up to his feet.

"You are curious," Grovyle said, causing a painful heart jump in Sean. "I've never met a meowth who enjoys standing in such a way as much as you."

"I know!" Rai said, cheer returning. "It's so weird, but a good weird!" he quickly corrected. "I think it's cool. Unique."

"Other meowth can stand," Sean mumbled, stepping into his own space.

"Yeah, but Croagunk thinks it's weird and cool too," Rai said wisely as they began to walk again. "Sean's weird in lots of ways, but that just makes him who he is! Who is wonderful, it's all good things I swear!"

Sean chuckled at Rai's scrambled attempts to talk about him, but privately hoped he'd stop. Grovyle had relaxed around him, so he hoped that there was no suspicion there.

"Even saying my name didn't garner much of a response," Sean reasoned to himself as their trek took a noticeable incline upwards. "And all pokémon seem to act a bit shocked if someone just blurts their name out. Did I not tell Grovyle my name then? Did I expect something like this to happen? Gah, I hate not remembering what happened in the future."

Sean watched Grovyle as Rai continued to chatter on. Grovyle was very alert, very twitchy, and almost brutal in how quickly he'd dispatch any pokémon that dared to even look at them. But he replied to Rai's questions easily and showed no odd signs when Rai would get Sean to add his own two cents.

Sean smiled and began to relax himself. "And even if he does know something, nothing wrong seems to be going on. He'll take the Time Gear, and everything will be back on track. A few bumps here and there, but the expedition looks like it'll be easier than I expected. Grovyle is really strong, I don't even to do anything!"

Pleased in his laziness, Sean continued walking alongside Rai and Grovyle until the beams of natural light stung at his eyes.

"We're almost through!" Rai said, voice echoing through the widening passage. He picked up speed, trotting forward and driving Sean and Grovyle to run to keep pace with him.

The mouth of the cave yawned, and the trio were expelled.

"Ah!" Rai sighed as they emerged on a wide, rocky, path. "Can you smell that clear air Sean?"

Sean breathed in. The terrible salty smell still stuck to his fur, but the air of the mountains was clear and pure. "Smells like victory."

"We are through Craggy Coast," Grovyle said, stepping up behind the pair. "But we are still quite a way from the base camp the guild wishes to meet at.

Grovyle pulled out his map and he and Rai began talking as Sean stepped away. He climbed one of the rocky edges that closed the path in, digging his claws in to hoist himself up, before taking a full view of the location.

Dozens of snow-capped peaks spread out as far as his eye could see. Sean smiled, this wasn't the first time he'd been in a place a little like this, although this was a nicer place. The sun was still in the sky, although it was getting close to the horizon.

"We just need to cross this mountain and we should be at base camp," Rai called, catching Sean's attention.

"Right," he said, climbing down. "Just this dungeon and we're there?"

"Correct." Grovyle rolled up his map and stored it back in his bag. "But for the moment I believe we should rest. Eat, drink, and prepare for the next journey."

Sean wholeheartedly agreed with that, and he quickly joined the pair before walking to the entrance of the dungeon.

"It'd probably be night by the time we get to the camp," Rai said as they sat down. Sean sighed as his weary leg muscles finally got to relax. "It might be a good idea to stay here for the night, it's not a great idea to rest in a dungeon."

"This place appears well secured," Grovyle agreed, popping his neck. "And if I am correct, I may need all my strength for the next dungeon. Mountain dungeons are often home to Flying and Bug pokémon."

"Yeesh." Rai cringed. "Yeah I can see why that might be a problem. We'll just need to do better!"

"We did let you do most of the work." Sean grinned, receiving a scoff from Grovyle. "I'm still pretty useless, but I can throw a seed… occasionally accurate."

"Don't trust him with a Blast Seed though," Rai warned, catching Grovyle's curiosity.

"Why not?"

"Because they NEVER WORK!" Sean shouted, yelling at the sky. He calmed quickly though. "I don't know what it I." He pouted, crossing his arms. "Every single time."

Rai giggled, but Sean's disgruntlement was judged not due to be mocked, so he instead sat down on his belly. "I'm hungry, Sean you got the food?"

"I do." He quickly swung the Treasure Bag around and opened it, glancing up when he noticed movement.

"I too have brought provisions," Grovyle said. "Would you consider pooling the food to be allocated equally?"

"Certainly." Sean smiled and the two with actual hands quickly set the food into three piles. With Rai already drooling, Sean hastened to make sure he didn't lose a paw to the hungry shinx's mouth.

They ate in silence, peaceful silence. Rai took this chance to rest his throat, having talked most of the day away.

With Rai giving them a blissful reprieve, Sean and Grovyle remained silent.

It was, unsurprisingly, Rai who broke the silence. "So, what you said earlier," he said, speaking to Grovyle. "About giving Sean some tips for Night Slash?"

Sean cringed as he had thought that forgotten, he had forgotten, but Grovyle nodded. "Indeed." The Grass-type looked to the sky, the sun was setting now, but everything was still perfectly visible. "We should begin during this rest period, it is unwise to try and learn a new move in a dungeon. The stress can help." He gave Sean a sly look. "But can also go catastrophically wrong. Practise first, alright?"

"I understand." Sean nodded, withholding a sigh as he stood up. His legs twinged in discomfort, but he had to move. Things needed to be done, no point in complaining about them.

Rai remained sitting, simply rolling over to watch as Grovyle led him a few meters from the little camp they had.

"There are some important tenants to learning a new move," Grovyle explained, positioning himself in a combat stance. Sean felt a little nervous about that. "The first is will. You need to do it with all of your determination. The second is desire. You need to want to do it with all of your being. The third, is the actual training itself."

The leaves on Grovyle's arms flashed green and Sean immediately recoiled as Grovyle slashed out, Leaf Blade slicing a few stray bits of fur off his head. "HEY!"

Rai bolted up, but Grovyle had already stepped back. "That was Leaf Blade. For me to learn it, took simple dedication. A Grass-type move for a Grass-type pokémon." Grovyle lowered his arms, and Sean tried to still his pounding heart. "Many types are channelled without much trouble, and as you yourself are of the Normal-type, you have a greater capacity to channel 'other' types."

Grovyle began walking towards him, and Sean had to force himself not to back away. "A Dark-type move, however, is different. Some types require a little… more, when utilised outside their normal scope." Grovyle's arm leaves glowed again as he called a second Leaf Blade, Sean missed the subtle light in Grovyle's eyes.

"What do I need to do for a Dark move?" Sean said, impressing himself with the lack of stutter.

"The idea is simple," Grovyle said, and slashed. Not at Sean but sending a green blade of energy back at Rai.

Rai squeaked and leaped for cover, not that he had to. The ranged Leaf Blade had been aimed well above his head and off to the side, but the sudden attack had startled him.

"HEY!" Sean yelled, claws extending right as Grovyle had sent the attack near Rai.

"I'm okay!" Rai immediately called. "But what was that?"

His betrayed look didn't seem to move Grovyle, but the reptilian pokémon turned away from it regardless. "My apologies Shinx," he said blankly. "How do you feel about that Sean?"

"What?"

"How do you feel about someone hurting your partner?"

"Angry!"

Grovyle nodded and smiled. "Look." He stepped to the side, just enough for Rai to spot Sean's paw and gasp. Sean blinked, seeing his claws not shining white, but glowing black. His blink broke the spell, and his claws returned to normal.

"What the?" Sean blinked again and shook his paw. When nothing happened, he turned to Grovyle. "What was that?"

"Night Slash," Grovyle answered. "Or, at least, the beginning of one." Grovyle sat down, satisfied. "For you to use Night Slash, emotion is needed," Grovyle explained. "Negative emotion usually. Anger is among the easiest to cause, and brings a substantial amount of will with it, to it is a simple way to channel a Dark-type move."

"So, I need to feel… angry?" Sean asked, sitting down himself now that it seemed okay to. Grovyle stood up.

"Currently? Yes." Grovyle nodded. "You aren't trained enough to be able to channel the emotion without losing yourself to it. In time, perhaps, the memory of anger, or other negative emotions, can be enough to utilise Night Slash."

"Hm," Sean hummed, looking over his claw. He noticed Grovyle standing and got to his feet with a groan. "Is there anything you can do to help more?" He didn't mean to sound a bit ungrateful, but then Grovyle sat down and he felt justified.

"I could attack you," Grovyle said, shrugging at Sean's horrified look. "Attack Rai. Steal your belongings. Insult you until you hate me."

"Please don't." Sean sat down.

"Then you tell me?" Grovyle said, standing back up. "What could I do? I'm not a Dark-type. Grass-type, if you didn't realise."

"I realised," Sean said, standing up. "You said you could help teach me earlier!"

"I said I could give you a few pointers," Grovyle corrected, turning his back and walking back to the campsite. "You will need to figure the rest out yourself."

"Wha?" Sean blinked, paws twitching. "Well that isn't very helpful!" he said, voice rising. "You can use Leaf Blade! Isn't there something there that can help? Something similar?"

"Leaves are not claws," Grovyle said, sitting down where Sean had left his bag. He dug into it and pulled out an apple. Biting into it, Grovyle glanced back. "You gonna stand there?" he said through chomps.

"ENOUGH!" Sean yelled, claws extending completely before the shadows left by the setting sun began to lengthen. Darkness pooled, sharpening into solid blades of pitch darkness that extended onto the ground. Sean breathed deeply, trying to calm down before he heard clapping.

Grovyle smiled, clapping politely. "Well done," he said, nodding to Sean's right paw. Sean frowned, glancing down and stared in surprise. Unlike before, the Night Slash was fully realised and didn't disappear as soon as he saw it.

The three dark blades did disappear quickly, however, leaving his paw clean and without even a hint of the shadow. "Huh?"

"Grovyle was winding you up," Rai said, from where he was sitting. He had watched them with concern before figuring out what Grovyle was trying to do. "To get you to get angry enough to do Night Slash for real! Right?" He looked to Grovyle for confirmation, perhaps a little desperately.

Grovyle nodded, smiling. "Correct. I do apologise for doing that Sean, but some things have to be learned through ways we'd prefer not to employ." He opened his own bad and pulled an apple out. "To replace yours," he said, setting it into Team Ion's Treasure Bag.

Sean was still blinking, mind whirring as it took all that in and sorted it. "Oh," he said, once things were in the right place. "Oh. Okay, uh… thank you? I think."

Grovyle chuckled, gesturing Sean over. "That'll be enough training for one day. You already seem to know Night Slash, as that was impressively well done for a first try." Sean came, with a little hesitance. He didn't like what Grovyle just did, but the reasons he could understand.

"I needed to do that," Grovyle explained as Sean sat down, next to Rai. "In order to give you a baseline action to work from. From what Rai said, you've used Night Slash before, but you don't remember doing so due to the chaos of the time."

"Right." Sean nodded, shifting closer to Rai.

"But now you have used a proper Night Slash, and you remember if. You remember what I said about emotions fuelling this?"

"I do."

"So now you'll know. And if it helps, you can picture THIS moment to fuel future attempts." The brightness that Grovyle said that with threw Sean for a moment. Grovyle seemed to realise it himself and turned his head. "It is late now," he said uncomfortable. "It would be best if we got some rest. A long day tomorrow, we need to be ready."

"Sounds good," Rai yawned, curling up next to Sean. "Night Sean. Night Grovlye."

"Goodnight."

"Night."

Sean didn't sleep well.

"All right gang!" Rai spoke brightly. The night had passed a little coldly, rather uncomfortably, and the trio was up earlier than even Rai's norm. "We have to get moving. The base camp is on the other side of Mount Horn, and we can't let the guild down!"

Sean shot a bleary eyed, but curious, glance around. He had seen the entrance of the dungeon yesterday, and like Craggy Coast, something felt like it was missing. It had been bothering him, but not enough to take precedence over his several-hour-long-panic-attack Grovyle had caused.

"AH! That's right," Sean thought, realisation flooding him. "No Kangaskhan Rock thingy, whatchamajig, whoosits. The weird storing rock. Makes sense I guess."

Satisfied he'd figured it out, Sean followed Rai quickly as he urged them forward, Grovyle stepping in after him.

Things went well.

"Rah, Thunderbolt!" Rai roared, blasting a butterfree with enough electricity to knock it out. Sean cringed as the pokémon hit the ground with a slap.

Grovyle grunted, weathering a dusty wind before forcing a Bullet Seed through and pushing the venomoth out of the room.

Sean kept them going as best as he could. Carving up Oran Berry's and keeping their energies high. He felt bad, but there really wasn't a whole lot he could do. Not without going right up to the enemy at least.

"I need a ranged attack," Sean thought as Rai zapped pokémon in triplicate.

"We need to go," Grovyle huffed, pokémon were absolutely crawling through this dungeon. And all of them seemed after them.

"You're not injured, are you?" Sean asked as they began to run. Grovyle and Rai sent back as many moves as they could to slow the pursuers down. Sean only looked thrice, each time he saw a lot of bloodthirsty monsters. He ran faster.

"No," Grovyle answered. "But I am getting worn out. These pokémon are taking two to three times as much effort to knock out."

"Just send them running then!" Rai said, unleashing the storm on every pokémon in the air. One fell, the others turned.

"If we don't knock them out," Grovyle argued back. "Then they will likely seek us out later when we are weaker."

"Feral pokémon don't leave dungeons," Rai snapped back, he was exerting a lot of electricity. Sean shoved an Oran Berry down the shinx's throat.

"What if they pursue us into a corner?" Grovyle demanded, felling a pineco and slashing out with a Leaf Blade to relieve a natu of consciousness. "We are already in a corridor."

"Just drive them off!" Sean said, tossing what he doubted was a Blast Seed at the horde. It wasn't, it was a Quick Seed.

The aerodactyl that ate it, suddenly roared and beat its wings, moving shockingly fast and slamming into Grovyle.

Grovyle was smashed into a wall as the aerodactyl swooped off. Rai shouted after it, trying to zap it, but its speed gave it the chance to evade.

"Crap, crap, CRAP!" Sean yelled as the aerodactyl came around for another run. "SORRY. AH!"

Sean's eyes had met the bloodshot eyes of the aerodactyl and he realised a nightmare was literally coming true.

Several things happened in short order.

Grovyle had pulled himself from the wall, and slashed out, knocking two pokémon back and clearing a path to a different corridor.

Rai had unleashed electricity, zapping everyone. Grovyle and Sean included, and managing to force most of the attacking pokémon back.

Sean, had reacted to the aerodactyl by freezing, then was electrocuted and he yelped into a leap, jumping towards the path that Grovyle had opened.

The aerodactyl screeched and Sean screamed as cruel talons clamped around his body, pulling him into the air as the super-fast aerodactyl flew off with him.

"SEAN!" Rai screamed as Sean was carried off.

Rai and Grovyle went into immediately pursuit, leaving the horde to follow them. Sean screamed and struggled in the vice grip of the aerodactyl, its talons had drawn blood and no matter how many times he hit it, a simple Scratch attack couldn't pierce its rocky skin.

The wind rushed back, tickling his whiskers, and Sean screamed anew as everything began to rock. The aerodactyl took several turns, too many and too rapid for Sean to figure out. In desperation he tried to bite, but only stung his teeth in the process.

They arrived in a room and the aerodactyl released him. While flying full speed. Sean slammed into a wall headfirst and crumpled down in a heap.

Everything was spinning, his head pounded, his torso stung with a few gouged scratches, Sean wanted to vomit, wanted to scream, even wanted to cry a little.

Nothing embarrassing could be done yet, as the problem was still there. The aerodactyl had swooped off, shaking the speed off, before circling him, flying down closer. Sean flinched as a globule of drool hit him on the back of the head, and he realised what this monster was planning.

Sean's paws tore into the Treasure Bag, having thankfully been snared with him, as the aerodactyl came for him mouth open. Sean tossed a seed and, with how well the last one went, the aerodactyl swallowed it before pulling up.

Sean rolled anyway and felt the wind rush past him again as the aerodactyl ascended. Then it fell. Fell quickly as a puppet whose strings were cut.

It crashed to the ground, asleep, and Sean got to wobbly feet. "Okay," he said, repeating it while backing away. "Okay. Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay." He wanted to say more, just to hear it himself, but he was stuck in the shocked state of one word. "Okay."

He turned tail and ran.

"RAI!" Sean found his voice. "RAI CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

The walls of the dungeon were pure rock, and the sound reverberated through the dungeon in a ceaseless, useless, echo. Sean grimaced, staggered as a wave of vertigo hit him. The fight or flight response was wearing off, he felt the front of his head and felt blood. The koban was fine though, barely even a dent.

Sean gasped in pain as he felt his torso throb, looking down there was two cuts on his front, and he could feel at least one more on his back. "Of course," he breathed. Thinking clearer, Sean opened the bag and fished around for an Oran Berry.

"Come on," he said, looking in and moving stuff around. "I had like ten of these. Where did they go?" There were no Oran Berry's. He had been too hasty and not frugal enough with them, giving them to the others at the first signs of tiredness. "Great." He threw the bag down. "GREAT. RAI? GROVYLE? CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Paa…"

Sean's body shivered as he stood painfully straight. "Now is NOT the time to freeze up," he thought furiously, and forced himself to turn around.

"Oh."

Part of Sean, a part very detached from this whole situation, was rather impressed that not one, not two, but three nightmares all happened in the space of two minutes.

A parasect scuttled forward. Eyes blanker than any pokémon he had seen thus far. Foggy white, blackened veins sticking out, mouth opened in a gormless, hungry, gape. The same detached part of Sean observed that the gigantic mushroom was the real enemy, and not to touch it or else he may catch this. The rest of Sean flipped the shit out.

"AHHHHHH!"

Sean's scream was loud enough that Rai and Grovyle easily heard him.

"Where is he?" Rai scrambled forward. "HURRY!"

Sean scrambled backwards as fast as he could, slamming head first into another wall, this time cutting open the back of his head. The parasect's mushroom quivered and it breathed out a lungful of spores.

Sean was having none of this. "NO!" he screamed, turning tail and running three steps into another wall. He continued in a panic, hitting another wall. He was boxed in at a dead end.

Sean desperately clawed at the walls, hoping in an irrational way he could dig his way through before it got him.

"Seect," the parasect moaned and charged.

Sean spun, both paws generating Night Slashes, and flailed wildly, striking the parasect multiple times with Night Slash while screaming bloody murder. "NOOOO!"

He headbutted the possessed bug and slashed it over with his claws.

Sean leaped forward, chipping the mushroom with his claws and he continued to thrash out wildly, and landed on the other side. The parasect gurgled something and tried to turn to him, puffing out more spores, but Sean was running again and it crumpled to the ground. He tripped over his Treasure Bag and grabbed it just to remove it as a chain, continuing to run in a blind panic.

He hit a few more walls as he ran on all fours, this proving to be faster than on two. He turned, twice, thrice, and found himself in a long hallway. Sean sprinted forward, no longer screaming loudly, but a high-pitched eeee.

"Where is he?" Rai shouted again, as he and Grovyle tore up a longer hallway.

"What is that sound?" Grovyle asked, detecting something getting closer.

"EEEEEE!" Sean cries, zipping past their view at the end of the corridor.

"SEAN!" Rai yelled and ran forward in a burst of speed. "SEAN COME BACK!"

Sean was in no state to listen and continued running. The meowth detected something trailing him, and only ran faster as Rai continued to yell his name. Sean collided with a wall when he failed to turn, the loud crack causing Rai to wince. The meowth scrambled back to all fours and continued sprinting off right as Rai tried to pounce on him.

"SEAN! DAMMIT!" Rai was able to keep him in sight, but Sean was shockingly fast and fitter than he had seemed beforehand. Rai was getting tired, Sean seemed to be going non-stop. "SORRY ABOUT THIS!" Rai called, before charging electricity.

"Rai!" Grovyle called from behind him, managing to catch up. "You'll need to knock him out, just zapping him is going to make him run faster!"

"What?" Rai inwardly cringed. He rarely went so far as to knock even a feral out, but his closest friend?

"EEEEEEEE!"

"Maybe it's for the best," Rai agreed.

"I'll tell you when to fire," Grovyle said as they sprinted side by side. There were too many turns so far, but Grovyle knew where the best point was.

They entered a room, too small, and continued pursuing.

They entered a corridor, but it ended too quickly.

Another room, Grovyle slashed an enemy down. They continued running.

"I'm," Rai gasped. "Getting to the end of my rope."

"Have you charged enough?" Grovyle asked, far less fatigued.

"Yes."

"NOW!"

They entered a long corridor, nothing but walls for dozens of meters. Rai yelled out and he fired all the electricity he could at Sean, blasting the meowth off his feet. Sean rolled to a stop, and twitched once, before relaxing.

Rai, gasping for breath at this point, staggered to Sean's prone form. "Sean?" he managed, weakly. He nuzzled Sean with his nose. "Sean?"

Grovyle knelt down, pressed a finger to Sean's neck for a moment, and nodded. "His hearts beating, he'll be fine."

"I-I can't b-believe I knocked h-h-him out!" Rai stuttered, wave of crashing guilt slamming into him. "What k-kind of f-f-f-f… friend. Am I?"

"A good one." Grovyle laid a gentle hand on Rai's back. "He was too panicked, he was pushing himself far too hard to run like that. Look at these wounds." He pointed to the bleeding parts on Sean's back. "This needs to be treated, and running like that, exhausting himself like that, was going to do damage. You had to do this, or he would have gotten hurt."

"But isn't he hurt now?" Rai's voice was low and weak.

"He is," Grovyle agreed. "But compared to what he would have been had you not knocked him out? Nothing."

"O-okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good." Grovyle nodded, looking Sean over. "I think it'd be best to tie something over his chest; this scratch seems the worst."

"My scarf!" Rai said immediately, pulling the Defence Scarf off. "Here."

Grovyle took it after a brief hesitation and quickly tied it around Sean's chest. "That will have to do for now. We don't have enough Oran Berry's to soak it, so…" Grovyle pulled out a berry regardless and coaxed Sean into swallowing it. "Thankfully we've gone forwards, rather than back. I'll carry Sean for the rest of the way."

"I can do it!" Rai insisted, staggering to his feet. "I should do it."

"Shinx…" Grovyle trailed off at the desperation in Rai's eyes.

"I have to do it," Rai said softly and Grovyle slowly nodded. "Very well." Grovyle tied Sean in place with his Joy Ribbon and the two conscious pokémon set off.

"Ugh… what happened?"

For Sean, waking up was not pleasant. He'd woken up better plenty of times.

"O-oh. You're awake?"

Sean's mind was a little foggy, but he could place that voice anywhere. "Rai? Ugh."

"S-sorry." Rai moved, and Sean jolted slightly, but he was a bit more comfortable now. He took a moment before realising that he was moving.

"Where?"

His eyes cleared a little and he realised he was quite low to the ground. Also, on a shinx.

"You are awake. Good."

That was Grovyle, Sean was sure. He was also sure he should be feeling bad about that, but he was a bit too foggy. "What happened?"

"We are not certain," Grovyle replied, still walking. "You were carried off by a hastened aerodactyl and we did our best to pursue, following your screams." Sean felt Rai cringe at that memory. "Next we saw of you, you were running in a blind, instinctive, panic."

"Did I hit a wall and conk myself out?" he asked, feeling how bad his head ached.

"N-no," Rai answered. "Y-you were panicking so badly you didn't understand us and I… I knocked you out." Sean didn't have time to register that before Rai was speaking again. "I'm so, so, so sorry. You just were running to fast, we couldn't catch up, and you were injured, and you were hurting yourself more, and bleeding, and Grovyle said if you kept running and I didn't knock you out you'd hurt yourself more, and I did it. I knocked you out, and I'm so sorry."

Rai crumpled to the ground and burst into tears. "PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!"

He shivered, feeling Sean's weight press down on him, and for a moment his guilty conscious thought Sean was pressing him into the ground where he belonged for hurting him.

Then the arms of the meowth were around him and Rai thought Sean was going to throttle him. He wasn't. Rai gasped when he realised Sean was hugging him, also saying something, but he hadn't heard the start.

"-erstand. Ow, I think I did do something bad to my chest, oh gosh I'm bleeding all over you!" Sean rolled off Rai, horrified he'd bled on his friend, but dragged Rai down and on top of him. The Joy Ribbon was still tying them together.

"Hello," Sean said to the shinx on top of him.

Rai sniffled, and a few tears hit Sean's face. "You don't hate me?"

Sean hugged him again. "Never. Sorry for bleeding on you though."

Rai sagged in relief, accidentally crushing Sean underneath. "Ow, ow! Rai!"

"Oh!" Rai squeaked, jerking up, and tugging Sean halfway up with the ribbon. "Ah, get this off!"

"Here," Grovyle said smoothly, adding his hands to the mix to get them separated. "We tied you to Rai as he insisted on carrying you in penance for knocking you out."

"Really?" Sean asked, breathing easier once Rai was off him. "Thank you."

"It's nothing," Rai said, looking away. "We uh… didn't have much to treat you with, Grovyle managed to get an Oran Berry down, and my Defence Scarf to go over the biggest cut." He pointed to Sean's chest and he glanced down in surprise, having not felt it.

"Ah. Thanks again. For… a lot now. Heh." Sean rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "I went a bit crazy. I'm remembering a bit more, that aerodactyl was going to eat me! I got him with a Sleep Seed though, then I ran and found a dead end."

Grovyle felt just the slightest bit vindicated at that but didn't say anything.

"I got cornered by a…" Sean shivered. Then shivered again and rubbed his arms. Shivering one more time, he managed to say. "Parasect."

Both pokémon looked at him blankly. "And?" Grovyle said.

"It's a freaking zombie bug mushroom monster!" Sean snapped, shivering again. "Ugh, gah, AH! Just thinking about it makes me was to scream again."

"You don't like parasect do you?" Rai asked.

"Obviously," he snapped, sarcasm positively dripping from his tone. Sean didn't mean to snap, he was sore and still a little freaked out. To his surprise, Rai seemed to relax again.

"You're alright," he whispered, turning away for a moment to regain his composure. "I'm really glad you're alright Sean."

"I am too." Sean nodded, giving a quirk of a smile. Rai returned it and Grovyle shifted, catching their attention.

"We are almost through," he said, pointing forward. A dim light shone, and Team Ion sighed in relief.

"Thank god," Sean muttered, walking forward with a wince. "I'm ready to be out of this horrible place."

"Do you need me to carry you the rest of the way?" Rai asked, quickly trotting besides Sean, but Sean refused.

"I can manage the rest of the way. But… thank you."

Grovyle caught up himself, having paused for a moment. "By my reasoning, and my cartography skills, the base camp shouldn't be more than a few minutes' walk from the exit."

"We've done it," Rai breathed as they exited the cave to a very foggy area. "We've made it over Mount Horn!"

They walked in silence the rest of the way. Sean was too tired, Rai was too emotionally exhausted, Grovyle was deep in thought.

They followed a pleasant track until the sounds of pokémon talking reached their ears.

"Hey everyone!" Rai called, letting his voice move forward as he didn't want to step away from Sean. "We've finally arrived!"

They stepped into base camp. There were a lot of wigglytuff-themed tents around. Personally, Sean would have been creeped out if he wasn't so relieved.

"You are ALL LATE!" A sharp voice only Chatot could manage caused Sean and Rai to cringe and even Grovyle to snap to attention. "Everyone else arrived hours ago!"

"Sorry, we uh, had a little…" Rai trailed off, cringing under Chatot, remembering the last time Chatot was upset with him.

"Things didn't go to complete plan," Grovyle cut in smoothly. "A situation occurred during our trek through Mount Horn and Sean was knocked out and badly hurt."

Chatot's rage, and the attention of the apprentices close by, turned to Sean who weakly raised a paw in greeting. Sunflora and Bidoof gasped at the scarf he was wearing around his chest and the dots of blood that had gone through. "Hey."

There was a brief moment of silent. Sunflora whispered. "Oh my gosh." Before Chatot flapped to attention.

"Chimecho! CHIMECHO!" His voice carried far and Chimecho, along with the rest of the guild, came out of the mist.

"What is, oh my word!" Her confusion turned to concern once she spotted Sean and came floating over quickly. "Come this way immediately." Sean was relieved and followed as Chimecho took him to her own tent. The one she had her supplies.

"Get set up and get ready for the briefing," Sean heard Chatot say to Rai and Grovyle before he was pulled in and everyone's eyes fell off him.

Chimecho had him seated on a rather soft bed, it was stuffed rather than just a pile of straw and gathered a few bits and bobs in Psychic before turning back to him. "Your safe now," she said softly, and Sean felt something grow in the back of his throat. He realised he was about to cry and forced it down. "Shh-shh-shh," Chimecho soothed. "Let it out, you are safe here."

Sean covered his face. He didn't cry, but he did shudder a few times as he let some of the panic wash away. Chimecho stripped the scarf and ribbon from him and replaced them with cloth soaked in Sitrus Berry juice.

"It is a repairing agent when applied like this," Chimecho explained when he asked. "Eating them is an energy boost not unlike eating an Oran Berry, but Sitrus Berry's are more useful as bandages than Oran Berry's."

She gave him water and told him to rest.

Wigglytuff was ecstatic that they had finally arrived and immediately pulled Grovyle to the side to bombard him with friendliness and tales about the dungeon. He was confident Sean was in the best care with Chimecho and wasn't super worried.

Rai was quickly met by the rest of the apprentices, and he began to tiredly explain the whole story.

Chatot, once sure Rai was in good company himself, hopped off to Chimecho's tent. She was just poking her head out when Chatot came by.

"Oh, Chatot. Sean is doing well, I've just got him resting for the moment."

"Very good Chimecho. I would like a word with Sean before he goes to sleep, if this is possible?"

Chimecho hesitated. "He shouldn't be doing anything strenuous," she said uncertainly.

"I just wish to speak to him," Chatot reaffirmed. "It shan't take more than a few minutes. Then I will be back to address the guild."

"Very well. I will just… go check on Rai. And Grovyle, of course. Maybe he'll let me… um, I'll go!" Blushing, Chimecho floated away. Chatot shook his head, bemused, before hopping into the tent.

"I require a word with you," Chatot said blandly. Sean nodded, and he waited in silence as Chatot hopped further into the tent. "First, are you alright?"

"Yes, sore but... I'm fine now."

"How bad are your injuries, honestly?" Chatot's tone brokered no argument.

Sean hesitated, unsure of how to word it. "They sting," he said. "And I bled a bit, but nothing too bad. It was the parasect that freaked me out, but nothing really happened there. I'm fine now."

"I want to ask something, and you will answer truthfully," Chatot said sharply, Sean swallowing fearfully, he felt very tired, he really hoped Chatot wasn't going to ask what he knew he was going to ask.

"Yesterday morning," Chatot began. "You revealed something to me. Something difficult to believe. Something that is very odd to claim, yet difficult to believe. You said you were human, correct?"

"Yes," Sean answered. He felt that Chatot was giving him a chance to take it back, despite his earlier words. He didn't, he didn't want to lie on this day.

Chatot breathed out a sigh. "Human? Near-mythical beings that once existed. This is a... bold claim Sean. Although." Chatot glanced away, thinking. "It does explain a few things. Your name to begin with, your mannerisms to continue with."

Sean stared at Chatot. The bird had begun to pace back and forth, a few feathers sticking up as he began to flap.

"Human! Human! What a ridiculous claim. Hee-hee-hee. What a fanciable fable to spook poor Chatot with."

Sean felt a little insulted, but at the same time a little detached from it all. He glanced down at his paws, wiggling three nubby digits back and forth and the yellowish bandages that were tied on his furry form. "It's the truth," he said, Chatot stopped laughing. "I was human, but now... I'm not."

"Enough Sean," Chatot snapped. "I don't know why you think this is funny-"

Sean's tail flicked irritably. "Chatot sir," he began, but Chatot cut over him.

"Sean enough." The meowth closed his mouth. "Do you have proof? Can you back up this claim with any evidence? Any powers you have not yet shown, items you possess, skills a meowth couldn't do?"

Sean couldn't.

"You have amnesia Sean," Chatot continued, gentler this time. "Whatever happened, whatever knocked your memories out, must have not taken everything. Humans are a popular legend, you may have simply found them fascinating. Perhaps you lost your memory searching for one, and only that remained in your head."

Sean frowned, he knew that wasn't the truth. His tail flicked again as he claws began to extend. He sighed and forced them back. "Chatot I..."

Chatot waited. Sean, for a moment, wanted to tell him everything. "Told Rai this and he believes me."

Chatot raised his head slightly, observing him. "...He is a good partner then," Chatot said, settling on that above all other things he nearly said. "But whether you are or are not, you have no proof and there is nothing good that can come of such claims. If you think this could make you popular... even if not, this isn't something you tell. You'll only attract trouble."

Sean nodded. He didn't know what he thought he would have gotten if Chatot had believed him, but this wasn't it. "I understand Chatot."

"Good." Chatot nodded. "Now I should return, the Guildmaster wishes to address the guild soon."

"Chatot?" Sean called after him before he left. His eyes were drooping, he just wanted to sleep, but something was more important first.

"Yes?"

"Don't tell anyone. Please."

Chatot stuck his beak up. "Of course not. I would never-"

"Not even the Guildmaster."

Chatot paused. "Eh? Why would you feel the need to specify exclusion of the Guildmaster?"

"It's just…" Sean's eyes were drifting, and things were spinning again. "I only wanted to tell people I trust and am close to. It doesn't matter if I am or not, but it's mine to tell…" Sean slipped asleep and Chatot waited for a moment, before sighing lightly and hopping out.

He hadn't promised, Sean fell asleep before he could demand anything so bold of him. To not tell the Guildmaster, Chatot barked a laugh at that.

"Tell people I trust and am close to…" Echoed in Chatot's head and he sighed. He hated promises.

Chapter 11 is DONE!

Good grief this one gave me some trouble, let me tell you THAT! And it was the breather chapter where things are meant to calm down after those whammy's I hit with the previous two chapters!

Grovyle is hard to write. Very hard. Especially in a heavy dialogue chapter. Whoo boy, this was a struggle. I was stumped on a few days to figure out how to write this, but I've got some very good and clever people to discuss story now and they helped me tremendously!

So, thank you, you wonderful people. You know who you are ;)