Chapter 21: Unfamiliar Territory
"-ard?!"
The flash of light that had swallowed up the group dissipated as quickly as it came, leaving behind a Nidoran, a Growlithe, and a Lugia interlocking their limbs with a Claydol. The group had come fresh from the depths of a Mystery Dungeon, the world around them slowly filling itself back in as color, sound, and smell returned to the three.
Along with those returning senses came the sense of touch. Nida suddenly realized that the ground beneath her had changed- now there were wooden planks underneath. The Nidoran panicked for a second, thinking that the Claydol had brought her back to Lyn's ship. The spike lump wrenched herself free of the chain and darted off, drawing some startled cries from Elty and Pleo. A few paces ahead she realized, while the same moon and stars were overhead… there was no railing. The water was further below than on the ship's deck, and was quieter than the sea's waves. On top of all of that, all around there were tree trunks popping out of the brackish, swampy water, and the sight of lights that looked like the lanterns hung out in front of abodes and structures at night back at Tromba.
"Huh?" she cried out. Nida stood blankly, trying to make sense of what any of these things would be doing out at sea, only for Pleo's voice to jar her train of thought.
"Nida! Look! Look!" he exclaimed, gesturing wildly above with his wings. "There're houses in the trees!"
Everyone looked up, and immediately noticed that the trees all around them had huts built about their boughs and branches. Scattered here and there in their entrances and windows were the lanterns that Nida noticed earlier. Timbered bridges and walkways criss-crossed the gaps between them, not wholly unlike like strands in a Ariados' web. On the end closest to them was a tall lookout hut that towered over the platform. A little ways behind it sat another open-aired platform with wooden stools and tables and an overhead lattice with canvas bunched up at one end, full of Pokémon eating together and raucously talking with one another. Why… that seemed just like-
Just like the mess hall back home! And there were some larger, circular huts further back… Was that lodging? On the other end, there was a slowly-meandering river winding back and forth to a mangrove-lined seashore and some huts further in the distance. Some had wharves at the bases of the trunks that sometimes went below the water's surface, with ladders and rude staircases leading to the walkways above- clearly for Pokémon to clamber up from the river. Others had large windows and storage tanks fashioned from wood and canvas alongside them… Eateries? No, since when did an eatery need a tank like that for anything? There was a place that looked like a Juice Bar further down, and a hut in the shape of a Kecleon's head…
Why, this was-!
"A town in the trees?" she murmured to herself. She shook her head and saw that Meyrink had shepherded her and the rest of the group off to the side. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared before the team, the forms of a Staryu and Team Chasseur coming into view. As the three black-scarved Pokémon stretched and regained their bearings, Team Traveller darted back over, the Nidoran among them eagerly leading the way.
"Venner, I didn't even know that there were towns like this," Nida uttered in awe. "This is incredible!"
"Heh, it's like that the first time for everyone," the Venipede cheered. "Welcome to Seahive Square!"
"Meh, I've seen more impressive places before," Elty grumbled. "And can this wait until after we get healed?"
As soon as the words left the Growlithe's mouth, the dull, throbbing aches began to settle back over the group. Yes, this was a wonderful and exciting place, and it had done its part in keeping the group distracted from their pains for a moment… but that moment was rapidly drawing to a wincing close, much to the annoyance of Actor.
"Well aren't you a killjoy?" the Purrloin hissed, only for his Tepig partner to suddenly clear his throat and interrupt.
"He does have a point, Actor," the Fire-Type sighed. "Come on, Maranda's is just this way."
After hastily filling and receiving the customary signatures for some simplified paperwork the teleporters kept up in the lookout hut for unannounced rescues such as this one, Team Chasseur guided Team Traveller along some steps up to a bridge that crossed the river. After cheerily broaching the subject of 'that reward' with the newcomers, it was quickly decided that since the team was absent of any Poké and still in need of a good night's rest, that they could cover their fee with the berries in their bag ('Actor' taking a particular shine to the Pinkan Berry). The difference could be made up with some good press back on Tromba, and when they crossed paths again, perhaps with a tour of the island if Venner and his companions ever got the chance to visit.
The medic's hut wasn't too far from what Nida presumed to be the Guild complex, even if she still found its position- adjacent to and not in the midst of the complex- to be somewhat strange. One short walk along the walkways following the river (and a few double takes and murmurs of "What a curious Goélise!" and "Have we seen a Pokémon like that before?" from passersby) later, the group found themselves at the front of a round two-level wooden hut with passionflowers gracing its sides.
The humble structure had been built around branches that were twisted and molded into supports that held up a mass of timbers. Its roof was covered in leafy green leaves that, if it were not for thatch peeking through bare spots here and there, would've been indistinguishable from a normal bough of the tree. At its base, there was a broad entrance with double doors mounted on opposing hinges, clearly designed to allow wounded Pokémon rapid entry, which Team Traveller was grateful to see as they drew near to what would be their abode for the night.
"Whelp, nous voilà," Francoeur said, staring up at the hut's archway. "When you're feeling better, you should take the chance to walk around. There's not another town this side of the Cradle that's quite like what we have here on Boisocéan!"
"And even though the populace leaves a lot to be desired, the gummis here are top-notch!" the Purrloin of the group added in between licks at one of his forepaws.
"Nice priorities there, Actor," Venner grumbled, his antennae stiffening in disagreement. "But yeah, let's focus on getting you three in the door and-"
"Hold it right there!" a voice suddenly roared from behind.
A sudden woosh came, followed by the sound of wings flapping and a large, growling presence quickly reverberating. The presence then shot ahead of the team, prompting Pleo to squawk out of startled fright.
"H-Huh?!"
As the two teams regained their bearings and looked ahead, their blood ran cold. In front of them, flapping in place in the doorway of the hut, was a massive six-winged creature with blue and magenta scales and jet-black feathers. The beast had three heads, each with jaws full of sharp teeth, dull black eyes on the outer heads, and blood-red eyes on the central head that seemed to bore into Pleo with a harsh glare. To top it all off, on her forehead, in front of a crest of magenta spikes…
Was a darkened blotch in the shape of a rough five-tailed comet, much like the one that Ander and his family bore.
"You're not just my mind playing tricks on me," the Hydreigon snarled. "I saw the others react to you!"
"A-AAH!" As the little Protector's shrieks filled the air, Pleo scurried to the back of the group in a panic. Nida, Elty, and their rescuers were similarly taken aback by the huge creature's sudden appearance, which drew startled yelps, arched backs, and bristling fur. Pleo guessed that, like Ander, this Pokémon in front of them didn't like him at all, and also thought that he was here to cause her trouble. Except, this Dragon-Type was much bigger than Ander, and looked much scarier…
"Wh-Who are-?!" Nida squeaked, only to notice from the corner of her eye that Team Chasseur's members were starting to catch their breaths and calm down. Wait, they knew this Pokémon?!
"M-Margi?!" the Venipede gasped, his antennae flailing wildly out of surprise. "What's going on?!"
"Stopping you from letting this demon into the town! That's what!" she declared.
"We're hurt!" Elty yipped back at the glaring dragon. "We were about to get healed!"
"And we don't even know if we can go home right now!" Nida added.
After taking a moment to calm his nerves and mat down his fur standing on end, Actor shook his head and spoke back to the Hydreigon.
"Margi, for crying out loud, he's un cocal!" the Purrloin scoffed. "A bigger one than normal, but still! What's he going to do? Molt on you?"
"Get out of my way, cat," the hydra growled. "You have no idea what you and your team are doing. The dog and rabbit can stay if they must, but the bird must leave. Toni-!"
All of a sudden, a voice called out from inside the hut.
"What's going on here?!"
"Eh?!" the dragon cried out of startled surprise, as she flapped up and saw that behind her was a bewildered-looking Leavanny.
"Margi?!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing to those poor children?!"
"Huh?! I-!"
The sound of falling footsteps along the wooden walkways rang out. As Pleo, Nida, and Elty turned to look, they saw that a pair of Pokémon in sea-green scarves with a white and violet design resembling a passionflower had run up, followed closely by a crowd of anxious onlookers.
"For shame, Margi!" an Aromatisse admonished. "This is how you treat others when you and your child are given a place to stay in peace?"
"B-But!" the Hydreigon protested, her eyes growing wider and wider. "That's not-!"
"Fly away from the kids, Trioxhydre," a Seismitoad with a sea-green scarf growled, glaring daggers along with an accompanying Galvantula at the Dragon-Type. "It's our job to uphold the law in this town and we will use force to separate you if you don't cooperate!"
"As you oughta!" a Snorunt scoffed. "Bullying a bunch of children! Looks like she needs to be reminded of how things work around here!"
The Hydreigon craned her heads around and saw that all around, Pokémon were staring, if not glaring, at her. The creature's expression devolved into one of stunned panic, not unlike the ones Team Traveller and Team Chasseur had made as they watched her swoop in at them. As she continued to fumble in her thoughts on what to do next, the sound of a chittering voice below clearing its throat cut through the air.
"Margi, look. Soyons raisonnable," Venner offered. "You have a kid of your own, right? If he was really in any danger, wouldn't he be safer with you nearby him right now?"
"And it's late, even for the work that you do at the Gummi Fab," Francouer added. "Don't you think he's getting worried without you right now?" The Hydreigon then paused for a long moment, slipping looks here and there at the surrounding crowd, as she lowered her heads and growled reluctantly.
"It would be a better use of your time than needlessly scaring some strangers," Actor chided.
Like it or not, Team Chasseur had raised some valid points, and if she tried to drive off the bird before her… And the topic of her child's well-being drew pause, as well as distrustful glances at the Pokémon around her. The Hydreigon hesitantly flew away from the door towards the river and shook her central head, hardening her gaze back into a harsh glare.
"Grr... Don't think that I won't be watching you," she snarled at Pleo. "No matter what happens, I won't let you drag us into the doom you'll bring on this town!"
The Hydreigon then flew off, leaving the crowd behind her murmuring uneasily before the Leavanny said something that got lost in the chatter to Team Traveller's ears. The guards left, and the other bystanders began thinning out and heading their own ways as the hydra disappeared from view. Eventually only Team Chasseur, Team Traveller, and Maranda, who was still standing at the doorway, remained. Even after the gathering had broken up and the racket died down to the soft back-and-forth of the waves below and of the few Pokémon still up at this hour going about their business, Pleo was still shivering out of fright from the abrupt encounter.
"Pleo? It's alright," Nida reassured, nuzzling the Lugia's wing. "She's gone now."
Little by little, the creature settled down, his trembling giving way to distrustful and wary glances behind him every now and then.
"Well, that was a pleasant introduction to the town," Actor sighed.
"What on earth was Margi going on about, though?" Venner wondered as he glanced at Pleo. "You? A 'demon'? Or if I'm understanding her right… she's saying you were a-"
"Oi!" Elty interrupted. "Healing! Now!"
Nida and Pleo winced as the adrenaline and panic ebbed away. If there were more pressing matters than stepping into the medic's hut right then, they sure weren't obvious- something the leafy bug nurse seemed to pick up upon.
"I think they've been through enough for one night," the Leavanny muttered, shaking her head. "Those three should really come in and rest."
There was an awkward farewell and thanks between the teams as they tried to lift the mood from the earlier scare. After a few brief words, the two groups parted and Maranda lead Team Traveller off deeper into the hut for some much-deserved healing.
For everything else that was different from Tromba, the Seahive guild's medical ward more or less worked the same as the one back home. The trappings were not exactly a large hut with canvas partitions, but the process of getting wounds inspected, berry juice applied to them, subsequently consuming the fruits' pulp, and getting bandages wrapped over more stubborn wounds was exactly the same. After Maranda and a few of her assistants in the hut had done their work, the three Pokémon were taken to a simple room with wooden walls, beds made of fresh straw, and a window overlooking the guild hall for bedrest.
The center of the complex was a large wooden building that was round and pointed much like the central tent back home, with stray treetops jutting up here and there evidencing that the hall had been built around them. The structure had a series of walkways raised just above an island in the swampy ground, two sides hemmed by the river with channels spreading out from narrow bottlenecks cut underneath to allow more aquatic Pokémon access, if admittedly not too freely. Each of the passages in the air were composed of wooden planks, along with one section over the water or marshy ground below that was composed of timber grating. Nida presumed they were there because they would be easy to pull up in times of trouble, or else that checking footprints was more important in this town than it was back in Bluewhorl.
All around the conical center, there were huts and platforms nestled on trees that were connected to the main hall by elevated passages, not unlike petals on the flowery scarf design that the town's apparent guards wore. There was the teleportation platform from earlier, with the dining area next to it. Further afield, Nida could see a platform that looked like a battlefield, and huts of various shapes and sizes. A splendid (if presently sleepy) collection of buildings graced by the sight of clumps of passionflower vines growing here and there on the occasional structure, and the sight of a great tree in the background with a small hut that dangled from its branches. It was all a marvelous sight that surely would have enraptured the team...
"Mmrph."
If it weren't the dead of night and they weren't still tossing about in their straw bedding unable to sleep. Nida tried everything: looking up at the ceiling, telling bedtime stories to Pleo, trying to count Nidoran... Uno... dos... tres... cuatro… cuatro... cuatro… mil... Wait. What?
… maybe it was time to go back to staring at the stars. It was always much harder to make yourself look stupid when tired while looking up at them, watching the stars blink and the Travellers duck behind and out from the moon.
But tired or not, nothing seemed to make any of them shuffle off to sleep, and the aching wounds didn't help any. Nida couldn't speak for her teammates, but she knew that her own inability to slip off into dreamy slumber was because of constant, nagging anxieties of what was going on back home. Was Crom okay? Was he worried about her? What about Kiran? What about her parents and siblings? Her neighbors? When were they ever going to see each other again?
Such questions pricked her mind over and over again, until she suddenly noticed that the sound of shuffling came particularly loud from Elty's direction. She turned, and saw that Pleo had already noticed that the Growlithe had slung his satchel over his shoulder and settled back down.
"Eh?" Pleo asked. "Was there something you needed from the bag?"
"Elty?" Nida yawned. "Are you still awake?"
"Yeah?" the Growlithe grumbled back. "What of it?"
"What are you doing?" Nida wondered.
"Taking my bag back for tomorrow," he harrumphed. "It's mine anyways, and I already took out your scarf and rock from it."
Sure enough, sitting in a rough pile next to Pleo's bedding was his cut scarf, a split length of cord, and the stone ring that the Zigzagoon had given him back on Tromba. But… why had Elty taken them out? It wasn't as if they'd be able to do anything to fix them tonight, would they?
"Why, what's tomorrow?" Pleo pressed. He didn't know that they had planned anything for tomorrow… Why, they still barely knew anything about this 'Seahive Square' where they were now!
"I'm leaving, that's what," the Growlithe snapped. "You're not in danger right now, and I didn't sign up for this with your sheep leader or his lackeys!"
"Elty!" Pleo cried out of shock. "You're just going to leave?!"
"Yeah, you wouldn't even be here right now if it wasn't for us!" Nida growled, glowering at the Growlithe.
"That's exactly the point! I wouldn't have gotten Hyper Beamed onto a completely different island if it wasn't for you!" the Growlithe huffed back, getting up from his straw bedding. "And for the record, my Community Service is helping you train on Tromba. We're not exactly on Tromba right now, and there's no headband-wearing cepy to force me to play along with your stupid ideas! So let me go on with my life and figure out your own way back!"
Nida's blood boiled after hearing the Growlithe's words and she threw herself to her feet, her barbs spread and her aches subsumed under burning lividness. Was Elty really ready to abandon them after they had quite literally needed each other just to survive the last few hours?
"Why I oughta-"
All of a sudden, a voice called from the hallway.
"Eh? You're not from Tromba?"
The three Pokémon turned and saw that it belonged to a Diggersby, who was bringing along a bundle of bandages. Probably for another patient in the hut. The Nidoran and Growlithe looked at each other, their hostility fading as they quickly attempted to put on a more congenial atmosphere in front of the stranger.
"Er… why do you ask?" Elty replied.
"Well, when I first saw you come in, I thought you looked an awful lot like a kinda chubby pirate I remembered from that Harvest Festival raid where the fireworks hulk blew up in front of town," the Diggersby said. Elty opened his mouth to protest the 'chubby' comment before quickly biting his tongue and gulping quietly as the creature tilted her head and continued on her train of thought. "And if you're not from Tromba, then-"
"Oh, he's from Tromba, of course!" Nida swiftly interjected. "He was just saying how he's dying to give the team's bag back to its leader. And how he's eager to help us get back like any homesick Pokémon from there would, so other Pokémon can stop confusing him for some old pirate and getting him into trouble…"
The Nidoran then turned to the Growlithe and gave the little dog a smug smirk and prodded with a forepaw.
"Aren't you, Elty?"
The Growlithe's face fell and he grunted, muttering under his breath about the turn of events being "Low even for you!" before he slid the bag off his shoulder and nudged it forward to the Nidoran.
"Ugh… Yes… Of course..." he grumbled, the Growlithe's ears folding down in disgust.
Nida looked down at the bag. It was a little big, but she thought that she'd probably be able to fit it on her. As she slung it over, she allowed a few of her barbs settle between the straps. It took a certain level of dexterity to remove an item from between a Nidoran's barbs without pricking oneself or alerting their owner, a dexterity that Elty didn't seem to have. If he wanted the bag, he wouldn't be able to get it without tearing out a barb or two, which would wake Nida right up no matter how soundly she was asleep.
Now that the matter of keeping the bag with the team was settled... perhaps it was a little quick to be letting Elty off the hook for 'plotted abandonment'.
"Actually, he was just about to tell Pleo one of the stories about the Prince of a Thousand Enemies," she suddenly added.
"Wait, what?!" Elty cried.
"There's more than one of those stories?!" Pleo exclaimed, his head bobbing up and down excitedly. "Come on Elty! Tell me it! Tell me it!"
"Oh for crying out loud!" the Growlithe spluttered. "The only thing that I even know about your stupid stories is that this 'prince' is supposed to be a Nidorino!"
"See, that's a great start already!" Nida teased. "Guess you listen better at night than you let on, huh?"
Elty flattened out his ears in annoyance, while at the other end of the room, the Diggersby nurse stood blinking before she cleared her throat.
"Nidorino?" the nurse asked, tilting an ear down puzzledly. "Since when was the Prince of a Thousand Enemies a Nidorino?"
Wait… This Pokémon also heard of the tales of the Prince of a Thousand Enemies?
"Eh?" Pleo murmured, tilting his head at the Diggersby. "But the Prince has always been a Nidorino when Nida tells it."
"Well, that might be how it is on Tromba… but it's wrong," she corrected. "Here, he's an Excavarenne, like me. Just like one of his nemeses, le lapin de la nuit staring down from the skies above."
There was an uneasy silence across the room, which was suddenly broken after Pleo suddenly asked...
"The 'lap-een day'... Wha?"
"You mean the Nidoran in the moon?" Nida asked. "The one that guides other Nidoran along their paths at night?"
"No, I mean the Excavarenne that guides both Excavarenne and little Sapereaeu through their paths in life on behalf of the Lord of Nightmares, waiting in the shadows of the Lunar Healer's side of the moon, always eluding her attempts to be rid of him. Waiting for each and every one of them to stumble along onto death," the Diggersby began to explain. "Your parents probably told you a cutesier version of story without the whole 'throne of despair and sadness on the moon' part of-"
"Ahem, not that this isn't a lovely story," Elty fumed at the Diggersby. "But could we not talk about things related to death and dying in a medics' ward?"
The Diggersby blinked, saw that the other two members of her audience seemed unnerved, and then looked at their bandages before turning back to them.
"Aherm, pardon," the Diggersby sheepishly offered, shaking her head. "You all probably need some rest."
The creature then carried on down the hallway, her footsteps growing fainter and fainter until they vanished completely. Elty shook his head and growled as he flopped back down onto his straw matting.
"Grr… Rabbits."
That… wasn't exactly helpful for getting to sleep any faster. How on earth had that Pokémon managed to turn the stories of the Prince of a Thousand Enemies into that? Nida shook her head, trying to dislodge from her mind the mental image of death spirits watching from the moon. She eventually managed to settle back down into the straw beneath her in a tired insomnia, until she felt a faint pecking sensation at her head.
"Nida…?" Pleo's voice asked uneasily. "What's a Lunar Healer? And the Lord of Nightmares?
"It's just a story, Pleo… and don't worry about Elty, either." She yawned, not opening her eyes. "I don't know if I'd rush to call him a good Pokémon, but I don't think he'd just abandon us like that… Not while he's in danger of getting recognized for the stuff he got into in the past, anyways."
"I'm right here!" a growling voice called out from the side.
"Mrph, filo. We should all be sleeping anyways," Nida grumbled back. But that reassurance didn't seem to satisfy Pleo, as the sound of the young Protector's voice once again reached her ears.
"That's fine, I guess... but… when are we going to be able to go home?"
Nida's eyelids shot open. The little spike-ball found herself staring right into Pleo's eyes. They looked tired, and worried, much as hers must have looked like for most of the day. She wanted to give an answer back… Tomorrow, the day after, at the start of the next week… But what could she say that wouldn't give him false hope?
She thought, and thought, until she finally shook her head and spoke back.
"I don't know, Pleo. Hopefully soon. Boisocéan is supposed to be one of the closer islands to home... Or at least I thought I heard someone say that once," she sighed. "But… until then, I guess we have a little bit of Tromba with us that we can hold onto."
"We… do?" Pleo asked, tilting his head at the Nidoran.
"Well, I can't quite put your scarf back together right now, but," the Nidoran carried on as she dug Pleo's King's Rock from beside Pleo's bedding. "I'm pretty sure that your rock's more literally a part of Tromba anyways."
"Oh!"
"I don't know if it'll work or not, but if we all work together and don't give up… maybe we'll be able to get back home," Nida said as she fished out the cut string and began to thread it through the stone hoop. "And you'll be able to tell the other Pokémon in town about how you got to go off and visit a town full of huts in trees."
"I… I guess that would be nice," Pleo chirped. The Nidoran tied the cut ends of the string together; a temporary fix to be sure, but it would do until the team could get a fresh cord to replace it. As she drew the knot together, she sighed, and folded her ears back.
"Pleo… I need to tell you something."
"Huh? What's wrong?" Pleo asked, nuzzling the Nidoran along the top of her head.
"Earlier tonight, I… I was on the verge of just giving up," she answered.
"Give up?" Pleo murmured. "What do you mean?"
"Everyone was in trouble and I didn't know any way to make anything better without hurting any of us," Nida explained. "It felt like it wouldn't have made a difference- or even that trying would have just been a disaster."
Not knowing what to do… Being tempted to do nothing since it seemed like it wouldn't make things worse… Wait a moment, that sounded just like when he was facing down Lyn earlier! But Nida and Elty still stood their ground, then… and if they hadn't…
Would he have ever worked up his courage to stand up to the mean Samurott, even with the voices he heard? Would his power have come to him if he never tried to use it? Why, they'd all be stuck aboard that awful ship still!
"E-Eh?! But you can't give up!" Pleo cried, beating his wings out in a start. "If you gave up back on the ship, I would have given up back there too!"
Nida blinked and looked at Pleo. That wasn't the situation she was referring to… so then. That desperate last-ditch stand on the ship… That really helped him?
Then, as daft as it sounded… Maybe the thing to do was to try and stand firm, whatever the odds…
For each other.
"Heh. Sounds like maybe we need to encourage each other then," the Nidoran chuckled quietly as she slipped the repaired necklace over Pleo's neck. "We'll make a promise out of it! A promise to not give up on going back home. Whatever happens, no matter how hard our backs are against the wall... We'll stick it out until we're back in the guild with Crom and Kiran, alright? No te rindas!"
"Hmm? You mean like how Elty says he never gives up?" Pleo asked.
Nida blinked and tried to say something back, her words being arrested by an irked recollection of Elty's first night with the team. She then screwed her eyes shut and folded her ears back. She supposed that that was right, but even then, she didn't particularly like acknowledging it.
"Yes… like Elty said," she sighed.
"I won't give up then!" the Lugia chirped determinedly. "I promise!"
"I know you won't, Pleo," the Nidoran yawned. "But I think this is enough for one night, let's get some rest."
The Nidoran watched as the Lugia curled up on his straw matting and closed his eyes. Slowly but surely, his fidgeting died down, as his mumbling gave way to fatigued snoring. Nida blinked, and with the last of her energy, she left her matted straw, and curled up against the white bird's side as thoughts of home and being back on a complete team with Crom drifted across her mind.
"And I'll keep my promise, too..."
In Tromba, a brand new day had dawned. During the witching hours of the night before, the storm the Xatu in Lyn's crew predicted had come and gone, grazing the island. Mercifully, the damage was limited to some tears in canvas, buffeted walls, and detached tiles, a small silver lining in an otherwise black night. The skies were still somewhat overcast from the residual of the storm, and occasionally a few small drops drizzled onto the island below. Under that gloomy backdrop, Pokémon milled to and fro from various docks and structures along Bluewhorl's harbor through the now muddied and dampened streets. There was a similar damp and dreary heaviness to the air that day, the town's customary bustle devoid of its usual cheer and vitality, as if a sudden death had happened recently and weighed on all the Pokémon present.
If word trickling in from beyond the fringes was to be trusted, the ferals who had neither ignorance nor mistrust to shield them from knowledge of the Protector's recent awakening were similarly sobered by the turn of events. But that was there, and as with most events in the periphery to the townsfolk, they failed to dislodge attention from focuses closer to home.
For the bandaged Druddigon perched at the end of one of the still-soggy docks, that focus was on the sea and the horizon beyond. Like everyone else that day, he too had reason for heavy spirits, even as the sun was strong and warmed his wings. After all this time staring out at the horizon, there had been nothing but the churning of the waves and normal scenery. Nothing had passed from it other than the rising sun since he started watching at daybreak.
"He still hasn't come back," he growled glumly, the Druddigon's wings and head drooping as he looked down into the churning water of the harbor.
Yes, praying out his heart and soul had helped a little with Kiran's reassurances that it really did make a difference… And Nida and Elty were there on the ship, surely they could have helped each other… right? But Pleo still hadn't come back. Had something gone wrong? Did Nida and Elty get caught? Or had worse happened to them? Had Pleo and the others even managed to get off Lyn's ship?
Did his prayer and the ones the townsfolk offered yesterday get missed? Were they ignored? Was he expecting too much from the little Protector? Were the rumbling spirits of the old gods less in tune with the world than Kiran thought? Or would Pleo come over the horizon if he just waited a little longer and had a little more faith?
"Oi!"
Crom whirled around at the sound of a gruff growl behind him, and saw a Gabite and a Trapinch staring at him. The Gabite was panting and catching his breath, from having darted about willy-nilly, perhaps Elty was onto something about him being a touch on the tubby side.
"What do you think you're doing sneaking out?" Pyry grumbled, shaking his head. "I'm the one that has to put up with your äiti being upset, you know!"
"Yeah, you're supposed to be in bed!" Pekka chittered, clicking his jaws open and shut chidingly. Crom faltered a moment, the two had a point… He really should still be in bed- Hey, wait a minute.
"Aren't you two supposed to be at work?" Crom sighed, lowering his eyelids in annoyance.
"I pulled them off work, Crom," a voice chirped back. A blur of red and blue suddenly swooped in between Crom and the two ex-pirates, as a Swellow came to a rest on the docks with Cenn scampering in after him. The bird shook out his feathers and then turned to the two Pokémon further up the dock as Crom's younger brother joined the group.
"Thanks for the help, by the way," Kiran said.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Pekka hissed. "This wasn't how I wanted to spend my break."
"Hrmph, you're more than welcome to head back to work with Mildrew!" Cenn growled, sticking a tongue out at the Trapinch. Pyry shook his head and muttered something under his breath about "Did he really have to come along?" before turning his attention back to the larger of the two Druddigon.
"What on earth are you doing here anyways?" he grunted.
"Pleo's out there!" Crom cried. "Everyone was praying for him to come back!"
The Trapinch and the Gabite screwed their eyes shut, the latter bringing a claw over his face with an annoyed groan.
"Gods, is he still going on about this? We lost a friend too, you know! And you don't see us blabbing about it to the whole world!"
"Erm… Crom," Kiran began, only for his little charge to interrupt him.
"We did it too, Kiran! He has to come back!" he insisted, waving his claws and beating his wings as much as their current state allowed. After a while, the Druddigon's movements slowed down and his head and wings began to droop along with his enthusiasm, the creature pitifully turning to his team captain…
"Doesn't he? Everyone went through all that trouble and everything…"
"Crom… I know that Pleo's out there, it's just… I'm not sure if it's healthy getting our hopes up he'll be able to come back so soon- Eh?!"
The Swellow suddenly hopped back and beat out his wings in surprise, which made Crom stumble back and almost fall off the edge of the dock. After wobbling and regaining his balance, the Dragon-Type turned around and saw that on the horizon was...
"A ship?"
"Veikka, I think I see a design from one of the other crews on it! Maybe that's our way off of this lousy-!" the Trapinch began to excitedly chitter, hopping up and down until he became acutely aware of the piercing glares he was receiving from the two Druddigon present and Kiran.
"Oh come on, you're allowed to have your wild hopes!" Pekka grumbled. "Why aren't I?"
There were no Pokémon coming in advance from it, so unfortunately for the antlion's hopes, that ruled out pirates, who would need to scout and signal in advance on unfamiliar territory… and for that matter, any ship that hadn't come to Tromba on a regular basis before. Crom's stomach began to turn and knot. Could it be that that ship was Lyn's? If it was, that would surely be bad news for the town. But then that meant he'd also have Pleo with him! But then again, he wasn't prepared at all to face Lyn and his crew again!
As the ship drew closer, he began to notice that it was too small to be Lyn's craft. There were too few masts, the sails were white with a inverted blue triangle and pair of progressively larger trapezoids above them instead of the lavender sails Lyn flew.
Wait a minute...
The Druddigon blinked as he watched the craft come nearer and nearer. There could be no doubt.
"That dad's ship!" Cenn cried, beating his wings excitedly. "He's home! He's home!"
The ship that pulled in was a modest one, a two-masted schooner with triangular and trapezoidal sails that had patching in places and a hull that had visibly undergone similar haphazard repairs over its lifespan. In spite of that, the craft still seemed to brim with activity. The ship reached the docks, and its crew tied the craft down and lowered the gangplanks in full view of Crom and Kiran. As Pokémon began to clamber onto the docks, Pyry and Pekka looked around. The younger of the two Druddigon had mentioned that his father was on this ship, but between the motley crew of seafarers in the water and the Pokémon of different shapes and kinds on the dock and deck, there didn't seem to be a single Dragon-Type that looked like a likely candidate to be Crom and Cenn's father...
"Wait," Pekka began. "Who on this hunk of junk is supposed to be his-?"
All of a sudden, the answer came, with an abrupt cry.
"Hey!"
And the sight of a Fraxure with a scarf of matching color and design to the sails clambering down the gangplanks, followed by Cenn running up to give a pouncling hug to his father. The Fraxure gave stumbled back a bit with a yelp, but quickly recollected himself to give a loving squeeze back to Cenn in return. The hatchet-headed dragon then turned and pulled Crom into a similarly tight embrace, the Druddigon's head resting atop the head of this sudden arrival.
"Wasn't expecting you to surprise me on the docks like this!" the Dragon-Type cheered.
"Father?!" Pekka continued, his maw falling agape.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Pyry suddenly cried out to Crom. The Gabite pointed a claw incredulously, tilting it down at the hatchet-faced lizard's head. "I thought the nag always went on about you becoming big and strong like your father! You're taller than he is!"
"Er, you misunderstood her," Cenn answered back. "She meant that Crom would grow big, and also strong like dad."
"It's good to see you back, Pladur," Kiran chirped to the Fraxure.
"And it's good to be back! So how's my favorite little Hunter been-" Pladur began, only for his words to abruptly die. He suddenly realized that in his haste to greet his elder son, he had overlooked that his child had bandages all over his body. The sailor's eyes widened and he recoiled out of shock. "E-Eh?! What happened to you?! There wasn't an accident in the Mystery Dungeon, was there?!"
Crom's mind went into a tumult. Here was his father in front of him, something that he'd been looking forward to for weeks, and yet here he was disappointed that he still hadn't had closure on Pleo's fate like he'd hoped. But his father was right here! It wasn't his fault he came back after something so awful happened! But- And-
"Crom?" Pladur asked, interrupting with a nuzzle. "What's wrong? You look down..."
"Hrmph," Pyry grumbled, drawing nearer to the pair "He's still in a crummy mood because your town's feather duster got-"
All of a sudden, Cenn suddenly bit down on the Gabite's back fin, the young Druddigon let go shortly afterwards, leaving the landshark to recoil and jolt up with a pained yelp.
"Ow! Perk-! ..y little guy, isn't he?" Pyry groaned, nursing his fin and trading glares with the younger Druddigon.
"Don't say it like that!" Cenn huffed back to the Gabite angrily. "That wasn't just some 'feather duster'-!"
The brewing argument was suddenly derailed by one of the Pokémon on the gangplank calling out.
"Oi! Pladur! Let some other Pokémon through already!"
The group looked over to the gangplank and saw a Raichu and Servine lugging a crate down. The Fraxure hastily apologized and scooted off with the others enough to allow the pair through with their cargo, as he turned back to his child.
"Er… Did something happen while we were out?" he asked, before turning to Pyry and Pekka. "And who are these two anyways?"
"Uhm… Well, Pladur…" Kiran began. "While you were out, the Protector woke up and wound up joining my team alongside your elder son."
Whump
"ARGH!"
All eyes turned over to see that the Raichu and Servine had dropped the crate out of startled surprise onto Pekka's abdomen. The hapless Trapinch squealed out of pain before pulling his injured rump free and scuttling backwards along the dock, muttering irately under his breath.
"Erm… Kiran?" Pladur began, as his crewmates from his ship similarly interrupted their hubbub to come and listen to the exchange unfolding between the Fraxure and the Swellow.
"Wait, come again?" the Raichu asked.
"No really, what happened?" the Servine insisted.
"It really happened!" Cenn cried. "I saw everything! They called him Pleo!"
"A-And he fought off a pirate ship and got Pokémon like Pyry, Pekka, and Elty stuck here doing Community Service!" Crom added, gesturing at the Trapinch and Gabite behind.
"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way," Pekka grumbled.
"Oh, so that's who those two are," the grass snake murmured to himself, folding his nubby arms over each other with an audible harrumph. "But where's the third one?"
"You're telling us we missed all of that?!" the Raichu cried.
"Wait- Wait- Wait," Pladur stuttered. "'Elty'?"
"A new teammate of ours, you could say," Kiran answered, deciding that it probably would be for the best not to delve into details for the time being.
"And he even helped Nida and me get into Normal Rank!" the Druddigon added.
"Eh?! Then what are we waiting for?!" the Fraxure cried out. "This is great news! Let's go see the Protector now!"
Crom's head and wings drooped after hearing his father's words. The gathered crowd traded whispers with one another as their excitement began to fade away. It was then that Crom's father asked the question that had begun to circulate about their minds.
"Did... something happen to him?"
"Lyn came and took him away," Crom answered reluctantly. "And we tried to rescue him, and..."
Pladur blanched. That was how his son had gotten so scuffed up? Getting into fights with Lyn's thugs? The Fraxure had half a mind to take his son straight back to the safety of his mate's bakery with a close call like that. But… right now, it seemed as if maybe what he needed more than safety…
Was reassurance.
"B-But he's the Protector!" Pladur stammered, placing a claw on his son's shoulder. "Surely he'd be able to just blow his way out of Lyn's clutches!"
"It's not like that, dad," Crom glumly answered. "He's not nearly as strong as we thought he would be, or at least not often as we needed him to be."
The Druddigon shook his head and lowered it more and more, as dark fantasies began to enter his mind.
"What if Lyn still has him? What if Nida and Elty got hurt? What if they're all alone and scared…" he murmured. "Because I wasn't strong enough to be there for them?"
Unfortunately, Pleo's sleep would turn out to be as short as it was unsound. He heard a voice waking him for the third time of the long, long night.
"Pleo?"
Wait, Nida's voice?
"Ngh… Wha…?" he murmured.
"Pleo, come on, get up," the voice spoke again. This time, he felt something prodding his body, probably her paws or muzzle. There was more prodding, and then the voice of a Growlithe joined in.
"You kinda need to be awake for this."
Pleo yawned and cracked his eyes open, and began to stretch his wings out.
"Wha- What's going o-?"
His teammates were there beside his bedding, and further ahead, there was a Leavanny standing in front of him, staring at the group. Wait a minute, that was…
"Eh?" Pleo squawked. "Aren't you that 'Maranda' Pokémon who was treating us last night?"
"Sorry to intrude on you while you're still weak," the leafy bug buzzed. "But you are from Tromba with these two, aren't you?"
"I am," the Lugia murmured quietly. "Why?"
"On top of my duties here, I'm also the Mairesse of Seahive Square," Maranda answered, moving an arm towards the door behind her. "Please get up and come along. We need to have a talk."
Author's Notes:
- Goélise - French: "Wingull"
- nous voilà - French: "we're here"
- un cocal - Venetian: "a seagull"
- Trioxhydre - French: "Hydreigon"
- Soyons raisonnable - French: "Let's be reasonable"
- Uno... dos... tres... cuatro… cuatro... cuatro… mil... - Spanish: "One... two... three... four... four... four... a thousand..."
- cepy - Polish: "blockheads", lit. "flails"
- Excavarenne - French: "Diggersby"
- le lapin de la nuit - French: "the rabbit of the night"
- Sapereaeu - French: "Bunnelby"
- pardon - French: "sorry"
- filo - Spanish (Chilean): "whatever" (interjection), lit. "edge"
- äiti - Finnish: "mother"
- Mairesse - French: "Mayor" (feminine), masculine analogue is "maire"
