Chapter 33: A Little Learning
As the first rays of sunlight began to poke over the horizon, a Fearow with Company lavenders swooped down and latched onto a branch of a solitary, scraggly tree by the sand on the far end of Kenobi. From his perch, the creature beat out his wings to get his blood flowing, sore from a long night of searching flying about Kenobi's airspace. His Crobat superior had grown particularly cantankerous since that tumble into the sea the day prior, demonstrated in his assignment of search sectors.
Rustle
The Flying-Type jerked his head at the sound of nearby grass being disturbed. The bird ruffled his feathers at the sound of grumbling and shambling footsteps, along with an odor that managed to rankle even his less-sensitive avian sense of smell. The source of the sound and stench soon became clear, as a seasick-looking Krokorok wearing a lavender scarf pushed through some dried golden-brown grasses and scampered along the beach. He looked up and down the coastline, before shaking his head and sighing as he noticed his counterpart.
"Blurgh… what a night to get food poisoning," the crocodile groaned. "Doesn't Administrator Farn have Pokémon that can search her own island?"
"Yeah, I dunno either, Ken," the Fearow answered. "But at least you haven't been stuck with my group. Air Officer Kane's been giving me and the other fliers an earful for not looking alive in 'a search at a sane hour for once'."
The Krokorok paused, furrowing his brow before launching into an exasperated response.
"A sane hour?! Maurier, is he daft?! It's almost time for the sun to come over the horizon!" the Dark-Type hissed. "Just how much longer is Captain Lyn going to keep us-?!"
The Desert Croc Pokémon noticed the Fearow's eyes widen, before the bird suddenly flew up into the air with a startled squawk. The Krokorok turned around, and promptly dropped his jawed and went wide-eyed as he saw a large wave coming for him directly from the sea...
Sploosh!
...and was promptly swept aside into a sand drift. The wave's culprit was revealed to be an irked Samurott, who marched up the beach grumbling to himself while the hapless reptile spluttered and hacked up water and sand.
"Bah, I don't believe this…"
Clearly their captain had not had much luck searching the waters between the island and the atoll over the last few hours. The two Company Pokémon hastily pulled themselves to attention as Lyn shook himself dry and turned a scowling gaze on the pair.
"Give me a status report," the otter barked. "If there's been so much as a feather from that bird floating around, I want to know about it!"
The Samurott waited expectantly and twitched his whiskers impatiently, only to be answered by the sound of breaking waves and stammering from the two underlings before him. The Water-Type began to scowl, and repeated his question with a loud, growling emphaticness.
"Well?" he demanded. "Has there been any sign at all?"
The Fearow and the Krokorok traded reluctant looks before the bird shook his head and began to speak.
"Apologies, Captain," Maurier finally answered. "But none of the flying teams have seen any sign of the Guardian or those kids with him. Or anything out of the ordinary for that matter."
The Samurott seethed before shaking his head and pointing at the reptile with a paw.
"And you?" Lyn pressed.
Ken gulped and uneasily squirmed under his superior's glare. It wouldn't be wise to get on his bad side twice in just over a day, but... just what was he supposed to tell him?
Actually… maybe there was something to bring up...
"Eh… well, there was one thing," the crocodile murmured. "I heard one of Pokémon from the mountain sectors say they overheard screams that sounded like a Cubone's while patrolling a bluff."
The Samurott blinked and paused as he mulled the Dark-Type's words. After a brief moment of rumination, the otter furrowed his brow and gave a shake of his head, realizing that the incident had a perfectly normal explanation.
"Hrmph, it was probably just a feral getting caught up by the law of the wild," Lyn harrumphed. "I fail to see why you would find that strange."
"Well, there weren't any ledges or anything overhead, so the screams had to be coming from the air," the reptile began. "I mean, I suppose now that you mention it there are flying Pokémon that could carry one off, but…"
The Krokorok began to yawn, much to Lyn's displeasure. As he opened his mouth to begin to castigate the crocodile, he heard Maurier yawn as well. Looking to the east, Lyn noticed the sunlight poking over the horizon. Had the night already gone by so fast? Now that he thought about it, his swimming had become sluggish and jerky over the last couple of hours.
"I think that we've searched enough for a night... enough to leave things in the paws of the relief teams," he sighed. "Go back and get them. If tonight was anything to go by, the Guardian and his cohorts are probably still hiding somewhere in town right now."
"Aye, Captain," the pair replied. The Krokorok and Fearow set off, leaving Lyn behind with the rising sun. The Water-Type looked back at the sun, and gave a low growl off at the horizon.
"You and your friends can't hide from me forever..."
"Ow!"
Nida's yelping voice carried over the water as she felt a stiff blow strike her back. Behind her was a rather startled-looking Cubone who was drawing her arm back to her side, trying her hardest not to look at the churning waves far below.
"A-are we there yet?" Guardia weakly asked. The pitiful show made Elty fold his ears back aggravatedly. Did he really have to worry about this now- as the sun coming over the horizon rendered the star chart underpaw less and less useful? She'd stopped screaming and had only gotten sick once during the entire flight at least, but could she not pester them about getting out of the air?
"For the hundredth time-" he growled, only to be cut off by a sudden hiss.
"Hush, Elty!"
Ferals really didn't take being put in strange situations well, did they? The Nidoran sighed and tiredly shook her head. After a little thinking, she answered softly to try and soothe the wide-eyed Cubone.
"Sorry, not yet. It's probably still going to take a while," Nida answered. "There's nothing but water all around... see?"
The mention of water drew a shudder from the Ground-Type, prompting her to claw deeper into Pleo's back. The Lugia felt the sudden pinch and shrieked, jolting his passengers midflight.
"A-AAAAH!"
"No no no, nothing too fancy, mewa!"
"Sudden jolting hurts the Nidoran, Pleo!"
As Pleo's flight stabilized, his three passengers caught themselves panting and trying to regain their nerves. Elty's were the first to return to him, as he turned and glared at Nida. This was all her fault. If she had just gone back to that angry bartender, he'd be back in the Iron Fleet and she and the mewa would be back on their quest to get home.
But no, they just had to leave before Hess could come, and they just had to take this little bonehead with them.
"I knew it wasn't a good idea to take the scaredy Skitty along," he grunted. The Growlithe yanked his snout back as the end of a bone slipped past it, just barely dodging the club before coming face to face with a now glaring Cubone
"I-I'm not scared!" she spat angrily. "S-Say that again when we're not all a few seconds from falling to our deaths and see what happens then!"
"Enough!" Nida cried. "Look, we're all in this pinch together, so let's just try to stay quiet for-"
"Are we there yet?" Pleo's voice tirely chirped from the front.
"No!" Elty barked. "And don't you get in on this too!"
Pleo's flight wobbled a little after Elty's protests, the Lugia sluggishly attempting to climb up higher in the air. He knew that Elty, Nida, and now Guardia were all counting on him to fly them and to be their Protector, but...
"My wings are hurting again, though!" Pleo complained. "And I keep hearing some muffled sound in the distance, I thought it would be from the island, and-"
"It's alright, it's alright," Nida insisted, nuzzling "We will get there, I'm sure everything will be alright."
"Uh-Uhm... you mean like that?" a wide-eyed Elty sputtered, gesturing with his paw up ahead. In the distance, heavy, jet-black clouds were churning, and worse…
Bo-Boom…
Thundering. Much to the horror of Pleo's passengers, he was heading straight for the storm!
"Um… Pleo? We need to turn around, now," Nida said, her barbs pricking up out of tension.
"H-Huh?!" Pleo exclaimed. "B-But I'm feeling better right now!"
"Forget about that!" Elty shouted. "We need to not get blown out of the sky by that storm!"
"You don't understand, the island's just up ahead and I think I can make it!" Pleo squawked back. "Look!"
Elty was about to argue back in his hurry to get far, far away from the the skies over the Cradle's sea, but he began to notice how not only not only the mewa was heading right for the storm, but Elty had a clearer view of it and the world around than before.
In spite of the looming clouds ahead, Pleo's flight was calm and stable enough that Elty could easily make out some shapes in the distance, there was a narrow band of colors and right past them... a green-shrouded hillside!
The three faltered and looked at each other, then at the clouds ahead, and realized that there was only one solution.
"We're gonna have to go through it," Nida gulped. "It's the only way."
"F-Fly us lower at least!" Guardia cried. "What if we fall?!"
"Youcan't be serious, spike ball," Elty yipped. "It's already tough enough going through a storm on a ship, and you want the mewa to do it?!"
But for some strange reason, Pleo didn't seem to be fazed. No, he kept flying on ahead, his wings beating with increasing firmness and his pace quickening as he sliced on ahead under the darkened clouds.
Bo-Boom…
The rumblings of thunder came more frequently and the wind began to whistle. As the team slipped under the darkened clouds, they felt rain platter against their pelts. Winds whipping around them, the three screwed their eyes shut and clung on for dear life, expecting at any moment to be thrown loose.
But that moment never came…
"Pleo?"
As Nida cracked an eye open against the whipping winds, she saw that Pleo was flying on completely unfazed, chirping cheerily along the howling wind and bobbing his head to and fro at the surrounding clouds. It was as if he were entranced- and the fatigue he had been struggling under for the last few hours had melted away. A short time after, the three felt the rain let up, the sun returned, and they passed the band of dark clouds as Mengir Island came into view.
The island consisted of a collection of steep hills up ahead, with a forest of needle-like stone spires protruding from a thick fog at the center. Pleo stared at it, and then puzzledly back at the darkened clouds, before continuing on. As the team got further and further from the clouds behind them, the little Protector's flight began to grow sluggish and tired again. After a staggering and panting final stretch, Pleo came to a stumbling rest at a green-sanded beach surrounded by stony bluffs, flopping down against the sand and leaving his passengers to tumble off his back into an exhausted pile.
"Urgh… let's not do that again for a while," Guardia groaned.
"Seconded," Elty panted. "I smell like I fell into a river right now!"
"Pleo?" Nida asked. "Are you alright?"
The Lugia craned his neck up and shook out his plumage. He looked about his surroundings, but seemed dissatisfied upon turning back to his teammates.
"I don't know why I feel so tired again," he murmured. "I know I felt good when we were flying through those clouds when we were coming here…"
"Okay, how do you feel better going through a storm?!" Elty grumbled, lowering his eyes. The dog quickly shook himself dry from the trip through the rain, lowering his ears annoyedly.
"I just felt a lot better when we were around it. My wings didn't feel tired, and I felt relaxed. And then the water came down from the sky and helped too, and…" he began. The young Lugia put a wing puzzledly to his beak, only to turn back to the dark clouds when a realization dawned upon him.
"Oh! That's it!" he exclaimed. "It must've been that 'storm' thingy that made me feel better!"
As Pleo babbled on about the storm clouds and waved them off with a cheery "bye" (before pulling his wings back and noticing they felt rather sore), the rest of Team Traveller looked at each other speechless. Nida paused and wondered… Storms were things that Pokémon ran away and hid from… but then why would Pleo like them? Wasn't he a Protector? Protectors wouldn't like storms…
Would they?
"Oi!"
The sound of Elty's voice snapped everyone back to attention. There, off in the distance, was a small settlement of light-colored huts bounded by a river. On the other end of the river, there were fields and a fort on a motte surrounded by wooden palisades that loomed over its surroundings. Curiously enough, the village seemed to be built among a collection of tall, craggy rocks, though there didn't seem to be an easy way to walk over…
"Looks like you might have landed a little early," Elty sighed. "If you can get back into the air, we could always land at one of the out-"
"NO!"
Elty, Nida, and Pleo collectively flinched and turned to their wide-eyed Cubone teammate. The creature looked tired, obviously rattled, and clearly unenthusiastic about the prospect of further flying.
"N-No more flying, please," she pleaded. "We're already at your 'Mengir' and everything!"
"Well how else are we going to get there, huh?" Elty snapped. "You don't mean for us to climb these bluffs, do you? And we'd have to find our way over without a map afterwards!"
"But Elty!" Pleo whined. "My wings are sore!"
The three proceeded to begin to bicker tiredly with one another, leaving Nida to sigh and turn to the still-churning water offshore. As she watched the passing forms of Pokémon making their way to the settlement's harbor, the spike ball squeaked with excited realization.
"Wait a minute, we do have another way over!" she cried.
"We… do-?" Pleo asked, looking out at the water and its inviting, bobbing, wave. Suddenly, Nida's same realization dawned upon him.
"Oh!" he cried, giving a triumphant trill. "I can swim all of us over!"
Elty and Guardia both groaned and looked out at the stretch of sea to the settlement, before training skeptical looks at their Poison-Type teammate.
"I mean, I suppose it's safer than flying," Guardia grumbled. "But going through all that water?"
"We'd have to go through the harbor, too! That's the busiest part of any town!" Elty added. "We don't know if the village there's already been told about us, so just how would we be able to get in without being spotted?"
Peck peck peck...
The three turned, and saw Pleo pecking curiously at a battered and worn crate washed up among some rocks. Elty gave a sour frown, before shaking his head with a grumble.
"Oi, mewa!"
"Whuh?!" Pleo squawked, jerking his head up. "What's the matter?!"
Nida eyed the crate, then the surprised-looking Lugia, and then the crate again. It was ridden with holes, and hardly a seaworthy craft, but it was big enough to hold Pleo in it.
Though then again… what if they didn't get into the crate… but the crate got onto them?
"Actually, Elty", she said. "I think there is a way we can sneak in while swimming."
After hastily pulling themselves back aboard Pleo, Team Traveller found that the battered crate fit snugly over their heads, giving the appearance of a lost article of cargo bobbing along the waves. While far from perfect, with their impromptu camouflage, the four were emboldened bobbed along in the water towards the distant village's harbor.
The plodding cruise took them past the harbor's ships, and dockworkers toiling away at shuffling cargo around. The group also passed Pokémon who traded curious looks at the box with a white tail trailing it, only to shrug the matter off as some children at play. Amazingly enough to Guardia, their disguise seemed to pass muster.
Their journey finally ended as Pleo came ashore underneath a wooden set of docks built atop a soggy beach. Some rocks formed a crude retaining wall and wooden pilings behind them.
Pushing their wooden cover off as they dismounted from the Lugia's back, Nida, Pleo, Elty, and Guardia darted further under the piers, where muffled conversations from the local harbor Pokémon filtered down from the docks above.
"Oh, the roses? They're for my baba," a passing voice said. "She's on bedrest after she got attacked by ferals out at those sacred stones on the outskirts."
"She should have known better, the ferals have been surly around these parts for years" a deeper voice sighed. "I don't understand why the old generation makes such a big deal with that dump anyways…"
The voices faded away into a sea of indistinct murmurs as the sound of footsteps carried on down the dock. After pausing and flicking his ears in the air for a moment, Elty noticed that the voices sounded louder on their left. Following the Growlithe's lead, the group found a hole punched into the docks' wooden planks near the edge, perhaps by a stray attack. After a few sniffs at the air and a careful listen for footfalls and movement above the background noise of lapping sea waves, the members of Team Traveller popped out of a hole behind a heap of wooden barrels. The four quickly darted out into a lane, where the buildings of the humble village came into view.
The buildings along the shore were rough and simple wooden shacks of similar construction to the seaside structures back home. Like their counterparts back in Bluewhorl, the rude buildings teemed with activity as sailors and harbor residents went about their daily routines. Almost immediately, one feature stood out as very different from little Bluewhorl Town...
"Wow, Nida, look at the big rocks!"
Up ahead, there were two tall stones that had been planted into the ground on opposite sides of a path leading from the docks up a hill. The team followed after Pleo as he darted out to the stones and began to eye some vertical columns of footprint runes and a carving of a deer-shaped figure with branching antlers etched among clumps of moss. As Nida shifted her gaze around, paying mind to the guards who would surely be in a Company town, Guardia wandered around some of the stones on their own. The Growlithe of the group made sure he kept a safe distance from her, wondering if she would remember her comment from before.
That was not much of an issue, for the newest addition to Team Traveller was mesmerized by the new sights. So these 'towns' really were like big colony grounds, if one full of Pokémon that were nothing like each other. There were walking Pokémon, swimming Pokémon, Pokémon that flew...
But, how did they make all of these? Without caves or wands to burrow holes? And how did they get these giant boulders propped up? Machitabi never said anything about rocks like these being in the town along the shore back home...
"They look so... firm, and heavy. There are creatures that can actually move stones like these?" the Cubone asked. After prodding at the base of one of the two standing stones, she turned to Nida and tilted her head curiously. "I never heard anything about this back home... is this how majū from towns start building their homes? Placing stones like these around?"
"I- I think this must be something that only Pokémon on this island do," the Nidoran answered as she rubbed her arm, not knowing what else to offer. These structures were certainly something different from anything they'd seen so far, and Nida had the impression they were not really intended to be homes, or anything of that sort.
Now that she noticed it, there were a number of other things that seemed to be particular to this town. There weren't as many shops down by the docks, and there were more stones off in the distance. A number of buildings further inland seemed to be built with whitewashed walls and wooden shingles on their roofs. There was a stream in the distance, but there didn't seem to be much of the town on the other end beyond a fort complex consisting of low-slung buildings ringed by wooden palisades and stern looking guards patrolling the perimeter...
"Well how was I supposed to know we had a visiting Administrator?"
And, as the group had feared, the town also had Pokémon in Company lavenders coming and going. Nida and Elty's fur stood up as they caught the sight of a Stantler and Sudowoodo passing by, the pair idly chattering as the reindeer carefully tugged along a cart loaded down with sturdy crates along, steadied by the false tree.
"The only ironclad in port then was Zorn's!" the Normal-Type protested. "And it's not my fault that Dragonite wasn't watching where his tail was!"
"Eh, don't worry about it," the Sudowoodo replied. "Of all the Admins to get on the bad side of, you could've done much worse than that tubby lizard."
For a fleeting second, time froze and the team's blood ran cold as the two cast glances at the party by the stone pillars. Then, the pair shifted their attention back, seemingly unconcerned by Team Traveller's presence.
So word hadn't reached this island yet! This meant that they'd be in the clear as long as-
"Oi! Don't think that we're just gonna let you get away!"
Nida, Pleo, and Elty grimaced as Guardia ran out into the path, bellowing and stamping her feet behind the two Company Pokémon. The startled Stantler stumbled forward and jolted the cart, making a crate towards the top shift and totter a panicked expression flash over the grunts' faces. After hastily throwing his arms out to steady the crate and push it back onto the cart, the Sudowoodo and its companion turned around, shooting venomous glares at the Cubone.
"Hey, just what was that for, huh?!" the Stantler snarled. "Making Pokémon drop delicate cargo your idea of a fun time or something?!"
"Yeah, are you trying to start something?" the Sudowoodo growled.
"That's right, I am!" Guardia shouted back, tightening her grip on her club. "I'm gonna-! Mrph!"
Before the Cubone could finish her words, she was hastily cut off by a paw over her mouth and drug up the lane. As the Ground-Type stumbled along flailing and protesting, Elty yipped back at the two lavender-scarved Pokémon.
"Sorry about that, she's new!" the Growlithe apologized, before growling and shooting a glare and growling at Guardia. "And we were just going..."
The group dragged their new teammate up the lane and into an alley as some distant grumbles between the two Company Pokémon of "what was her problem, anyways?" floated through the air. After the three fell behind the alley, the team's Pokémon relaxed their grip, and...
Thwack
"OW!"
… came face-to-face with a glaring Guardia, her bone having freshly found its mark on Elty's head. The dog shook his head and flattened his ears back, snarling.
"What is your problem?"
"What is my problem?" Guardia shot back. "They were yajū that clearly had nothing good in mind for us! You should've known by their scarf colors and those nasty-looking horns the four-legged one had! If you don't fight 'em off, they'll come back for you!"
Guardia's rebuttal drew a wave of paws and wings over faces.
"Um… Nida? It doesn't work that way, does it?" Pleo asked, giving his head a puzzled tilt.
After screwing her eyes shut and furrowing her brow, Nida muttered under her breath, and attempted to explain the situation to their new teammate.
"Guardia… remember scarf-wearers aren't supposed to cause trouble with each other for no reason," she sighed. "The Company Pokémon here don't know that they're supposed to try and catch us, so if we fight them, we look like the bad Pokémon!"
"Eh? But aren't these Company majū like predators?" she asked, pedaling her free claw. "Always causing trouble because that's what they are?"
As Pleo began to open his beak to ask what 'predators' were, Elty hastily interrupted, shaking his head.
"I told you taking her along was a bad idea, spike ball," he grumbled.
"Hush!"
The Nidoran shook her head and tried to think of how explain the matter. After a few mental false starts, she began to spell out an explanation.
"That's… not how it works," she sighed. "Look, you saw how they didn't recognize us earlier, right?"
"Yes…?"
"Well, we don't have that much time to try and help Pleo learn how to use his powers here before they do recognize us," she explained. "And if we get into trouble, we'll only speed that up!"
The Cubone paused and tilted her head. It sounded strange that a foe Pokémon wouldn't know when to be a foe, but it did seem to make sense under its own logic.
"So if we don't have to fight with our enemies to help your Protector learn how to draw out his power," she began. "Then what do we need to do?"
"Well, Guildmaster Hatteras had us take a mission to try and draw out Pleo's power," Nida replied. "So we could always try that again…"
Nida looked at Elty and Pleo, and saw their eyes had dark, tired-looking circles underneath them. Perhaps the flight and sleep deprivation had taken more out of them than she initially thought…
"Though on the other hand… we've been up all night and could use some rest," Nida murmured. "And there are a couple things we could use before accepting a mission anyways."
Nida lifted the coin purse that had been liberated from Valatos, the Yanmega that had ambushed them yesterday. She gave it a stiff shake and heard the satisfying clink of metal inside, before dropping the satchel safely back into her bag and turning to Guardia.
"Why don't we put the money from those jerks back in your dungeon to some good use?"
The four Pokémon poked their heads back out of the alley and, after seeing the coast was clear, continued up the path from the docks, passing a collection of the town's stone pillars and little white-walled huts that stretched along the path. The scenery of huts and standing stones on the way was occasionally punctuated by larger structures. There were a few more built-up houses, a signaling platform for ships on a hilly outcropping, and a two-storied medic's hut with a stone base and shingled roof down the lane from a bustling juice bar that a passing Luxio chatting up a Chansey called a 'taverna'. To their pleasant surprise, the team discovered that one of the larger buildings the path passed was none other than one 'Mengir Island Guild'.
The guild was completely housed in a multi-story building with white, rough-hewn stone walls and scruffy domed roofs covered in teal-painted shingles. In spite of its humble accommodations, the place seemed as lively as any other guild they had been to. There was a Kabutops with a sky-blue band with a prominent red dot worn as a choker reading over a mission listing pinned against one of his scythes. Over by a belled well near the entrance, a Mismagius and Charmeleon loitered in wait for some expected companions, the Ghost-Type wondering aloud what was taking the Fire-Type's teammates so long to arrive. And out of the teal-roofed guild building, a Swirlix hopped off in a huffy mood, grumbling about being banned from the mess hall for the day for trying to eat some extra food 'that was going to go to waste anyways'.
The passing Fairy-Type's grumblings reminded Team Traveller that they had not had a bite all day… and that they had yet to do the customary first mission that would earn them food and shelter for the night at the local guild. Perhaps it was best to leave the guild behind for now, and search for food and shelter they could buy with the money 'given' to them by Valatos and his friends.
Fortunately, now that the team had the means, they had other options to choose from. An arrow-shaped sign pointed out a square built around a stone pillar alongside the stream that bounded the town from the east. In it were a host of colorful shops trafficked by a surprisingly large number of Pokémon for such a small town. There was the local franchise of the 'Merchantry', whose scaly proprietor and Pumpkaboo partner traded rivalrous looks with a Noctowl and a smaller, leafier counterpart who ran a shingled hut advertising 'recycling'. A little ways off, there was a two-story thatch-roofed building that Pokémon lugged sacks full of parcels and letters in and out of. But despite the square's amenities, Team Traveller had other priorities on their mind...
"Let's try and find a hostel to stay in," Nida yawned. "I'm bushed."
"But, Nida," Pleo protested. "Didn't we give Guardia the broken scarf? And doesn't she need a badge?"
"Nani?" the Cubone asked, as she pawed at her tattered and charred Company scarf. "What's wrong with this one?"
Nida cast a glance at the damaged scarf on their new teammate. The badge could always be borrowed from the guild in the morning and returned after their mission, but the scarf would certainly raise questions.
"You know, spike ball," Elty added. "If we got her scarf order taken care of now, we could always pick it up in the morning after some rest."
Nida glanced at the wallet, and then at the shops. They had a fair amount of coin, and a scarf couldn't be that much, right? After scanning her surroundings, the Poison-Type spotted a shop that seemed promising- one in the shape of a Butterfree's head with scarves and cloth hanging from the eaves.
"Fair enough, and I think I can see a tailor's shop right over there..."
The team set off for the shop, weaving between passing Pokémon. As they drew closer, they saw a Butterfree behind the counter, handing an off-white scarf with a blue square in its center to a customer obscured by a Tangrowth busy puzzling over a map in his viney hands.
"Incredible! It looks better than my old scarf before it got torn!" a voice enthusiastically cawed. The Bug-Type chuckled bashfully, and dismissively waved a chitinous claw.
"Well, it's the least I could do," she replied. "Especially after helping out my son in the Mystery Dungeon like that. Why, if it weren't for your help getting him out of that stony briar, who knows what would've happened to him?"
Pleo began to grow curious and bob his head to try and get a view of who the energetic-sounding stranger might be. But as he paced forward, he noticed that Nida had stopped and grown wide-eyed.
"Nida? What's wrong?" he asked.
"Yeah," Guardia added. "You're shivering!"
"Hey, wait a minute," Elty murmured. "That bird... I swear I've seen him before."
Then, the lumbering Tangrowth wandered off, revealing the butterfly tailor's customer to be a young-looking Skarmory who was inspecting the Butterfree's handiwork with unusual vigor and energy.
"All in the line of duty. But this seamstressing… why it's on par with the best I saw back in my hometown!" the bird squawked. His cheery tone and tenor faltered as a wistful look spread over his eyes. "When it was around…"
'When it was around?' So something had happened to it? Whatever the matter was, the metal bird didn't seem to dwell too long upon it. After donning his new scarf and a ruffle of his metal feathers, the creature roused his cheery demeanor and turned back to the Butterfree.
"But there's no sense in dwelling upon the past," he cheered. "Mille grazie! Truly, I will cherish it!"
As the Skarmory turned to fly off, he chanced to catch a glance of Team Traveller watching him from behind, and decided to flit over, coming to a rest in front of Nida.
"Hark! A Rescue Team!" he greeted. "Good day, fellow hunters!"
"Eh?" Guardia asked, warily shifting back and tightening her grasp on her bone. "Who are you supposed to be?"
"Why, I'm the Warrior of Life and Paladin from the ashes of Blackmoon Village! Trizano, the Valiant Knight Skarmory!" the bird answered, revealing beaming eyes that had curious blotches over his pupils to form rough crossing bands. With that, the creature entered a bow, and fanned out his feathers with an audible swish, the light glinting off their edges. "At your service!"
Guardia and Pleo traded puzzled glances as Elty's brow furrowed- he was increasingly sure that he had run across this character sometime in the past. Meanwhile, Nida remained still and pallid. All those moons ago, back in that fateful day in the Mystery Dungeon…
She had run into sharp talons just like those. A cruel and sharp beak just like the one in front of her. Piercing eyes with yellow sclera, and sharp, cutting feathers. All of it was here again, and once again it had come for her.
To devour her.
"A-Ah- AAAAAAAH!"
With a shriek, the Nidoran turned and sprinted madly away through the square. The spike lump weaved around the legs of startled passerbys for a nearby back alley as fast as her legs could carry her. As Nida forced her way down the alley, she blindly shoved aside some clutter with an audible crash, much to the stunned gaze of her teammates.
"Nida?!" Pleo cried. "What's wrong?! Come back!"
"What is her problem?!" Guardia added, turning incredulously to Elty. "How can you just let her take off on us like that?!"
"Oi, how is this my fault?!" Elty spluttered.
The little Lugia and the Cubone hurried off after the fleeing Nidoran. After shooting an askew look back at the Skarmory, the Growlithe turned and followed, leaving the bird to look after the party puzzledly and droop his feathers.
"Did I overdo the introduction?" he wondered. As the square settled down, the Skarmory shook his head, gave an awkward thanks to the tailor for his new scarf and flew off from the scene. A sense of normalcy started to return to the little plaza around the standing stone, barring a Mothim with a Second-Rank scarf burdened with a brown, bloated satchel slung over his shoulder. The Bug-Type remained there flitting in place for a moment, as he stared wide-eyed after Team Traveller's members...
"W-What?! That was the Guardian of the Seas!"
Ellsberg blinked for a moment, before hurriedly fluttering after the youngsters. An overloaded cart pulled by a green-and-yellow Tauros got in his way, the Bug-Type jolting back only for him to lose track of the silvery-colored seabird amidst the crowd and buzz to himself with a start.
"Why is he here of all places?!"
The Mothim flew up onto the standing stone to try and see if there was any sign of the young Lugia nearby, but between the mass of Pokémon in the square, and the well-shaded alleys that fanned out from it, there wasn't a sign of the Protector or his companions to be found. The Bug-Type shook his head with a scowl, where by chance he saw an Ariados in Company garb happening to pass by the stone pillar's base. Immediately, Ellsberg flitted down and accosted the hapless creature.
"You there!"
"Wh-Whuh?" the spider stammered.
"Bring me to Administrator Zorn at once!" the Mothim demanded. "A wanted Pokémon passed through this square, and it's of the utmost importance that he be caught at once!"
"Eh?!" the Ariados cried. "But if you saw a troublemaker, just give us a description! We can handle the rest!"
"You don't understand, this isn't just some common pirate!" the moth buzzed angrily, beating his wings with an angry huff.
"This is a matter of the Company's future!"
A little ways down the back alley, Nida took shelter under a battered, overturned wooden crate and curled up in a nervous ball in the darkness. There, her only companions were the sounds of her breaths coming in ragged pants, and the feeling of little droplets dripping off her barbs and onto her pelt.
Thump thump
To her horror, the crate suddenly jolted with the harsh sound of something big and strong pecking at it. She saw a corner leave the ground, and realized that there was nowhere to run. The Nidoran closed her eyes and curled up, expecting to be set upon any moment by the metal fiend from the square.
"Nida?"
When the spike ball opened her eyes up, she saw Pleo in front of her. The little Lugia had tipped the box over, and her back was now exposed to the sunlight.
"What's wrong?" he murmured. "Why did you run away like that?"
Nida folded her barbs back and folded her ears back as she realized that she had let her fears come out in front of her teammates. The Poison-Type shook her head, and cautiously crept out, weakly attempting to dissuade Pleo's concern.
"It's- It's alright, Pleo," she replied. "I'm alr-"
"Hey!"
Before Nida could finish her reassurance, the sound of footfalls came from further down the alley. The Nidoran turned and peered ahead, where she saw the sight of an unimpressed-looking Cubone and Growlithe.
"I thought you said town majū work differently!" Guardia huffed. "So what on earth was that?!"
"I- I just lost my nerve a minute," Nida answered.
"Why? Expecting some metal bird to take a bite out of you here too?" Elty grumbled, rolling his eyes. Immediately, Nida bristled and fanned her barbs out, her eyes growing livid at the mutt daring to drag that moment out into the open.
"Shut up!" she hissed. "No one asked you!"
"You could have been honest, you know!" Guardia growled. "How am I supposed to gather lore for my colony if I don't know what you're getting me into?!"
"I didn't lead you into danger though!" the Poison-Type spat.
"Tak jasne! Great job you're doing with that!" Elty huffed back. "You lead us into some Commissioner's ship and turn tail after running into some random feather duster? Talk about getting your priorities backwards!"
The Nidoran fumed and dropped to her feet, fanning her barbs out and readying a tackle. Why couldn't that dumb dog just shut his yap? No matter, if he wouldn't do it on his own, she'd make him-
"What's going on here?!"
The argument abruptly broke off and all eyes turned the opposite end of the alley, before giving way to frozen grimaces. There, scampering up behind them was the form of a Grovyle… with a First-Rank scarf about her neck.
The creature was glaring harshly, her blades drawn and ready to pounce. The four Pokémon froze, expecting the stranger to pounce on them at any moment, only to see her withdraw her blades and cross her arms.
"Really now, aren't you four a bit young to be getting into trouble like this?" she demanded.
"We… we weren't trying to get into trouble," Pleo answered shyly.
"Yeah, it's the spike ball's fault!" Elty interjected.
"It was not!" Nida shot back.
"Oi, don't try and scapegoat your teammates like that, mutt!" Guardia growled.
As the team devolved back into heated bickering, the Grovyle scanned the group. The spike lump with them had a simple satchel a little big for her size slung across her back, everyone except the Cubone seemed to have badges on their scarves (clearly she was a new recruit)… nothing that seemed too out of the ordinary, except…
"I don't mean to butt in here, but what happened to your friend's scarf?" the Grass-Type interrupted.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Guardia asked. "It's just a scarf, isn't it?"
"Well, it seems like you burned it quite badly," the Grovyle answered. The creature walked up, and ran the fabric through her claws before letting it fall back against Guardia's chest. "The fabric and cloth aren't like the ones your friends have, either. If anything, it feels closer to mine."
Nida, Elty, and Pleo blanched at the gecko's observations. The reason why Guardia's scarf felt closer to the grunt's was because before Elty charred it and ran it through the dirt, it was a First-Rank scarf like hers! The Grass-Type seemed to still have her doubts, but…
Just what sort of excuse could they give her?
"That's because… uh," Nida began. As the Nidoran fumbled for words to say, Elty suddenly interrupted with a barking exclamation.
"We changed our scarf patterns recently!" he yipped. "Stars were the new 'in' thing, but we didn't have the money right away to replace hers!"
"And- And Elty accidentally set it on fire!" Pleo added. The Grass-Type gave a skeptical glance at the group, she didn't seem particularly impressed with the argument, but at the same time seemed to be held back by something.
"Uh huh… who are you, and where are you from again?" she asked. "I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a seabird quite like your friend there, and you could say I'm curious."
"We're Team Traveller!" Pleo reflexively chirped. "From B-"
Pleo clamped his beak shut as he noticed from the corner of his eye that Nida and Elty were shaking their heads in a panic. The little Protector tried to think of a town name he could make up.
"Bluhh… Water… ship... Town!" he cried. The Grovyle blinked, paused, and then shook her head as she muttered something to herself.
"Must be one of those newer 'periphery towns' on Vollezee, but I have to wonder what kind of rubes call a place Watership Town," she replied. "It's right up there with 'Pokémon Square' as an unimaginative place name-"
Pleo paused and blinked blankly at the Grass-Type. She… believed that? While it was relieving, just what were 'rubes'? And what was wrong with 'Watership Town'-?
"Anyhow, you four seem to be rather worn out," the Grovyle continued. "Your little spat earlier wouldn't be because you've been shorting yourselves on sleep, was it?"
Yaaaaaaaaaah
As the sound of Guardia yawning pricked the team's ears, the four looked around and realized that their eyes looked worn and bloodshot. The already tiring trek into town and up the hill was starting to catch up with them as aches returned and eyelids started to feel heavy. One after the other, Pleo, Elty, and Nida reluctantly began to reply back to the Company grunt.
"Erm…"
"Well…"
"We were up all night…"
The scowl on the lizard's face faded for a moment, before she shook her head and turned and pointed off at a long, low-slung, two-storied building with a stone ground floor, a white-timbered second floor and a weathered shingled roof.
"If you've got the money for it, why don't you head off to the Cromlech Inn over there and lie down a bit?" the Grovyle offered. "They serve food in the lobby and the Kricketune there sews on the side. He'd probably be able to help you out with getting that last matching scarf you were looking for."
Wait… did, this Company Pokémon just give them help? It took a few quiet pawings at their bodies to reassure the team's Pokémon that they weren't dreaming… But this was help, and the team would be wise to take it before the Grovyle changed her mind.
"Right," Nida replied. "Thank you..."
"One more thing before you go..."
"Huh?"
"Don't go raising up trouble like that again, you hear?" the Grass-Type sternly admonished. "This town's already has enough to deal with the weather and all the trouble that comes here from outside, and the Pokémon here don't need more headaches to deal with. Understood?"
The four stopped and blinked at this strange creature. Was she really a Company grunt? She certainly didn't seem like the bullying type like Valatos and his friends… Did this place also have an 'arrangement' like Tromba did?
"Well?" she prodded.
"Understood," the team over-hastily replied.
The Grovyle paused and gave a long, skeptical look at Team Traveller's members, before shaking her head and turning around. The Wood Gecko carried along down the alleyway, Nida, Pleo, Elty, and Guardia watching intently until she slipped past a corner. The group looked back at the 'Cromlech Inn' that the Company grunt pointed out and gave a collective sigh of relief. Nida and her teammates lowered their heads and began to shuffle along towards it, eager to finally have some food and rest after a long and stormy day.
Back on Tromba, the island's guild was abuzz with its typical bustle of activity as its members went here and there for their errands between missions. Lost amid the sound of chatter and plans for the day floating about was the patter of an Ampharos' footsteps as Hatteras walked around under the shade of the guild's main tent. The Guildmaster did his best to present his normal aloof and an amiable atmosphere, but the arcing of his tail betrayed his feelings of uneasiness and hesitation. At some point, already bored with himself, he stopped in front of the guild's main entrance and turned to the direction of the ánima.
"What are we doing wrong?"
The Ampharos let a moment pass to recover his focus and returned to his round, this time with a calmer demeanour revealed in softer steps. After the third pass past the Mission Board he saw a familiar party consisting of a Shiftry and her Loudred and Croconaw teammates.
"Ah, Team Sawtooth!" Hatteras bleated. "Work going well for you, I trust?"
"Er… not so hot," Cardellini sighed, shaking his head. "There's this one mission that we can't seem to make headway on."
"Yeah, we've been looking largo y ancho, but for the life of us, we just can't seem to find that 'ahp-gredh' that Melissa wanted!" Alto cried.
Hatteras bit his tongue as he winced in sympathy a bit at Sawtooth's plight. Finding the magical plates that Melissa and her kind read was already an erratic task, but searching out a specific kind in particular? Why it must be like spotting an Altaria in a cloudbank!
Even so, there were still some advantages to the setup…
"Well, surely long excursions are at least helpful for getting some of your other missions out of the way at the same time, no?" Hatteras offered.
"I suppose that's true," Pitys murmured. "But knowing that our reputation for speedy completions is getting dinged by this request still makes me wilt inside a little."
"Ah, well don't let it get to you too badly," the sheep cheered. "If there's one thing that I've learned in my years, it's that good things come to those who-"
"Mail call!"
The sound of a sudden squawk and the sound of beating wings drew the four Pokémon's attention to an Unfezant who swooped in before the group. After digging a little through a satchel slung over a wing, the Flying-Type pulled out a particularly large and heavy-looking envelope that seemed filled to the point of bursting.
"Just making sure, but this sheep is 'Hatteras, Mayor of Bluewhorl Town' and not some look-alike right?" the Unfezant asked.
"Yes," Pitys and her companions groaned.
"Okay, great then!" the pheasant chirped. "The Siglo Swellow sends its regards!"
As the bulging envelope changed hands and the mailmon took his leave for a short detour to visit his family in the outskirts, Team Sawtooth's eyes drifted curiously over the letter in their Guildmaster's paws.
"Isn't that a bit bulky for a letter, Hatteras?" Pitys asked. "Just what exactly is in that thing?"
"Yeah! I haven't seen you get an envelope this stuffed since that one last month from that investigator that's been looking for the missus and the kid!" Alto chortled in a cheery and booming voice- only to be met by awkward silence, everybody suddenly finding an interesting patch of dirt on the floor to look at.
"Er… well, I was just curious," the Loudred offered apologetically.
"Wait. Guildmaster Hatteras… Last month?" Cardellini interjected. "You're still looking for them? I mean, I know we all say 'las cosas buenas en la vida se hacen esperar', but by now, surely you of all Pokémon would have accepted that they're- Ow!"
The Croconaw was cut off by a loud whap from one of Pitys' leaf fans along with a growling "leave the clueless, uncomfortable questions to Alto, Cardellini!" The Ampharos shook his head, and much to the three's amazement, seemed less perturbed than they thought he would be.
"Never underestimate the power of hope, Cardellini," the sheep answered back. "Even if it doesn't get realized the way you'd want it to, it still gives strength to Pokémon to weather the fiercest storms."
The Ampharos raised the letter with his paws up to his face, and squinted to read. For a short moment, the creature scanned the runes on the brownish paper, only to abruptly stop, nervously tense his tail, and bat it anxiously side-to-side, piquing Pitys' curiosity.
"Eh? What's with the sudden excitement?" Pitys asked. "Just what exactly is in that thing, Guildmaster?"
"I'm afraid that I can't quite say for now," the Guildmaster coyly retorted. "After all, you know the old saw about 'loose lips'..."
"Right," she replied. "And we should be getting back to that 'ahp-gredh'."
The Ampharos parted ways with the team and brought the overstuffed envelope all the way back to his office. There, after closing the door and throwing the shades closed, he tore the package open, and fished the folded-up sheet of paper layered with messy runes that had so excited him.
The letter gave a short summary of what had happened to the Siglo Swellow in Boisocéan. It spoke of an initially fraught and tense negotiation with Seahive's 'mairesse', during which they discovered that Lyn had beaten them to the island and chased Pleo away. Their search for leads turned up nothing for a day, until by a stroke of luck, they chanced to come across one 'Team Chasseur' and a Hydreigon named 'Margi' who helped them pick up Pleo's trail to Kenobi. The crew was sailing on, a little further from home, but if the fates and the stars aligned, perhaps they would be able to reunite with the Protector there, and bring him home after a short delay.
"Good luck, everyone-" the Amphraos said to himself, only to cut himself off as he noticed a hastily-scrawled line at the end.
"'P.S. Please forward the attached personal letters'..." he read. "Wait a minute. Personal le-?"
Rrrrrip
At that moment, the worn bottom of the enveloped gave way, and a flurry of smaller envelopes spilled out onto the floor below.
"Ah," he murmured to himself. "I was wondering why that letter took up so much space!"
"Lower the gangplank!"
Beatrix's buzzing voice carried along the salty sea air as the Siglo Swellow bobbed along the docks at the Company compound on Kenobi's port. In spite of the strange and potentially hostile environment, the Illumise seemed as at ease as she pointed over at a Hitmontop by the railing.
"Just one moment!" came the reply from the Fighting-Type as he double-checked the stone anchor and the lines that had been thrown down to the posts on the dock until he was sure the ship was properly docked. After seeing the ship firmly lashed to the pier's moorings, the Fighting-Type gave an "aye!" in response, leaving a few crewmates to start working on the bringing the gangplank over.
The Handstand Pokémon paced around the place taking notice of some deck hands led by Natrix and Philips adding some finishing knots to the lines lashing the ship in place along the dock. The sound of the plank being lowered and clanging against the timbers of the piers sounded, which prompted the Hitmontop to turn and call his shipmates' attention...
"Alright, come orderly and single file," he instructed. "No need to strain the poor gangplank more than it needs to-"
"Yah!"
… only for Crom to leap off the railing and glide down to the docks, his Fraxure father dashing down the gangplank with a hurried 'Crom! Wait for me!'.
"Yeesh, would it kill you two to wait?" the fighter grumbled as he gestured for the rest of the crew to move down the dock. Crom and Pladur eagerly carried along the wharf, drifting down the shoreline past a host of docked ships all flying lavender and purple sails after reaching the end of the dock. The pair's eagerness however was quickly subdued as they took in the sights of the complex.
There was the Rhydon at one of the docks further down bellowing at some hapless charges to 'put some backbone' into loading crates onto a waiting sloop, which prompted a hasty detour down an alley. There were the closely-packed warehouses and barracks on either end of their paths, along with little flecks of life such as a Snover, Vibrava, and Pansear in Company lavenders who were enraptured with a game of monster cards. All the while, the pair of Dragon-Types couldn't help but be on edge their eyes and movements betraying an unease with the place.
Crom began to think about how they were deep in hostile territory. The last time the Company caught him sneaking into a place where he wasn't supposed to be, he got beaten up and thrown off a ship. If they were caught here… just what would happen to them?
The Druddigon tried to distract himself by looking back at his surroundings, when he chanced to notice they passed the same card-playing grunts from earlier and stopped.
… hadn't they just passed that a moment ago?"
"Dad, we don't know where we are, right?" the Druddigon asked somewhat worriedly.
"That shouldn't be too much of a problem!" Pladur replied. "Why we can see the Siglo Swellow's masts from-"
The Fraxure pointed off back at the docks towards where the Siglo Swellow ought to be, only to discover that the lavender sails they had disguised the craft with made it blend in a little too well with the other Company ships at dock. The Fraxure and Druddigon tried to tease out the schooner from the crowd, but every time they were sure they saw one of the masts, they found that it belonged to a completely different ship.
"Maybe we should've waited for Kiran before we headed off," Crom mumbled uneasily. At this point, Pladur's confidence was rapidly evaporating as he realized that he had lead himself and his son deep into a strange, and potentially unfriendly place.
"Er, w-well… we could always try to trace our steps back to the ship…" the elder dragon nervously stammered. "I-If we're quick, then maybe we can avoid running into Lyn-"
"Hey!"
"MEEP!"
The Fraxure leapt up with a yelp at the sound of a voice coming from behind. The two whirled around and saw a waiting Aerodactyl with a Company scarf about his neck, his maw opened and his teeth showing. Blanching, the Fraxure yanked his child behind him and the two shot wary glances at the new stranger.
"Uh, er," Crom began uneasily. "Is… is something the matter?"
"Eh? You aren't in trouble if that's what you're talking about, I'm just another First-Rank like you!" the pterosaur cheered back, giving a playful beat of his wings.
"Just thought you two looked a little lost," he explained. "So who are you two? I don't think I've seen either of you on the beat before."
"Well… I'm Pladur, Chief Cook of the the Siglo… er… Swanna!" the Fraxure offered. "And this is my son, Crom."
"Ah, so I see you take after your dad in more way than one," the Aerodactyl chuckled, extending a claw to Crom. "The name's Kellner. So where'd you two come in from, anyways?"
The two dragons froze for a moment, as Crom wondered what he should try and say back. He couldn't say they were from Tromba… and Boisocéan would be suspicious…but, where else could he claim to be from?
"Uh… we're… from…" Crom fumbled, only to be swiftly cut off.
"The Capital!" Pladur interjected. "We're here for an assignment!"
The Fossil Pokémon tilted his head curiously, but after a little mulling and a shake, he was back to his prior congeniality, seemingly satisfied with the explanation. After all, even if it was a shadow of Middleguard City's former glory on Conntow, the cityscape of Canalhouse City on Vollezee, would surely be a world removed from Kenobi.
"Ah, so that's why you're a bit lost," the Aerodactyl said. "Well, think of it this way… The lanes here in the compound and out in Aisle Town might be a little confusing, but at least it's a small place here. Looking for anything in particular?"
"Mostly a place to hear the news," Crom answered. "We're a little out of the loop right now."
"Well now, you can't go wrong with the fort!" Kellner replied, gesturing at a looming, stone-walled structure a little ways off in the distance. "The training grounds inside are as good of a place to get a feel for the pulse of what's going on!"
"Oh? They wouldn't happen to have maps there, would they?" Pladur asked, shrinking his shoulders away a bit. "I mean, it would be nice not to get lost again."
"Yep! Come on, I'll show you over!" the pterosaur offered. "There's an entrance just up ahead!"
The Aerodactyl set off, leading the Druddigon and Fraxure plodding along a series of twisty paths that lead past various wood and stone buildings. As the three made their way alongside the tall imposing walls of the local sea fort, they eventually reached the lip of an entrance into the stone fortress…
"I don't believe this!"
… only for Kellner to stop in his tracks as an angry snarl echoed off the surrounding walls. Pladur and Crom froze, worried for a moment that their ruse might have been seen through, only to catch the sight of a bristling and sparking Luxray passing by with an Eelektross.
"How could those sightings in town just conveniently stop right after my meeting with Elilan last night, Commander?" she demanded.
"I know it sounds preposterous, Administrator, but that's what I've heard from the gossip in the lower ranks," the Eelektross replied with guarded words. "For your own sake, perhaps we ought to shift the topic to Elilan's tin shipment? If you need to reclarify anything, he'll be leaving by-"
"Don't change the subject, Utsumi! Pokémon don't just vanish like that! And if they had done a mission with one of the local guilds, they'd have turned up by now!" the Luxray growled, static dancing on her fur. "Why, if I didn't know better, I'd be convinced someone told them of what we were up to!"
"Er, well," the lamprey offered. "Didn't you mention that during the proceedings you caught the repair crew slacking off against the wall?"
Farn paused as a creeping realization swept over her face, and her ears folded back out of frustration.
"That's… right. The crew was a Yanmega, a Manectric, and a Marowak and they were pressed up right against the wall," she admitted, before shaking her head and continuing on into the fort with the her fellow Electric-Type, her words echoing along back to a still-stunned pair of dragons and their guide.
"Have those three brought before me!" the lioness' voice bellowed. "I am going to get an explanation about what's going on from them, even if I have to tear it out of their hides!"
Crom and Pladur looked warily off in the direction that the two Electric-Types had gone off to, grateful that they were now out of earshot. The Fraxure and Druddigon turned back to their Aerodactyl guide and noticed that his cheery demeanor had evaporated, with a look of visible unease.
"Um… actually... maybe you should take some time getting to know the neighborhood around here first. I think I might have an extra map on me," the Kellner muttered. The grunt blinked a few times and shook his head before digging through a sack, and pulled out a folded-up wad of brown cloth, which it extended over with a claw. "Administrator Farn's offices are also in the fort, and she's best avoided in a mood like this."
"Point taken," Pladur gulped, quickly taking up the map. Crom inspected the map and found that it had a map of the lanes and trails of Kenobi's settlement and hinterlands sketched in thin, black lines, before casting a glance back at the Aerodactyl and the fort behind.
"Thanks for the tip, Kellner," he said. "We'll be sure to stop by… er… later."
With that, the two turned around, and eagerly put some distance between themselves and the fort. After all, there was a Siglo Swellow to find, and the fort would be there for eavesdropping on the local grunts when the island's leader was in a less stormy mood.
Meanwhile, out at Mengir's fort, a Mothim fidgeted impatiently in front of a tall, double door. There, he was accompanied by the Ariados from the square, along with an unamused duo of guards consisting of a Breloom and a Gourgeist in sets of dark blue Company armor blocking the entrance. The doors had been closed since they had arrived a quarter hour ago, the muffled sounds of some meeting filtering out from behind it, much to Ellsberg's frustration.
"Need I remind you that this is a matter of the Company's future?" the Bug-Type buzzed irkedly to the guards. "Open the door already!"
"I understand that, but Administrator Zorn is in a meeting!" the Breloom replied, shaking her head. "You can't just barge in like that!"
Almost as soon as the Mushroom Pokémon stopped talking, a large, yellow blur shot past them. The gust from the passing presence sent the gathered Pokémon bowled over yelping, followed by the sounds of the doors being thrown open.
"Outta my way!"
As Ellsberg picked himself up off the ground, he caught a fleeting glimpse of the gust's culprit. The distinct pudgy and small-winged form of a Dragonite passing through before swatting the doors back shut with his claws.
"I thought you said that we couldn't barge in like that!" Ellsberg's exasperated voice cried, a steady stream of invective fading away behind the great dragon as he paced further from the door and his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light.
The Dragonite had stormed into a stone chamber ringing a square pond. The room had a grated tunnel under the waterline at the back of the room to admit aquatic visitors (if unfortunately too soggy for the contents of his bag), while a timbered bridge lead out to an islet in the middle of the pond for more landbound audiences.
"There's also the matter of the lack of blue Apricorns, Administrator. We need a certain quota of those nuts specifically for handling sea Pokémon and the current shipment is severely short on them."
There, coiled around the islet, was the Pokémon the Dragonite was in such a hurry to find. A great serpentine fish with blue and cream scales, barbels trailing down from a mouth with razor like fangs, and an Administrator's scarf about his neck. The Gyarados was currently chattering with a Poliwrath about some "crates full of 'blues' up in the fields" that would head out for shipment in the imminent future.
"Zorn!" the dragon bellowed. The water stirred and churned as the sea serpent raised his head and glanced at the Dragonite's direction. A leering frown crept across the Water-Type's face before he turned back to the amphibian .
"Take five," the Gyarados instructed the fellow Water-Type. "We'll continue this conversation in a bit."
"Yes, Administrator," the Poliwrath replied. The sound of the grate being winched up echoed in the chamber as the Dragonite made his way out onto the islet. As the blue anuran dived under the surface and disappeared into the tunnel…
Creeeeaak…
…the grate slipped into the water and landed against the bottom, closing off a room now shared between only the two Pokémon, each waiting for the other to speak. After a long, uncomfortable pause, the Gyarados broke the silence with a displeased grunt.
"Darzin, why are you here?" he demanded. The Dragonite's antennae dropped and a scowl crept over his face.
"What do you mean 'why am I here?' The updated revenue spreadsheets you requested!" he cried, fishing out a clawful of papers filled with orderly lines of runes "I flew it out directly from Vollezee!"
"And? Didn't you notice I was in the middle of something?" the Gyarados answered dismissively. "It could've waited, you know."
"You summoned me here just two days ago! If these spreadsheets were that important, you could have just let me send it through a notary and not wasted my time-!" the Dragonite bellowed in protest, only to be cut off with the sound of mocking laughter.
"Ha ha ha! Wasting your time?" the fish chortled. "Oh, that's rich, Darzin. Since when did I or the rest of the Board care about where your delivery routes took you?"
Such slights were not new to the Dragonite from his fellow Fourth-Ranks… Or more uppity Third-Ranks for that matter. Familiarity truly did breed contempt, which the Dragon-Type was all too eager to reciprocate.
"Yeah, well what are you doing?" Darzin spat back sullenly. "Just sitting around, floating lazily in some po-"
"Administrivia, Darzin," Zorn snarled. "Which you would be doing if you weren't such an incompetent at running a small settlement and forced the Board to strike an arrangement with a bunch of peasants!"
"Well if the Board would have helped me pacify that island like I requested back then-!"
"We'd be telegraphing our weakness to the Imps even moreso than your current 'absentee Administration' from the records department would. Exactly like what happened during that little prison riot that almost cost Elilan his island," the Gyarados interrupted with a growl. "The difference between Elilan's episode and yours was that he got things back in order, and you wound up flying off with your tail between your legs. You didn't honestly think that you're still wearing that Fourth-Rank scarf because Inler thinks you're an all-knowing repository of wisdom, right?"
Yes, Darzin's predicament was all because of those fateful days all those moons ago. Where he had pushed too hard, too fast upon the residents of Bluewhorl Town, and stirred up a revolt among the peasants and some of the rank-and-file that forced him to slink away in ignominy.
The exercise had left its share of scars on the Dragonite. Some deep claw and bite marks on his hide, an even deeper aversion of poisonous spike balls, but most of all...
A wounded pride, which had only been further injured through many an exchange such as this one with his peers.
"He seems to give me more leeway than the fish he left to watch over his hometown!" the Dragonite sneered back.
"Grr…"
Darzin blanched and backpedaled as he heard a fierce growl echo off of the stone walls. From the way that the serpent was glaring and baring sharp fangs at him that were starting to form a frosty film on their surface, it was evident that Zorn too was not a fan of having his pride dinged.
"Alright, listen here, fat lump. It seems that you need a few delusions to be cleared up," the Gyarados growled. "Whatever fin-tying Inler puts me through, I have a future in this Company. You're on borrowed time."
The fish circled about the dragon on the islet, shooting a piercing glare at his captive audience of one. Darzin turned warily to meet the Water-Type's gaze, the Gyarados began to smirk, smugly reminding his entrapped quarry of his raison d'etre in the Board.
"The only reason why you haven't been thrown out on your butt yet is because we haven't found a substitute who can resolve the mess you made," he explained. "And once that changes, whether by one of the lower ranks showing some initiative, or us finding some way of neutralizing your 'understanding'... our use for you will end."
SLAM
"Ack! Wait what are you doing?!"
Before the Water-Type had a chance to go on, a commotion broke out from the back of the room. The doors flew open and a Mothim fluttered in, crying out to the fish.
"Administrator Zorn!"
The Gyarados lifted his head in a start, only to bumped against the side of the room's timber bridge. After a low, sullen growl, the creature swam out and surfaced directly in front of the Mothim, glaring.
"Do you mind?" he snarled. "Administrator Darzin and I are in the middle of something here!"
Ellsberg went wide-eyed with a timid squeak, and flitted back reflexively from the displeased sea serpent. By now, the honor guards from behind the door had caught up, their footfalls coming with the telltale rattles of chainmail, along with the Ariados who had led Ellsberg over. The Ariados scuttled up and bowed, before apologizing profusely for the disturbance.
"I-Izvinete, Administrator Zorn," he stammered. "I'll see him to the door right-"
After shaking his head and attempting to recompose himself, the Mothim raised his voice to try and speak up.
"A-Administrator!" he pleaded. "My name is Ellsberg from the Legal Department and the message I have is urgent! It's a matter of the Company's future!"
Zorn paused and tilted his head curiously. If this lowly Second-Rank had come in such a hurry, he had to have something of importance…
Or else was a glutton for punishment who would have his yearnings sated soon enough.
Step out for a moment," the Water-Type instructed the Ariados and the other guards. "It looks like 'Elmer' here thinks he has something that was worth disrupting my busy schedule."
The spider gave a salute, and scuttled off for the door with his peers, pulling it shut with a strand of silk behind him. As the sound of the door closing rang out in the chamber, Zorn lowered his head and hardened his eyes into a piercing glare.
"You have thirty seconds," the Gyarados glowered. "This had better be worth it!"
The moth flitted anxiously and gulped before taking a deep breath…
…and promptly shattering the tense silence in the room with a single, breathless exclamation.
"The Guardian of the Seas is here on Mengir!"
Author's Notes:
- baba (баба) - Bulgarian: "Grandmother" (BGN/PCGN 2013 Romanization)
- Nani? (何?) - Japanese: "What?" (Hepburn Romanization)
- Mille grazie! - Italian: "Thank you very much!", lit. "(A) thousand thanks!" Also rendered "Grazie mille!"
- Tak jasne! - Polish: "Yeah, right!"
- largo y ancho - Spanish: "far and wide"
- las cosas buenas en la vida se hacen esperar - Spanish: "the good things in life make you wait", idiom analogous to "the best things in life take time"
- Izvinete (Извинeтe) - Bulgarian: "Sorry", "Pardon me" (formal) (BGN/PCGN 2013 Romanization)
