"Our schedule tomorrow is gonna be pretty full, so are you going to help us cook?" Aza silently stared at me, expecting a response.
"Sure! As long as I'm not cleaning," I said.
My mind flashed back to the last time Aza made me clean.
"Wasn't planning on it." The Vaporeon laughed.
I twitched at her. I still felt awful about what she did, but I knew I had no good path to confrontation. Not now, not yet.
I wasn't sure what we were cooking at first, as my duty entirely consisted of repeatedly shoving a wooden spoon into a bowl of berries to make it a fine mush, but as time went on, I slowly pieced together that this was a pastry of some sort. I hadn't eaten anything that would be considered sweet since I was a human, so to say I was excited was an understatement. As Gray mixed in some sugar, he made an off-hand comment that it would only be ready tomorrow evening. The watering in my mouth instantly vanished and was replaced by the bitter taste of disappointment. I really wanted this, but it would have to wait one more day.
The rest of the night went on as normal, but it seemed like everyone was tired from making the pastry, so dinner was late and simple. Soon after, I laid down on my bed and let my mind wander, thinking about what the next morning would have in store for me. I took one last look at the blank walls before closing my eyes.
'These won't have to be barren much longer, I just have to keep with it.'
In the morning, I started to think more about Tony's story and became appreciative of it. However, the questions I had about Mike just kept piling up faster than I could draw conclusions from them.
I needed to talk to Tony about this later, alone.
Elizabeth woke us in the morning, and we all saw the frigid and windy outside before leaving. On the trip, I noticed a strange detail about the buildings we passed: the worse the material it was made out of was, the better condition it was in. Buildings that looked like literal wooden huts were in better condition than the decrepit concrete buildings.
Thankfully, the sun was peeking out, and it had warmed up a bit by the time we arrived.
We were greeted near the entrance by a Meinshao with a tan tattered hat.
"Hello everybody! Is this 'Team Fam'?" she asked, and her question was met with a general air of agreement. "Well, my name is Nia, and I'll be your guide for today, now if you'll just follow me, I'll bring you inside."
She brought us past the guards, and into the guild. Nearly immediately after entering, she stopped us at a wooden door and called over our attention. "This door here is our storage. It's going to be where you can put things you get on missions. You're gonna be using it a lot." They gestured towards it, and I somehow noticed that it had a door handle, rather than a door knob like all the other ones I'd seen so far. I thought that maybe it worked better with more pokemon passing through, I really didn't know. Once a moment had passed, she continued the tour until she brought us to a large doorless archway. "And in this room is the cafeteria. We're going to let you in here once the tour is done, so you can meet some of your fellow guildmates." I felt interested in the prospect, but we were pulled away to the next area before I could look inside.
"What do they serve at the cafeteria?" Gray asked the guide.
"Well, it depends." They replied, and our Glaceon looked disappointed. It sounded like she was going to continue their explanation, but she was suddenly interrupted by a realization.
"Oh! I forgot about something, hold on…" she shuffled backward through us and back towards the start of the hallway. Just outside of the cafeteria, she showed us a wall displaying a large and detailed map. "This is the guild's map wall, you're going to be using it a lot. It shows all known dungeons…" she continued with her explanation, but beyond that point, my understanding completely broke down. I thought that a second listen might enlighten me.
"What?!" I yelled out for a repeat.
"It shows all known dungeons, of both kinds," she reiterated, but when she saw my blank expression, she knew I didn't get the full thing. "There are two types of dungeons that we know of: There's the kind that appears with a human every 10 years and the kind that holds a legendary pokemon in them. The former stick around forever and are easily accessible, but the latter disappear and reappear rapidly at random. There's a book on it in the library if you'd like to know more."
"Now, where was I?" A moment of pause later, she pointed at a spot on the map. "Oh, right. This is our latest dungeon. It's without a doubt the smallest one we've ever seen. We've been looking for the human since it appeared, but with no luck."
'If only she knew what was standing right in front of her.' I clamped my jaw as if the words "I'm a human!" could slip out if I didn't.
After she finished talking and pointing at the map, I noticed that everyone else's eyes were darting around, and had already stopped paying attention. The tour eventually did end, and as she promised, we were sent to the cafeteria to try to integrate ourselves.
While everyone else was busy talking in the cafeteria, making friends, discussing the guild, and laughing at jokes, I slipped back out to take a closer look at the map. It looked like a much smaller Africa if Finland was attached to its top-left corner.
I stared at it like an idiot for way too long before remembering a crucial detail:
I can't read.
There were blue dots and there were red dots scattered all across the island. Neither meant particularly much to me without the ability to read.
As I was stuck pondering the confusing mess of meaningless words, Elizabeth snuck up on me.
"What are you doing over here?" she asked, being sure to stand as close as physically possible to my ear without actually touching it.
"Oh, uh… Looking," I said, pretending that I wasn't startled by her sudden appearance.
"Why aren't you back in the room with everyone else?" she asked.
"I was just uh…"
Unfortunately, the word for being curious failed to come forth to me, so I stared at her stupidly for a moment.
"Come back into the cafeteria, we're waiting on you in there!" She spoke calmly but with an air of demand and excitement. I saw no polite way out other than to go along with her. I didn't need that map anyways, right?
Various members of my team had split up and joined smaller groups with the other guild members. From what I saw, Tony was chatting with a Buizel, Aza laughed with an Eevee, and Ian talked with another Sylveon.
However, none of that bore any interest to me, because I saw someone standing near the edge of the room. That someone was none other than the Ninetails I saw at my first dungeon expedition.
With Elizabeth breathing down my neck and the sheer terror of seeing a fox, I froze in place. A moment later, the Ninetails saw me as well and walked over. Dread engulfed my face for a moment before I forced it to dissipate, so it wouldn't be seen.
"Hmm. I remember you. You were the Jolteon at the dungeon." he spoke with a slow and accusing tone, and it felt like I needed to force myself not to collapse.
"Y-yes." I faked a smile.
"I heard of what happened to you… Are you afraid of dungeons…?" With the way he studied my face, it felt like he was poking and prodding into my very soul.
"Yes." I pushed forth a stoic tone, even though my mind was screaming.
"What is your name, Jolteon?" he asked.
"Steve," I said.
"Well, let me know if you find anything out about humans, I'm taking any help I can get," he said.
"Why are you so intent on searching?" I innocently asked. The Ninetail's face immediately twisted into a scowl.
"Are you an idiot or something? Look at the walls of our buildings! Do you think those happened naturally? No! Humans caused them, and I-"
"Hey, Team Fam!" a loud voice came from the hallway, interrupting us.
We turned towards the entrance to see that our tour guide had returned. "You're getting your first mission early, come here!"
There was a sudden large pervasive sigh from nearly everyone in the room, part of our team or not. All of my teammates reluctantly left their conversations and gathered at the door. She led us outside and presented a document.
Aza reached out to try and grab it from her, but not before Tony sprinted to the front of the crowd to rip it out of the Meinshao's paws, to which there was surprisingly little reaction.
"Read the paper very carefully," our guide suggested. Tony obeyed, and he squinted before beginning,
"Your mission is at Nuvatut's dungeon. Gather any useful dropped items, and return them to the guild's storage.
Either bags or baskets are heavily recommended.
Only minor combat items are necessary.
Follow all guild procedures, they are listed below as a general reminder." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing. "Always bring at least as many escape orbs as there are members in your group, as well as extras for anybody you may be rescuing in the event of a rescue mission.
Go down your supplies checklist one at a time before going into any dungeon, and recite your team oath.
Failure to meet any of these standards will result in a two-night stay in jail." Tony finished the message as we walked outside.
"That seems a bit harsh of a punishment," Gray remarked.
Tony turned around and left back into the building for a moment, before emerging with a large bag on his back in addition to the document.
"I've got our supplies here." He spoke to us as if it was a warning not to lose it.
"Tony!" someone from the guild called out, making me turn around. "Don't forget to give that back, okay?!" I saw it was a Buizel calling out to him before he slipped back inside.
After a quick second look-through of the rules, we were on our long trek toward our first real dungeon.
