Chapter 13 - Guidance
Es ist nicht bekannt, was Wunders erste Entdecker in die Mysteriösen Orte brachte; sei es die Rettung eines Gefährten in Not, Neugierde, die den Drang weckte, mutig hinauszugehen, um das Unbekannte zu erkunden, oder einfach nur ein Zufall des Schicksals. Was auch immer der Grund war, die Entdecker jener frühen Zeiten entdeckten Mysteriöse Orte schnell als eine Quelle von Schätzen und Wundern, die vor der Außenwelt verborgen waren.
Seltsame Samen, die ihren Verbrauchern unnatürliche Stärken und Krankheiten einflößen. Wunderorbe, die durch die Verzerrung dieser Orte erschaffen wurden und von demselben Äther durchdrungen sein sollen wie die Angriffe, die wir im Kampf ausführen. Transformationskräfte, die es uns ermöglichen, Kleidung mit schützenden Eigenschaften herzustellen, gewöhnlichen Gummis die Fähigkeit zu verleihen, ihre Verbraucher zu stärken, und Ringel zu gestalten, um diejenigen zu unterstützen, die solche Orte durchqueren. Ungleichmäßige Ströme von Zeit und Raum, die weiterhin menschliche Relikte hinterlassen, auch wenn sie in unserer Welt immer seltener werden.
Es ist vielleicht passend, dass Mysteriöse Orte und ihre Schätze schon in diesen frühen Zeiten die Aufmerksamkeit von Kaufleuten auf sich zogen. Überall in den Ländern von Wunder verdienen viele Pokémon ihren Lebensunterhalt mit den Schätzen, die von Mysteriösen Orten gesammelt wurden, und helfen denen, die sie erkunden möchten.
Und dann gibt es noch die Kaufleute, die sich zu den Mitforschern zählen. Mutige und unerschrockene Seelen, die der Verzerrung selbst trotzen, um ihre Waren anzubieten und denen zu helfen, die diese Orte durchstreifen. Ihr Handwerk ist so alt wie unsere geschriebene Geschichte, wobei einige wie der legendäre Torneko der Abenteurer zu den Reihen von Wunders ersten Entdeckern in jenen Zeiten gezählt werden, in denen Geschichte und Folklore nur noch schwer voneinander zu unterscheiden sind.
Sollten Sie auf einen solchen Händler stoßen, können seine Waren und Dienstleistungen für einen zweiten Wind sorgen. Für einen Preis. Sollte es über Ihre Mittel oder Ihren Willen hinausgehen, lehnen Sie höflich ab und machen Sie weiter. Solche Händler sind ausnahmslos stark und erfahren darin, sich gegen Möchtegern-Diebe zu verteidigen, sowohl Wilde als auch Zivile.
Egal wie verzweifelt Ihre Notlage auch sein mag, Sie sind gut beraten, sich diese nicht zum Feind zu machen.
- Auszug aus »Das Erkunderhandbuch zu Merkwürdigen Orten«
Irune wearily trudged along through a dense fog thick enough to barely see past the tip of her snout. Beyond that, there was only the hazy light of fire from Lyle's vents coming through the mist—the only reminder of her teammates' presence beyond the tugs along the guiding string in her claws. The hazy surroundings kept her in a sort of quiet solace, leaving little to compete with the thoughts swirling about in her mind.
… She'd really screwed up. She didn't even mean to say half the things she did to Kate and the others after they'd fought off the Monster House earlier. She just didn't want to see them suck yet another Pokémon into her problems, not after what had happened to so many others she'd run into over the past year.
And yet, by trying to intervene, she'd made the Pokémon she was counting on to escort her to the Divine Roost worse off for it. At least one of whom she doubted could fight properly at the moment. She had never been under any illusions that their relationship wasn't ultimately transactional, but the three couldn't possibly have trusted her more after everything that had happened…
… And that was even before factoring in how they'd seen that power that slumbered inside of her. The same power she was trying to bottle up to the point that she was making this desperate journey to the Divine Roost for a chance to control it and hide it away from the rest of the world. The same power had gotten her into trouble with the army in the first place. Did those three realize what had happened there? If so, would they turn her over to Lacan to try and save their hides over it?
A mixture of guilt and panic swirled in the Axew's head as it felt as if a part of her was about to explode. Just then, Irune noticed the mist around her starting to thin as her teammates began coming back into view. The cave roof vanished once they passed a stony overhang, and she stepped out into a place that was completely different from the muggy jungles of Primordial Woods:
A craggy scrubland, with trench-like chambers and passages formed out of dark, uneven stone. A glance upward revealed that the skies were deep blue and barely lit up from late twilight. Probably. With the way Mystery Dungeons had kept surprising her over the past year, she wouldn't have ruled out the possibility that the sky just always looked like this in this place.
Thankfully, her teammates were more concerned with their surroundings than her right then. Lyle and Kate stopped to check up on Dalton's arm as they went to consult their handbook, the Sneasel musing aloud that perhaps the Heliolisk was doing better after the healing berries and seeds had had more time to take effect. An attempt to move his limb swiftly disabused everyone of that notion, as Dalton fought back a yelp and grit his teeth in a pained grimace. An attempt to open his frill met similar results.
Irune let her eyes wander and tried not to listen to her teammate as she stopped to try and catch her breath. She didn't need reminders of how things had turned out because of her decisions right now.
A glimpse upwards at the edge of the walls revealed wisps of grass clinging to the tops of the ledges surrounding them far above, violently whipping back and forth with unfelt wind. Irune didn't know a lot about Mystery Dungeons, but she knew that attempting to climb these stony faces would go nowhere. If this place was anything like some of the other Mystery Dungeons she'd been in in the past year, trying to do so would be a recipe for getting blown off while scaling the wall faces. Not that they would be going far even if they succeeded.
There in the sky above them was a plateau on a spindly, stony spire that mushroomed beyond its base almost like some sort of strange tree, surrounded on all sides by sudden drops into a mist-filled abyss. Irune couldn't see the top of the plateau, but from its size, she guessed it was another floor of the Mystery Dungeon they were in which the Distortion had made visible. The quiet, blanching grimaces on her teammates' faces all but confirmed the guess.
"Gods, talk about coming out of the pan and into the fire," Kate gulped.
… Where were they even supposed to start right now? The only one of them who had traveled around enough to potentially recognize this place was Dalton. Between the way he was struggling to do much more than walk along with the team and his worried gaze skywards, if he knew this place from beyond books, he was in no state to turn that knowledge to his advantage.
Irune took a moment to scan her surroundings, when she noticed Lyle glancing over at her. She hesitated briefly, uneasily kicking her feet against the grassy earth beneath her feet. She… didn't know if she was ready to talk with him right now, and she didn't know if he'd even want to talk with her. So for the time being, it was best to keep quiet and stay focused on their problems at hand.
"How far do we need to make it through Raptor Rock until we find an exit?" she asked.
"Somewhere between six and eight floors if that handbook was right,," Lyle replied. "Assuming we don't run into any more nasty surprises."
A sharp wince followed Lyle's statement, as he and Irune looked over to see Dalton had inadvertently shifted his wounded arm and was visibly blinking back tears. Irune knew that she'd made some desperate escapes in the past year, but could Dalton make it through that many floors of a Mystery Dungeon in this condition? Kate looked over and pinned her ears back, and as the Sneasel turned back to her Quilava teammate, Irune already knew what the answer to that question was before the words left her mouth:
"Lyle, how do you expect us to fight through six floors like this?!" she exclaimed. "We're all beat and Dalton can't even chuck items properly right now!"
An uncomfortable silence fell over the gathered Outlaws, as neither Irune nor her teammates were sure of what to do. Irune hadn't been any stranger to leaving others behind, and a part of her had been relieved that she hadn't had to do the same with any of her present teammates since fleeing Waterhead Cave...
But history suggested that it would be a matter of time before things came to that. Even so, leaving Dalton behind like this? In a state where he'd be struggling to defend himself in Mystery Dungeon full of Wilders?
Irune didn't know if she'd have the heart to write him off. Not like this.
Even if she and the others did, what good would come of it? Dalton had been the one who'd found their escape routes in the first place. Without him, it'd likely doom her expedition to the Divine Roost to inevitable failure and recapture by the army.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. They had a moment of quiet right now. They still had options before they continued on, didn't they? The Axew looked about her teammates, as Lyle stepped to the fore of his other teammates, rearing up and motioning for calm with his paws.
"W-We can sneak around a bit. The handbook said Raptor Rock isn't supposed to be as harsh of a Mystery Dungeon and we were doing that fine for a good chunk of those last few floors," the Quilava said unconvincingly. "Maybe we'll get lucky. We could come across a Pocket to lie low in, or an uncharted exit, or-"
Before Lyle could finish speaking, a harsh, whistling wind rang out along the floor. A gust followed, forceful enough to make Irune and the rest of Team Forager shield their eyes. The wind lingered a moment, before ebbing away and leaving the Dragon-type to shiver a bit from the autumnal chill. To think she'd miss Primordial Woods' muggy heat already!
The Axew pawed at her eyes and looked towards her teammates when she immediately realized something was wrong. The lot of them had suddenly flushed pale and looked much as if they'd just seen Lacan himself round the corner.
That was as good a sign as any that that wind wasn't supposed to happen. Worse still, from her teammates' expressions, Irune was pretty sure that they were in serious danger right now.
"Oh Götterblut, the dungeon winds are coming now of all times?" Kate muttered. "What god's spirit did we piss off to get into this situation?"
"H-Hrmph, it's Raptor Rock," Dalton insisted, his own voice audibly uneasily. "It could just as easily be from winds outside reverberating."
"We wouldn't have felt it if it was, Scales!" the Sneasel piped. "I'll admit I don't exactly know a lot about this Mystery Dungeon, but do you really wanna place any bets in your current condition that that was really just wind from outside that just blew in our faces?"
The Heliolisk grimaced and remained silent. Irune supposed that was one way to tell he wasn't confident enough to take that bet. The Axew glanced over towards Lyle and saw his fire had come out from his vents, simmering with anxious tension.
"Lyle? A-Are we sure that it's not something else making that noise?" she gulped.
"Well, we'll find out in about five minutes. Tops," Kate piped. "If you don't feel like risking a bad landing somewhere else in this dungeon or just outside of it, we should find a place to lay low before then."
… Five minutes. even if they still had a Stairs Orb with them, it was going to be challenging. But they couldn't just sit here! Irune knew that Lacan wanted her for that power within her. She didn't know why, but knowing the army and the worrisome rumors about the war's progress in Edialeigh, it probably boiled down to someone in the army thinking that it could be used as a weapon of some sort.
… Maybe Lacan had some sort of personal motivation, since he or whoever put him up to this really wanted that power. Badly enough to keep him chasing her around Varhyde instead of fighting on the frontlines in spite of his strength. And during the times they had crossed paths in the past year, Lacan had always been extremely mindful of her whenever she'd been injured, as if the world would've ended had the worst come to pass.
Irune didn't know what would happen to that power if she ever got seriously hurt, but she really didn't want to find out.
Nobody else felt like contesting Kate's suggestion, and before Irune knew it, she and the others were hurriedly making their way down a passage exiting the left of their chamber. They followed a winding path to a long, strip-like space with pillars of stone jutting up just out of reach. Another turn later, they continued on towards a place where the ground narrowed into thin, spiraling paths. Ones that curled in among themselves above the abyss below.
There wasn't any sign of the stairs during all of that. But more worrying still, the entire time, the floor was quiet with not so much as the sound of a Wilder passing in the distance. Irune noticed stray feathers on the ground as they carried on. She saw plumes from Rufflet and Braviary, some Staraptor ones near a Sleep Seed that Lyle found and snagged along their way, even the brilliant teal of a Hawlucha's wing feathers. Clearly 'Raptor Rock' wasn't all that undeserved a name from the Pokémon that lived here. But they were doing their best to keep themselves hidden.
From how those Pokémon would be formidable foes in their own right, Irune was increasingly convinced that the floor they were on really was going to be wiped in a few minutes.
As if on cue, the winds suddenly kicked up again, this time noticeably louder and stronger. Enough so that Irune had to cling to Lyle's flank for dear life as the Quilava dropped down and dug all four of his feet into the ground to keep his balance. Irune shivered and pressed up against the Fire-type's warmth. He looked back briefly, before he gaped up at the distorted sky above him with a face that looked like he was expecting it would cave in on them at any moment.
"Yeah… that's… not just wind from the outside," the Quilava gulped. "And I'm pretty sure we don't have five minutes to work with to get out of here."
Everyone grimaced, joining Lyle with blank stares skywards. Irune's heart was pounding now, her breaths coming out in shallow pants as her eyes started to mist up with frightened tears. G-Gods, wh-what were they supposed to do here?!
Just then, Irune's nose pricked up with a fruity odor on the air that brought back memories of being patched up after bad spills in past Mystery Dungeons. The Axew blinked briefly to make sure her mind was tricking her and turned her head up. She sniffed at the air, and no, the odor was definitely there, since that was distinctly a whiff of…
"... Oran Berries?" she murmured. "Do you all smell it too?"
Lyle blinked at her question and gave an apprehensive sniff at the air himself, with Kate and Dalton following suit. Their expressions convinced her that she wasn't going crazy, there really was a smell of Oran Berries in the air. Dalton winced and shifted briefly, shakily peering over at her as his face fell into a wary frown.
"How's that supposed to help us right now?" the Heliolisk asked. "For all we know, that's from a team of Hunters prowling around to go bounty hunting!"
Irune flinched at the Electric-type's reply. Yes… that was certainly a possibility. But Lacan hadn't tipped off the Grünhäuter around Moonturn Square in time to put up public bounties for them back in Moonturn Square, and they'd seen neither hide nor scale of Lacan's Grünhäuter since they entered Primordial Woods…
Irune shook her head. It admittedly wasn't much of a reassurance, but it was all they had to go on right then
"I mean, I don't know for sure that it's not. But I don't think Lacan would've have thought of sending Pokémon to search for us here?" she replied, stammering a bit as she tried to convince herself with her own words. "He leads a Fähnlein, and there's only so many Pokémon in it. Wouldn't he have logically divided it up around Moonturn Square since he didn't know what direction we'd flee from it?"
The others traded hesitant looks and lingered a moment. She… admittedly couldn't fault them for being hesitant. Even if they hadn't had that fight between them earlier, she was asking them to place their hopes into such a flimsy lead when they were traveling with a wounded teammate. For all she knew, Dalton was right and the Oran Berries really were from a Hunter's encampment. Or they belonged to some Wilders who'd gotten into an exposure chest or abandoned bag. Or she was just wrong and it really was a sign those damned soldiers were here, too.
There were plenty of possibilities that would lead to a hostile encounter, one they were hardly guaranteed to overcome in their present states if they got into another skirmish…
The wind suddenly kicked up again, blowing fiercely enough to force Lyle back onto all fours and blow Irune and Dalton off their feet. Things went by so quickly after that: she felt her back in the ground and the chilly wind blow over her scales, Dalton crying out in pain just loud enough to be heard over its whistle. Irune screwed her eyes shut and rolled over onto her belly as the wind continued howling and she started to feel light-headed.
Much to her relief, the wind began to let up, as she laid there a moment and panted tensely. The next thing she knew, she felt warm paws sharply tugged her up and as she saw Lyle's underbelly. A little ways off behind him, Kate was busy helping Dalton up in the background as he audibly fought back a whimper—the wind must've made him roll onto his injured arm again.
Irune felt Lyle's grip tighten on her and looked up at his face. He was wide-eyed with his vents pouring nervous fire, with a face that looked equal parts frightened and… worried? He suck in a sharp breath and looked of at his similarly frightened teammates, and then up nervously at the sky above.
"... Okay, point taken. We'll fight things out if we have to," Lyle said. "Come on, whatever that smell's coming from, we'll take our chances with it."
Lyle crouched and sniffed at the air, Irune following his head off towards his left before the stoat bounded off. Irune hurried after her Quilava guide, lingering just long enough for Kate to see her and help Dalton limp along as the four made their way from one intersection of corridors to the next. After a tense few moments that felt like a heart-pounding eternity, they came to a chamber consisting of a stony ledge wedged between a cliff on one hand, and an overhang on the other where the smell of the Oran Berries was particularly strong, following it to a barren patch of dirt as Team Forager's faces collectively froze into a shared grimace.
"That smell must've been some Hunters who just bailed and teleported out from here," Kate gulped. "This place is a dead-end!"
Irune watched as the fight seemed to go out of the eyes of her teammates, with Lyle in particular hanging his head and staring blankly at the ground. I-It couldn't really be a dead end, could it? She hadn't spent the past year running from Lacan and his goons for things to just wait to be swept away~ She knew that she had smelled Oran Berries earlier! Why, she could even smell them right now!
"Huh?"
Irune sniffed carefully as she realized that there was a patch of dirt with a small blue stain that smelled of Oran Berries. She supposed that residue would leave a scent, but one she could smell from so far away? She stooped and reached out at the dirt in front of her, when the others noticed her, her Quilava teammate blinking his eyes puzzledly.
"Wait. Irune, what are you-?"
She prodded at the dirt, when it abruptly gave way and kicked up a large cloud of dust. Irune jolted back with a sharp yelp and fell onto her rump, coughing from the dust getting into her lungs as Team Forager's members gathered around. And then she saw it: there in the void she'd just uncovered was a set of steps they'd been taking from one floor to the next in the Mystery Dungeons they'd gone through.
"A-Ah! I didn't know that the stairs to the next floor could be hidden like that!"
"They aren't," Lyle said, eyeing the stairs warily. "And if they were a new set that just formed, it should've made more of a racket with the Distortion shifting the earth around to form it."
Wait. Then these weren't normal stairs? Irune supposed she'd vaguely heard of stories like this before. Something that another Outlaw she'd met had called a 'Geheimbasar₁' that she was struggling to remember details about. A sharp scoff drew her attention over to Kate, right as the Sneasel pinned her ears back and shook her head before already making her way down the steps.
"Oh come on, Lyle. Are you really that out of things? That's the entrance to a Secret Bazaar!" she exclaimed. "This is as good of a lucky break as we're gonna get, so let's hurry up and get out of here!"
Right. That's where she heard those stories from. Those places were small Pockets that got taken over by merchants that would get shuffled around in the Distortion! With how dire their present circumstances were, Irune supposed they could've done worse than to come across a place like this.
Dalton hurried forward along with Kate right as she came to a stop in front of a patch of fog at the base of the steps and hurriedly fished out the guiding string. Irune didn't waste any time following them down, with Lyle darting along right on her heels.
Then, his footsteps abruptly stopped all of a sudden. The Axew glanced past her shoulder as Lyle stopped to rear up and had an expression that looked spooked.
"Kate, you're sure this is a Secret Bazaar?" he asked. "It can't possibly be anything else at all?"
Irune gulped and faltered briefly. They already made a decision to fight things out if things came to it, which if Kate was wrong and this was a Wilder's den or heaven forbid, an Exploration Team's encampment, they'd have to. Somehow she hadn't expected her stomach to flutter like this staring off into the unknown.
She shuffled back a couple steps towards Lyle and she peered down uneasily at the foggy entrance at the base. Even if Kate was right, would going into a Secret Bazaar really be a refuge for them?
"Now that you mention it, is it safe for us to go on ahead, Lyle?" Irune asked. "We're Outlaws, aren't we? Won't those merchants in this Bazaar figure it out?"
Kate and Dalton shot back impatient glares, and Lyle poked his head up towards the stairs. He lingered a moment, before faltering and grabbing onto her.
"I-It's safer than the alternative!" he insisted. "Come on, you found this place, so stop dragging your feet like-!"
Irune couldn't hear the rest of Lyle's words as the wind suddenly came back, blowing strong enough to sweep her off her feet. Irune's eyes widened as the wind picked her up and started to blow her out of the gully for the steps, feeling stray pebbles and twigs fly by.
Irune screamed and flailed desperately after she no longer felt the ground below her. She felt warm, fuzzy paws latch onto her and pull her back down. The pull of the air was no longer enough to keep her aloft as Irune hit the steps with a yelp, tumbling to a stop alongside Lyle at the base of the steps as the winds kicked up into a deafening howl.
Irune shivered and a low whimper came from the back of her throat, as she realized that she'd almost gotten caught up in the Dungeon Winds. A tug at her shoulder drug her back onto her feet and snapped her back to attention, as she looked up to see Lyle pulling her into at the mouth of the fog with Kate and Dalton already vanishing from view.
"H-Hold on tight to the string and don't stop running!" the Quilava cried. "We're getting out of here!"
The Axew didn't know how long it'd taken them to find this place, but they clearly didn't have five minutes left before the dungeon cleared the floor. Or one minute. Or thirty seconds for that matter.
That was all the prodding she needed, as the Axew latched onto the guiding string and ran for dear life into the fog after Kate and Dalton's vanishing forms. She felt Lyle following along from behind, hurriedly pushing her forward as howling winds nipped at their backs and the sound of crashing and grinding stone rang out behind them.
The whole time, Irune didn't dare stop to look back as the world behind her was blown into parts unknown, and the word before her vanished into mist.
Team Forager only slowed down after they stopped feeling the wind against their bodies, the cue that they were far enough into their island of stability to safely catch their breaths. After a tense, shaky moment to regain their bearings, Lyle and his teammates opted to sort themselves out in the passage leading to the Pocket ahead before the mist got too thick. Lyle was moved to the front of the group to lead everyone with the string, with Kate following behind, and Dalton and Irune trailing her from the rear. As the most vulnerable members at that moment, they needed every leg up they could get if they wound up having to cut and run.
After taking the head of the group again, Lyle forced his fire from his vents to try and provide a guiding light for the others through the haze. From the way he heard them sputter and the thick tang of smoke in the air, he wondered how much of a difference the flames coming from his exhausted body made. The howling winds grew fainter and fainter the further Team Forager made their way down the passage, as did the rest of Lyle's senses as the effects of the surrounding Distortion had their expected effects. Before he knew it, there was nothing to be seen or heard but fog thick enough that he could barely see his trembling paws and the muddled sounds and scents of his teammates behind him.
The Quilava stopped a moment as his heart raced in his chest and sucked in a sharp breath to try and calm his nerves. If he and Irune had lingered for just a moment longer back there, they would have been swept up into the Distortion and would've woken up gods-knew-where in the Mystery Dungeon. If they would've ever woken up again at all.
A tug from the guiding string in his paws brought him to attention, as Kate walked up behind him with a worried look.
"Hey, not that going easy isn't a good idea for Scales right now, but this really isn't a good place to linger," she said. "Was there something wrong up ahead?"
Lyle paused and looked down. Gods, how had he gotten into this mess? How was he just now regretting not just crawling into a burrow and opting to take his chances that he'd get overlooked by the Grünhäuter after going to ground?
Dalton came into view afterwards, the Heliolisk staggering and fighting back a whine as he tried not to focus on his injured arm. Irune followed afterwards, looking up at the Electric-type with a guilty expression as she pawed at something under her scarf.
… Right, her pendant. That little token that Irune was insistent that she needed in order to find whatever she was looking for from the Divine Roost's treasure. The only one treasure definitely out there that was big enough to get them out of as much hot water as they were in right now. The one that would give him a hope of being able to finally not be at the whims of a world that seemed hell-bent on only giving him bad options to pick from to survive.
Except, as a glance at Dalton reminded, they had more immediate problems they needed to get through first.
"I didn't notice anything yet," Lyle said, shaking his head. "Just… stay on your guard. Even if there really is a Secret Bazaar up ahead, I'm not sure what sort of reception we're going to get from it."
Nobody contested Lyle's point before he led his teammates along. After a moment that felt like a small eternity to his aching limbs, the Quilava's vision and senses gradually started to return. First, there was the smell of Oran Berries pricking his nose again, then the sound of murmuring chatter as he began to see more and more of his teammates from glimpses over his shoulder. At long last, the outlines of some sort of cave clearing began to fill in from up ahead along with the glow of torches and lanterns filled with Luminous Moss, and indistinct voices began to reach his ears through the air.
As Lyle stepped out of the fog, he quickly discovered he'd come out into a Pocket consisting of a clearing surrounded by steep, stone walls with a stony lip that formed some sort of natural skylight. A series of mats were spread out with items and bric-a-brac scattered around on them that were tended to by a small party of Pokémon. Much as Kate suspected, it was a Secret Bazaar, and the Pokémon approaching them must've been the merchants who ran it.
The ringleader of the lot appeared to be a Golisopod that initially stood guard at a mat in front of a darkened passage. He approached flanked by a Mimikyu and Araquanid who left a makeshift fountain to join him from his right. Then came a Cramorant and a Drampa who joined on his left from a mat with various bags, some of them carrying that same Oran scent from earlier. The five merchants sported incredulous stares, which Lyle supposed was as sure a sign as any that they'd stepped out looking like they'd been run over by a boulder.
… Which considering the Wilders they'd fought while in Primordial Woods, wasn't all that far from the truth.
"Gottverdammt, talk about good timing there," the Golisopod remarked. "You all must've just missed the floor getting wiped."
"What on earth happened to you all?" the Cramorant asked. "Your Heliolisk pal there looks a bit chewed up. Literally, even."
Lyle blinked and glanced back at Dalton just in time to see him bristle and pull his tail in tight with a defensive scowl. Now that Lyle had gotten a better look at him, he supposed those bite marks marring the Electric-type's scales weren't exactly hard to miss.
The Quilava hesitated for a moment. Was it safe to just explain what had really happened? They had stolen the identities of a team of Hunters. Lyle noticed Kate open her mouth to speak before trailing off herself, evidently having trouble settling on what to say in reply.
"We're an Exploration Team," he sighed. "As you can see, we've been having some crap luck in the Dungeon."
Hopefully that'd be enough to get them off their backs. Since the more he thought about it, the more just keeping their mouths shut about details sounded like a good idea-
"We passed through Primordial Woods earlier to reach the Mystery Dungeon outside," Irune explained, pawing at the back of her head meekly. "We… kinda underestimated how difficult the journey would be and were looking for a place to lick our wounds."
Well, too late. Lyle bit his lip, expecting to be peppered with probing questions about what their business was going through Primordial Woods, or questions about Hunter stuff like their rank and guild that were bound to be a headache to keep straight, or…
"You'll need a bit more than that with wounds like those! I'm surprised you even managed to limp down the stairs in that condition!" the Cramorant exclaimed. "Why on earth did you four not use your badges for help?"
Or something like that.
Lyle blanched at the Cramorant's comment. He wasn't sure how to answer that question since they didn't have badges to show at the moment. But were they really hurt that badly right now? Dalton aside, he didn't think that their wounds were that severe.
Lyle glanced over his teammates and stiffened up. A closer look at Irune revealed cuts along her hide, and Kate had patches of fur that were visibly matted with dirt and dried blood.
Gods, no wonder why he felt like crap right now if Irune and Kate had wounds like those. Why, those two had been thrown around less than he had! He guessed that maybe their wounds would have looked a bit better had they had time to stop and dress them, but...
"We… don't have any?" Irune replied. "We're not affiliated with a guild, so-"
Ack, what was Irune doing?! She'd tip the whole world off to something being up with them with a hesitant answer like that. Lyle watched as Kate hurriedly darted over and nudged the Axew for silence, before shooting a shaky grin back at the gathered merchants.
"W-We're new to this!" she insisted. "We just made a bit of a clumsy mistake as Explorers, so lesson learned!"
"... Then why didn't you use an Escape Orb?" the Mimikyu asked. "It'd have taken you back to where you came from and you could've flagged down a team entering there."
"Yeah, I know that times are tough, but I've never heard anyone say Primordial Woods was an easy dungeon to traverse," the Golisopod added, giving a wary frown. "Are you seriously telling me that you four planned on journeying through two dungeons and didn't take any precautions for something going wrong?"
Lyle stared back dumbly at the Water-type. Blauflamme, just how was he supposed to respond to that?! The merchants surely had grown suspicious of their behavior by now, so what on earth were they supposed to do?
"Urgh… we didn't get a chance."
Lyle looked back at Dalton as the Heliolisk tottered with a defeated, downcast gaze. Lyle hesitated. They were all hurt right now, he suspected earlier that Dalton's arm was broken, but from the way he was struggling to keep his balance, he must've been doing worse than he thought. The merchants traded wary glances with one another. Sensing that their opportunity to escape was slipping through their paws, Lyle flattened his ears and stammered a bit, deciding that their best chance was to acknowledge their story sounded fishy and try to move on.
"L-Look, I know that none of that sounds satisfying to you, but that really happened," he pleaded. "We just need a way out of here. We're not exactly familiar with this place, and if you could help us find an exit, it could mean the difference between our Team holding together or not."
Lyle looked up as the Golisopod hesitated, before stepping forward and sizing up the four Outlaws with a flash of his claws. The Bug-type clearly sensed that something was wrong with them with a reaction like that. Lyle felt his fire flicker in anxiety and fought to tamp it down, flattening his ears and biting his lip as the Bug-type let his eyes linger on them. After a good, long while, the Golisopod shook his head and spoke up in a wary tone.
"I'll see if there's a teleporter from the guild in town who can come and grab you," the Golisopod said. "Normally, I'd show you an exit myself, but you really should get those wounds looked at."
"No!"
Lyle felt their blood drain from his face and watched Kate and Dalton flush pale as Irune darted in with frantic stare. Then came the flash of realization that she'd exposed them with her behavior as she froze in place, and then shrank back timidly.
Gottverdammt, she just had to have an outburst like that right now.
In the corner of his eye, Lyle could see Kate and Dalton's expressions had become visibly alarmed. From the way the merchants' expressions were hardening and taking on dubious appearances in live-time, it was probably for good reason.
This… This was it, wasn't it? They were going to get jumped and turned in here.
Lyle's mind went blank in a panic as Irune continued to trip over her words. The Axew pawed uneasily at her scarf, and grabbed at what Lyle assumed was her pendant underneath through the fabric. She sucked in a breath and spoke up again, looking much like a Rattata that had been backed into a corner.
"I mean- It's just that- We're in a bit of a complicated situation right now," the Axew explained. "We would really rather just pay for your services to get out of here."
The Golisopod gave an incredulous cock of his brow in reply, before looking over Team Forager's members when a moment of realization seemed to come over his face. A deep scowl set in and his body's posture grew defensive, as if he were ready to pounce on them at a moment. He knew, he had to have known they were Outlaws from that reaction.
The Quilava flinched and braced himself, expecting the Golisopod and his fellows to set upon them at any moment, only for the Bug-type merchant to stop, and him to shake his head.
"Hrmph. You're lucky that it's part of my job to not ask questions about the Pokémon I guide, kid," the Golisopod grunted. "I'll show you the long way out, but it'll be 100 Poké. And I won't accept Carolins either."
Lyle exhaled and looked over at his teammates. Dalton and Irune seemed visibly tense, while Kate looked like she'd just been soaked in the face. The Sneasel pinned her ears back and narrowed her eyes into a sharp glare, giving an irritated flash of her claws.
"Are you seriously charging us money for help right now?!" she hissed. "You just went on about how we weren't in good shape!"
"I ought to demand more from you since I can already tell you four are trouble and are probably going to make me waste time answering questions from the Gendarmen later on," the Golisopod snorted back. "But I don't like kicking 'mons when they're down, and 100 Poké isn't that hard to scrape together. Just send it my way, I get you out of here, and give you directions for going straight to the local medic since getting a normal rescue won't cut it for you."
Lyle traded uneasy glances with his teammates. This Golisopod had them over a barrel and he were pretty sure that the bug knew it. Could they even trust him? How could they be sure that he wasn't setting them up? Kate and Dalton seemed to be paralyzed with indecision, as Irune looked up and pawed at Lyle with a low whisper.
"Should we accept his offer?" she whispered. "I know we're not doing well right now, but it could be some sort of trap."
Lyle pawed at his head uneasily when he felt something like sand get dislodged from under his fur and something warm and sticky cling his paw. The Quilava pulled it back and noticed that there was dark fluid now staining it. Blood, not that the smell and texture left any room for doubt.
… Screw it, the Golisopod had given them an out when he and his buddies could've just wiped them out on the spot. Or extorted them for everything they had. Even if Lyle didn't fully trust the 'mon… did they really have better options right now?
"Uh… it's 100 Poké, right? And how exactly were we supposed to find this medic again?"
True to his word, the Golisopod led Team Forager's members down the tunnel from the Secret Bazaar and into a fog-shrouded passage that started a short ways from its mouth. So that was how these merchants made their way in. The whole time, Lyle and his teammates were on pins and needles, half-expecting their guide to shove them off the path and into the Distortion at any second. Those fears never came to pass, as the Quilava saw the mist clear and little by little to reveal a gully with strange light down from above.
When they popped out the end of the gully, Lyle discovered they had exited into a darkened grassland. The skies above them were lit up by the moon and stars, and awash in ethereal bands of blue and green light. A glance behind revealed a large mass of fog. Rising from its center the spindly stone spire and the peak of Raptor Rock towering over the whole Mystery Dungeon much like a giant, stony mushroom cap. Lyle supposed that the effects of its Distortion would explain why the auroras were so bright right now.
… Was it just from the Distortion? No matter what direction he looked off in, the Quilava could see revealed bands of similarly colored light that looked every bit as bright as the ones around Raptor Rock. Lyle had heard that auroras now occurred naturally in parts of Wander far away what they used to before the Great Flash, including in a number of Provinzen in Varhyde. Some were known for having ones that were particularly vivid ones even without the influence of nearby Mystery Dungeons.
From how bright the lights in the sky overhead were, Lyle supposed that they'd just arrived at one of those places.
He stared up blankly for a moment, almost forgetting about his and his teammates' injuries, or the fact that they were risking life and limb to try and beat that damned Graf Lacan across the Kingdom to some treasure that for all they knew was being plundered by someone else at this very moment. A low hiss snapped him back to reality, Lyle and his companions bracing themselves as they whirled around to see the Golisopod retracing his steps back to the gully and looking over his shoulder with a sharp frown.
"Last chance to go back and ask for someone from the Guild to come and get you," the Golisopod harrumphed. "We might be close by to Errberk Village, but it's still quite a walk."
Lyle was honestly half-tempted to take the merchant up on his offer. For all they knew, they'd just emerged half the kingdom away from Toya Square. But he didn't want to push his luck further, not after today. Kate was clearly even less enthused by the idea. The Sneasel's face fell into a sharp scowl as she flattened her ears out and pointed her left claw accusingly at the Bug-type.
"Look, we had a deal alright?" she harrumphed. "So just leave us be and tell us where we need to go."
The Golisopod scowled back silently, and for a moment, Lyle worried that the Bug-type would abruptly renege on his deal. The Quilava braced himself, readying a Smokescreen at the back of his throat to spit up at a moment's notice… except it was never needed. The Golisopod sighed and shook his head instead, before motioning off at a dirt path in the tall grasses a little ways off.
"You four really are stubborn types…" the guide sighed. "Follow the path and you'll come across the village soon enough. Just try not to keel over along the way."
Lyle breathed out a sigh of relief the guide started to head back for the passage into Raptor Rock. The Golisopod then stopped and lingered a moment, much to the Quilava's confusion.
"If you've got a reason to be this averse to accepting help, you probably want to consider changing things up in your lives," the Golisopod said. "Not everybody has the luxury of getting a chance to do that after a scare like this."
Lyle fell silent at the Bug-type's words. They were truer than the merchant would ever know, not least of all since they were the only Pokémon still standing from their original bands. The Quilava bit his lip and looked away briefly, as Kate folded her arms with a sharp scoff and roll of her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, we'll keep it in mind."
The Golisopod stood still for a moment, before continuing on into the passage back to his and his fellow merchants' Pocket. As the Golisopod's body slipped off and melted away into the mist-shrouded gully, Lyle looked on for a brief moment. His ears pricked to attention from a sharp harrumph, and from a glance discovered Kate was already making her way off for the path with a sour expression settled over her face.
"Hrmph, would it have killed that asshole to give some well-wishing?" she complained. "Seriously, when was the last time anyone paid for 'service with a scowl'?"
Lyle briefly thought to chide the Sneasel for complaining about them just being rid of a 'mon who'd have been a tough if not impossible fight, when a pained whine made him think better of it. Dalton was cradling his wounded arm again, the fact that he'd fallen on it more than once since they left Primordial Woods probably didn't help the pain he was feeling right now. To his left, he discovered he wasn't alone as Irune was looking up at the Heliolisk with a worried expression. One that seemed almost guilty.
So everyone felt like crap for at least one reason right now. Lyle wasn't sure that he needed to be reminded of that. The Quilava trudged ahead after his Ice-type counterpart, shaking his head with a low murmur.
"Just… try and keep things in perspective, Kate," he insisted. "Things really could've ended a lot worse for us back there."
Kate didn't say anything in reply. Without further word, she slunk off for the path, as Lyle and Irune helped Dalton hobble along after her. The four hurried off as fast as their bodies' conditions would let them away from the passage into Raptor Rock. Just in case the Golisopod got second thoughts of his gesture of relative generosity.
After a little bit, when Lyle was satisfied that they'd gotten out of the Golisopod's line of sight and beyond his range of hearing even if the merchant had come back out, he slowed his pace along with his teammates. Every bone in his body seemed to ache and his stomach protested as if it hadn't been fed for days. Gods, those Mystery Dungeons had done a number on them.
Even with the slowed pace, Lyle found himself stopping every now and then with his teammates under the glow of the night sky overhead. The process was slow and exhausting, not that trudging along after being chewed up by a Tyrantrum and running through Mystery Dungeons all day was bound to be comfortable.
He was just thankful that he didn't feel the autumn chill as much, since every little gust would make Dalton and Irune flinch briefly from their effects. This sort of weather wasn't supposed to be kind on Pokémon of their sort, and it kept him looking over worriedly at their Heliolisk companion.
Maybe he'd have done it even without the chilly weather. Since even with his and Irune's help, the Heliolisk struggled to keep up. To the point that the lot occasionally had to stop for brief rests whenever Dalton's pain grew too much for the lizard to bear.
… Could they really make it to the Divine Roost with Dalton in this state? Or even to Errberk Village? Lyle tried to reassure himself that once they Dalton's wounds were treated, things would surely be more manageable. Whatever Rankar had done to his arm could surely be dealt with by some berries and a day or two of rest…
Right?
Lyle tried to dispel those worrisome doubts and let his eyes drift towards patches of tall grass on the untamed plains surrounding the path. He didn't know how interesting it'd be to travel through these grasses by day, but only with the lights in the night sky and his body's fire to illuminate things, it was hard to make things out much in the way of defining features. A lone tree here, some rubbish discarded along the path there, normal things one would expect on a backcountry path. Then there were the weirder things that stood out: shallow craters and lines of eroded ditches, a few broken and rusted links of metal mail at the edge of the brush, a stele of weathered rocks that had been stacked up on each other…
And a burnt-out cart that showed signs of being recently abandoned after a struggle. Probably because of Pokémon like them.
Before long, Team Forager came to the edge of a bluff and a series of switchbacks overlooking an extension of the plains at a lower elevation that the four made their way down in fits and starts. As Lyle crept along the craggy passage, he noticed faint, fuzzy straight lines lit up by the moon and auroras. Fields for crops, it looked like. Irune seemed to have noticed them as well from the worried look she gave him and his other teammates.
"What do we do now?" she murmured.
"Keep going forward, what else?" Lyle answered. "Those lands we just passed through wouldn't have gone unclaimed for farming without a reason, and it's not exactly a smart idea to just camp in the wilderness with Dalton like this. We've been on the wrong side of territorial Wilders enough times for one day."
Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Lyle flinched from Dalton's voice loudly yelping and wincing. Lyle looked back up the switchback they were on alongside Kate as they watched Dalton stumble away from a rock face to their left and try to steady himself. Kate stiffened up and quietly grimaced at the sight of the shambling Electric-type, and shook her head to herself with a sharp frown.
"In case you haven't noticed, it isn't a smart idea to keep going with Scales like this either," she piped. "Considering how for all we know, that Golisopod pointed us off towards an army base or a Hunters' Guild, you might not wanna dismiss that 'camping out here' idea so quickly."
Lyle felt fire spring to life from his vents and shot an irritated scowl back at the Sneasel. He didn't need to be reminded that they were in a bad spot, but surely Kate knew better than to try and expect Dalton to just sleep off that arm of his. They'd already been flatly warned that the ones they had were serious enough that someone ought to look at them. Why, gods forbid, if Lacan and his Fähnlein caught up to them in this state, they'd be able to do little more than to just roll over in surrender!
The Quilava opened his mouth to protest, when he noticed Irune was staring off into the distance and plodding forward. Lyle craned his head after her and blinked, watching the Axew pace ahead a few steps before she hesitated and looked towards him and the others.
"Actually, did that Golisopod ever say what we were supposed to be looking for to find that 'Errberk Village' he was talking about?" she asked.
"No?" Lyle replied. "Why?"
"Because I'm wondering if that's it up there."
Irune pointed ahead to the side of the switchback as Lyle followed her claw and squinted off into the darkness. His vision made the sight muddy from how far it was, but sure enough, there did seem to be stray lights of some sort shining above the ground from atop a darkened mass—the dim blues of Luminous Moss and warm oranges of torchlight. Dalton must've been able to make out the lights better, since even in his weakened state, he visibly hesitated and shrank back from the sight.
"A-Agh… aren't those lights a bit high up?"
"That'd be a good sign, right?" Kate asked. "Buildings with a second or third floor here or there aren't that rare in villages. They'd have lights like those, wouldn't they?"
Lyle looked off at the lights in the distance and saw that the bulk of them were clustered together in a low place. While he supposed that even with a habit of going dark at night, one would still see some lights here or there from a settlement. Except, there were a few he could just make out that gave him pause.
There, clustered away at an height further away from the others were a few bright lights that stood at an elevation. It could just be a few stray shacks or the like, or a beacon to warn nighttime Carriers of an obstruction…
Though then again...
"So would watchtowers from a fort," the Quilava murmured, prompting Kate to shoot back a frown in annoyance.
"Oh come on, now you don't want to go forward after getting on my case about camping out here?" Kate scoffed. "Make up your mind already, Lyle!"
Dalton stared off intently at the lights for a moment, nodding his head and counting along under his breath. Did Dalton recognize this place? The Electric-type trailed off briefly and blinked, before glancing back at his companions.
"Those are an awful lot of lights for a fort. They're usually more aggressive about staying darkened to be harder to spot at night than most villages, not less," the Heliolisk murmured.
… Lyle wasn't sure if he wanted to know how on earth Dalton knew that, though he supposed it checked out with the way the garrison in Moonturn Square was structured. The Quilava sucked in a sharp breath as new doubts suddenly came to his mind. If 'Errberk Village' really was a fort, it was about the last place they needed to be traveling toward even if they weren't roughed up from a grueling journey.
Lyle hesitated and hung his head at a loss. He felt someone nudge at his shoulder and looked over to see Irune pawing at the back of her head.
"Wouldn't we be able to figure out what it really is as we approach it?" the Axew asked. "The way Pokémon go to and from a fort is very different from how they do the same with a village. Wouldn't we be able to tell what this place is early enough to turn back if we had to?"
Lyle looked off at the lights, and then over at Dalton and his and his other teammates' own battered bodies. Gods, what a choice they had right now. He didn't like the idea of heading towards those lights blindly like this, but they really weren't in any shape to try and rough it for the night.
The Quilava studied the lands below and saw the fields again. Surely they'd be able to pick up hints as if they were approaching something better-defended than a simple garrison. Major forts near fields were supposed to mostly be planted with crops that could be used on the battlefield, with larger ones in such areas having barracks to house the likes of captured Outlaws and Rothäuter for penal labor.
… He didn't fully know where they'd go if they saw such things along the way, but at least they'd know if they were walking into danger before they stumbled into the village proper.
"... Alright, we're going," Lyle said, shaking his head. "But if we see any signs of trouble, we're out of here, got it?"
The Fire-type was answered with a chorus of nods as the Outlaws made their way forward and slunk along towards the lights. The plains began to be enclosed by planted windbreaks and ditches, with a few clusters of woods popping up here and there. Much to Lyle's relief, the fields seemed to be smaller. Some had been planted with crops for battlefield usage, like one with a large thicket of Apricorn bushes that made Kate bristle uncomfortably as they passed, but nothing that seemed dramatically beyond what Lyle remembered encountering in his life in the hinterlands outside of Moonturn Square…
Or the sorts of fields that he remembered running into around his hometown.
The stoat dismissed the matter with a shake of his head, only to look up as the lights neared and he began to make out buildings clustered against a river—one with waters clear enough to reflect slivers of the moon and the bands of blue and green in the sky. The mass was occasionally punctured by a tall tree here or there and had buildings with a bigger range of shapes than Lyle would've expected from a small-looking town. Simple huts with gable and shed roofs, to a couple that had been styled after Pokémon heads, and a couple taller structures that were almost cylinder-like with some sort of machinery attached to them that whirled in the moonlight.
Lyle looked off in the opposite direction of the river, where some of the tall lights in the distance came into view. His heart skipped a beat as on closer inspection, he discovered they were attached to the ramparts of stone walls built around a fort of low-slung buildings centered around a rounded tower with a conical roof perched on an overlooking hill. A Bergfried₂, it looked like, and he'd bet his hide that was where the local garrison of Grünhäuter was.
Lyle sucked in a sharp breath. The fort was too small to be a proper army base, but he could've done without coming across a town with such a well-built garrison. One that was strangely large relative to its size. Though he supposed the villagers must've found it comforting over the prospect of having to wait hours or days for help to come to their aid if the war ever came back to their village. Maybe. Grünhäuter could be some really obnoxious pests even to the Pokémon they were supposedly protecting, something he knew all too well from Nils.
As Team Forager continued on, Lyle started to spot simpler shelters along the paths: nests and burrows like the one he lived in before getting sucked up into this mess. There was little to differentiate them from the ones Wilders lived in aside from simple postboxes and mats set up in front of or under them or glimpses of dozing occupants still wearing their normal garb that prompted him and his fellows to creep forward quietly. In a quieter stretch, Kate gave Dalton a Plain Seed to bite down on to suppress his groans. Lyle wasn't sure how much it would really help, but now was about the worst time to be overheard and spotted. As they approached, Lyle realized the cylinder-shaped buildings with the shapes were windmills. Not wholly unlike ones he'd seen when he was younger…
"... This place really is like home."
They passed a simple wooden sign that had been painted in sloppy runes reading "Errberk Village" and ducked down a quieter lane, following the path much as the Golisopod had instructed. The nearby buildings were of simple construction with shingled and thatched roofs, with some of the larger ones built in a similar timbered style like buildings in Moonturn Square's central marketplace. As they neared, Lyle noted that the village they were entering didn't have a wall beyond a rise of earth and brickwork with a worn trench in front of it. A bit surprising given how well-built its Bergfried looked. Lyle couldn't tell whether it was a sign the Provinz they were in hadn't been as affected by one of Edialeigh's past invasions, or if the locals just didn't have the resources to rebuild better walls that used to be there.
"Oi! Who goes there?"
Lyle froze along with his teammates and looked up towards an arch over a path leading up the embankment, where a Nidoqueen in armor plates was tugging a dozing Blaziken awake. Gottverdammt, if these were the sorts of Pokémon keeping watch over this town, he was beginning to see how the locals felt secure skimping out on their fortifications. The Quilava pinned his ears back and smothered his flames, his breaths coming tense and shallow as he expected the two to pounce on them at any moment.
"Are you four going to keep us waiting, or are you going to come over?"
Lyle froze and felt his stomach knot up, when Kate pawed at him and whispered into his ear.
"Lyle, we really do need to get Scales' arm treated. If those guards recognized us, they'd be all over our asses right now," she said. "Just play it cool and let's talk our way past them."
Lyle hesitated a moment, before reminding himself that the Nidoqueen had already spotted him. It'd be more suspicious to try to turn and leave at this point. The Quilava breathed in sharply, before looking back up as the Blaziken glanced him over.
"Gods, you four are a mess," the Fire-type muttered. "What the hell happened to you?"
Team Forager hesitated for a moment, before Kate shook her head and spoke up.
"Had a mission go bad in the Mystery Dungeon outside town," Kate explained. "We'd love to stop and chat, but we really need to get patched up right about now. Where's the nearest clinic around here?"
Lyle tensed up as the Nidoqueen's muzzle curled into a sharp frown. The Grünhäuter let her eyes linger over them and studied keenly before she gave a small quirk of her brow.
"... Who are you exactly?" the Nidoqueen asked. "Since something about your patterns seems familiar."
They… did? Lacan couldn't possibly have gotten out bounties for them in less than a day with the scarves they'd nicked off Team Pathfinder… could he?
It was probably just a coincidence. Though just in case, Lyle opted to try and keep things brief and try to move along.
"Team Forager," the Quilava answered. "We're an Exploration Team that started up not too long ago."
"I see… interesting choice of a team name there," the Nidoqueen said. "And where's your badges?"
Lyle bit his tongue and felt his heart flutter in his chest. Right. They hadn't found any of those lying around in Team Pathfinder's bag after Kate stole it. And every team of Hunters of repute made a point of keeping badges issued by whatever guild they belonged to.
He didn't know how Dalton and Irune were reacting, but Kate's fur was visibly standing on end right now. The Fire-type fumbled with his words, as he hurriedly tried to think through excuses based off their prior encounters, before settling on the only one that made any sense to him.
"... We… lost them on our way out," Lyle replied. "We had to use an Escape Orb to duck some Wilders and we're frankly lucky to have made it back to town at all right now."
The Nidoqueen flicked her ears briefly, before leaning in with a dubious scowl.
"I'm sorry," the Nidoqueen guard said. "What guild are you four registered with?"
Lyle felt his heart pound in his chest and froze. The only Exploration Guild he reflexively knew of was the one in Moonturn Square. If these insisted on doing a check, it was just a matter of time before they found out they were lying.
"L-Look, please, our friend's hurt right now! For gods' sake, just tell us where the local clinic is!"
Everyone's attention turned over to Irune as she made her way to the front of the group and looked up. Lyle caught a glint in her eyes as it looked like the Axew was… teary? The two guards seemed to visibly waver for a moment, before the Blaziken of the pair turned to the Nidoqueen with a shake of his head.
"Zieste, we've got an early shift tomorrow. Just wave 'em through so that way I can get some shuteye," the Blaziken grumbled. "How much trouble do you expect those four to cause like this? Why, their leader's some scrawny runt that looks like he just stumbled out from a refugee camp!"
… 'Scrawny runt'? Lyle subconsciously looked down at his pelt. The Quilava knew he hadn't been eating well for some time, but he wasn't that thin, was he? He noted his pelt had become mussed with dirt—probably from the day's ordeals, when a sharp huff from the Nidoqueen turned his attention to her.
The Poison-type's eyes lingered over him for a little longer, before she closed them and gave a growling 'You'd better not make me regret this, Tephros'. Lyle held his breath as the Nidoqueen shuffled along and looked back over Team Forager's members.
"Third street down, and then keep going left until the ground starts sloping for the river. Red sign with a white circle split in two. With a smaller one in the center. You can't miss it," the Nidoqueen instructed. "I was going to ask you if you could part with a donation to keep us going, but… yeah, I'll cut you some slack. Tonight, anyways."
Lyle blinked in disbelief for a moment, before hurriedly giving a thanks and passing through the gate as Kate helped Dalton along and Irune trudged after them from behind. After they'd made it a couple streets down, Lyle took a moment to catch his breath and wait on his teammates to catch up. Kate was the first to arrive along with Dalton, the Sneasel taking a moment to let out a sigh of relief and glance over at Irune.
"Hey, good job turning on the waterworks back there," Kate said. "For a second I thought that you were really-"
Kate abruptly trailed off and her expression faltered. Lyle followed her gaze over at their Axew teammate, and saw her rubbing at her eyes, trying to fight back sniffles.
So those tears earlier weren't just for show. Even if he didn't think much of her outburst back in Primordial Woods, something about seeing her like this made him uncomfortable. They all knew that she had a history with the army, did their encounter with those guards stir up bad memories?
A low groan turned Lyle's attention over towards Dalton, the Electric-type faltering and grimacing with a low whine. A flash of pain after pacing forward reminded Lyle that none of them were doing well at the moment. He paused a moment, before shaking his head back to his teammates.
"Just hang in a little longer, everyone," Lyle sighed. "We're almost there."
Author's Notes:
Dialogue
1. Geheimbasar - German localization term for "Secret Bazaar"
2. Bergfried - A tall defensive tower characteristic of castles in the Germanosphere from the Middle Ages. Similar in function to a keep.
Teaser Text - Special thanks to TorchicBellow for Translation
It is not known what first brought Wander's first explorers into Mystery Dungeons, whether it was to rescue a companion in need, curiosity sparking the urge to step out bravely to chart the unknown, or even just an accident of fate. Whatever the cause, the explorers of those early ages quickly discovered Mystery Dungeons to be a source of treasures and wonders hidden from the world outside.
Strange Seeds that imbue unnatural strengths and maladies in their consumers. Wonder Orbsᵃ created by the Distortion of these places that are said to be imbued with the same Ether as the attacks we wield in battle. Transformational powers that allow us to fashion garb with protective properties, give common Gummis the ability to empower their consumers, and fashion Loopletsᵇ to aid those traversing such places. Uneven flows of time and space that continue to deposit human relics even as they become ever rarer in our world.
It is perhaps fitting that from even those early ages, Mystery Dungeons and their treasures would attract the eye of merchants. All through the lands of Wander, many Pokémon make their living plying the treasures gathered up from Mystery Dungeons and aid those who would explore them.
And then there are the merchants that count themselves as fellow explorers. Bold and intrepid souls who brave the Distortion itself to ply their wares and aid to those who wander these places. Their trade is as old as our written history, with some like the legendary Torneko the Adventurer being counted among the ranks of Wander's first explorers in those ages where history and folklore become difficult to distinguish.
Should you come across such a merchant, their goods and services can provide a second wind. If for a price. Should it be beyond your means or will to stomach, politely decline and move along. Such traders have invariably grown strong and experienced from defending themselves from would-be thieves, both Wilder and Civil alike.
No matter how desperate your straits may be, you would be well-advised not to make an enemy of them.
- Excerpt from 'The Explorer's Handbook to Mystery Dungeons'
a. Name for "Wonder Orbs" from German localizations of PMD games. A more semantically direct translation would be something along the lines of "Wunderkugel(n)"
b. Name for "Looplet(s)" from German localization of PMD games. lit. "Ringlet(s)"