Author's notes: A chapter fully finished in only two months? And it's over 10k words too, what record speed! Yeah, don't expect me to post anything for another like 4 months now I'm so tired I'm going to bed cdxsdcfvgbhnjk


Chapter 5 - A sleepy village

"For the love of Arceus, why did you think it was a good idea to be sleeping outside on such a cold night, now look at you!" Silkie half-pulled, half-dragged the snivelling Surskit down the road, muttering angry words all the while.

The two had woken one another up, a sneeze from Angel causing Silkie a significant startle, knocking her chair over and leading to the Wurmple to fall unceremoniously into the wooden floor. That led a bowl of berries to tumble, some being the cause of Angel's second bruise.

Afterwards, their exchange was shortened drastically by Angel's uncontrolled shaking, the Surskit occasionally freezing up and rigidly moving in disjointed mannerisms that easily allowed Silkie to deduce that she was sick, despite all the protests that came from Angel that it was just a common cold.

In spite of Angel's dissent-filled claims, the Wurmple insisted that she would take her to Snowfell's best (and only) doctor as soon as the clinic was open.

Even against her idiotic attempts to reassure that she was fine (which were completely ruined by her cold body temperature and sternutation fits), the intrepid Explorer hauled the piece of dead weight all the way back into the village's plaza, chiding her for her stupidity without end.

And that was how they found themselves directly in front of an oak tree, with an empty berry stand next to the front door, and a building so small it was even tinier than an outhouse built above its roots. Silkie practically kicked down the door to get the owner's attention.

After a brisk few moments where Silkie's grip tensed on Angel's fragile leg every second (even when she complained about pain Silkie did little to let up, in fact, Angel was certain she saw the Wurmple grin the more she suffered…), a blue rock emerged by heart-shaped gap carved into the wood. Several stubby arms popped from the shell, with the centremost limb stretching out longer than the rest. The Pokémon's beady eyes blinked tiredly at the unexpected visitors.

Silkie waved a hello with her many other prolegs, "Hey, I'm here to see the doc, if he's up? Tell 'em I got a patient for him to treat!"

"... Sorry, he's not awake right now. Come back later, 'kay?" The Bug type spoke with a bit of a drawl, though their voice had an incredibly calm pace to it, with a wispy undertone. Angel could tell from their pace alone that they were the silent, reserved type and someone who only chimed in on the odd occasion.

"Hey, what's the big idea, huh?!" Silkie hissed aggressively, the protrusions around her tail flaring up with anger.

"Silkie, it's so early the sun's barely risen…" Angel groaned, stifling a yawn that nearly interrupted her sentence, she rubbed her eyes of her robbed sleep. Silkie glanced at the horizon, her carapace was shimmered a warm scarlet by the rising sun. "'Sides, it's just a bit of a cold, I'm- achoo!" She felt the Wurmple's hand tighten, that's definitely gonna bruise now…

Silkie pouted, she knew the doctor well, almost as much as he knew her and her many escapades in the past. He would've been up at this time, so what was keeping him?

Right on cue, the door opened, a mushroom illuminated the doorstep, a pair of orange claws clasped tightly against the frame, the Parasect grinned serenely when he saw the two. "Ah, Laz. Don't tell me ye've been keepin' those visitors at bay again. Och! Silkie, it's been a moment." His unwavering tone echoed the air, a dissonant blend of two voices that felt like they struggled to keep in synchrony, and yet did not clash against the doctor's air of serenity as he invited them in.

"Mornin', doc, I hope you're relieved to hear that it's not me who's getting treatment today." Silkie waved, ushering the Surskit into the hallway, squeezing past the Parasect.

"Really? Well, if ye didn't bring your friend along, I'd almost find that difficult to believe! But looks as if yer right - she's lookin' awfully peely-wally." The Parasect chuckled, Silkie pushed Angel along the corridor, down several sets of steps until they reached the second door down the hall that had a carved pattern marked 'patients'.

Angel could feel a slight dampness in the air from the room, a slightly mushy feeling came up in her gut, as though she felt squeamish, she chalked it up to her ill self reminding her to get treatment. Though the musty smell certainly did not do any favours.

Overall, the room was deceptively large, built into a portion of the oak tree, several parts of the dirt floor had roots that ran into knots and walled out certain parts of the area, with several more encompassing the top as a makeshift ceiling.

"Wow, thiz clinic'z underground?" Angel queried, Silkie hummed in response, "How unique…" She coughed, keeping one of her thin legs to her face. The sickness wasn't bad, but it felt as though it wanted to clog up every spare part of her throat, talking was a real chore with the cold.

"Aye, the underground aspect is not just personal preference, but due to the fact it also helps greatly with me treatment for the patients." The Parasect doctor announced, shutting the door of the room and pulling up a wooden stump to sit on.

"Really, 'ow so?" Angel snivelled, curled up in a nearby cushion.

"Well, as a Parasect, we possess the natural ability to syphon energy from tree roots and the like by draining them of their nutrients." The mushroom Pokémon tapped his claws onto the tangled bits of gnarled wood for emphasis, "However, we can also transfer that energy for other purposes, in this case, to me patients."

"... But won't you absorb too many nutrintz from the tree?" Angel glanced at the roots, they seemed firm and very sturdy, winding the room into itself, they didn't look like they were going to fall apart anytime soon.

"Aye, it occurs all the bloody time, that's why we run a berry business on the side. Scraps go to feeding and maintaining the tree's health, and to this clinic's security." Parasect gestured, "That's how everything works in Mother Nature: an endless cycle…" His blank eyes lost what little vacancy was left in them for a moment before he blinked, turning back to Angel, "Are ye new 'ere?"

"... Uh, yes, I'm a tourist."

"Goodness, really? We don't get many of those." Parasect sighed, "Maybe ye can have Silkie show ye around and tour the sights later." He chuckled, Silkie huffed indignantly, they barely had any sights, if they did, then they wouldn't have been excluded from the rest of society! "Anyway," The doctor cleared his throat, "If ye don't mind the potted mushrooms, could ye pop over? Let's see what ails ya."

Angel, suddenly aware of how dark the room was, stood up shakily and skated over, hitting something in the process and causing spillage over the soil.

"Oops." She muttered, unable to even see what tipped over.

"Aw, 'ell, what was I thinking, to have the patient come up to me… Dunnae fuss, lass." The doctor groaned, "Now that yer here, what symptoms have you been experiencing recently? Aside from yer voice, unless that's how ye normally speak."

In response, Angel let out a loud sneeze. The fifth one this morning.

"Bless ya, I guess that answers me question. Yer chittering all o'er the place too. Anything that may be the cause of those sneezes?"

"She spent half a night outside in the freezing winds last evening." Silkie stated bluntly, helping pull up the spilled pot. "If I didn't find her yesterday, she probably would have stayed there all night."

"I-I collapsed out of ex'austion!" Angel protested weakly, avoiding the Parasect's devilish gaze, "I misjudged the situation and… I-I paid the price, it won't 'appen again, e-ever."

She pulled her hat down for emphasis, as well as to hide the way her face heated up from her blatant lies, not that they could see very well in the dark.

The Parasect doctor chuckled darkly, sending shivering sounds of laughter echoing throughout the room until his chuckles turned much more hearty and joyous, nevermind, he definitely could see how red her face was, Angel glanced at Silkie for answers, the Wurmple simply shrugged in response.

"I'm glad to see lil' Silkie's finally making some friends of the same mindset as her."

"Huh- hey!" Silkie hissed angrily, shoving Angel aside to glare daggers at the hermit crab, "What's that supposed to mean, doc?!" She growled venomously, bending her spikes over threateningly.

"Whatever ye think it means, ya daft numpty, but back to the topic at hand: it appears yer friend 'ere has a cold, it's nothing serious. It's pretty small, actually, but Silkie, go ring up Lazuli for me, would ya? We could use her assistance; I believe she's upstairs."

Angel blinked in surprise, he had been able to deduce her illness so quickly? All the while engaged in playful teasing between them, he was a lot better than the doctors she had… the thought of home made her stare down, unsure of what to feel.

The Wurmple narrowed her eyes unhappily, ultimately complying and hurrying from the room.

At the sight of the shutting door, the doctor grinned at Angel, "She won't ever let another living soul know this, but yer friend would always show up by me doorsteps with sicknesses all the time."

"Truly?" Angel cocked her head, it didn't seem to her that such a sensible Wurmple could let herself go so easily.

The Parasect snickered, "When she was a wee lil' bugger, she showed up all the time with scratches and bruises." His white eyes lidded shut, as if reminiscing a beautiful memory, "Sometimes she got fevers; ye should've seen how much she worried when she broke her leg once. She even thought she needed to get it autopsied!"

Angel brought an appendage to her mouth and giggled, "What were the causes?"

"All sorts, mostly from all the battling and adventuring she did in her spare time. Though some of them were due to the strangest reasons, once she had a bruise above her eyes because she slept poorly and fell from her bed face-first. So, even if the reason for yer cold seems unreasonable, not to worry, I've seen much worse," The doctor sighed softly, Angel swore she saw his unblinking eyes flash with a sense of colour from his nostalgia, if only for a moment.

"Ah, that's why she sleeps on the floor now." The doctor roared with laughter at her comment, eventually dying down to a mere tremor-filled hiccup, his claws twitching with delight.

"Thanks to her incidents, that was how this clinic came to be established." He shrugged, claws clicking like plastic, "Life has a way of working things out, dunnae ye think?"

"Yeah, they do…" Angel muttered, thoughts clouded with her own issues, she hoped they could all work out in the end, but from what she saw yesterday, their persistence in her matter was a ravenous, nigh unquenchable thirst.

The wooden door's creaking alerted the two to the presence of Silkie, followed by the scent of berries - which type Angel found it hard to discriminate, but, gosh, did it smell good! A scent reminiscent of dozens of mixed berries wafted through the tunnel; Angel almost caught herself salivating to it. Angel squinted past the door, was that a blue rock?

No, wait, it was the Shuckle from before. Lazuli, if she recalled. Thin yellow limbs that extended from softly-accented orange ports all over the rock, five in total appeared from within, four for the body and one which elongated taller than the rest and swivelled around to reveal a face.

The blue Shuckle, appropriately named Lazuli, trudged over to the doctor and handed a glass vial of a light pink fluid, the Parasect thanked the Shuckle and added a handful of powder into the cup, he promptly then gave it to Angel, "Drink this; and yer cold should be gone soon enough."

Angel gave Silkie a glance, who flicked her head in the direction of the flask, she took it without hesitation, downing it in a gulp. The medicinal liquid was tangy, somewhat bitter and also had a sweet aftertaste to it, its components were definitely something she couldn't grasp.

Angel hiccuped, then coughed several times to test her voice, the indistinct buzzing that came echoing each time she opened her mouth to speak had vanished. "H-hey, my voice! It's much better now, how was the medicine so fast-acting? What is this medication?"

"Lazuli's fermented berry juice, it's the quintessential panacea for many common disorders!" The doctor nudged the Shuckle's shell with a big claw, to which the bug smiled back. "We'd get ye a berry and whatnot but we've found that juice works just as well - plus ye don't even need to chew the bloody thing, it's perfect, really."

"Okay… but where is it fermented? I don't see any cellars down here."

Lazuli blushed. As Parasect opened his mouth, Silkie cut in, "I think that's enough questions. Thanks for patching her up, doc. What'll the payment be?"

Lazuli, now disinterested in the matter, turned to leave the room, before the Shuckle could make any leeway, the doctor spoke up. "Ach, dunnae worry ye crabby lil' head 'bout it. Coins aren't worth anything here." He flicked a claw and wrapped it around the retreating Shuckle's blue shell, pulling the Pokémon closer to him, "Me only hope would be for ye to take auld Lazuli out for a trip into the forest. Maybe gather some berries and whatnot."

The lapis Shuckle's head shook furiously, not at all eager to be roped into the consequences of another adventure, the Parasect gave the Bug type no chance to contribute any talk to the matter, however. "Maybe even fight a few Wild Pokémon while the lot of ya are at it, hmm?" Only when the Shuckle actively began pushing away from him did he relent to give her attention. "Come on, Laz, you must be getting bored of standing around playing shopkeep all day! Go out and have some fun with them."

The Shuckle glowered, craning her neck and whispering something to the Parasect. The only reaction the lapis-shelled Shuckle got was a brush-off by the doctor.

"Really, you don't know them well enough? C'mon, ya even helped treat Silkie when I was away! Ye've been seeing each other for years…!"

"If Lazuli really doesn't want to, wouldn't it be better not to force a 'yes', doc?" Silkie interjected, not wanting to owe a favour to the doctor but also not desiring for it to be paid off this way. She's had more than her fair share of interactions with Pokémon she barely knew!

"Well, it's either that or ye could help be shopkeep in the stall for a day or so. It's awfully boring, I won't lie." The doctor began, only to be interrupted immediately by the Wurmple.

"Yeah… no way. Okay, you stupid rock, let's go." Silkie shouted, grabbing the Shuckle by the arm and, with one enormous yank, pulled the blue-shelled creature far from sight and out of the clinic. The faint sound of a door slamming echoed in the distance.

"So… how long do I need to stay here for?" Angel said, rocking the empty glass vial back and forth placidly with her skeletal legs.

"Whenever ya feel comfortable leaving, ye can go. Like I said, yer problem ain't life-threatening at all, it's just a cold. Ye'll prolly be all hunky-dory in the next hour." The Parasect said, idly grabbing pots of mushrooms and moving them far aside the entrance in anticipation for her exit. "Dunnae forget, door's this way." He tapped a claw onto the wooden slab for emphasis, "Can't have ye clamouring all over the place on the way out."

Angel flushed, mentally making a definitive note not to put herself in such a compromising situation again, lest she think of one poor excuse after the next in a miserable attempt to cover her horrible choices.

She placed the glass to one side, "Well, uhm… Thanks for your help, mister." She acknowledged, "I-I don't have much money on me, but-"

"Save the cash," Parasect quipped, "Like I said, take Lazuli out for a spin, she hasn't gotten any good exercise in ages, dunnae want her getting too fat." He guffawed to himself quietly.

"R-really? Just take her outside and that's it? Surely there's more to it than that, right?" Angel persisted, the Parasect gave her a quizzical look from across the room, having just elevated a tray of pots to a higher shelf.

"What were ye expectin'? Endless demands? We're simple folk here." Parasect raised an eyebrow, "Nothing but farmers and small-time merchants." He shrugged, "Call it… hospitality, if ya cannae think through me actions." He opened the door and prepared to leave. "Don't keep Silkie waitin' too long, either! She's feisty and impatient, heheheh."

"Okay, one last question. Since you've been here for a while… Have you ever seen Silkie's family?" The Surskit sat in the pitch dark, still stirring the air in her flask thoughtfully.

"Well, even though I was already 'ere 'fore Silkie showed up, I've never seen 'er with any relatives. She's always lived alone in that house by the forest just outta town. I suppose this quaint lil' village's the only real family she's had in these parts."


"You got any places in mind?" Silkie asked the silent Shuckle, who only gave a shake of her head. The Wurmple looked unamused. "You're still gonna be so silent, hmm?"

When the question yielded her no results, she sighed and turned around, "Alright, I guess I'm going home, then. If there's nothing to do… See you." She gave a lazy wave and idly turned in the opposite direction, the Shuckle's expression didn't change much upon seeing her leave, simply tilting her head one way wordlessly.

It was only when the Surskit from earlier popped out from her clinic and charged recklessly did the Shuckle finally utter a high-pitched squeal of surprise, the force of the Pokémon ramming and knocking her sideways. "Ah, oops. My bad, I really gotta stop doing that." Angel scratched her head sheepishly, helping the Shuckle up, "A-Anyway, Lazuli, right? Thanks for that Berry Juice, it's gotten me all healed up already!" She winked confidently, posing dramatically with two of her lithe appendages coiling upwards in a mock flex. Given the presence of sunlight, Angel could see a much better view of the Pokémon's features. Lazuli's rounded head possessed two beady eyes, both complete with blackened eye bags that implied either insomnia or several years of overtime. Considering she moved with an economy of energy more comparable with napping - Angel presumed both cases were equally likely.

"... It's nothin'." Came the only reply, though Angel smiled despite the mostly silent treatment.

"I wonder how you make it, though. This tastes nothing like the medicine I used to have."

"Quite simple, actually." Lazuli murmured, her words immediately invoking the attention of Angel.

"Really? Well, I hope you can teach me sometime, I'd definitely like to learn!" Angel chuckled, she turned to call out Silkie, leading to the reluctant Explorer to hesitantly reunite with them once again. "Hey, now that we're all here, can you two take me on a tour here? I really wanna see all the sights - this place is charming!"

"Urgh… Can't you go yourself?" Silkie muttered.

"Nope, besides, Lazuli can come with us, so you'd be helping to pay off the debt to the doctor!"

"Yeah, the one you put me through!" Silkie jabbed a proleg at the Surskit aggressively, pushing her away, "Just go with Lazuli, I'm gonna go back to my house."

To both of their surprise, Lazuli's arms extended to over twice their length, wrapping the both of the struggling girls and dragging them onto the crossroad. Setting them down, Lazuli's appendages, now as long as a kraken's tentacles, twisted their heads in the direction of the street, it was clear her gesture was a threat. Without a word, the three of them paced down the rocky road.


"This is the… uh, general store, there's not much to say. It sells… general goods, I think? It's always open, so you can buy whatever you want, anytime you want. So long as it's on sale here." Silkie pointed at the building awkwardly, Angel looked as if she wanted to hear more from Silkie, the Wurmple responded with a shrug. "That's all I have to say. I guess we could take a stroll inside-"

"I thought stores like these were run by the Kecleon business? They have a monopoly on almost everything, especially dungeoneering equipment."

"They only set up shop in places that'll earn 'em actual revenue. If they set up here they'd become a charity trying to donate all of their stock." Silkie chuckled, Angel tilted her head.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Eh, go inside, you'll see."

Silkie needn't have finished her sentence, the Surskit was already well on her way into the store even without her prompting, the blue Shuckle trailing ever so slowly afterwards.

"Welcome, welcome…!" The Clefable clerk managing the counter grinned ear to ear at the trio's appearance, in spite of the darkened bags beneath his eyes, they were probably the shop's first customers today, the pink fairy featured the wares which rested atop lined wooden shelves behind him, "Can I get you anything nice today? I've got quite a number of merchandise for you to browse, so I'd appreciate it if you bought something."

"Oooooo…" Angel stared at the tiny shop's selection, muttering to herself, gaze fixated. "This is some pretty nice loot!" She pointed a spindly leg at some of the scarves that hung on yellowed price tags coated with thick layers of dust. "Where'd you get all this stuff? Some of those accessories are super rare!"

The Clefable chuckled, "Well, the reason they're still here's cause no one in this lil' village does much exploring, scarves here are more for fashion than anything else." He sighed, "A few years of this, and you'll have quite a lot of everything lying around in spares." As he spoke, he patted the dust off a jet black bowtie, revealing tiny, emblazoned white marks stitched into the bowtie's craftsmanship.

Angel marvelled at the creation's artisan. "Is that made out of real silk?"

The clerk nodded, "Yup - at least I believe so… I'll have to check the stock books to confirm."

"It's hand-woven too, right?" Angel furthered her queries, much to the chagrin of the Wurmple behind her.

"How can you tell?" Silkie crossed her arms, leaning onto Lazuli, whose beady eyes seemed to betray just a hint of annoyance.

"Hand-woven goods generally have less consistency in their threads, I think judging the threads around the edges, it's a blanket stitched tie!"

"You seem to know your way around these things, huh?" The Clefable scratched his chin in thought, "Are you from the Grass continent? That's where the major textile industries are, though I suppose they don't always hand-weave it."

Angel's eyes widened in surprise, the Grass continent… "No, definitely not! I'm from… uh, Shoran town, in the… S-Sand continent!" She made certain to emphasise the last part, nearly spitting all over the floor.

The Clefable eyed her with intrigue, "Never heard of it, maybe I'll have a visit one day, when I get out of this darned place."

"A-anyone got a map?" Angel looked around, several shaking heads confirmed her answer as no. "I'd love to show you but it just doesn't look like I can at the moment."

"Well… actually-" Lazuli held a square piece of rolled-up parchment in her limbs, but her stifled voice led to the Clefable's overpowering her before she could get another word out.

The clerk hummed with uncertainty, shrugging the conversation off. "Like I said, can I get you anything you want?"

Angel dumped her coins out from her satchel, and placed the tiny handful of gold at the counter's front, "If this is enough to get me that black bowtie, then sure!"

The clerk evaluated the coins for a moment, taking only a few from the mound and pushed the lot back, "Yeah, I'll even throw in a discount, too. That tie has been sitting on the tag longer than I can remember." He reached over to pluck the dusty neckpiece from its location atop the hook and handed it over, "Frankly, you'd be doing me a favour getting rid of this old thing - I hope you don't mind the shoddy quality, it should still be plenty useful in combat."

Angel happily took the bowtie, and shoved the coins back into her satchel, before handing it to the Shuckle beside her. "Here, Lazuli! Put this on, I bet you'll look good in it."

"Oh… um, thanks." Lazuli shyly accepted the gift, wrapping it around her lengthy, slender neck. Pushing the knot up in fluid motion until it hung from around her head. "Does this… look good…?"

"Absolutely - it's fantastic!" Angel responded gleefully. "The colours really match well!"

Silkie stared off to the side, a twinge of annoyance she found herself incapable of displacing seemed to eat at her, from what she could not tell. She found herself eagerly pushing past the other Bug types in front of her and marched straight to the clerk.

"Oh, great, it's you. Are you here to buy anything?" The Clefable queried, Silkie shook her head, placing a simple, black headband with a tiny imprint of red and orange sewn on the counter.

"Conversely, I think I've got something to sell: how much are you willing to take this for?"

The Clefable facepalmed, "C'mon, I just got rid of the bowtie, now you're giving me a headband? Gengar's gonna kill me at this rate…" He murmured, reaching for the sack of PoKé under the desk.

Silkie let out a bemused huff and shook her head, "In that case: as much as I want to see Gengar after you tonight, I'd rather Snowfell keep its only clerk. You can have the headband, then."

The Clefable clumsily worked his way from under the table to frown at Silkie, "And what, add another headwear to my never-ending collection?"

"Would you rather pay for another addition to your collection instead?" Silkie answered coldly, pushing the door to the store wide open; leaving without so much as a peep from the clerk.

The three filed out from the store, leaving a grumbling Clefable behind. "Ohhh… I'm never getting a promotion at this point." He muttered, drumming his fingers over the wooden desk over and over.

"Where to next…?" Silkie tapped her head in thought, they didn't get too far before Angel's attention became eagerly piqued at a nearby building. It was the largest of all in Snowfell, though that wasn't much to compare given the village's tiny size.

Situated just a block down from the village square, Angel found herself admiring the stacked bricks that walled the oval of land behind its front reception and subsequent classrooms. She heard Silkie faintly grumble something along the lines of 'I can't believe I'm back at school already' and she grinned. "Hey, Sil. I wanna have a trip inside, can we go?"

Silkie trotted up the stairs and opened the glass doors guarding the entrance, "Don't call me 'Sil'; and since you've so graciously dragged us back to school already, why not take a gander then?"

Inside the arching hallway after the empty front reception was nothing special, just a dimly lit tunnel of chipped bricks that led to half a dozen classrooms lined in one neat row followed by a grassy field stuffed between two more buildings - one for school faculty, the other sick bay for injuries/illnesses.

Silkie knew the school never used the latter room, since a trip to the doctor's was only a ten minute walk, and chuckled to herself as they passed it.

"This here's the school. I'm pretty sure there's a class for mathematics, logistics and the like." She gave an empty stare at one of the six classrooms lined together, which all looked identical from the outside, "There's also courses for subjects like identifying and utilising items. What else…? Battling and movesets, Mystery Dungeon structure rundowns and stuff like that, I think." The Wurmple paused.

"... Medicine, too." Lazuli added, pointing to the last class in the lineup with one of her yellow appendages, "I graduated a few years ago…"

"Wow, really?" Angel sounded genuinely impressed, "That explains your proficiency, then!"

Silkie rolled her eyes, "Go pat yourself on the back, you good samaritans, this school's for literal kids."

"Well! If it isn't my favourite student?" The three Bug types raised their heads, following the boisterous voice echoing from the roof of a classroom - a pink silhouette illuminated the sky, the creature spread two elongated magenta wings and took its descent to a graceful landing in front of the trio. "Silkie! I didn't think you'd be back!"

"Oh, for the love of-"

"So soon!" The bird chirped, "Especially after staying in my class,"

"You don't have to continue speak-"

"For so long!"

"Who's that Pokémon?" Angel catechised Lazuli, who pulled a book from behind her and rapidly flipped through the dried papyrus leaflets until she came upon a similar-looking bird in the book.

"Flamigo, the synchronise Pokémon, works with its group in synchrony, befitting its category, generally found near warmer climates." She read the book's contents aloud, snapping it shut and returning it to its place of holding somewhere in her shell.

"Warm places? I wonder what he's doing in Snowfell, then."

"Are you Silkie's friends?" The Flamigo twisted his tied scrag and leapt over, landing with a crashing thud that, much like his odd manner of speech, resounded in their eardrums.

"You don't have to shout every other word, mister." Angel mumbled, holding her legs over her head.

"That's a no-go, miss! M'neck's tied by the bottom. It messes with the air in my vocal chords, so I have to yell it out! Otherwise my voice gets all raspy and uneven!"

"What? Why, how… and more importantly, untie your neck, that absolutely can't be good for your health!"

"No can-do, my energy will escape that way, then where will I be?"

"Not dead, or insane, that's for sure." Silkie remarked sarcastically.

"Anyways, Silkie, are you back for another one of my combat lessons?"

"Nopenopenope." The Wurmple shook her head rapidly, "I'm just passing by, maybe my friend might want a class or two, but I've had my fair share!"

"You don't have to be so cold-hearted, Silkie. You seemed to enjoy sparring with me as far as I could tell!"

"Jeez… keep your voice down!" Silkie hissed, "Besides, you made me come to class every single day, if I didn't have to force myself to enjoy it I'd die of boredom on day one! Not that I'm dying right now anyway 'cause of these idiots…"

"Oh, so you're Silkie's mentor, mister?" When the Flamigo nodded, Angel clapped in admiration, "You've raised a good student - she's very competent, even if she won't admit it!"

"Second one, she told me. But her first one probably wasn't great, because I've had to show her the ropes to basic combat. However, I'm very proud of her, it only took her three years to master Poison Sting. She tried to leave before she could understand Tackle, but I sat her down through a few more courses until she got the hang of it!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Silkie put her hands up and groaned with exasperation, "Enough, zip it! Personal ties, those are great, yippie. Angel, I think you've seen enough of school, I'll be waiting for you outside, alright?"

Right on cue, the sound of a shrill bell rang out from the front reception, accompanied by crowds of young Pokémon who sprinted from their doors, all incredibly eager to get out of class. Silkie could attest to that feeling.

"That's recess time; and our cue to get out." Silkie pointed back to the entrance in which they came from.

"Really, already?" Angel sighed, "I was hoping we could get a bit more of a tour around here…"

"It's because I didn't sign us in as visitors," Silkie responded dryly, "Technically we shouldn't even be allowed on the premises right now - we'd get kicked out if any of the faculty members saw us." She made certain to emphasise her previous sentence and signalled the Flamigo, who, much to her chagrin, took no notice whatsoever. Clearing her throat, Silkie spoke up, "So, let's be on our way, then."

"Watch out; he's it! Don't bring him near me!" A cry alerted the trio to a group of children zipping about, several unevolved Pokémon skirted past the three, Angel was certain she saw a Skwovet, Weedle and Pichu amongst them. All of them fleeing from whatever was about to round the corner.

Lazuli tapped Angel's back, and pulled her aside, Silkie kept walking forwards, and ended up colliding with the mysterious Pokémon the others had been running from. The figure ran with some force, the tackle enough to knock Silkie flat onto her back.

"Huh? Miss Silkie, Miss Angel?" Caterpie called out, "Careful, or my Tackle's gonna knock you into the ground!"

"Cheeky as ever, aren't you?" Angel grinned, Caterpie laughed back, he quickly leaned over to Silkie.

"Mum said I can come this afternoon, isn't that great? She'll drop me off at your house again, like yesterday for more training!" Silkie groaned as she pulled herself up, pretending the annoyed growl was nothing more than a grunt of impact from his Tackle.

"Truly wonderful." She said through gritted teeth.

Thankfully, Caterpie didn't seem to take notice, "I hope you'll be there too, Angel!" With that, the little worm turned down the path and sped after his schoolmates, surprisingly speedy in spite of his short legs, "Hey guys, wait for me!"

"I guess that's my schedule sorted for the day, in that case." Silkie complained, Angel tittered and put a leg around her friend(?)'s shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll be there with you too!"

"Great, I'm stuck with another idiot…"

"Excuse you!" Angel quipped, "I believe the word you're searching for is 'genius extraordinaire'!"

"The word I'm searching for - I can't say," Silkie gloated, "because there's pre-school kids here."

"You need to work on your attitude, Silkie!" The Flamigo patted the Wurmple on the head, "Come back soon. I don't mind," The Flamigo spoke up.

"Pardo-" Angel began.

"Having you attend my class!" He waved a wing goodbye, taking off down the hallway disappearing through the corridor.

"If I've learned any lesson from this - it's that school sucks. Now let's get out. I don't wanna stay here for a second longer!" Silkie grunted antagonistically, the others followed, amused.

Past the school, their next stop was established near the edge of the village, by a steep escarpment where a slightly warm updraft blew about, no doubt increasing in strength the further down the jagged and splintered stones of the canyon went. They approached a uniquely oval building painted with cherry red and milky white. The post office had a chunk cut diagonally from its top to its side, leaving an opened window port that Pokémon travelled to and fro, how incredible…

Angel realised she was once again rambling on in her head, admiring the tiny village's odd and inventive structures that were a thing of marvel to her.

Aside from an obvious hole in the side, the building had an extra wooden cylinder coated in yellow acting as a support beam for an equally yellow, olive-shaped oval. The more Angel squinted, the more the dim red seemed to have once been a jagged zig-zag pattern that wrapped all around the building. It seemed to be in the spirit of a Pokémon, Angel took a glance upwards, and found her guesses given confirmation: Two bright yellow eyes that had obviously endured the test of time were dotted evenly apart the entrance's doors - The building was designed like the head of a Chimecho.

"This is the Chimecho Post office, a very creative name, I'm aware." Silkie opened the doors to the office, a sharp ring alerting the only worker by the table nearby.

Like the exterior, the interior also had a particular theme to match. Aside from the shelf of delivered goods behind the door, the intramural of the post office was symmetrical, two tables gathered down an invisible line drawn perpendicular from the door. One desk had a tiny stack of paperwork placed atop brown file folders next to a tiny mug filled with pens reading '#1 best worker', though the printing on the cup was fairly inscrutable owing to age. Other than the pages of work the receptionist was currently halfway finished writing, the left desk could only be described as neat, tidy, impeccable, even. For not a spot of speck rested the pristine wooden surface.

The right desk certainly took a different route in designing aesthetics: strewn papers were a common sight, an uncapped pen rolled by the side, the receptionist clearly having run off before they were finished jotting their paperwork. Adjacent to the mess were a stack of empty plastic cups, some stained a dried hazel by their owner's last coffee, the cups hung precariously over the table's edge - one errant twitch away from total structural collapse. Atop the pile was a similar mug to its leftmost counterpart: reading '#1 best worker' like its brethren, though the number had been haphazardly scribbled out and replaced by a crudely drawn '#2' instead. The word 'pigsty' came to Angel's mind the more she looked. The right desk, in short, was a polar opposite to the one beside it.

Also unlike the right desk, the left table actually had someone managing it. A prim and proper Chimecho wearing a white bow tie bowed politely to the trio, "Greetings and salutations, welcome to the Chimecho Post office!" Her ringing voice seemed to become amplified by the dome of the room, seeming crystal clear no matter what corner (or lack thereof, for the place was a dome) of the room they were in.

"Oh, sis! You don't have to be so formal, you know?" A second Chimecho appeared by the port, poking his head in and grinning. Much like his sister, he had a matching tie around his tail, although this one was dyed yellow instead of white. "Especially since we're familiar with almost everyone in this lil' village already!"

"... I thought we discussed this a dozen times over, brother. Professionals have standards." The male Chimecho's sister pouted grumpily, making sure to emphasise her words with a piercing tone. "I do hope he hasn't soiled your opinion of our post office, can I be of assistance to any of you today?"

"She means if you want any help, in case you can't speak fancy."

His sister gave him a glare that caused him to smile mischievously, backing away and blowing a raspberry from afar.

"Oh, cool. So what do you deliver here, exactly?"

Silkie gave her friend a confused glance, "Wasn't it obvious - you do know what a post office is, right?"

"I've grown to expect the unexpected in this town - this place is much different to where I've come from!" Angel whispered, peering up to the Chimecho pair for an answer.

"Well, I'm glad you asked! We get things delivered and we do it oh-so-well~! Finest service you'll see on this side of the continent… Gah!" The Chimecho suddenly found himself enveloped by a wave of magenta energy, he was lifted up into the crevice above, and flung away.

"We're the only ones offering postal service here!" His sister hissed, "Ignore him, if you will. Our job is to deliver food, toys, mail, job requests and the like all across the continents of the Pokémon world! Not to engage in… whatever he's doing…!" His sister politely responded, her eyes continuing to flash hot pink as she closed the flap of the port, shutting it tightly with her brother still outside.

"I had a post office back home, but they definitely didn't deliver all the things you guys can!" The Chimecho beamed slightly at her words.

"What can I say? We're proud to serve." She seemed to swell with pride, a wide grin so outstretched on her face it covered half of her whole upper body.

"I've never seen Psychic types work at post offices before - it's only ever been Flying types for me. Oh! If you don't mind me asking, won't it be quicker for Flying types to go from place to place?"

"Well, in terms of raw speed, we're certainly outmatched. However, we have an intricate system connecting with dozens of other Psychic type Pokémon all over the world. We simply teleport our goods to them for safekeeping until the customer comes to retrieve them! It's a complicated process keeping so many links intact, though. But that's not something the customers need to worry about."

"Uh, we don't have many partners though…!" The female Chimecho's brother exclaimed, suddenly reappearing by the entrance. "So don't always expect us to deliver to many places, but to some major cities and ports we definitely can-do~!" He chimed joyously, flying up to float next to his sister by the front desk. "Also, we got a delivery for Lazuli? That's you, right?" He held out a parchment attached to a clipboard, "Here's your cache of Rare Candy from the Grass Continent, Pecan port!"

Lazuli put her arm up, identifying herself as the Shuckle in question, scooting over behind the crowd to retrieve her order.

"What did you order, Lazuli?" Angel peered over as the Shuckle pulled a tiny pouch from within the many holes in her blue shell and placed it onto the desk, grabbing a wooden crate marked with the sticker of a piece of confectionery, wrapped in blue paper adorned on its lid.

Silkie, meanwhile, took a eyeful by the shelf set up behind the door, a few untouched letters, some pristine and ancient alike, stuck out from the boxy confines of each container. Maybe she could try writing to Vivi… but he was constantly travelling from location to location with his team; and she didn't know what Guild he belonged to anyways.

She doubted the debased piece of trash would even be able to read her scratchy handwriting, let alone consider writing back. It was a futile endeavour, plain and simple.

With a grimace followed by a spiteful sigh, she left the post office with the other two Bug types, waving a quick goodbye to the pair of siblings attending the shop.

"What an incredible design!" Angel turned around to stare back at the office even as they backed away elsewhere. "I was thinking using the general shape of a Pokémon would make the building inconsistent but it seems to check out better than I thought - at least it's much better than the offices I'm used to!"

"Really? I thought the Sand continent was a bit more wealthy in resources than where we are." Silkie side eyed the Surskit, who rubbed her head with exasperation and responded.

"Have you even been to the Sand continent?" Angel raised her brow, about to continue her lecture, Lazuli interrupted her.

"According to my map, Shoran isn't actually a recorded location in our World as of yet." The Shuckle informed, the diminutive crate she was latching onto having disappeared in place of a greying book.

"Urk… well Shoran is quite underdeveloped, with a population size even smaller than Snowfell's, that's why we're not on it!"

"Somehow I find that rather difficult to believe." Silkie murmured, rolling her eyes. "... Not that I really care anyways."

Angel faked a gasp of surprise and turned to the Shuckle beside her, "L-Lazuli, where did the crate go? The one you just got from the post office?" Angel inquired, eyes widening seeing that the book she had held prior too vanished with naught a trace.

"I… store things in my shell." Lazuli admitted, "It's quite spacious, so I can carry plenty of essential objects with me at all times, if it's small enough to fit."

"Woah… so you're like… your own backpack?"

"If you want to phrase it that way… yes, I suppose I am." She stated simply, expression unreadable from neither her tone of voice nor her features.

"What else do you have inside of you?" When Lazuli deadpanned, Angel giggled at her own question, "Sorry - wrong wording. What else do you have in your shell?" She rubbed her head sheepishly, a soft blush creeping onto her face from amusement.

"It's mostly medicine - standard Reviver Seeds, Oran, Persim, Leppa berries. I have some fermented berry drinks as well, it's why I smell like… fruit juice. Uh… I pack a map as well, as you probably saw… earlier."

"Mmm… I can say I definitely don't mind your smell, though I'd say it's closer to wine." Angel peered into one of the Shuckle's ports, to which the Bug type frowned disapprovingly. "Goodness, it's a storage unit in there!" She joked, pulling up with a good-natured grin, "No solid food, though. Only juice - what's up with that?"

"I don't have proper teeth." Lazuli stated plainly, "I can only drink fluids, otherwise I'll have to swallow berries whole to 'eat' them."

"Awww… that sucks. Tell you what - I'll buy you a pair of fake teeth one day. Then you can chew food."

Lazuli tilted her head, "Uh… thanks, I think?"

The Bug type triad's final stop was the town's plaza, which had a few stands up and about. Most of them were simplistic in their design, consisting of a table (or several boxes) stacked together and draped with cloth. Before being mounted by poles holding up an overarching piece of cover, providing shade to the merchant inhabitants selling their wares. Some of the more extravagant ones had certain colours woven into their cloth, though Angel only saw one stand which looked to be such an example.

"If Snowfell ever had a reason to be visited, this'll be it. It's a poor reason, of course. But it's better than nothing." Silkie gestured to the half a dozen Pokémon meandering about their business, a few stopped at the stands to exchange things with their owners, most were casually browsing goods sitting on the market's shelves.

"A lot of old junk or valuable loot ends up at this village - some Pokémon might be looking to pawn it off. This'll be where you can hunt for treasures or whatever," Silkie continued, "Don't expect much, though. It's not everyday you encounter some cursed relic and put it up for sale to give to a three year old."

"Uhm… I gotta meet up with one of those merchants. So…" Lazuli mumbled, splitting from the group as the other two continued on their merry way down the misshapen road. Neither Silkie nor Angel appeared to notice, however…

Angel felt like she saw it coming a mile away, but either she couldn't, or she just wouldn't, out of grim satisfaction, there was just something so enriching watching Silkie's face collide head-first into the fluff of the Aromatisse as a clique of Pokémon rounded the corner. Oh well, if the grumpy silkworm asked, she'll just say that there wasn't enough time for her to warn her in the present. It sounded believable enough.

"Urk!" Behind the stunted Aromatisse, a grey blur was sent hurtling into the pixie's backside, spinning wildly out of control in the air until the Pokémon's noggin turned a third 'mon tumbling over like a sack of tater tots. She peered over the four, her deafening silence was just like a domino effect: the whole lot of them fell one by one.

"Again? This is, what? The third time in the past two days?" The Wurmple pulled herself up, not bothering to clean off the dirt stuck to her frame.

The pearly Pokémon, on the other hand, sputtered as they scrubbed themselves clean with an unbridled urgency unmatched by any living soul in the world.

Well, almost no one.

The Aromatisse took their fall far worse, flipping out an expensive-looking handbag (which, Angel swiftly realised, was made of only plastic jewels and painted gold metal clips) and yanking out several exorbitant brands of goods. In one hand, a scrap of silken, perfumed cloth embroidered with the image of a sachet, in the other, a patterned hand mirror with a magnolia handle as they examined every inch of their visage for specks of grime or dirt.

"How dare you! I am the great Masami Sato and you will not sully-"

The screeching Pokémon was a Castform, her unblemished grey head had a cut of cloud-like hair curling with wispy strands held together by a bow, which bobbed up and down as she shook her head in dismay, perfectly in time with her…

"... Holy moly!" Angel's whisper turned to a coarse hiss of air. This girl's assets were… Well, huge would be an understatement, in all honesty - they were well beyond that!

"Oh, yeah. Thankfully, it's all cloud… particles, she just really likes attention." Silkie clarified, a gesture that earned her no less ire from neither the enraged Castform nor her appalled partner.

"... Huh, that voice can only be…!" A third, squeaky voice so quiet Angel thought a gust of wind would easily blow it away piped up behind the Aromatisse. A timid-looking Bounsweet took one cautious glance outwards. Despite having no irises, Angel could tell from the way her pupiless eyes dilated the moment her gaze turned at Silkie that she didn't appreciate the Bug type's presence. "Gah, S-Silkie?! Please don't hurt me!" The panicking Grass type made to flee, but in her own panic, the clumsy mangosteen tripped over her own stubby legs and squirmed as she rolled about on the ground, unable to get back up without any arms.

"Uh… need a hand?" Angel slid over, plucking the lightweight fruit up with one leg. Up close, she noticed a particularly appetising, nearly stifling smell. Unlike the Aromatisse's sharply minty aroma, the fruit possessed a mouth-watering scent.

As Angel flipped the mangosteen off of her side, the fruit Pokémon screamed. "Aaaaah! Another Bug type here to kill me too? I-I promise, I might smell sweet but I definitely don't taste g-good!" The Bounsweet squirmed, flicking the calyx on her head fruitlessly, as Angel dropped the Grass type onto the ground, more so out of shock than fear.

"I beg your pardon?" Angel reached out, but the fleeing Bounsweet was already long gone before she could get another sentence out. The dying dust cloud being the only proof of their interaction.

"Tch! Silkie, of course it'd be you of all the lovely folks in Snowfell that I just had to run into today. Arceus spare us…" The Aromatisse complained, muttering the last part of her sentence just loud enough for the surrounding Pokémon to hear. The bird pinned Silkie down with a jabbing look, scrunching the violet cloth in her claws. "I see your savagery hasn't devolved since our last encounter." Her feminine voice had a bit of an accent to it, Angel couldn't place the source, but she knew the feathered fowl was trying her darndest to sound posh and dignified, but she couldn't help but relate her poor attempt to that hippie she saw on the street handing out flyers advertising armageddon a few years ago.

"You guys have history?" Angel looked at Masami, the Aromatisse, and then back at Silkie, no big surprise here. The feisty Bug type certainly was not the type to let some dignified pricks walk all over her.

"Enough to fill an entire book, just look at how she scared poor Honey away!" The Aromatisse interrupted before Silkie could get a word in, gesturing in the direction the Bounsweet fled in. "If I were you, I wouldn't hang around this terrible idiot of an influence for a second more! She is a stain… a blemish! If it was up to me, we'd be better off withou- Ack!" Silkie's String Shot covered the grumbling bird's eyes, diabolically, the Wurmple tugged the thread, sending the Pokémon hitting the ground and into a fit once again.

"Can you blame me?" Silkie shrugged, or at least attempted as close of an imitation to one with her tiny arms, "I mean, seriously, take one good look at these clowns and you'll see why-"

"Talk about a dirty trick, Silkie, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Masami chimed in, opening her mouth to speak. The devilish Wurmple sensed an opportunity, and the unfortunate Castform was left gagging on the sidewalk as webbing glued her throat, her hacks, coughs and mounted efforts in attempting to dislodge the string rewarding her with only further discomfort and more spittle.

"She thinks she's so high and mighty, considering she's only working as a shitty weatherwoman for, what? Five bucks every day? I just don't know where she gets all that ego from? Her cloud… lumps, maybe? As for you," She side-eyed the struggling Aromatisse, "Well, you don't even have a job. So take notes from your friend, eh? Though I don't know any place where you can put that lousy loudmouth of yours to good use."

"Why you!" Masami's normally single-hued body underwent a glowing transformation, her head turned fiery red with rage, while spherical, orange molecules not all too dissimilar to her cloud… bits shifted onto her head. Her body glowed with all the heated intensity of the sun. As if the very star itself had been plucked from its location in space and shoved onto the planet. The newly transformed Masami shot a blazing wall of fire at Silkie, who leapt away and crawled down the street.

Masami's attempt to follow was only met by more silk, buying enough time for the Wurmple to disappear into an alleyway four buildings away.

Burning the string off with a wrath of uncontrolled rage, her blazing irises turned themselves to Angel. "I'm certain you'd all be very friendly and more approachable on a different day…!" Angel slinked after Silkie, tipping her hat to Masami and the Aromatisse (whose face was still entangled by string) as she too sped away.

"What's their deal?" Angel peered out of the alley, making sure that a certain cloud Pokémon wasn't still after them.

"Can't handle how awesome I am, that's their problem. They act like they're entitled snobs, especially that Aromatisse. What's her name? Perfume? No, Parfum. Eh, whatever, I always hated her. Anyways, I wonder how they ended up in such a crappy place if they were truly as rich as they pretended."

"So… what was that new form that Castform changed to?"

"I think she can control the weather… or something like that." Silkie squinted over the edge of a trash can, "When she gets mad, she turns all red, when she gets sad, she turns all blue, sometimes she turns lilac, too. Talk about an emotional baggage, huh? She kinda reminds me of you, to be honest."

"Eh… heh, heh, heh…" Angel strained a laugh, "With that attitude I can easily tell why she doesn't like you."

"Well, I'm not taking shit from some insecure weather woman who's always vying for attention. Or some stupid little perfume bird who thinks she's better than me, when clearly she's not!"

"Okay, now you just sound desperate." Angel teased harmlessly, the joke however, seemed to have gone entirely over the Wurmple's head, because she looked as if she was ready to lash out at any second now. To clear the air, she coughed, "So, what about that Bounsweet? Did you traumatise her at some point?"

"For once, no. I think her name's Honey, though she's never spoken to me. She's really scared of me, and a lot of the other Bug types around here. She won't even go to the clinic or the hotel because the workers there freak her out. Makes you question why she's here as well."

"Let's hope we don't run into them again, I don't think you can take a fireball from that Castform."

"As if! I could easily take on all three of those suckers no problem!" Silkie pumped her fist in the air.

"Right… Let's get out through the other entrance to the alley. I don't wanna risk having my friend's face scorched off."

They squeezed out of the passageway, Angel brushing dust off of her legs as she stepped over scrap paper. They reappeared near the back of the stalls, the area visibly clear of any Aromatisse or Castform. "Ooh, can we see what they're selling today?" Without Silkie's permission, Angel 'disappeared' into the crowd of roughly six Pokémon, running up to a table draped with yellow cloth and rummaging through the merchant's goods.

Silkie's stomach rumbled as she pulled up a nearby bench and began sipping contentedly from a glass of sap in her bag, she looked at the sky - the sun was already high above and she hadn't even had breakfast yet. Not exactly how she'd have wanted to start her day… Why did she even allow herself to get roped into this again?

Thinking back, the Wurmple wasn't sure, but helping Angel… it kind of made her feel… alright? No, not just alright. She felt better than that - It felt good.

In retrospect, she realised that it felt good to do good, go figure. She would've facepalmed if her arms had been long enough.

But she still couldn't expel the inkling welling up in her, Angel was a total liability: she couldn't do jack in combat, she was more annoying than that kid (who already set a bar she previously thought was insurmountable), and… ah! Something about her honeyed tone just irked her to no end!

It was odd, even if Angel was completely useless and managed to push all of her buttons… What was wrong with that? Silkie found herself surmising, it was utterly unlike her to think something like this. But maybe she could find a way to keep the Water type around - between her and the kid, they were good enough company.

She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to get attached - Angel was probably still gonna leave by the end of the week, now that she was done touring the place from top to bottom. She kinda reminded her a bit of Vivi, in that the pond skater's existence also caused her to hope for the better in things. But perhaps she too would follow in his footsteps: possibly dropping out even earlier. The Wurmple urged herself to dial back her thoughts as they darkened like a storm cloud at Vivi's demise. She'd just wrap up this guide and get back home to start preparing for the Caterpie when he came by this afternoon. No need to overthink things. That was all there is to it.

However, the Caterpie too will stop coming over for training eventually, when there is nothing left to learn. Silkie knew that saying goodbye was a fact, and that all meetings would have their inevitable partings. It was just the natural order of things, but she didn't know if that made her feel any better.

As the lot of them followed the dirt path to the town's plaza, Angel tapped Silkie's back, "Thanks so much for helping me last night, Silkie." She began, but Silkie didn't want to hear it. The more the Surskit spoke, the more an unrelenting feeling wrenched Silkie's guts. Apprehensive, the Wurmple Explorer immediately raised a proleg to quell her words.

"Don't mention it," The Bug type replied sternly, although her voice was rather flat, bordering on monotone, inside she was screaming. It made no sense. The Pokémon she saved last night was thanking her. Shouldn't she be proud of what she was doing? She was living up to the role model the Explorer badge had set her, recognition, gratitude, victory should've felt sweet. So why did it taste so bitter?!

The quashing of her previous feelings did help her feel a lot better, strangely, but it was a twisted kind of 'better'. Or was she just trying to convince herself that…? Was it jealousy? Sure didn't feel like it, Silkie was certain it was something worse - a pit in her stomach, at once there was dread and looming excitement she couldn't escape from. All the Wurmple knew was that facing Angel… made her forget everything. Who she was, all her thoughts before. Without rhyme or reason, it was replaced with a rancorous grudge.

"Huh, why? I mean, if it weren't for you I would've been frozen like a popsicle out there because of my bad decisions, you saved me, again! So I think I've got to thank you in some-"

The depraved feeling grew. That devilish satisfaction that leeched off of the misery of others. It expanded exponentially, in fact.

"Seriously, don't mention it!" Silkie glared unhappily, averting her gaze from the surprised Surskit, she turned around, "You wanna thank me? Shut your pie hole and stop being a liability, alright?" Angel tried to open her mouth, to no avail. Silkie's argumentative shout made her legs buckle, the Surskit winced as the Wurmple unrelentingly laid it on her over and over. "Be quiet! The only sound I want to hear from you is the sound of you shutting up!"

Lazuli flinched at the Wurmple's venomous remarks, having reappeared from the shadows, not that anyone had really cared to notice given the heated arguing. Angel's eyes grew red with… an emotion the Shuckle couldn't place. Was it hurt? As the two yelled at one another, her head suddenly swivelled at what was over the horizon. Her eyes widened, and the Shuckle gulped.

"I- P-Pardon? Why are you so-" Angel protested, the sentence cut off midway by her own hiccup, looking as if she was about to cry.

"Why? You're asking me 'why'?!" The Wurmple spat, turning her back as she spoke and proceeding over to the town's centre. "You've got to be kidding me." The hollow chuckle was barely backed up by her own questions. Indeed, why was she acting like this? Regardless, she pressed on, "For the love of Palkia, I really should've just let you freeze right there on the spo-"

"Incoming!" A voice called elsewhere, gathering the heads of everyone present, a loud rumbling that emanated from well beyond the town's boundaries drew closer and closer.

The wind smelled of soil and dried grass, sedimentary particles drifted aimlessly about the sky in the current, several Pokémon sneezed and coughed at the contaminated air.

Merchants scurried as they closed their stands, grabbing what they could before leaving everything else behind. The once-meandering Pokémon now frenzied as they too fled the scene, few, including Silkie and Angel, looked on in confusion at what was to come.

Then, they saw it.

It was a massive dust cloud - spanning the entirety of the village's perimetres and then some, seeking to encase the location in a tomb of sand and debris. Blackened and reddened eye slits, like they were baked under the unforgiving Sand continent's burning sun, glared from within - thousands of seedy eyes drew aglow from the storm.


And that's that. Thanks to VGS2_the_Sexy_Sausage and ravengal for proofreading this shitty chapter before it went online and embarrassed me in front of a couple internet strangers! Your help is very much appreciated, go check them out! Parfum the Aromatisse and Honey the Bounsweet were both recommendations by the funny sausage man, I promise I'll use them a bit more later on.

Honestly I might've gone overboard with writing descriptions for the environment once again, this chapter went through a lot of trimming to get right, so feel free to yell at me in case it's bogged down too much.

Next chapter: Silkie and Angel enter the forest in an attempt to find the root of the issue, stay tuned!