The pub was buzzing and there was merriment all around.
"It cannot be more obvious that it is good to be gay,
Smile with joy on every single daaaaay!" some pokemon sang, using gay in the original meaning of happy, although some definitely were meaning the other use of the term.
The Forager bobbed to the music, sitting at a table on his lonesome, just enjoying the vibes. And listening in to other conversations.
"Do you think it's true?"
"Nonesense is what it is. You do know what that would mean if it was true, right?"
"Boom?"
"Big boom."
That conversation caught the Forager's attention, hoping to get more context.
"That's bad."
"You think?!"
"I wouldn't be so worried." A third pokemon butted in on the conversation.
Meanwhile, the Forager leaned in over his table. And took a sip of his drink while it was within range anyhow.
"But boom!"
"Last time stuff like that happened, heroes called down by the gods came and stopped it."
"And what makes you think the gods will help this time?"
"Call it a hunch." And the pokemon left those other two alone, eyes immediately locking with the Forager and headed towards his table.
The ninetales sat up straight the moment he was noticed and tried to pretend he was just jiving with the music.
The other pokemon chuckled as they hopped on a chair and looked straight into the ninetales' eyes. "You know you can just ask instead of eavesdropping."
The Forager gulped. "Weeeeeell…" . "I didn't want to intrude on their conversation. Seemed rude, miss Absol."
The absol blinked, then smirked as she placed her front paws on the table. "Oh, so you know of my species. And yet, you seem calm."
"Well, as I heard, you weren't worried, so why worry, you know?"
"Ohoho. I like you, mister fox. But we talked about the boom. Who's not to say that here is a bad place to be? After all, I'm here today."
Another gulp from the ninetales. "Well… Is this place in danger?"
The absol's smirk grew wider. "What do you think?"
"I… I think I should head home. Rain has stopped, getting late. All that. Eheh, heh." He quickly finished his beverage and hopped off his chair, leaving, feeling the gaze of the absol staring down his neck.
The path home was getting dark, but for the Forager it was no problem. It didn't matter how dark the forest that divided the inner town from the outskirt dwellings, because the Forager knew it and the entire local forest so well he could almost go through it blindfolded.
The wind was also picking up, so the ninetales was about to put a bit more of a spring in his leg when he noticed something in the bushes. Something off.
He headed over to see the remains of a mushroom.
"Green hacksack... Looks like someone was…" He paled. Well, as much as one of his species could pale as he rushed to his home. The minute felt like seconds as he quickly went to his medicine cupboard and pulled out a potion before rushing back out, closing the door be damned.
Back to the mushroom leftovers he went and started to look around. "Why would someone..? And so close to town too…" He tilted his head. "Then again, if you don't know there's a town nearby, one wouldn't think there would be one from this part…"
And he noticed some broken branches and some crushed grass. "Okay, that… is something. Hopefully the one who ate it. And… maybe more…" He took a deep breath. "Better this than nothing." And he headed in the general direction of the trail.
The Forager stared at what was before him. An unnatural opening between the trees, and a bunch of footprints heading inside there.
"Of all the places you could have gone… Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy a mystery dungeon?!"
He took a deep breath and went forward, one slow step at a time. As he crossed the threshold, a strong wind picked up as the landscape around him shifted like he was drunk and dizzy at the same time. And when the shifting ended, he stood in an open clearing in a dense forest, but dense in a very unnatural way.
He took a deep breath. "Let's see if I can still fight. This dungeon isn't too bad if memory serves right. Now, just get to the end and…" He paused before sighing. "Riiiight. They might not have gotten there. So, exploring every single floor it is. But considering how long it's taken me to get here, whoever ate the hacksack is probably immobile by now, so it's just about catching up."
He was about to take a step when he heard something coming at him from his flank. With a quick kick with his back legs, he flipped himself to the side, looking towards the approaching stranger.
A breloom was rushing towards him at high speeds, fighting type move charging up as it went flying at the fox.
The Forager took a deep breath before exhaling a fog of ice.
The breloom went into the mist and flinched as the cold took it.
"You dungeon dwellers are still really bloodthirsty…" With the breloom on the defense, he shot out an Ice Beam and took down the grass type. "At least you're also more frail than I am." His ears flicked. "I better get going before I get swarmed."
It was the third floor, and the Forager was having trouble.
As he had entered a larger room, a large group of pokemon jumped out from the trees, flooding the room.
The ninetales quickly turned and pulled into the corridor, giving himself an advantage against the flood of pokemon rushing towards him. He was still in quite a lot of trouble as pokemon from other parts of the floor were either joining the flood, or approaching from behind.
He had to keep going back and forth, attacking literally left and right as he slowly went backwards. He remembered there was a cross section just a little bit back, so if he could just get to that he would be in a much better position.
But with the repeated attacks, he was running out of gas, and he didn't have time to fumble through his bag for any of the items he had found that might help him out.
"Question. Could you calm down for a moment so I can be let on my merry way?"
A Seed Bomb barely missed the ninetales.
"So that's a no?" And the Forager had to duck to not be hit by another. "Got it."
He took a deep breath and let out the strongest Frost Breath he could, pushing back the swarming horde slightly.
"This is why I fight berries and mushrooms!" He did a quick flip around and started running.
A caterpie slowly crawled towards him and shot a string of String Shot at him.
He quickly leaned up against the wall of trees that made the corridors, the string anticlimactically not even reaching where he was.
"I would say lucky break, but," A cacophony of roaring erupted about him. "This is still slowing me doooooown!" In a panic he resumed his running, trampling over the caterpie before reaching the crossroad. "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo, the right path is where I will go!" And he turned right.
And Razor Leaves would now pelt him from behind.
"Grah!" He stumbled, but kept running. "Right was right. Right." He saw a clearing ahead, and he was praying to Arceus that it was his escape. "Please have stairs, please have stairs, please have-"
It indeed contained the stairs leading to the next floor of the dungeon.
The Forager quickly rushed up the stoney steps and was transported to another room where he promptly fell onto the ground as he was home free. "Please have stairs, please have stairs." And also giving him time to catch up with his new situation.
He groaned as he lifted his head and turned it to look at his backside. And he paled from his white fur being slowly soaked in red.
"Definitely don't miss this…" He slowly shuffled about to get to his bag and stuffed his snout inside it, pulling out an Oran Berry, quickly eating it, while grumbling to himself why he hates dungeons.
He slowly got up and shook himself, looking around. "And for once I wish I could actually tell one part of a dungeon from another! Why does every floor have to be the exact same..?" And he scrunched his nose. "And then there's the smell!" He paused and sniffed. "Wait, that…" A slight smile through the misery. "That's the smell of someone emptying their stomach."
He looked around before seeing a pile of puke. "Bingo."
And with the wounds closing and damage healed from the Oran Berry, he set off, trying to follow the vomit trail to its owner. There was still time.
What started as a trail of partially digested… things, slowly turned into a path leading to a lot of panicking.
"He's dying! Look at him!"
"And all that puking…"
"Oh god, why is this happening?!"
The Forager was happy, because from the cries, it seemed he could still help. And sad that he had to help to begin with.
He turned the corner to see some pokemon blocking the corridor. Young ones, but dressed in general adventurer garb. Scarves, bandanas, each having their own bag, one wearing those weird goggles you sometimes find on the ground. Each having an emergency badge.
The chewtle of the group turned around to see the ninetales.
"Oh no, another one!" And a Rock Throw was quickly heading towards the Forager.
"AH!" The fox jumped before getting slammed in the face and fell on the ground. "Oww… Not hostile, not hostile!"
The elekid of the group looked at the ninetales with an odd look.
"This is a grass and bug dungeon. Mostly. I'm…" The Forager slowly got up. "I'm here to help. Have any of you eaten mushrooms?"
The bellsprout of the group, who was focusing on the machop that was suffering on the ground looked up and pointed to the machop. "We were hungry and we all ate the first thing we could grab. He picked a weird green mushroom. He said it was tasty, though."
"Knew it…" The Forager sighed as he shuffled through his bag. "Do you kids not know the first rule of dealing with mushrooms?"
Silence from the group, outside of the pained machop cries.
And he pulled out the potion from his bag. "If you're not absolutely sure whether a mushroom is edible or not, assume it will kill you! Hold him still!"
The pokemon flinched and looked confused at the ninetales.
"Listen. He will die unless he drinks this antidote. So hold him still and keep his mouth open." He stepped towards the group.
The chewtle looks to his companions. "What do we do?" Clearly not trusting the ice type.
"Do as he says." the bellsprout said as she got a foot on top of the machop and pressed down.
"You sure?" Chewtle still wasn't convinced.
"The guy doesn't seem like he wants to hurt us…" the elekid mumbled and started to help the bellsprout out.
"If you hurt him any more, I will break your bones!" the water type said as he stepped aside.
"If I wanted to, I would do something more efficient than feed him a drink." The Forager removed the plug from the potion vial and leaned down to the machop. "Okay, listen up. I'm about to pour down what will most likely be the most vile and disgusting thing you will ever taste in your entire life, and it has to stay in. Throw it up, and that most likely will be more of a guarantee as you won't live for much longer otherwise. So keep it down!" He looked to the bellsprout and elekid. "And if he is trying to puke it up, keep his trap shut! It will be agony, but it will be temporary. And not death."
The machop didn't respond. He just continued his pained cries as he groaned and cringed.
"He's going to throw up!" the chewtle said.
And the Forager stuffed the vial into the mouth of the machop, the fighting type being forced to swallow it and whatever was trying to escape. "Bad! Keep all inside!"
The elekid had a thought. "Isn't he getting rid of the poison by throwing up?"
"If he was throwing up about an hour ago, you'd have a point. It's in his blood now." The Forager removed the vial as the machop started to thrash wildly. "Hold him down!" And he helped out with his front legs.
The machop screamed and reacted again as he was about to throw up.
"Don't let him reject the potion!"
And the elekid quickly reached down and forced the machop's mouth closed as the latter shot his stomach content upwards, blocked by the sealed exit.
"Swallow it again, quickly!"
The machop cried.
"I know, trust me. I know. But if you want to live, listen to me for just a little while longer."
The machop nodded slightly before swallowing, his thrashing relaxing as he returned to the smaller convulsions he had before.
"Good. Good. You will be fine, kid."
The fighting type was breathing heavily, another wave of stomach rejection coming and eventually returning.
"Is he going to be okay?" the bellsprout asked, looking nervously.
"He won't die." the Forager replied. "But he needs a lot of rest for the next few days. And see a doctor afterwards."
"Would be great if we weren't in the middle of an arceus forsaken forest!" the chewtle snapped before turning around, having heard something.
"There's a town not far from here. You barely missed it when you went by. That's how I know one of you was in danger. Saw some remains of your…" He glanced at the machop. "Feast."
The fighting type was slowly calming down.
"Holy... That drink of yours seems to work a lot better than a Pecha Berry." the chewtle mumbled.
The ninetales removed his paws from the machop, and started putting his vial back in his bag. "Pecha works on pokemon poisons, not things like mushrooms. Or alcohol. Or chocolate."
The elekid gave him another look.
And the Forager shrugged. "The one I speak the most to is a doctor."
"Come now, buddy. You can do it. You have to do it." the bellsprout said as she removed her leg and gently placed a leaf on the fighter.
"Ah. Love." The Forager said absentmindedly.
"What? No!" Flustered bellsprout.
"She was being literal." the elekid said. "If he dies, we're all doomed."
The Forager tilted his head in confusion.
"He's a human brought here to prevent a disaster."
Two blinks from the ninetales. "A WHAT?!"
And then they all made a small jump as they heard a loud 'THUD' and looked behind them to see the chewtle hissing at a downed butterfree. "All clear!"
Back in the forest, the young pokemon and the Forager stood on the path, the trio sharing the burden in carrying their downed companion.
"Thanks for the help, mister." the elekid said, adjusting the machop on his shoulder.
"Right. So just follow the path for a few minutes, and you're in town. The doctor live at the center square, impossible to miss." the Forager said as he started to turn around. "And keep that human knowledge to a minimum until he recovers. Can't rest up when swarmed by people after all.
"Our lips are sealed." Bellsprout said as she too adjusted the machop slightly.
"Even us without ones." Chewtle finished. "Thanks, Ninetales."
"No problem." He was about to go when he got reminded of something. "Oh, and if you see a lombre, don't believe anything he says. He will try and sell you something and it's not worth the Poké."
"Got it."
The Forager was about to leave again, but stopped once more. "Oh, one last thing. What's the rule?"
"Don't eat the mushroom."
The Forager almost stumbled despite standing still. "Eh. Close enough."
Mushroom notes.
So, I am too lazy to look, but I assume that there is no such thing as a Green Hacksack. I just couldn't be damned to find a mushroom that would cover how the hacksack worked, so I invented one. It's a very down to earth fake mushroom, but I didn't need anything fantastical.
AN: Hey, look! A mystery dungeon! And the protagonists of this grand story. But the camera will remain on the Forager. But hey, in a way, he saved the world by saving the person meant to save the world. That's how that works, right? Right?