"Guildmaster!" Casey exclaimed, getting up.
"Hello Casey, and you too Kiki," the Guildmaster said with a hearty chuckle. "I hope I'm not interrupting too much."
" 'You're fine Guildmaster, I just finished up here,' " Kiki said. " 'Steven here is good to go as soon as Casey gives the ok. I presume you'll be having him work for the Guild while he stays here?' "
"Guildmaster, you can't make Steven work on a team!" Casey shouted, clearly against the idea. "We already know he's being hunted, and we haven't caught the perpetrators from last time's attack."
"Oh ho, of course not Casey, I would never," Guildmaster spoke softly, smiling. "Not unless he really wanted to. But he will need to work, so I'll just have him be my assistant while our Deputy is away on business for the next week or so, maybe even have him help with some basic chores, nothing strenuous."
Casey sighed in relief at those words. "Well, either way, I still need to do one last checkup on him to make sure he's medically fine to work," she said. "But if he is, I still definitely recommend a light physical workload for the next week while he recovers some more and gets used to his surroundings."
"That's fine Casey, just let me know when he's good to go and I'll send someone to pick him up and bring him to me," the Guildmaster replied as he turned and left. "Good work and have a good day everyone," he called while walking away.
" 'Well, it's been fun chatting Steven, but I need to go write my report and move on to the next patient,' " Kiki told me. " 'Have a great day, both of you.' " She then left quickly, floating away down the hall.
That left just myself and Casey. I turned to her and asked curiously "Do you want to do that checkup now or later?"
"I'll do it after we get you something to eat," she said, smiling. "I'm sure you're hungry, and it's a good excuse to get you out of this room." She stood up and started walking out of the room so I got up and followed her, leaving the room for the first time since getting to the Guild.
Stepping into the hall I saw there were about four more doors leading to rooms like the one I came from as I was led by Casey through the building. Trying to keep up with her surprisingly quick pace I didn't really have time to look at what everything was that we passed. What I did manage to catch glimpses of were an atrium, a library, and what looked like a training room, passing very few pokemon on the way, most of which seemed too sleepy to care about me or Casey.
We shortly found ourselves in a dining hall packed with pokemon of every kind of species, most of them sitting in either pairs or groups of three to four. A good majority of the groups wore either armbands or scarfs of varying colors and patterns, creating a very colorful hodgepodge in the dining hall. Casey led me to a counter and grabbed two bowls, filling them with what looked like berries and apples.
She then led me to an empty table and I climbed up and sat down on the stool opposite her. I felt a few curious eyes on my back, but I tried not to let it get to me, I was already nervous enough. Looking down at the bowl Casey set in front of me, I saw an assortment of new strange berries, along with an apple and a couple orans, which I recognized.
"Thank you," I said to Casey.
"You're welcome," she replied. "Now, dig in, I'm sure you're hungry." As if on cue my stomach growled lightly, to which she giggled.
Diving into all these new strange foods, I ended up trying pecha, rawst, and pinap berries, not liking the pinap berries all too much, but really liking the pechas. I tried what Casey called a fresh apple and enjoyed it, even if it was a bit bland compared to the berries. And of course I had all the oran berries in front of me as well, enjoying their sweet taste and juicy texture.
"Well you certainly have a good appetite," Casey giggled after I finished off everything in the bowl, licking my lips clean of oran berry juice. "But that's to be expected. Your body needs to replace all the energy it used to heal you up."
"Thank you," was all I could manage, looking down, a little embarrassed at the display I had just given. I felt more staring from behind me, and just felt small compared to all of these other pokemon. And that's when I noticed the pendant hanging off of my neck again, which I guess had buried itself in my mane when I fell into the river. It must have come loose when I was eating just now.
It was a golden oval with short, curved golden prongs coming out of it horizontaly, one on the top and bottom, on each side. Set in the middle of the oval was a crystal clear gemstone that shined every color imaginable in the light. I just sat there looking at it, hoping that it would give me some sense of clarity of purpose, or maybe even unlock some kind of memories, but nothing came to me, no matter how hard or long I stared at it.
Casey interrupted my thoughts by getting up from her seat and saying "Ok, let's go back to the medical wing and get you that checkup, unless you wanted to rest a little bit longer?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I should be fine to just get this checkup over with," I reply, looking up at her.
She just nodded and led me quickly back to the medical wing of the Guild, leaving the strong gazes piercing my back behind. This time though, she led me to another room with some strange equipment scattered around the room, and only one bed sitting at the center. Moving to the bed, I sit down and wait for her as she grabs some tools from a bag nearby.
She uses what looks like a small hammer to check my joints and reflexes, tapping them lightly, then puts that tool to the side and uses a flat stick to hold my tongue down as she checks the inside of my mouth. Removing my bandages, she checks the areas that were injured, squeezing my legs in a way that she could tell if they were broken without causing me too much discomfort. Finally she checked my stomach to see if the cut has healed all the way.
"Well you're medically as healthy as can be, so im going to hand you over to the Guildmaster," she says as she puts away all the strange tools she had out and gestures to me to follow her.
I get up and follow her as she leads me to the atrium I saw briefly earlier. It was busy right now, but not crowded, a few pokemon could be seen at the main desk towards the back talking to others across the counter from them. Others were running paperwork around and some of them were putting some papers up on the bulletin boards on the wall to the right of the desk. There was a variety of species, all in various stages of evolution, too many for me to identify each and every one. Guiding me to the main desk, Casey brought me to one of the pokemon behind the desk and introduced me to them.
"Nice to meet you Steven," she said cheerfully. "My name is Evalin, but you call me Eva. I heard about you from my brother, Urian. I hope the Guild will be able to help you get your memories back and get you back to your family."
This strange, brown, fox-like pokemon smiled at me, just radiating positive energy. 'Oh, she's an Eevee,' I thought. 'Evolution is crazy, she looks so different from him.' Casey and Eva chatted for a little bit before turning to me and saying "I'm going to leave you with her. She'll be able to get someone to take you to the Guildmaster."
"Can't she just take me herself?" I ask, leaning my head sideways in confusion.
"Sorry, but I have to stay at the desk," Eva told me. "Unfortunately I still have paperwork to process and updates to give to the boards over there." She gestured to the bulletin boards to my right.
"Oh, sorry," I say, apologizing immediately.
"Don't worry about it," Eva replied, grinning. "You wouldn't know if you've lost all your memories, so I don't hold that against you. Don't worry though, I already have someone on the way to take you to the Guildmaster. I'm just waiting for them to show up."
"Well, I'll see you later Eva," Casey said, turning and walking away.
"Bye Casey," Eva called after her. Turning to me, she pointed to a spot behind the desk with a paw. "Hop on over and join me. I'll keep you company while we wait for your escort to arrive."
I carefully hop on top of the desk and then down to the other side, seeing the stool she was pointing to. Sitting down on it next to her, she wraps her tail around me protectively as she worked. Even through my fur I could tell it was soft and fluffy. 'If I were still human I might want to rub it against my face or softly pet it,' I thought to myself, then looked down embarrassed and confused that I had just thought that.
She giggled seeing me look embarrassed, then looked up and said "Oh, you're finally here Sparky." She quickly took her tail from around me as I looked up, curious. "Took you a while."
"Yeah, sorry, Deputy had me running some errands before she left for the Guild of Dreams," a familiar voice said. Finding the source of the voice, I see Vincent the shinx walking up, wearing a red scarf with some kind of round badge with wings on it.
"You!" I exclaim, surprised to see him. "I thought I might never see you again."
"Oh, the Zorua from the other day," he said, also looking surprised. "I'm glad you made it. I thought you might die after I saw Kabutops cut you."
"AHEM," Eva coughed. "Sorry to interupt your little reunion, but you're going to need to take Steven here to the Guildmaster."
"Oh, right, sorry," Vincent laughed nervously. "Ok well I guess you should follow me then. Don't fall too far behind," he told me, gesturing with a paw to follow him.
I hopped over the counter and followed him as he led me further into the Guild. We walked through a few hallways lined with doors and bustling with pokemon running about before reaching some stairs and going up them. I wanted to thank Vincent for saving me, but I was nervous with all the other pokemon around. When we got to the top of the stairs, about two flights up, the number of other pokemon dwindled to zero.
"Thank you," I say suddenly, having finally worked up the courage to say something.
"Oh, no problem," he replied. "It's my job to help out the Guildmaster and Deputy."
"No," I say, stopping in my tracks. "I mean, thank you for saving my life. You pulled me out of the river and got me help. I would have died if you weren't there and didn't help me."
Stopping after hearing this he turns to me and reaches out a paw, tapping me on the forehead lightly. "You're welcome, but I really didn't do much. If you want to thank anyone, thank Team Hurricane and the medical staff next time you see them. Or your own good luck," he said, laughing lightly, turning back around to lead the way. "Now, let's go see the Guildmaster."
We walked up to a large, grand wooden door, big enough to fit two Guildmasters side by side, at the end of a long hallway and stopped. Vincent knocked on the door and said "Guildmaster, I'm here with the person you requested."
"Send him in," you hear the Guildmaster say, his voice slightly muffled by the door. Vincent looks at me then turns back to the door and opens it. Stepping inside, it is an eloquent office that was fancy without being gaudy, showing some sophistication and yet not trying to be too flashy. A nice looking wooden desk too tall for me to see over or on top of sat in the middle, and Drake sat behind it, confidence and authority radiating off of him.
"STEVEN MY BOY!" Drake boomed loudly. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay, I guess Guildmaster," I tell him.
"Good, good," he replied. "Well, Sparky, as much as I'd love to chat, I'm pretty sure Deputy T wanted to see you before she leaves and I need to talk to our friend Steven here alone."
"Ok Guildmaster," he said, sighing. "Well, I hope you have a good day." He turned around and left saying "See you later Steven," as he passed me.
"Well Steven," Drake says as Vincent closes the door, "how about we start with answering some of your questions. I'm sure you have lots of them."
"Are you sure?" I ask in surprise. "I don't want to get in the way of your work."
"Oh not at all," he replied laughing. "This is exactly what I need. I need someone to talk to destress, and I very well can't just bother my Deputy or Sparky when they have other work to do as well."
"Are you that lonely?" I asked innocently.
Drake looked at me in surprise, then smiled widely. "I wouldn't say lonely, but in my line of work I tend to get alienated because of my status, which makes finding good friends you can trust very hard."
"Oh," I say, "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be rude."
"Not at all," Drake replied. "You're the first person to have noticed in quite a long time. But I'm sure you have many more questions, so ask away and I'll do my best to answer what I can."
I sat down and thought for a moment before asking "What's the name of this world, and where are we located on it?"
"Oh, good question," Drake answered. "Our world is called Asnair, and we are on the Plains Continent. There are 5 continents, and a forbidden continent. If you want to learn more about each I would recommend you head to our library and ask one of the lovely helpers there for a book about it as I honestly am just not good with explaining what the world looks like. What else would you like to know?"
"What exactly does the Guild do?"
"Ah, I see. Well, we take on jobs that the locals request, which are anything from helping find a lost item to rescuing someone who's lost to even capturing dangerous criminals. The difficulty and complexity of the task determines how much it will cost the requestor, with the most dangerous jobs costing quite a bit. We then give these jobs to teams of two to four to complete and earn both them and the Guild some cash. Again, while I could spend all day explaining the intricacies of the Guild and our work, I'm sure you have more questions, so I'll come back to this one later if you run out of other questions to ask."
I thought deeply for a moment, looking down, then realized I had a question I wanted to ask that I hadn't even thought to ask before. Taking off my necklace I carry it over to Drake and set it down on top of the desk. "Yeah," I say finally, "could you tell me what this is? I woke up with it, but forgot about it when I got chased."
Picking it up carefully, Drake looked at it closely and said "Well, I haven't the slightest idea what the gem is, but this pendant is the symbol of Arceus. I've only ever seen these kinds of pendants worn by the acolytes and monks at his temple on top of the World Mountain, but never one with a gemstone set into it like this." He looked at it, deep in thought. "I've never heard of the Temple giving something like this to anyone not of their ranks, especially not one this fancy. They tend to stay to themselves afterall."
Looking at me for a moment he said "If you don't mind, I'd like to hold onto it for a moment to do some more research for you. I have connections and can ask around to see if anyone knows of any others like this, or even if the Temple maybe is looking for you. They could be your family, and this could be the key to finding out about your past."
"Well, that's good news, right?" I asked.
"Of course!" Drake replied, laughing. "This is great news, and if I'm right, it could mean you'll be home much sooner than we could have hoped." Realizing how that sounded he followed up with, "Not that you're a bother, bit I'd rather get you to your family where you'll be loved and cared for. I just hope that-"
Suddenly the door burst open and Eva came rushing in. "Guildmaster! It's an emergency! We need you!"
"What happened?" Drake asked, getting up from his seat behind the desk.
"Wesuddenlygotaninfluxofpokemonfromthenexttownoverand-" Eva spoke, so fast I barely could make out what she said.
"BREATH EVA," Drake said. He watched as she took a few deep breaths, breathing hard. Once she had calmed down some, he said, "Ok, so what's this about pokemon from the next town over? What happened to make them come here?"
"The village they were living at got burned down by some mysterious pokemon who attacked out of nowhere," she cried, tears rolling down her face. "My parents were in that village, and not everyone made it out. I haven't seen them yet among the survivors, and-" She stopped, breaking down into a fit of sobbing.
Drake came over and kneeled down next to her, picking her up and wrapping his arms around her in a hug as she wept into his chest. "Shhh, shhh. It's going to be ok. Everything will be fine," he whispers to her calmly, holding her tight.
I see Vincent in the hall running up, slowing down when he saw Drake holding Eva. I see that he's crying as well, tears streaking off his face as he comes up to us, but not quite sobbing.
"Guildmaster," Vincent spoke, "what do you want to do?"
"Issue the order to all available teams that haven't left yet an emergency mission to provide rescue and aid to the pokemon of the village," Drake said quietly as he held Eva tightly, anger seeping out of his voice. "Tell them this is an order from the Guildmaster."
"Yes, sir!" Vincent affirmed, turning and running off back in the direction he came.
As he ran off, Eva's sobbing slowed and eventually ended with sniffling as the Guildmaster held her tightly. When she had calmed down enough, he slowly set her back down and gently pat her back as she stood there. Her eyes were red and swollen from all the crying, but it looked like she got all of it out of her system.
"You feeling better now?" Drake asked her.
"Yes," she whispered. "Thank you."
"No problem," the Guildmaster smiled bittersweetly. Turning to me he said, "Sorry, our conversation got cut short, but I have work to do now."
I shook my head. "Not a problem. I hope we can find Eva's family safely."
"That's kind of you," Drake replied. Pausing for a moment he asked "Would you mind watching Eva here and keeping her company? I don't want to leave her alone in these troubling times."
"YES SIR!" I exclaim. "Whatever you need."
He smiled a little more brightly at that. "Good. Now, I have to go, but Eva knows her way around the Guild, and Sparky can get you anything when he becomes available. Take care of her," he finished as he stretched the wings behind his back and literally flew down the hall out of sight.
Turning to Eva, I walked up to her and asked "Is there somewhere you'd like to go? I'll walk with you if you want."
She looked up at me and smiled, wiping the tears off her face. "Oh Arceus, I didn't want you to see me like this," she said softly, chuckling lightly. "Look how the tables have turned, with you looking out for me now, huh?" She looked at me for a moment, clearly lost in thought, then shook her head and said "Well, we might as well get you acquainted with the Guild and its facilities so you don't get lost without me."
"Oh, um, ok, if that's what you want," I said, a little confused.
She laughed a little at that and turned around, looking back at me. "Come on, we'll start with the entrance and work our way around the building."
She led the way, showing me all the major features of the Guild, explaining what they were for and how to use them, answering any questions I have. On the left side of the Guild is a dining hall for Guild members to eat, socialize, and catch up with each other on the ongoing jobs they were taking. The library was for doing research and getting hard-to-find information that could be relevant to a mission or job. The dojo was where you could go to train, learn new moves from a tutor, or learn how to link moves with your teammates. Sometimes mock battles between teams were held there as well to help teams burn off steam or settle disputes.
The right side of the Guild held the medical wing, with both day and night staff, dealing with anything from cuts and scrapes to broken bones and life-threatening injuries. It also had the records rooms, which held all previously completed missions and jobs, personnel files, and anything report-like that needed filing. Probably just as important, the left side also had direct access to the towns' market, where a Guild team could buy anything they could possibly need on their adventures. Both halves of the Guild were connected by the living quarters to the rear, where Guild members could go to sleep, and the atrium at the front, where teams could take jobs and missions from the bulletin boards.
Ending at the living quarters, Eva turned to me and said "You'll be living in one of these rooms tonight. We'll need to find an empty one eventually, but for now you can sleep in my room. Follow me, I'll take you there so you can get there on your own."
"Are you feeling better?" I ask out of the blue.
"Mhmm," she replied. "I appreciate you, you know."
"I haven't done anything though," I protest.
"You've done more than you think," Eva replies. "You didn't judge me for being boring as I took you around the Guild, and you listen seriously to everything I say."
"Isn't that normal?" I ask, confused.
She chuckles. "Not all pokemon think the way you do Steven. Some would have just tuned me out and ignored me. Others would have just told me to shut up. Not all pokemon are cheerful and happy."
"Oh," is all I can manage to say, looking at the ground as we walk up a flight of stairs.
"Don't worry about it, you're not one of those, and they're usually far and few between," she told me, reaching a door to a room and opening it. "Here, this is my room, number 257. Come on in."
I entered her room, surprised to see it didn't have much. It was maybe about ten or twelve feet across, and only about six to eight deep with a mirror on the left wall at paw-height. Other than that, there were three straw beds with a cloth covering two of them, and a bag and scarf stacked by the wall next to the door. She went to the bed with a green cloth on it and sat down.
"This is my bed, and the one with a red blanket is Sparky's," she told me pointing to each one. "You can have the unclaimed one."
"Are you two dating?" I ask innocently.
"Ew, no, he's my brother," she replied, sticking her tongue out.
"Oh," I say. "My bad."
"Don't worry about it, I never told you," she smiled.
"I know he's your brother, but why do you call him Sparky?" I ask. "Isn't his name Vincent?"
"Oh, haha," she laughed at me. "That is his name, but Sparky is his nickname. Oh, how to explain?" She sat there pondering for a minute before saying "Well it's kind of a respect thing. If you call someone by their nickname you're either good friends or on good terms with each other, whereas calling them by their species name is considered rude in some places, or can indicate a bad relationship. Your regular name is a kind of middle ground, or used at formal occasions."
"Oh, cool," I say. "I guess it confused me because I can't remember my nickname, if I had one."
"Then we should give you one!" Eva said excitedly. "Hmm, what's a good one? Usually your nickname is just a shortening of your regular name, but calling you Steve kind of defeats the purpose of having the nickname." She looked at me thinking really hard when I hear the door open behind us. Looking behind me, I see Sparky in the doorway, looking exhausted.
"Oh," he said in surprise, "I hope I'm not interrupting."
"Nope," Eva told him. "I'm just trying to think of a nickname for Steven here, since he doesn't have one. Can you help me think of something?"
"Sure, umm, let me think here..." Sparky muttered, going deep into thought. Both of them were silent for a moment when Sparky said "Dusk."
"Huh?" I say, confused.
"It's the time of day I found you, and it represents warmth at the end of the day, something that radiates from you so obviously," Sparky answered.
"Dusk," I muttered to myself. "I like it," I tell Sparky, smiling.
"Good, I'm glad," Sparky said, "but I'm tired from today's work, so I'm going to sleep."
"Me too," Eva added. "You ought to as well Dusk. It's probably going to be a long day tomorrow."
As Sparky walked past I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I walked up to it a stared into it, getting a good look at my body for the first time since waling up in this world. I was a Zorua all right, complete with a pair of blue eyes and a pointy black nose. I sighed inside my head and shook it, moving to the bed without a blanket.
I layed down and was about to shut my eyes when I said, "Goodnight Sparky, goodnight Eva."
"Goodnight Dusk," they told me, in sync with each other. I giggled at that, then shut my eyes to go to sleep. It wasn't long before everything went black.