Chapter 10: Knight In The Woods

(Owen) "*whispering* What do you mean we're not alone?"

(Barnaby) "*whispering* Someone's nearby dummy."

(Eli) "*whispering* Maybe it's everyone else looking for us."

(Barnaby) "*whispering* No. This scent is unfamiliar."

(Owen) "*whispering* You don't think it could be a corrupted Pokémon, do you?"

(Barnaby) "*whispering* I don't know. But unless you want to find out firsthand, I recommend we shut our traps."

Everyone went silent. The forest was quiet. A slight breeze blew through the trees.

(Owen) "*whispering* I think whatever's out there is gone..."

Suddenly, a figure jumped out from the trees. It tackled Owen, knocking him to the ground. The figure stood above him and pointed a giant leek down at him. The Pokémon was a Galarian Farfetch'd.

(Tristan) "You won't be hurting anyone else corrupted Pokémon!"

(Owen) "Excuse me?"

Eli smacked the Farfetch'd off of Owen with Iron Tail. The Farfetch'd flew into Barnaby, dropping his leek. Barnaby grabbed the Farfetch'd and held him off the ground.

(Tristan) "Unhand me you corrupted Pokémon!"

(Barnaby) "What are you on about?"

(Tristan) "Hold up. Corrupted Pokémon don't talk. You're normal, aren't you?"

(Owen) "If you're talking about the darkness, then yeah. We're normal."

(Tristan) "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I attacked you."

Barnaby dropped the Farfetch'd on the ground. He walked over and picked up his leek.

(Owen) "It's alright. Not the first time I've been attacked randomly."

(Eli) "Why did you attack him?"

(Tristan) "I'm sorry. I thought you 3 might've been corrupted by the darkness. I was trying to stop you from hurting anyone else."

(Owen) "You know about the darkness?"

(Tristan) "Of course. The darkness corrupted everyone and everything in my hometown. My name's Tristan. I come from Ametrine City."

(Eli) "I'm Eli and this is my friend Owen and the Lycanroc is Barnaby. We come from Citrine Town."

(Owen) "The same thing happened to our town. Everyone got corrupted by the darkness. Only a handful of us managed to escape."

(Tristan) "You're lucky. I'm the only one to make it from my town."

(Eli) "Woah. That giant leek you have is unlike any I've seen."

(Tristan) "You like it? It's actually pretty rare to see a leek grow this color."

Tristan showed off his leek. The stem was a dark purple and the green parts were red.

(Tristan) "I found it when I was young. It's my most prized possession!"

(Owen) "You just carry that thing everywhere with you?"

(Tristan) "Yeah. I use it to fight. Which is perfect nowadays."

(Barnaby) "Ametrine City is a bit aways from here. What're you doing here?"

(Tristan) "Well it's a bit of an odd story. You see, I had this dream about 2 weeks ago. In the dream, someone was calling out to me. It sounded like they were in trouble."

(Eli) "Woah! No way!"

(Tristan) "What's up?"

(Owen) "Me and Eli had the same dream. We had it about 2 weeks ago as well. A mysterious voice called out to us saying the world is in danger."

(Tristan) "No kidding. That was in my dream too! Anyways, I woke up the next morning and something felt off. The town was dark and colorless. I tried to get answers, but every Pokémon in town had gone mad. They were dark and colorless just like the whole town. I barely escaped. I never had seen anything like it. I've been traveling around looking for answers since then. I've been through many towns, all ending up the same way. Tourmaline Town, Carnelian City, Jasper Village...all dark and colorless. You 3 are the first non-corrupted Pokémon I've seen in those 2 weeks."

(Owen) "So our town isn't the only one affected by the darkness. This is in more places than we thought."

(Eli) "The Crimson Canyon, Citrine Town, and now all those places. What do we do?"

(Barnaby) "Oh relax. We'll be fine. We have shelter, and a plan to fix everything."

(Eli) "That plan isn't exactly useful if we don't know the first place to look."

(Tristan) "Hold on a second. You guys know how to fix this?"

(Owen) "Sorta. We know what to look for...we just don't quite know where to find what we're looking for. We need to find something called the Dawn Wings and the Dusk Mane. Then we need to bring it to some Temple of Light to meet someone named UB Black. Guildmaster Oranguru and Toucannon are currently looking into where to find everything."

(Tristan) "There's more of you?"

(Owen) "Yeah. There's 5 more of us back in our shelter in the woods. We're all that's made it from our town. You should come with us. We could use all the help we can get to cure the darkness. Plus, you wouldn't have to be alone out here."

(Tristan) "You have no idea how happy that makes me. I'd be happy to join y'all."

(Owen) "Then welcome to our crew! For now, you are a temporary member of Team Trust and Oranguru's Guild!"

(Barnaby) "Ha! You guys are named Team Trust?! Kinda ironic seeing as Eli couldn't even tell you about Cramorant being corrupted!"

(Eli) "Shut up!"

(Owen) "We should probably be getting back. It's getting pretty late."

(Eli) "I...I can't."

(Owen) "What?"

(Eli) "I can't go back yet. Everyone probably hates me."

(Owen) "I'm sure they don't. At least Pawmo and Charcadet don't."

(Eli) "I just can't right now. Can we just...camp out here for the night?"

(Barnaby) "Seriously?! You'd rather stay out here than face the consequences of your actions?"

(Eli) "Just please."

(Owen) "Alright. But we're heading back first thing in the morning. You have to face the others."

(Eli) "Thanks. I promise I'll face everyone tomorrow."

(Tristan) "I've got a small camp set up nearby. We can stay there tonight."

(Owen) "Perfect. Barnaby, could you please let everyone else know that we're alright and we'll be back first thing in the morning?"

(Barnaby) "Whatever. I'm going back to the shelter myself. Might as well let them know. Don't get yourselves killed out here!"

Barnaby headed away through the forest.

(Barnaby) "*distant* Team Trust. Ha ha ha."

(Tristan) "I assume you 2 aren't real good friends with that guy."

(Eli) "I was, but that was a long time ago. He hurt me. We're only with him temporarily till we can cure the darkness."

(Tristan) "Oh. Well, come with me. We'll get some rest and then meet up with the rest of y'all first thing tomorrow."

Owen and Eli followed Tristan through the forest.

Eli walked around a white void.

(Eli) "Hello? Anyone here?"

Eli spotted Owen in the void. He quickly ran over towards him.

(Eli) "Owen! It's me!"

Owen turned around. Eli slid to a halt. Owen had a huge scar across his chest. The darkness spread from his scar.

(Eli) "Owen?"

(Owen) "Look what you've done."

(Eli) "Me?"

(Owen) "You let the whole town get corrupted. Everyone else is gone. Oranguru, Toucannon, Pawmo, Charcadet, Tristan. Even Barnaby and Grimsnarl. And now I'm corrupted too."

(Eli) "No! You can't be!"

(Owen) "You ruin everything. I got you out of your depression and loneliness. And this is how you repay me?! You're nothing!"

(Eli) "I...I'm sorry."

The darkness quickly continued to spread over Owen.

(Owen) "You are worse than this Shadow King! At least they weren't my friend and betrayed me. You're worse than the Shadow King!"

The darkness completely spread over Owen. All the color and light was gone from him.

(Owen) "You're even worse than Barnaby!"

Owen lunged at Eli.

Eli jolted awake. It was morning. Eli, Owen, and Tristan had fallen asleep around a now extinguished fire. Owen and Tristan were still asleep.

(Eli) "*sigh* It was just a dream. Everyone's okay...for now."

(Barnaby) "Hey dummy!"

Eli hopped off the ground. He turned to see Barnaby was at the campsite.

(Eli) "Barnaby? What are you doing here?"

(Barnaby) "Just came to see if you guys made it through the night. And aw darn...you're not corrupted."

(Eli) "I'm not in the mood. Just leave me alone."

(Barnaby) "Geez. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the ground."

(Eli) "Don't you have anything better to do than pick on me?"

(Barnaby) "...nah! It's way too fun!"

(Eli) "You know, I cared about you."

(Barnaby) "Well duh. We did use to be friends."

(Eli) "I meant after you hurt me. I hoped for 3 years that maybe what had happened was a dream, or that it wasn't you who attacked me. A part of me still cared about you for 3 years after you hurt me. But I guess you were right about 1 thing. I was a dummy. A dummy for believing you'd be anything other than a bully."

Barnaby was actually hurt by what Eli said. But he continued to put up a facade.

(Barnaby) "Was that meant to hurt my feelings or something?"

(Eli) "Whether it was or not, you wouldn't have cared anyway."

Owen and Tristan finally woke up. Both got off the ground and noticed Barnaby.

(Owen) "Hey. Barnaby is here. yay..."

(Barnaby) "Har har har. Let's head back to the shelter. Oranguru and Toucannon have located one of the items we need to cure the darkness."

(Owen) "Sweet! Let's go!"

Eli, Owen, and Tristan raced back to the shelter. Barnaby walked back, upset by what Eli had said to him.

Owen, Eli, and Tristan arrived at the shelter.

(Oranguru) "Well well well. Welcome back Owen and Eli! Glad to see you 2 are alright."

(Toucannon) "Who's the new guy?"

(Owen) "This is Tristan the Farfetch'd. His town was corrupted by the darkness just like ours. He wants to help fix things."

(Tristan) "Ahem. Hello. I'm Tristan. I'm a knight in my town. I want to help find a cure for this darkness so I can get my town back"

(Oranguru) "Welcome to the crew Tristan! My name is Guildmaster Oranguru. This is my right-hand bird, Toucannon. We also have Pawmo, Charcadet, and Grimsnarl."

(Pawmo) "Welcome to the team Tristan!"

(Eli) "Ahem. Speaking of our town getting corrupted, I wanted to say something. I know keeping the secret from Owen and unintentionally doing so to Oranguru and Toucannon brought us here. I'm...I'm so sorry. I can't go back and stop myself from doing what I did, but I will do everything in my power to fix my mistake. Please don't exile me from the guild."

(Oranguru) "Exile you? We wouldn't dream of doing so. You are a part of our family now."

(Eli) "Really? Thanks so much!"

(Toucannon) "However, you still did cause a huge mess. This won't go without punishment. Once this whole 'darkness' thing is said and done, you will be on kitchen duty with Dachsbun for the next month."

(Eli) "Of course. That's the least I deserve."

Barnaby finally arrived at the shelter.

(Oranguru) "Perfect! Everyone is here. It's time to share the good news! Me and Toucannon have discovered the location of the Dawn Wings!"

End Of Chapter 10