Pannen, Elijah, Ishmael, and Leah continued walking ahead on the old roads. The sky was a thick gray, dimming the entire land- even during the midday. Pannen kept looking around, searching for any sign of her sister Aika. But Leah the espurr looked upwards to the cloudy skies.
"...You know, it's a bit weird. We've been on this journey for a few days now, but it hasn't rained on us once," Leah said. "It's been overcast pretty much all day, but it hasn't started raining on us yet."
The rest of them turned their heads upwards to look at what Leah was looking at. It wasn't just a simple blanket of gray, the clouds above were thick, moving, and slightly darkened. "Now that you mention that, that is kinda odd," Pannen said. "We should count ourselves lucky about that."
"At this rate, I don't think it'll be much longer until it starts coming down," Leah said.
"I wouldn't mind getting a little wet. I like the rain," the mienfoo said.
"I'd really prefer to be staying dry myself," Elijah said.
"Your dad was a dewott, Ishmael. Of course you'd be fine with the rain," Leah said.
"Well, getting wet is just part of adventurin'! Can't deny that."
"It's not always part of it," Leah said.
"Why not?"
"Could be going into something like a sandy, desert mystery dungeon. Those are bone dry. Do you not consider that an adventure?"
"Well you'd be all sweaty in a place like that, and that's still wet," Ishmael argued.
Leah needed a second to think over that. "I mean I guess?"
"I'd still rather remain dry…" Elijah said.
"Regardless, we gotta keep going. Aika could be anywhere around here," Pannen interjected.
A thought crossed Pannen's head. Her map was made of paper, not the best thing to be getting exposed to downpour. She reached into her bag and pulled it out again, making sure she could check it while things were still dry. She saw the road was coming up on another patch of green. She was relieved to see that it wasn't labeled as a mystery dungeon. But looking closer, she saw that the patch of green was a brighter hue than the other forests present on the map. She wasn't sure what to make of that, so she just put the map back safely. "We've got another wooded area coming up, but this one shouldn't have a mystery dungeon. We'll be safe."
"Could we go a bit faster? I'd like to be under some trees if it rains," Elijah said.
"We shouldn't tire ourselves out by running, but we could certainly go a bit faster," Pannen said.
As closed in, Pannen could understand why the map gave the area a different color. The trees and smaller plants were a lush, vibrant green which bloomed with life. The colors were so bright there, it looked like it was in the middle of summer right after a rainshower. It wasn't just a simple forest, it was more akin to a jungle.
The path continued straight into vibrant lands. The stones around them were slick and mossy, droplets of water occasionally sprinkled off the leaves, and they had to step around patches of wet mud which lined the path. Except for Ishmael, he found no problem in walking straight through the mud.
"It's certainly rained here recently, but it still hasn't rained straight down on us," Leah observed.
"I feel that if you keep saying that, you're just going to cause rain to start soon," Pannen replied.
"I don't think the weather much cares about what we say," Leah said.
"Well… it wouldn't hurt to be careful," Pannen said.
Elijah took another good look around them. "Are we sure this isn't another mystery dungeon?"
"Certainly. There's no repetitive details here, every tree is different," she pointed around them.
"You can still be careful, though," Pannen said.
"Yes, in an actually logical way. Like watching your step so you don't slip," Leah said.
"Even if it's not a mystery dungeon, this place still looks like it'll be fun to explore!" Ishmael said.
They continued down the path, with the patches of mud becoming more prevalent, coating the old path. It eventually began to decline down a hill. The decline forced them to be much more cautious to avoid slipping and tumbling down. It was at the bottom of the hill that their next difficulty came.
The brown mud gathered down there in a wide puddle, completely obscuring the road beneath it. Around the puddle, multiple paths extended out from it. They looked down and around to make sense of it.
"I honestly cannot tell where the road is supposed to go," Pannen said.
"This road was carved a long time ago, it makes sense it would be pretty heavily weathered," Leah said.
"Well, we're trying to go to Evelyn Forest, and that's still north-east of here. So if we just keep going in that direction, then we should be good."
"Well the sky is too overcast right now to see the sun. You have a compass on you, right?" Leah asked Pannen.
"Well…." Pannen said.
"...Did you not bring a compass with us?"
"Well we'd be going through open fields and I didn't anticipate us going through dungeons. I thought we could just keep going down the roads or use the sky to take direction."
"Are you kidding me?!" Leah said.
"Did you bring a compass?" Elijah asked Leah.
"Well, no," the espurr answered.
"Why not?"
"Well… I expected Pannen. She is the leader of this whole thing, afterall."
"Why don't we just keep walking straight forward?" Ishmael asked.
"It's not that easy," Leah said.
"That's all we can do right now, we need to keep going forward," Pannen said, pointing to the straightest path. "Come on, let's go."
She walked around the mud to take the path, the other three followed her forward. As they walked again, they heard the sound of wind whistling through the leaves.
Walking around this environment brought a very different feeling to what a mystery dungeon is. While the nature of a mystery dungeon was difficult to wrap one's head around, the actual layouts were fairly easy to grasp as they had sharp turns and clear pathways. A truly natural environment didn't give such advantages, paths were thin, wide, clear, cluttered, bright, or enshadowed, and they turned in ways hard to keep track of.
"I'm really glad we get to see places like this. I had no idea a jungle was so close to where we lived," Ishmael said after a moment as he looked around.
"Not sure the climate is exactly right to call it a 'jungle', but it's certainly more exotic than I would've expected," Leah corrected. "I'm trying to figure out how this might've come into existence. I know that dragonair can manipulate weather so I'm wondering if they had an element to it?"
"Whatever caused it, it's gorgeous," Pannen said. "I really wish Aika was with us right now. I would love to explore these places with her."
"When we're all together again, you two sure could join the guild. You don't seem to have a shortage of courage," Leah said aloud. "If 'courage' is the right word to use there," she spoke too quietly for them to hear.
"I'm fine with seeing the sights of the world, but I would prefer to be following a tour guide-" Elijah's foot slipped and he fell into a deep pool of mud. He got submerged down to his chest and some splashed into his mouth, forcing him to spit it out before he could speak again.
Pannen rushed over and grabbed the paw of her brother to help pull him out. She had little friction on the ground and almost slipped herself, but Ishmael grabbed her back to help her keep steady. Elijah was pulled back onto solid ground and rolled a few times. Getting over the shock of it, he was disgusted by the shade of brown that most of his fur was turned into.
"Okay… so clearly this isn't the way that the road went," Pannen said.
"No duh…" Elijah snapped.
"Let's backtrack to where the road was visible again and take another route," Pannen said.
"Give me a second to clean off, at least."
As they turned around, they saw that there were multiple paths which lead to the area they were now at. Pannen wasn't completely sure which one of them they had come from. She took her best guess and took the lead for the group again, and the others followed.
It was not the path they had first come from. And they heard the howling of the wind getting more intense.
They kept moving through the environment, trying their hardest to avoid going in circles. The wind kept intensifying more and more. Every time they thought the storm had reached its peak, it only became faster. Their fur and tails were constantly blowing around, obscuring their eyes and making them lose the ability to control where their tails were. For a moment Pannen tried to use the direction of the wind as a constant to get her bearings, but she quickly found that even the wind was inconsistent and seemingly blowing every which way. Or perhaps it wasn't. The environment made it so hard to get a sense of direction. With the beating wind and gray skies, it was just as oppressive as a mystery dungeon.
The wind wasn't empty like still air was. In it it carried leaves, seeds, grass, dirt, and other stray objects. Each of them whizzed by as though they were thrown.
"This was a bad idea!" Leah shouted, her voice being carried away like the leaves.
"What!?" Pannen responded, not being able to properly hear Leah over all the wind.
"I said this was a bad idea!" she said again, now speaking even louder.
"I don't even know where we're going!" Elijah complained.
"Everything's okay!" Pannen shouted. "We just need to keep moving!"
Beneath the crushing sounds of wind, they heard an odd creaking. They could only barely hear it over the zephyr which surrounded them, but it was the unmistakable sound of old wood snapping. They turned their heads to see a tree collapsing onto their path. They all quickstepped to get out of its path before it loudly hit the ground, launching dirt upwards. Pannen breathed heavily, the terrible reality of the situation reaching her.
"Leah! You've gone on adventures before, do you know how we could get out of there?!"
"If this was a mystery dungeon there'd be some outs, but this isn't one!" Leah responded.
Pannen quickly looked around to make sure everyone was still there. Elijah and Ishmael weren't far away from Leah. With everyone still accounted for, she needed to find a way to get them back to safety.
Her first thought was the one that required the least effort: hide in somewhere low until the wind finally subsided. But with the blowing objects, potential of rain, and now even trees collapsing, that didn't seem much safer. She tried looking around more, but there just wasn't much to see. She then got her next idea.
"We need to get to high ground to get a good look at the environment! Then we can find where to go next!" Pannen said.
The others weren't sure if that was the greatest idea, but they didn't have much else to suggest. Pannen began walking uphill, the other three following her.
The trek was exhausting on their legs. They had to move both uphill and against the strong winds. They had to keep their eyes squinted and their ears were filled with the sound of wind. Pannen followed a path that continued upwards without being too steep, and she kept walking that path through every curve. She was sure there had to be something up there if she just kept going upwards- there had to be.
Pannen kept marching on, keeping her spirit strong as she gritted her teeth. Elijah, Leah, and Ishmael followed behind. The natural path they followed had a steep incline on their left and a steep drop to their right. They kept moving.
Eventually, they began hearing a constant noise which wasn't just the howling wind. With vigor renewed, they kept moving forward to round another turn. But once they did, they saw the path suddenly ended with a rushing waterfall which deposited into a river beneath them. The hill and drop offs at their sides were still just as sharp, impossible to scale. Pannen stopped, feeling ready to collapse. She didn't know what to do anymore.
Elijah, Leah, and Ishmael caught up with her, seeing the waterfall as well. The wind still blew just as strong.
"Shoot… We need to turn back," Leah said.
"And where?" Elijah asked.
"Well, somewhere," Leah said.
"Is there any way we could build a shelter here?" Ishmael said, trying to spitball ideas.
"No, that's nowhere even close to being possible right now," Leah responded.
During all this talking, Pannen remained silent. Her head hung low, as she didn't know what to do. Caught in the middle of a storm in dense nature, no one else to be seen. Objects still blew in the wind around them, entire branches flying around at dangerous speeds. She knew she needed to move for her own survival, but she needed a moment as her muscles were tired.
But just then, she heard something- felt something new. She opened her eyes and looked forward.
Ahead of them, the waterfall split open down the middle, every drop of water being redirected to the left or right. The sound of the water amplified as the two streams were forced closely together as they crashed into the river below. On the other side, they could see a cavern which extended onwards. No physical object was dividing the water and the wind blew at it from the side- yet as clear as day- the waterfall was miraculously divided.
Pannen stood up and they all looked forward, awestruck at what they were witnessing. They wondered if they were seeing things correctly, but it was all clear. For a moment, Pannen was able to shake out of her shocked amazement and focus on what needed to be done. In-between the split streams a clear passageway had formed, and on the other side of the waterfall was a cavern. It was damp and dark inside, but it was a strong shelter from the wind.
"Come on, let's get in!" Pannen shouted as she quickly got back up.
Forcing herself forward, she ran forward until the land ended, and then jumped into the tunnel. The stone ground hurt to land on, but she was safe inside. Ishmael followed without hesitation, and Elijah came after. Leah wasn't able to run as fast and almost didn't make the jump, but she narrowly managed to land on the cave's rim and slide inside.
Shortly after all four of them got into the cavern, the waterfall spontaneously stopped being split and the two smaller torrents came together, looking as if nothing had happened at all. The water was like a wall keeping them inside, dimming the tunnel significantly. They all breathed heavily after that sprint.
They heard a small clicking sound a few times. After the fourth click, a small flame illuminated the room. Leah the espurr had gotten a lighter out of her bag and she activated it to give them some light. They all spent a few seconds breathing in and out, contemplating what they just saw.
"...What the HELL was that?!" Elijah said.
"I have no idea," Pannen said. "I'm thankful for that, but I have no idea what the hell happened there."
"I've never even seen anything like that IN a mystery dungeon, let alone outside of one," Leah said, her fur standing up. "I have no idea what happened there."
"It's… just like the stream back at that last mystery dungeon," Ishmael said, staring straight at the rushing waterfall.
Eyes turned to the mienfoo. "What do you mean?" Pannen asked Ishmael.
"Back at that dungeon, before the samurott saved us. We had to run through a stream to get out of the dungeon. I was carrying Leah on my back when I ran straight through it, but I didn't get wet," Ishmael explained, moving his paws around as he described it. "The water just kept moving out of the way with every step I took, so I could keep running through real fast."
Elijah was already looking off, but he became fully unnerved. "Are you sure that happened?" he asked Ishmael.
"I swear! The water moved out of the way."
"...I can confirm that," Leah spoke, sharing her realization.
Eyes went on the espurr.
"I was too preoccupied at the time to really notice, looking to see if there were any attacks I needed to deflect with my psychic abilities. But thinking back… he's right. I can't remember any splashing sounds or either of us getting wet, but we did run straight through that stream. I can even remember hearing the dungeon pokemon wade through the water too."
Pannen thought back to that day. They did manage to gain quite a bit of distance from the dungeon pokemon before the samurott appeared, and the four of them stayed closely together. Her and Elijah leapt over the stream, so she assumed Ishmael had as well. But when Pannen thought about it more, that didn't make sense. Nothing made sense about that to Pannen, and the waterfall was another mystery altogether.
They looked at the waterfall as they continued to sit in the cave. It was like a screen of water, falling downwards like it was never broken.
"What's going on…?" Elijah asked Pannen, but she had no answers.
They continued looking at the waterfall for a few extra moments. There was nothing more to say, they felt dizzy as they tried to think about what was going on.
Leah felt a breeze rub against her fur from behind. She turned around to look at the long cave that was behind all of them. "There's some wind coming from here," she said.
They turned around to look the same way and paid attention. They could feel the breeze as well.
The waterfall wasn't opening again, so leaping through it would've been dangerous. With the light from Leah's lighter, the four began walking through the cavern closely together.
The wind became easier to feel the further they went. The air wasn't stagnant, it felt fresh like the air inside of a building. After a few minutes, they began noticing some natural light illuminating the cavern as well.
It was only a matter of time before they found the end. The cavern opened up to plains, outside of the lush forest they were once in. Shortly after they stepped out, they saw another road and a wooden sign. Pannen quickly ran out to the road sign. Using it, she was able to finally figure out where they were.
As she breathed a sigh of relief, she felt a sprinkle of water fall on her. She looked upwards. It was only then- after they had gone through that whole ordeal- that it had begun raining on them.
End of chapter 11