~\({O})/~
2.
The Dazzling Debut of the Dashing Wanderer!
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village Outskirts
~Ampharos~
"I'm happy to inform you all that I have safely made it to the boundaries of Serenity Village," the tall, yellow pokemon declared as he walked down the mountain path. In the distance, the lights of Serenity Village glimmered amongst plains of darkness. "And in record time, too! Only two days."
He wore a thick cloak over his body, carrying a walking stick in one paw and fiddling with a strange gadget in the other.
"Well, that's a record for
you, Chief." A voice beeped itself out of the gadget, distorted by distance. "For us… we'd be getting nothing done if we were that slow."
"Buizel!"
"What? Just stating the facts."
"How's it been going? Did you use the map Jirachi gave you?" The second voice continued, then faltered for a moment in doubt. "Oh, no, never mind. Of course you used it. What was I thinking?"
"Actually, I was more interested in hearing about you," the yellow pokemon replied, expertly deflecting the question. There was no need to reveal that he had lost the map to a nasty gust of wind early on in the trip, and had spent the rest of the time taking shifty side-routes and bumping into dead ends and mystery dungeons. "What's the report back at the Society?"
"Well, we
tried to get Mawile to do the morning report," a new voice spoke up over the line. "But she went ahead and locked herself in her room with those old glyphs I dug up for her, so Dedenne's in charge of that now. I must say, she almost does it better than you, Chief."
"Of course I do it better!" The second voice piped back up indignantly. "Who do you think arranges that report every morning?"
"It's been a while since the last… incident, but we're all keeping an eye on Swirlix, just in case." A fourth, scratchier voice piped up near the back. "She's been looking a little… ravenous lately."
"Jirachi's… still sleeping." The third voice interjected.
There was a heavy pause, as everymon tried to figure out what to make of that.
"What? He was extra tired today. Would
you have done it?"
Another heavy pause, as everymon asked themselves whether they would have done it.
"Anywaaay…" Dedenne spoke up again. "Archen stepped out and picked up that report you were looking for. Turns out, you were right: no-mon's gone in or out of Pokemon Plaza for an entire week. No food shipments, no Pelipper Post, no electrical transmissions… nothing. It's like the entire population all up and vanished overnight without telling anymon. Mawile and Archen are heading out to look it over tonight."
"Speaking of Mawile…" Ampharos mused.
"Present, Chief."
"Oh?" Ampharos raised an eyebrow, despite well knowing that they couldn't see him. "You've been quiet."
He could practically see Mawile shrug from behind her clipboard.
"There wasn't much to say. The wise 'mon speaks only when necessary."
Ampharos was about to reply with a witty remark, but suddenly he found the gadget he held in his hand wildly flickering on and off without rhyme or reason.
'Chief?" Dedenne's voice came through the speakers, so garbled up one would have to know her personally to tell it was her. "Ch-i-e-e-e-"
And then, just like that, the gadget cut out completely. Ampharos shook it a little, but nothing happened. The fur on his back bristled in unease. For all his hubris, Jirachi's gadgets rarely ever failed like that.
Unless…
A strange hum floated through the air, and suddenly the area all around him took an ominous tone to it. Ampharos stopped. He discreetly planted his walking stick in the ground, stuffing the expedition gadget back into his exploration bag.
"You're best off going back to the woods from whence you came," he addressed the trio of pokemon standing right behind him. "That, or…"
He didn't hear the pokemon move a muscle. As much as he disapproved, Ampharos had the nasty feeling they had been looking for a fight in the first place. He shed his cloak without warning, grabbing the walking stick and posing flamboyantly. "…Face the wrath of the Dashing Wanderer!"
Ampharos came face-to-face not with the wild animals he'd been expecting, but instead with a trio of beheeyem, all standing still as stone. Confused but alert all the same, Ampharos kept his fighting position. Why weren't they moving?
And then, in an instant, they did. They hovered towards him, raising their arms with the rapidly flickering lights straight up and blinking him in the face.
Blinded; Ampharos barely jumped out of the way of a large shadowy ball that suddenly flew straight out of thin air. He landed on his feet, only just managing to keep his bearings. That wasn't a Shadow Ball, and Ampharos doubted beheeyem could perform that move naturally anyway. Whatever that was… it was new.
It exploded across a grove of trees, shaking several branches but otherwise leaving the trees untouched. That, too, made Ampharos flinch, and he barely avoided another one.
Quickly generating a Dragon Pulse in his mouth, he aimed it directly at the beheeyem. This wasn't a battle he could afford to prolong, if he was correct in his line of thinking. It shot through the air, narrowly avoiding the trio of attackers as it went on to shred the forest for another twelve good feet. The sheer force of the move sent Ampharos stumbling back from recoil, but he caught himself with his walking stick, ready to dodge the next attack.
However, it never came. Ampharos headed back onto the mountain path just in time to see the tips of the beheeyems' cone-like heads as they fled into the forest. He picked his cloak back up, and draped it over himself. It seemed in the end; they were cowards at heart.
Letting the orb at the end of his tail glow brightly as a source of light, Ampharos approached the site where the beheeyems' unidentified attacks had landed. Just as he suspected, there seemed to be no physical damage to the tree itself…
But when he put his paw on the trunk of the tree, it met not with the rugged texture of earthy bark but instead with the smooth surface of cold, hard stone. Ampharos knocked against the tree for good measure. For all intents and purposes, that section of the tree may as well have been a stone statue. Ampharos pulled out his expedition gadget. This was something he needed to record. He had the feeling it was going to be of great importance in the future.
He fiddled with the buttons, trying to find the one that activated the feature he wanted. He knew Jirachi had installed a camera function not too long ago… Ah, it was the blue one.
After recording the strange anomaly, Ampharos hurriedly continued on his way, at a much faster pace than before. There was no need to risk a second encounter with those beheeyem tonight.
~\({O})/~
School Grounds
~Espurr~
"Look sharp, class!"
The entire class of Serenity Village immediately stopped horseaing around and assumed their seats at the speed of light as Farfetch'd marched into the outdoor classroom. Watchog followed, eyeing the class suspiciously from the sentry spot he took in the background. Farfetched walked up to the teacher's desk, twirling his leak like a baton before stomping it to the ground like a cane. Everyone jumped to attention at the abrupt noise it made, and Farfetch'd cleared his throat, now sure he had everyone's attention.
"We have a new student joining us today," he began, scratching the student's names off the blackboard one by one with his wing. "Now, I'm told a good number of you already met her yesterday, but we'll introduce her anyways just to maintain proper form."
Farfetch'd beckoned with his wing, and Espurr slowly walked out of the archway leading to the school clinic, stopping in front of the blackboard.
"Espurr, please introduce yourself." Farfetch'd gracefully cleared the way with his stalk.
"Good morning," Espurr began, reciting the well-rehearsed speech she had mentally practice for the occasion this morning. "My name is Espurr. I wish to become a student here at the Serenity Village School, and I hope that we can all become good friends and classmates in the near future."
A few quiet snickers (and one loud 'pffffffffffffft') emerged from Pancham's side of the classroom, but apart from that, she was received with warm curiosity and mild interest.
"Very well done!" Farfetched clapped in applause. He was the only one who did. He crossed the final name on the board out with his leek. "There's an empty seat next to Tricky right there. Why don't you take that one?"
Espurr thought she heard Watchog mutter something along the lines of "
Of course; put the troublemakers together… Not like I mind; I'M just the Vice Principal…" under his breath. She ignored it, walking over and taking the seat quietly.
"Isn't this so cool?" Tricky whispered to her the moment she sat down.
"Not only do we get to attend the same school and detentions, but we get to sit right next to each other, too!" she immediately straightened up once she noticed that Watchog was watching her.
"Now that we have that out of the way…" Farfetch'd began to write on the blackboard with the chalk in his wing. "As I'm sure I don't need to remind you, we are entering the last school week before Summer Vacation. And since we all know you're going to spend Summer Vacation letting your brains rot…"
He finally finished jotting down whatever he was writing on the chalkboard, letting the class see just what he had written down. "We will spend this last week reviewing our current curriculum!"
There was a collective groan from the class at the idea of reviewing old material, save for Espurr - who had no idea what the class curriculum was and therefore couldn't be disappointed in learning it - and Deerling, who was more pre-occupied with scratching at her bright pink coat than much else.
Tricky let her head flop to the desk in disappointment.
"Aww… more school?" she complained dejectedly. "
And detention? Not fair."
In the distance, Watchog folded his arms triumphantly.
"We will spend the first half of the week reviewing the curriculum," Farfetch'd began. "And the second half will subsist of an exam from all three of your teachers on each subject, so be prepared for that."
A few more groans from the class, but no-mon outright objected (If only for the presence of Watchog).
"Now… is the class ready?" Farfetch'd asked. The class was not by any means ready, but Farfetch'd began anyway.
"History! So far, we've covered…"
He took a leaf through the fat history book on the teacher's desk.
"…Ah! Yes. Here it is. The Human Age. The earliest scrap of recorded history we have in our current possession dates back to the year 1 B.C., or Before Crisis. It's been over 10,000 years since. In fact, it's even where we get our current time system from. It's said that many of the things the Humans left behind have been passed down and become deeply-integrated parts of our culture, from spoons to mechanical clocks to even- Deerling?"
Deerling looked up, still mildly agitated from the constant itching of her coat.
"Yes, Mr. Farfetch'd?" she asked, trying her best not to sound irritated.
"Would you like to be excused?" Farfetch'd asked. "I'm sure Audino can do something for your molting."
Deerling immediately stood up from her desk and made a beeline for Audino's office.
"Thank you, Mr. Farfetch'd-" she briefly spoke in passing, dashing up to the clinic without another word or detour.
Once she was gone, Farfetch'd returned to the book. "Now, where were we- Yes, Espurr?"
The entire class glanced at Espurr, who had her good paw up. Noticing everyone was looking at her, Espurr promptly lowered it.
"Where are the Humans now?" she questioned.
Farfetch'd flipped through the pages of the book, getting increasingly flustered as he went. "I was just getting to that, if everyone would pipe down and let me tell the story…"
He went back to trying to find his place again. Trying her best to ignore Tricky's dramatic 'dying' act right next to her, Espurr briefly wondered what a Human was. The name sounded familiar to her… but just like the rest of her memories, it floated off the moment she started to think about it.
"…Due to various relics and ancient texts we've pieced together over history, we pokemon have been able to get a pretty good idea of what happened to the Humans," Farfetch'd continued.
Without warning, he suddenly leapt on the desk and slammed his leek into the chalkboard, jolting the rest of the bored-to-death class to attention. Watchog, who had fallen asleep in the corner, jolted awake with a high-pitched scream.
"Bam! Wiped out! Just like that." Farfetched paused for a moment, stepping off the teacher's desk he had jumped on. "By what? We don't know; only that the pokemon were left to pick up the pieces, and no-mon's even seen what a true Human looks like since."
Espurr listened intently, absorbing the information with an interest unrivaled by anyone in her class. The ghostly concept of a Human continued to float around in the back of her mind for the rest of the class.
~\({O})/~
School wasn't so bad, Espurr decided. At least, it wasn't the dread-fest Tricky had made it out to be. Farfetch'd held the first class, and proved himself a very motivational speaker when he wanted to be. Then, there was Audino's session on medicinal herbs, berries, and health, which seemed extra boring following Farfetch'd's class. But the class wasn't
that dull, and Audino was nice enough, so Espurr didn't think too badly of it.
A break for recess was given before Watchog's class, and though Espurr didn't see Deerling during that period, she did take notice of the way the other teachers were all mentally preparing themselves for future headaches.
Watchog taught the dungeon class, and it was safe to say he was not a very encouraging teacher at all. Quite the opposite; Espurr observed. It wasn't like he could go five minutes without warning his students about what would happen if they were
ever caught doing the things he taught unsupervised under his watch. Watchog's class was the only one the students of Serenity Village made an effort to at least pretend they were paying full attention to.
After Watchog finished his lecture, Principal Simipour came out and gave the Weekly School Announcements (Which weren't anything groundbreaking, Espurr noted with dismay; only minor announcements about the last week of school before Summer Vacation). Espurr noticed how tired he seemed, as if he had just woken from a deep slumber. Afterwards, everyone eagerly moved out of the hot sun to eat lunch in the Clinic Building.
"I
hate Summer Molting." Deerling grumbled, slathered from head to hooves in a greenish paste that clashed with her short pink fur and made it look like she was wearing a coat of mud. "It's already annoying enough when it's cold outside- but in the summer heat? It's downright unbearable!"
She took a bite of her apple to drown her annoyance.
"Remember to eat quickly, please," Audino called from another part of the clinic. "We need the paste in its prime to perform the second part of the procedure."
Deerling grumbled under her breath, then went back hurriedly finishing her apple.
Espurr noticed the way Pancham and Shelmet were eating quietly instead of causing the usual fuss they must no doubt have been responsible for in the past, and Goomy was staring at Deerling in pity. The sole oblivious mon was Tricky, who happily munched on her assortment of fruits, vegetables, and nuts without abandon.
"Are you gonna eat that?" she asked, looking directly at Espurr's yet-untouched nuts and seeds.
"Typical Tricky…" Pancham whispered to Shelmet in a jeering tone. "Never stops eating."
"Well, we're in a heat wave right now!" Tricky retorted indignantly. "At a time like this, eating is important!"
"Drinking is important…" Goomy added, shuddering. "A few times I thought I was going to dry out during class."
That earned a brief worried look from Deerling, but she had to leave a moment later at Audino's call.
Tricky stole another glance at Espurr's plate.
"My question still stands. Ya gonna eat that?"
Espurr took a nut from the plate, noticing how it didn't have a distinct scent to it. She put it in her mouth and bit down, enjoying the slightly sweet, slightly oily texture it had.
"Yes," She answered, to Tricky's dismay. "Sorry."
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village Outskirts
"Now, Principal Simipour doesn't hold the same high standard to punishment as I do…"
Watchog marched behind Espurr and Tricky as they walked down the path to the oran berry fields, Goomy sliming up in the two students' wake.
"…But your detentions for the following week will be personally overseen by the law-upholding gaze of yours truly, Vice Principal Watchog." Watchog announced, his voice taking on a flamboyant tone. "And I assure you; I. Will. Be. Vigilant. In my supervision- Sharp left!"
The three students stopped marching down the path at Watchog's shrill cry, taking a sharp left.
"Mr. Watchog?" Espurr annoyedly brushed away the dust Watchog had unwittingly kicked into her fur.
"
Vice Principal Watchog," Watchog muttered. "What is it?"
"Why are we the ones leading?" Espurr questioned him. "You seem to have all the directions, yet you're making us lead the way, when we clearly have no idea where we're going."
Vice Principal Watchog sputtered. "I… I have to make sure you don't run off while I'm not looking! Wouldn't be the
first time we've had deserters…" He growled, staring at Tricky.
"Sharp right!" he yelled a second later. Everyone perplexedly took a sharp right.
"
Now we're just back on the path," Tricky observed in an obnoxious tone. "Do you even know where you're going, Mr. Watchog?" She asked cheerfully.
"For the last time…" Watchog sputtered, his face red, "It's
VICE PRINCIPAL WATCHOG! And yes, I took a wrong turn. Sue me. All straights from here."
After a few more minutes of silent endurance as Watchog danced around them frantically to make sure they were keeping a perfect straight file, they finally arrived at the berry fields; long, open plains of bushes that stretched far into the distance, ending at the neatly-clipped trees that marked the entrance of the forest.
"Here we are," Watchog drawled. "The three of you will be spending detention picking tomorrow's lunch. Here's a list from Principle Simipour, outlining what you need to pick and where." He handed out a trio of lists to Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy, who took it with his slimy paws. Espurr looked over the list, her eyes scanning through the squiggle-like text in confusion. She couldn't read this!
"Vice Principal Watchog?" Espurr raised her one good hand again.
"FINALLY!" Watchog exclaimed loudly at the mention of his full title. "Yes? What is it?"
Espurr showed him the sheet of paper.
"I can't read this. Are there any in English?"
Watchog's face fell as fast as his prospects of a well-behaved student.
"…What's English?" he asked suspiciously. "Is this another prank?"
"-Of course not, Vice Principal," Espurr started quickly before Watchog could continue his paranoid train of thought. "English is…"
She stopped short when she realized she didn't actually
know what English was. It was another one of those memories that had appeared on the tip of her tongue, and then slipped away without a second thought.
"…A dead language," she carefully finished. "It's all I was taught to read."
Watchog's skeptical eyebrow nearly rose out the top of his head.
"We don't speak dead languages here," he told Espurr, incredulous. A moment later, he sighed at her unwavering gaze. "If you can't read it, one of your partners in crime can help you out. But I still expect hard work from all three of you! If I catch any of you slacking, I have permission to extend your detention periods… Into Summer Vacation," he finished with a leer intended just for Tricky.
Tricky didn't like the sound of that. She began to physically drag Espurr into the Oran Berry Section by her good arm. Goomy accidentally dropped his copy of the list as he slimed after them. He watched it blow off into the fields helplessly, carried off on a sudden gust of wind.
"That Watchog is evil!" Tricky gasped once Watchog was out of earshot. "He wouldn't
cancel Summer Vacation, would he?"
"I-I think he would," Goomy stuttered as he slimed up, his eyes peeled to the paranoid otter loitering about stiffly in the distance.
Tricky grabbed one of the wicker baskets resting next to the large gate in her mouth, entering the fields with a bound. "Epferr! You're on reading dudie!" she yelled back through the basket, oblivious to any of her classmates' plights. "Goomy, help me pfick berrpfies!"
Both Espurr and Goomy traded looks. Goomy looked at his slimy paws that weren't fit for picking berries in any way, shape or form.
"Want to trade?"
Espurr handed her list out to Goomy with her one good arm, heading over to the remaining wicker baskets. "I can't read it anyway."
Goomy gave Espurr a grateful stare, bobbing his head readily and taking the sheet.
"Okay… I- It says we need 50 oran berries from t-the orchard…" Goomy began, following Espurr through the gate and into the field, where Tricky was already busy shoving countless orans into her basket without rhyme or reason.
~\({O})/~
"Exactly 50 orans… ten apples…" Watchog searched through the students' baskets, his own copy of the list in his hands. "10 carrots; fresh dug…"
A moment later, he put both the list and the baskets down, a look of complete and utter shock on his face.
"I don't believe it…" he muttered in disbelief. "You actually got everything. And without any problems, too…" He just caught himself from swooning. "I think I need to sit down…"
As Watchog stumbled off to find a seat, Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy all took a well-deserved break in the shade.
"T-that took l-longer than it s-should have," Goomy stammered, still panting from the heat.
"It was only the oran section that took longer." Tricky happily stated, licking the oran berry juice off her paws before it could stain her fur.
"Y-you
ate some of the berries?" Goomy just stopped himself from crying out in shock. "We could get g-grounded for that!"
"Eh." Tricky finished licking the last of the juice off her snout, causally falling back on her haunches. "What Watchog doesn't know won't hurt him. Right, Espurr?"
There was no answer, causing Tricky to do a double take in surprise.
"Espurr?" she asked.
Espurr quietly walked to the end of the fence surrounding the oran berry fields, oblivious to the concerns of her two classmates. In the distance, she could hear something noisily making its way through the trees, stepping on sticks and bumping into tree trunks as it went. It wasn't the beheeyem; she was sure of that much. She didn't even know if this was the direction she had come from anyway. But Principal Simipour's words still hang fresh in her mind:
"I say this out of concern for your own safety. We don't need yet another disappearance on our hands."
A gust of sudden wind ruffled Espurr's fur, the psychic kitten looking eastward to the forest from which it had come. A large sheet of paper flipped and fluttered through the air, slowly soaring lower and lower as it continued to surf the wind. By the time it reached Espurr, it was flying low enough for her to leap up and grab, and she plucked it out of the air with her one good arm.
"Ooh- what's that?"
Espurr jumped; startled by the sudden exclamation from behind her. Tricky ran up, Goomy doing his best to keep up with her.
"Oh…" Espurr tried to keep the paper out of the dry dirt the best she could with only one hand at her disposal. "I don't know. It blew in on the wind."
"Hey! Troublemakers!" Watchog yelled a distance away, apparently recovered from his near-fainting spell. "The forests are off-limits! You'd better stay clear!"
"OKAY, MR. WATCHOG!" Tricky yelled, immediately standing in front of Espurr to cover up the map. "WE'RE COMING BACK NOW!"
The words "It's
Vice Principal Watchog!" could be heard floating over the breeze towards them.
"We'll hide it under the baskets," Tricky chirped, happily trotting off. "Watchog will never find it."
As Tricky and Goomy headed off, Espurr cast a quick glance up towards the sun before following, which was already beginning to dip into an early sunset.
It
was hot.
~\({O})/~
Baram Town ~ Air Continent
~Mawile and Archen~
"I never understood how you manage to
sleep on Lapras' backs," Archen said, ruffling his feathers in exhaustion as he stepped onto the dock after Mawile. "Don't you ever worry about falling off?"
The many windmills of Baram Town stood proudly above them, lazily turning in the early morning breeze. On any normal day, seeing the windmills slowly turning in the morning sun would have been a breathtaking sight worthy of the expensive Air Continent Pass it took to get there. It was safe to say that Archen was more than a little peeved at the long journey ahead of them, as well as the fact they weren't going to be staying in town for more than an hour. He yawned, covering his beak with a wing. Maybe it was his lack of sleep that had him in such low spirits.
Mawile, whose time management ran in the same vein as the Chief's (Or, as Archen sorely referred to it, 'Drop-Dead Organization'), wanted to be back in Baram Town before dark, which required chartering a lapras in the dead of night and setting out only moments after. They had arrived in Baram Town at the crack of dawn, and Lapras promised to return for them the next day.
Mawile marked off the second box on a page in her travel journal, which Archen saw was marked 'Arrive in Baram Town' (The first was 'Charter Lapras').
"Trial and error," she replied, stowing the clipboard away in her exploration bag. "You learn quickly where the best spots to sleep on a Lapras' back are once you've tried it a couple of times."
Archen shivered at the thought. He never cared much for water in the first place; let alone doing something as foolhardy as what past Mawile had apparently attempted. If only he could fly… This mission would be over
already, he ruminated.
The streets of Baram were still mostly empty for what was undoubtedly a major tourist attraction, currently belonging to the early birds, miscellaneous other early mons, and pairs of unfortunate explorers such as themselves. Even Kecleon was still hurriedly setting up shop as Mawile and Archen walked over to his stall.
"Ah- just a minute!" he called out with a sense of manufactured cheer, hurriedly straightening things on all their shelves. "I'll be ready for you in just a minute~! Bit of a late day today…"
Archen had a bit of a hard time fathoming how anymon could consider this
late, but he wasn't given the time to think on it. Mawile handed him her exploration bag for the items, which Archen reluctantly took in his wings.
"Welcome to the Kecleon Shop!" Kecleon chirped, straightening his apron discreetly. "What would you like to purchase?"
"Everything on this list, please." Mawile handed him a sizeable list. "I assume you're fully stocked?"
Kecleon suddenly looked far more distressed than what was good for business.
"Actually…" he began, wringing his hands together uncomfortably, "My shipments come from the Rescuer's Guild in Pokemon Plaza. I haven't had a delivery in over a week, I'm afraid…" He wiped his brow.
Mawile took a minute to study the list.
"…I suppose we can make a few exceptions, then," she conceded, pulling an inked pen out of the bag Archen was holding and deftly crossing several things off. Kecleon's face relaxed considerably at the large number of crossed-out items when Mawile handed it back. "We happen to be on our way to Pokemon Plaza ourselves," she said
"R-really?" Kecleon's face lit up as he removed items from the shelves. "What for?"
"HAPPI business," Archen grumpily chimed in before Mawile could answer.
Or grunt work, more like. "We're investigating the sudden cut-off of communications in the area."
"Perhaps you'll take a look-see for the lucario who delivers my stocks every week?" Kecleon asked hopefully, setting the last of the items on the counter. "I'll throw in a future discount…" he hurriedly added immediately afterwards.
Archen rolled his eyes where the Kecleon couldn't see him. Typical shopkeepers. They only ever sold things at a gain to themselves.
"We'll keep an eye out." Mawile's reply was short and prompt. "The bill, please?"
"Oh- yes- I'm just forgetting things left and right lately-"
Kecleon dived under the counter, emerging with a pen and paper. He tallied the prices of all the ingredients up in his head so fast Archen was surprised they hadn't established a shopkeeper's monopoly yet (until his tired mind reminded him that they had), writing the final bill at the bottom of the paper and sliding it to Mawile.
"That'll be 550 Poke," Kecleon finished cheerfully. "Except for the tiny reviver seeds. I'm afraid I'm plumb out of those."
Mawile dug through the bag Archen held for the money, handing it to Kecleon and placing the items in the bag. Archen slung it over his back as they left the stall.
"Here." Mawile took the bag from Archen and handed him a chesto berry as they walked through Baram Plaza. "Breakfast."
Archen took it reluctantly, watching Mawile pull out a chesto berry of her own and take a large bite of it. It seemed she was more tired than she let on. All those nights of sleepless rune research must have taken their toll on her after all.
"It'll take us approximately seven hours to arrive at Pokemon Plaza," Mawile stated, taking another bite of the bitter berry. "In other words, high noon. We both need to be at our best for this."
She downed the rest of it like it was a rare delicacy. Archen cringed through his beak at the sight. He grumbled quietly before taking a bite. This was going to give him indigestion later.
~\({O})/~
Village Square
~Espurr~
The village square, it turned out, was most packed just before sunset on a Monday evening. Serenity Villagers scrambled around in a hurry, trying to gather all their supplies and grab an early dinner before the shops and café closed for good. They hurriedly went about their business, narrowly skirting around Vice Principal Watchog and his trail of students; as well as the wooden wagon they carried their supplies in.
"Wait
right here," Watchog ordered them as they approached Kecleon's stall. "I have to purchase the non-pickables. I don't want to see you standing
one centimeter out of place when I return, or I'll assign summer detention for all three of you. Got it?"
"Got it…" All three students recited wearily.
Satisfied enough, Watchog started towards Kecleon's stall, leaving the three students on their own. Espurr took a seat on the ground the moment he had turned his back, almost drooping with sleep just like her classmates. The day had taken quite a toll on all three of them; Watchog's detention in particular. It was taking most of Espurr's willpower to keep herself from napping in the street.
"Good evening, students."
Al three students glanced up wearily at the pokemon who had greeted them, suddenly straightening up and leaping to their feet when they saw who it was. Audino adjusted her exploration bag over her shoulder, a smallish purse in her other hand.
"N-Nurse Audino!" Tricky immediately made an effort to look awake, only succeeding in making herself look constipated instead. "We totally weren't sleeping on you right now. Trust us!"
"I hope 'Vice Principal' Watchog hasn't been
too hard on you," she said, trying to keep a straight face at the sight of Tricky's acting. "He has a penchant for working the detention students to the brink of exhaustion sometimes." Audino's sentence ended on a slightly darker note, a small edge to her voice betraying her true feelings on the subject.
"W-we
know…" Goomy sighed dejectedly.
"You all behaved yourselves?" A brash voice rang out behind them. Everyone turned around to face Watchog, who lugged back a week's worth of nuts in his hand. He glowered at all three of the students as he approached. "Did anymon move?"
"Oh, put a wooper in it, Watchog," Audino retorted, her voice suddenly less cheery. "They were with me the entire time, and I haven't seen them move once."
Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy were treated to the rare sight of watching Watchog's face drain white as he noticed Audino for the first time. "A-Audino!" He muttered nervously, tightly gripping the sack the nuts were held in. "Fancy seeing
you here…"
"Happened to be in the area; thought I'd lend a helping hand," Audino replied with just a little crossness in her voice. "Somemon has to look out for the students' health; after all, and it's not going to be you."
"Really?" Watchog folded his arms defensively. "They're just as happy to cause trouble on any other day. The way I see it; this is a
useful waste of their energy."
"Oh; you did
not just go there…"
Espurr happily tuned out what was obviously about to devolve into a petty argument, in favor of watching the cloaked pokemon who was clumsily wandering through the square. He was yellow from head to toe; for what little the earth-green cloak concealed, it did nothing to hide the pokemon underneath. Espurr briefly wondered why he had it. She stepped out from behind the arguing Audino and Watchog, heading over towards the Kecleon Stall to get a better look.
"Pardon me- coming through; I'm afraid-" He stumbled through a group of conversing pokemon after tripping on a rock, the orangeish orb on his tail glowing dimly in what Espurr assumed must have been embarrassment.
Was this normal? She thought. He seemed so… clumsy.
Tricky yawned loudly, walking over to stick her nose into the second most interesting thing happening in the square at that moment. Her eyes widened once she saw the pokemon.
"What's his problem?" She quizzically asked, for once too tired to set off another domino stack of mischief. Espurr looked at her briefly, no longer surprised by her abrupt interruptions anymore.
"You mean he's… new?" Espurr asked.
"Well,
duh." Tricky rolled her eyes as she sat. "Who runs like that?!"
As if on cue, the pokemon stirred from the ground, picking himself up dizzily. Espurr's eyes widened.
"He's about to charge straight at us." she suddenly said. Tricky opened her mouth to say something to the contrary-
"-My sincerest apologies; madame," the tall yellow pokemon apologized to a passing lotad as he picked himself up from the ground. "I think it's this way," he confidently stated, pointing straight in Tricky's direction. Only seconds later, he tripped over the exact same rock that had sent him sprawling to the ground in the first place. Both Espurr and Tricky barely managed to clear the way before the pokemon went barreling through and stopped just short of Hawlucha's Slam School (An otherwise unremarkable tent near the southwest end of the square).
Espurr blinked twice in shock at the sight, watching Tricky stare at the crashed pokemon, eyes wide and mouth agape.
The pokemon twitched, raising himself from the ground clumsily.
"Pardon…" he apologized, trying his best to regain his bearings. "I'm afraid I possess a natural predisposition towards clumsiness."
"You
wha?" Tricky's ears fell at the complicated vocabulary.
"I have a horribly awful sense of direction." the pokemon tried his best to simplify the sentence. A second later, he shook his head.
"Oh, where are my manners?" he lamented. "My name is Ampharos. A traveling pokemon, known far and wide as…"
In a sudden burst of flamboyance, he whipped the cloak off, posing dramatically. "The Dashing Wanderer!"
The noise managed to grab the attention of most of the square; save for Audino and Watchog. Poor Goomy, who had fallen asleep out of sheer exhaustion, was rudely snapped awake again.
"I might ask your names now," the Dashing Wanderer inquired, dropping his pose now that he had unwittingly attracted the attention of half the pokemon in Serenity Village.
"I'm Tricky. That's Espurr." Tricky's introduction was swift and brash. "We're going to join the Expedition Society when we get older!"
It was Espurr's turn to let her mouth hang open in shock. She caught it before it could become embarrassing, staring at Tricky in surprise. When had she agreed to that?!
"You're a travelling pokemon, right?" Tricky promptly began to bombard Ampharos with her usual truckload of questions, all tiredness forgotten for the time being. "Have you been to the Expedition Society? Have you? Huh?"
"That…" the yellow pokemon said, for obvious lack of a better answer. "…Is classified!"
"Oh…" The disappointment on Tricky's face set in faster than a flat cake. "…What are you doing
here, anyway?" she asked him. "We're just a loo stop on your way over the Mountain."
"Why, I came to see the sights, of course!" Ampharos replied cheerfully. "Serenity Village is known for its stunning scenery, after all." Ampharos glanced at Tricky's face for a minute to see if she had bought it or not. He was making this all up on the spot, of course. He couldn't reveal his true reasons for travelling to the Village.
"But now, unfortunately, I must bid you all adieu; goodbye; tally-ho!" he exclaimed, stumbling up towards the Café Connection. "I have some important errands to tend to."
In other words, Ampharos had an important pokemon to find. And after an hour of walking around the village, he was none the closer to finding the mon he was looking for. He stopped at the door of the café, feigning a loss of breath to buy himself some time to think. In just about an hour, he had discreetly 'tested' every single adult pokemon who happened to live in the village (The place was rather secluded. Newcomers wouldn't get far without knowing the lay of the land, he theorized, which all-but ruled out the pokemon he was looking for). His questions had been directly poised to elicit specific reactions from the right pokemon, thereby proving their humanity to him. But, so far every single adult pokemon in the village had answered his questions 'correctly', which allowed Ampharos to quickly narrow the possibilities down to three on the spot: they were A. dead/lost in the wilderness (Ampharos very much hoped it wasn't this one.), B. extremely clever
and a good liar, or…
…C. They weren't an adult pokemon. Ampharos suddenly realized that last option made much more sense than it should have. But his actions today had already earned him the title of travelling madmon, he was sure; he couldn't simply go around asking about the village children! Not unless he planned to blow his cover, or spend a night in the local jail (Thereby blowing his cover in the most undignified way possible). If only there was another way…
He glanced back at the pair of children he had just met. The fennekin had asked about the Expedition Society… Perhaps there was a silver lining to his sudden dizzy spell after all. Disguising it as a quick bump against the doors of the café, he discreetly let his own spare Connection Orb fall from his bag. (Ampharos was a minimalist packer, but he had found it was always wise to keep a spare connection orb on him.) It rolled out in the middle of the square, over to where he knew they would see it.
Sure enough, a moment later, he saw the espurr and fennekin walk over, picking it up and chattering to themselves amongst it. A few times he got the creeping feeling the espurr could see him through the window, but he was pretending to stare at a menu, so he doubted the young pokemon suspected anything. This way… He'd have his answer in no time flat. If the newly arrived Human was among the village children, he'd roll with it. If not… He'd just ask for the orb back a few days later. Win-win. Ampharos began to truthfully study the menu for the first time.
Espurr and Tricky took a good long look at the Café Connection as the kooky ampharos chatted with Kangaskhan.
"That… was mega weird," Tricky concluded, after a long, quiet pause.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village
"I mean, we don't get a lot of tourists here," Tricky said, orbiting Espurr as they walked up towards the residential section of Serenity Village . "We're super out of the way! The last one was…"
"…well…
you," she finished, tilting her head at Espurr.
Espurr declined to say anything in response, still inspecting the glassy blue orb their mutual acquaintance had dropped earlier. Tricky had a point; she realized. The 'Dashing Wanderer', whatever his true name and motives, was a shady character at best.
"Now that I think of it… you never told me where you came from, did you?" Tricky asked, slowing to a trot beside Espurr. "That's like; question number #2 on the list of things friends should know about each other!"
Espurr mentally froze. She still didn't have an alibi of any kind to cover for her lack of memory past the last couple of days!
"It's like I said," she replied, staring at Tricky. "I… Got lost in the woods, and Nurse Audino found me and took me here."
"Yeah, but where did you
come from?" Tricky dashed in front of Espurr, walking backwards up the path. 'Come on- I want the juicy bits!"
Espurr panicked inside. There were no 'juicy bits' to give! Aside from the trio of beheeyem that apparently wanted her hide, but she had a nagging feeling that was best kept to herself. And with six days of Watchog's taxing detentions ahead of them, she'd barely given any thought to the issue at all.
"I… don't want to talk about it," she finally said.
"Spoilsport." Tricky spun around, scurrying up the road and heading towards a house decorated like a large blue shell.
"C'mon!" She yelled back at Espurr; a ways ahead. "You get to meet my Pops today!"
Espurr looked up at the uniquely-decorated house, and then smartly stashed the orb in a nearby bush.
~\({O})/~
Carracosta's House
"So…" The immense blue turtle grunted out, one of his flippers curled around a large spoon. A massive spread of different dishes lay in front of them; Tricky's plate(s) piled high with choice selections from every dish. Espurr sat next to her, a much humbler piece of fish on her plate.
"Yep." Tricky replied happily between messy laps from a bowl of rawst berry soup.
"You brought a friend." The turtle took a deliberate sip from the spoon, eyeing Espurr suspiciously.
"Yep." Tricky took a large bite of a stuffed bell pepper lying on a plate to her left.
"On leftover night."
"Yep." Crumbs went flying everywhere as she scarfed down half of a piece of peach cake on the plate to her right.
"Use your table manners!" he shouted, jarring her out of the cake she was currently driving her snout into. "We don't eat like dungeon wildlings in front of our guests!"
Tricky jumped, immediately straightening up and modifying her eating habits. Espurr was taken aback by the sudden outburst, but seeing that Tricky had already returned to normal calmed her down a little.
"But I have to practice my Dungeon Eating, Pops… " Tricky said with a hint of manufactured gloom.
"What is Dungeon Eating." The big blue turtle asked; only half incredulously. He had seen too much of this.
Immediately Tricky perked up again, her eyes gleaming with that mischievous glint Espurr knew all too well by now.
"Weeeeell…" she began. "You know how you're in a mystery dungeon, and you don't have the time to sit down and prepare great big meals?"
"No." Tricky's father replied, his tone as flat as the one-word sentence he spoke.
"Well, it happens!" Tricky continued. "And that's what Dungeon Eating's for!"
"And how does this 'Dungeon Eating' work?"
"Easy!" Tricky declared. "You just eat everything on your plate as fast as you can! Like this…"
Carracosta stopped Tricky with another one of his outbursts before she could begin messily scarfing her food down again.
"NO! I won't hear of it! You'll eat your food like a respectable 'mon, or not at all!"
"Fine…"
Tricky sat down, taking smaller bites of her cake. Crumbs still flew, to Carracosta's dismay, but not nearly as many.
Silently deciding that trying to interpret what had just happened in front of her wasn't worth the brainpower, Espurr took a polite bite of the fish on her plate.
~\({O})/~
"And this is my room!"
Tricky led Espurr into her bedroom; a quaint, empty room located on the western wing of the house.
"It's rather quaint…" Espurr noted, taking in the bareness of the room.
Tricky scoffed. "Well, lucky
you, sleeping in Nurse Audino's office. We kids just don't have the privilege! Besides, the thing I
really wanna show you is hidden on purpose."
She began to scurry towards the corner of the room where her bed was (An actual bed; Espurr realized; not a mass of straw. Tricky's father must have been generous).
"You've hidden things by
accident?" Espurr asked; curious, but at the same time not fully believing it.
"Do you really wanna know the answer to that?" Tricky asked, foraging under her bed. "Or do you wanna see my secret?" Without waiting for an answer, she dived head-first under the bed, rummaging around in all the junk.
Espurr waited a few minutes, then decided to peek under the bed as Tricky dug. A yellow paw slapped her away amongst the digging.
"No spoilers!" A muffled Tricky yelled from under the bed. A few dusty books with the picture of what looked like a turtle pokemon on the cover inadvertently slid out on the floor from all Tricky's digging.
A moment later, Tricky herself emerged from under the bed, releasing both a cloud of dust that shot out into both their faces, and a box.
"Ready?" she asked. Espurr didn't feel that question particularly needed to be answered.
Tricky threw open the box, and pulled out a pair of scarves. She proudly displayed them in front of Espurr, who didn't know what to think.
"These are my most prized possessions!" Tricky declared happily, holding them in front of Espurr's nose. Espurr felt it twitch uncomfortably as the dust particles went up her nostrils.
"That's… Nice…" Espurr choked out, trying to hold in a sneeze. Tricky's face fell.
"Are you okay?" She asked, oblivious to the effects of the dust.
Espurr's sudden sneezing fit even managed to reach Carracosta's ears from all the way from across the hall.
"Huh." Tricky shook the scarves to expel all the dust. "They are a little dusty, aren't they? I haven't used them in
so long…"
She slipped one around her neck, trying to get a feel of the material again.
"Like 'em?" she joyfully asked Espurr, trotting circles around the room. "I totally forgot about them until now! I used to wear these both to school every day."
Espurr carefully picked the spare scarf up with her good paw, admiring the way the fabric shimmered bright blue and bright green at the same time. Just the fabric itself seemed lofty- as if the scarf was not of this world at all. She turned it around in her hand, noticing what looked like the tiniest nick just above the tie of the neck.
"…I like them," She said, looking up at Tricky."
"I know, right?" Tricky was practically beaming with excitement. "I don't remember why I stopped wearing them-"
She suddenly froze mid-sentence, her ears lowering just a little. Espurr caught the motion before it disappeared, and she felt a sudden wave of negativity pierce through her head. It had been the same as back outside the Foreboding Forest, and Espurr found it clouded her thoughts until she moved back a bit.
"Tricky?" she asked. The fennekin didn't even glance back at her. "Is something wrong?"
Tricky removed the scarf, putting it back in the case. She dejectedly took the scarf Espurr was holding, putting it on top of the other one and shutting the lid of the case.
"Never mind that…" she said, shoving the case back under her bed, and all of the sudden she was back to her normal, perky self.
"Wanna help me clean up after dinner?" she asked. "Pops loves cooking, but he hates mess. And the best part is; he doesn't even notice when the leftovers go missing!" (Espurr didn't think this was the best part at all, but humored Tricky anyway.)
"Sure…" Espurr cast a glance at the setting sun outside. "Mind leading the way?"
Between the two of them (And Tricky's bottomless stomach), the table was cleared in only ten minutes, and the empty dishes set aside for Carracosta to Water Gun to cleanliness later. Afterwards, Espurr bid both Tricky and Carracosta good night, and set off on her way to the school. She almost remembered to pick up the strange blue orb on her way out.
Almost.
~\({O})/~
Road to Pokemon Plaza
~Mawile and Archen~
For a place referred to as the 'Air Continent', there seemed to be an amazing amount of forests and underbrush. Archen ducked for the umpteenth time that day as Mawile's back maw caught on a tree branch, nearly snapping it back in Archen's beak. (This happened often. Archen had already lost count of how many times.)
"Are we at least a good part of the way there?" he asked grumpily, a tiny bit of edge creeping back into his normally scratchy voice. Chesto berries didn't agree well with his stomach.
Mawile looked up from the map she was reading.
"Very worrying," she spoke up a moment later, seemingly ignoring Archen's question.
"
What's worrying?!" Archen snapped, in no mood for mincing words.
"If I'm reading this map correctly," Mawile calmly began, shaking her maw free of yet another low-jutting stick, "Then we should be getting close to Pokemon Plaza. And yet, the underbrush remains just as untamed as it's been this whole trip."
Archen raised an eyebrow in skepticism, unable to see how that meant anything. Seconds later, the branch narrowly missed his face.
"So what?" he asked, stepping around it.
"Pokemon Plaza is a frequented area," Mawile continued. "Therefore, the land around it
should be maintained weekly, unlike the anomaly we see here." She gestured briefly to the overgrown flora around her, recording the present discoveries on her clipboard.
Archen shrugged the best he could with a considerably light sack of dungeon supplies around his back. "Maybe Air Continentals just don't like tidiness," he responded. "Ever thought of that?"
"I think not," Mawile replied. "We're on the main traveling route. These shrubs have been growing for a couple of weeks unchecked; minimum."
"Then maybe you read the map wrong," Archen retorted. "Ever thought of
that?"
He didn't notice Mawile had stopped until he bumped straight into her. A moment later, he saw why. Just ten feet down the path, a tarped wagon sat on its side. The most putrid of smells wafted from under the tarp, making Archen want to puke up the chesto berry he had consumed earlier.
Then again, his stomach argued.
Maybe that would be a good thing.
Next to the wagon sat a perfect stone statue of a lucario, posing dramatically for battle. Its back was turned to the pair of explorers, staring up at the sky in horror at something that was no longer there.
Mawile and Archen approached the wagon quickly; Mawile attempting to stuff away her map as she went. The details on the lucario statue were near life-like. If it had not sat right before her, Mawile wouldn't have believed such intricate sculpting was possible…
…Unless it wasn't. She recalled Kecleon's words of worry:
"My shipments come from the Rescuer's Guild in Pokemon Plaza. I haven't had a delivery in over a week, I'm afraid…" Was it such a stretch to believe…?
Ignoring Archen's incessant feather-ruffling, Mawile strode over to the tarped wagon, holding her breath when the smell became too putrid to bear. She whipped off the tarp with her maw, spinning full circle to see what the wagon held.
" I knew it…" Mawile muttered, taking out her journal and recording the finding as Archen gagged in the distance.
Setting the journal aside, Mawile leaned in towards the mishmash of rotting berries and other ingredients, picking up an oran by the stem in her hand. It had molded over and bruised in several places, and felt more like a miniature sack of water than anything else.
"Congratulations…" Archen muttered in the background, his voice now hoarse. "You're now singlehandedly responsible for depriving me of sleep
and making me throw up, all in one day."
Mawile set the berry back down, brushing her hands off as she stepped back.
"A week old; by the looks of it," she said aloud for Archen's benefit. "This must have been Kecleon's shipment. And if this is the delivery…"
They both stared back at the statue that sat in front of the cart as the full implications of that deduction hit them.
Mawile inspected the statue carefully, noticing further all the life-like details the statue had to it. Far too many for it to be a statue.
"He was attacked from behind," Mawile stated, stepping back. "And if this example is anything to go by, we can assume all of Pokemon Plaza looks like this as well."
The findings were recorded in their entirety, and then there was nothing to do but press forward. Mawile' deductions held true as they went. The underbrush only seemed to get worse the further in they treaded, and eventually they happened upon the statue of a scyther wildly slashing at something from the underbrush.
"The hedgekeeper; I assume." Mawile marked it all down on her journal. Archen fearfully glanced at the statue as they went.
They could see the short buildings of Pokemon Plaza through the trees as they walked, the area around them eerily quiet. It was not long after that Mawile and Archen entered the main square of Pokemon Plaza, which was filled with the statues of countless pokemon running in terror. Some were frozen in place; permanently going about their day in a fossilized shard of time, while others had apparently been caught running about in terror. None of them had seen it coming; judging by the looks on their faces.
"Okay…" Archen nervously ruffled his feathers. "We've seen what we need to. Let's go back now. We'll declare the place off-limits; done."
"We can't declare the place off-limits until we have solid grounds to do so on," Mawile told him, pulling both their expedition gadgets from her bag and handing one to Archen. "I'll need a little help photographing everything. Starting…"
She walked over to the Plaza's secondary entrance, where a collection of the five largest statues stood. Mawile only needed to lay her eyes on them once to recognize them immediately: Teams Go-Getters and A.C.T.; reduced to nothing but stone statues. Like almost every statue the pair had encountered so far, they were standing in battle position; ready to fight something that had obviously overpowered them all in seconds. Mawile barely restrained her panic to a muted gasp. The best thing to do right now was to take photos and report back to the Expedition Society. Lest whatever had done this come back again.
Archen photographed the various statues on the opposite side of the square, working in tandem with Mawile until they had amassed through pictures a decent reconstruction of the scene. Looking through the evidence, Mawile didn't notice the dark figure hoisting itself onto the rooftop until it accidentally kicked a roof tile to the ground. She spun around just in time to see it conjure what seemed like a shadow ball with its hands, aiming at Archen.
"
Look out-"
Mawile dropped the gadget, pulling Archen out of the way before the attack could land. It exploded against the wall of a house, turning the doorway to stone.
Both Mawile and Archen assumed a battle stance, eyeing the blurred figure. Too dark to see; it looked like somemon had cut a pokemon-sized hole in the fabric of reality and pasted pure blackness in its place. The edges of the figure were too blurred to even make it out properly.
"Expedition Society!" Archen shouted, showing the figure his badge. "Stand down and follow us!"
It was a vain gesture. He barely jumped out of the way of another shadow attack. The pokemon started towards them unnaturally, its movements like the manipulation of a puppet rather than a living being. Mawile briefly wondered if it lived in the first place. It walked off the roof flawlessly, jumping onto the ground and heading straight for them. Mawile knew better than to stay put; lest they end up like the rest of the pokemon that had stayed and fought. As Archen began to conjure a Dragon Breath in retaliation, she grabbed her expedition gadget from where she had left it, and pulled a blast seed out of her backpack.
Timing her throw to Archen's attack, Mawile hurled the seed directly in the shadowy pokemon's face.
The purple-colored explosion created by both the blast seed and the dragon breath would have brought the world's strongest pokemon to the brink of fainting, and both Mawile and Archen had to quickly scramble back to avoid being damaged as well. But, when the explosion cleared, the shadowy pokemon was still standing all the same. Mawile almost lost her bearings in shock. What creature was it; to survive a tactic as powerful as that?
The shadowy creature took a shaky step towards them, then another.
It began to conjure a third attack. Mawile prepared to lure its aim elsewhere and dodge at the last second. But then, out of the blue, the figure stopped. Its body seemed to lock up just like one of Jirachi's malfunctioning robots. Mawile and Archen watched as it began to convulse violently, and then suddenly burst into tiny scraps of ash that floated off into the sky. Mawile saw that there was nothing inside its body but more of the darkness that encompassed its outer shell.
Archen caught his breath heavily, picking up his fallen gadget from the ground.
"Are those grounds good enough for you?" he asked, just a hint of snark invading his tone; as well as squawk.
Mawile gathered her bag and gadget silently, still recovering from the event. Had it even been real? She wondered. It actions had proved very much so.
Finished gathering their supplies, both explorers began the return trip to Baram Town. It would prove one of the Expedition Society's most bicker-free trips to date.
~\({O})/~
School Clinic
~Espurr~
"That was
mighty irresponsible of him," Audino grumbled as she removed Espurr's cast. Espurr sat on one of the straw beds, watching her carefully cut it away. It was made of a hardened block of paste; one that curled around Espurr's arm and kept it from healing bent. It was soiled and dirty from the day's activities, and some dirt had even wormed its way through the cast and onto her arm.
"I
tried to advocate to the Principal in favor of your injury," Audino continued, cutting through the cast and removing it, "But he insisted nothing would happen! That it wouldn't get dirtied or wet or torn off…" She scoffed, setting the cast aside. "Sometimes I think he's just as ignorant as his Vice Principal is."
She got up to retrieve another cast from her medicine cabinet, leaving Espurr to look over her broken arm. It throbbed dully, the pain centering where the fracture must have been. The cast had kept Espurr from moving it too much, and over the course of the past two days, the pain had become little more than background noise in her mind. She tried to move it, suddenly feeling it return tenfold. Espurr let out a sudden gasp as the white-hot pain shot up her arm.
"Keep it still," Audino said. "It might grow back crooked if you move it too much."
Using a pair of sanitized leaves, she cleaned the arm off before wrapping the new cast around it.
"Now, you don't move that under any circumstances," Audino told Espurr, standing up. "Understand? If Watchog tells you to do anything of the sort, you tell
him it's the nurse's orders." She put the medical supplies back inside the cupboard, closing the door with just a hint of repressed anger.
"Sleep well, you two." She set her exploration bag near the side, draping cloths over the luminous moss and heading into the clinic's back room for the night. Espurr stared at the tarped mushrooms in interest. Was this what pokemon used for lights at nighttime?"
There was a sudden rustling of straw behind her. Espurr jumped; startled, then tried to get a better look. Nurse Audino
had said two, after all…
"Don't look at me." Deerling's dejected voice drifted out from the bed behind Espurr.
Espurr tried to turn herself around the best she could without disturbing her arm.
"Deerling… right? I don't believe we've properly met," she introduced herself. "I'm-"
"Save it," Deerling hissed back. "I'm not in the mood. Go to sleep."
~\({O})/~
Music of the week!
Exodus - John Powell
Forest ladle 
