It was a heartfelt moment for everyone. A small group of villagers came out to say goodbye to Stella, Cress, and Talia that cold misty morning. Despite only having been there for only a week and a half, Stella knew she was going to miss Collis Village a lot. It already felt like a home away from home for her.
“Man...” Stella lamented as the trio made their way through the mountain trail, their paws and claws crunching on the mulch, dead leaves, and other debris covering the forest floor. She momentarily turned around and glanced back at the village that stretched across the cliffside as it slowly disappeared into the distance. “I wish I had more time to meet everyone in the village,” Stella said as she faced forwards again, thinking about all the pokémon who said their farewells to Cress and Talia whom she didn’t recognize or know very well. “At least we got to talk to Madam Dravé a lot last night...”
“Is everyone ready?” Madam Dravé asked the group. Stella watched attentively as Cress and Talia packed their bags from the corner of the room, seemingly enamored by all the strange and colorful items they packed. “Escape orb… Apples… Oran berries...” Talia muttered as she went through the bag, seemingly oblivious to Madam Dravé’s question. “Yeppers!” Cress exclaimed. “Just double-checking our bags before heading off to sleep!”
Madam Dravé gave a slow nod. “Good good.” She then turned to Stella who now seemed to be daydreaming. The eevee wore a worried expression and her tail was drooping, laid flat against the floor.
“Is there something bothering you, Stella?” Madam Dravé asked.
Stella turned suddenly as she was brought to attention. “Oh sorry. It’s just that I haven’t traveled outside the village before. It’s very peaceful here, but I’m guessing that it’s a lot more dangerous out there.”
“Ah,” Madam Dravé said before letting out a light chuckle. “You shouldn’t worry, I am certain that no matter what happens, you’ll be fine.”
“Really?” Stella asked as she raised a brow, “what makes you say that?”
The old altaria chuckled again. “For one, you’ll have Talia and Cress with you. They are both reliable surveyors and know their way around rough situations. I would know, I’ve had them surveying the surrounding area for a few weeks now.”
Stella looked across the room towards Cress and Talia who were finishing up their bags.
“And secondly, you have that scarf with you,” Madam Dravé said as she craned her neck down to tidy the scarf with her beak, making Stella look somewhat more presentable.
“The harmony scarf?” Stella asked. “Not sure what you mean. All this thing’s been doing so far is acting like a clingy magical transporter.”
“Ah, but I thought I made clear to you the nature of that scarf,” Madam Dravé said as she lifted her head again. “It is no mere fabric, but a powerful artifact created for the sake of combatting that eldritch entity.”
“Yeah you did explain,” Stella said, “but I don’t really see any crazy benefits from me wearing it. Are we even sure that this is the same one in those legends?”
Madam Dravé nodded. “I am certain that this is the harmony scarf from the legends. Taking into account your circumstances and it’s appearance, there can be no mistake. For the moment, you nor I fully understand how it functions yet. Especially since it’s current behavior seems to differ slightly from it’s behavior in the texts. A strange oddity. But regardless, I am near certain that if that scarf is stuck to you, then you will be well-protected.” Madam Dravé then took a moment to straighten out her cotton-like down with her beak.
Stella raised a brow. “Sorry, but I don’t follow. I don’t see how the harmony scarf being stuck to me would imply that?”
“Oh?” Madam Dravé turned back to Stella and tilted her head slightly. “Perhaps I’m making a hasty assumption.”
“Hasty assumption?” Stella asked.
The altaria let out a slight chuckle. “Have you ever considered not how, but why that scarf is stuck to you?”
Stella’s ears lowered and she blinked a few times as she thought about it. “The reason why?” Stella absentmindedly swiped a paw at her ears in response to the unfamiliar movement they made. “No… Not really.”
“Well,” she began, “have you considered that perhaps the scarf is trying to protect you? If it is crafted to protect its wearer, then perhaps it clung onto you because it thought you needed protecting.”
Stella shook her head as she left her daydream. She still wasn’t sure what Madam Dravé meant by that. Her logic seemed sound, but why her? She happened to randomly come upon the scarf, so why would the scarf want to protect her in particular? It wasn’t like it was intentionally handed to her. Stella frowned as she mulled over it more.
Cress turned to Stella as soon as she finished talking and noticed her sullen expression. “Don’t worry Stella, it’s not like we’re going away forever. Luminaire is only about a day away, so it’s not like we’ll be too far.”
“Mmhm,” Talia confirmed. She was at the lead, so she waited a moment before speaking so that Cress and Stella could catch up to her. “This route isn’t too difficult to traverse either. We just have to cross through the forest plateau, take the path down into the mountain valley, traverse the Collis Valley Mystery Dungeon, then cross Veridis Field to Luminaire on the coast.” Talia then took a moment to admire the tall spruce trees towering above them. “Only one easy Mystery Dungeon and very friendly terrain. Nothing to worry about. It’s quite convenient too since traveling through a dungeon is much faster than going around it.”
“Well that’s reassuring,” Stella said as they continued onward. “I’ve never been in a Mystery Dungeon before...”
“Everyone’s first time is weird.” Cress said, “But at least you’ll have us to guide you through!” Cress slightly readjusted the brown leather bag attached to his side with his mouth. “Though guiding you would be much easier with new equipment. This old bag is starting to get on my nerves. It isn’t really built for quilava like me.”
Stella looked at Cress’s bag and saw what he meant. The straps seemed to be designed for a pokémon much wider than he was; they didn’t wrap around him tightly enough, so the bag slid around as he walked. In addition, the bag seemed old and well-worn; it had many loose threads, the seams were coming apart in a few places, and there was some patchwork visible in a few spots. His scarf seemed to be in slightly better condition, with only a few loose threads visible.
Stella turned forward and could see that Talia’s equipment was about the same condition as Cress’s, with loose threads and torn seams visible from a distance. Though her bag seemed to be slightly better suited for her body shape.
“Wow, seems like you’ve been using them for a while.” Stella mentioned.
“Definitely,” Cress said. “These ones wear out really quickly since they aren’t meant for exploring.” His eyes then lit up. “All explorer and survey team bags are extremely durable and tailored to be custom-made for the user’s anatomy and physiology. They’re water-proof, fire-proof, and generally extremely durable, almost indestructible to anything you throw at them.” He seemed to get more and more excited as he continued talking.
“Phew, that sounds fancy.” Stella said, impressed.
“We need to have them built that way,” Cress explained. “With us battling pseudomon in dungeons all the time and getting blasted with every element imaginable, these bags better be ready to take a beating. Usually they are pretty expensive since they are so hard to make. Luckily for us though, we have some more money now after doing several trainee jobs, and got a discount for being guild members, so we could afford new bags and scarves too! Our new equipment should be waiting for us at the tailor’s in Luminaire!” Cress exclaimed giddily. He began hopping up and down a little to show his excitement before starting to walk sideways so he could face and talk to Stella who was to his side while still following the path. “Last time the specifications were slightly off, so we had to send them back just before we left for Collis Village. But I have a feeling that they’ll get it right this time!”
Stella couldn’t help but smile at Cress’s giddiness; it was cute. She often forgot how similar, yet simultaneously different humans and pokémon could be when they expressed their emotions. “Sounds super cool!” Stella exclaimed. “Didn’t know you guys could craft such durable equipment. I’m interested in seeing it!”
After finishing their conversation, the trio continued to trek in relative silence through the spruce tree forest. Periodically, pineco, spearow, and other feral pokémon in the trees above could be heard chittering or making other incoherent noises as the group passed by them.
After a couple of hours of walking, Stella was already feeling somewhat fatigued. She’d gone on hikes that lasted several kilometers before, but that was done as a human. She had the mental endurance, but Stella’s eevee body on the other hand still wasn’t used to walking long distances with only a week of experience. Despite the difficulty, she ended up learning a lot of new things during the trip; like that eevees don’t sweat like humans do, they sweat through their toe pads instead and need to pant; or that getting over a rock that would normally be a small climb for her human body, would instead take a large leap from her as an eevee.
The long trek made her think about much work Talia and Cress probably put into their survey work, especially if they had to trek to every dungeon they wanted to explore. It also made her realize that she didn’t know much about Cress and Talia personally. To her, it seemed weird to want to know about a pokémon’s personal life as opposed to another human’s personal life. But then again, they weren’t like the pokémon from her world, and she was a pokémon herself now. So given the opportunity, she asked, “Hey, what made you guys want to form a survey team together in the first place?”
“Oh us?” Cress asked before tilting his head in thought. “Well, it sorta just happened by chance.”
“Indeed,” Talia added with a nod. “Cress and I arrived at the guild separately. We each had our own dreams we wanted to fulfill when we arrived. We however were paired together by the guildmaster since we both arrived the same day and neither of us had any teammates yet.”
“Oh wow, I think you two got pretty lucky then! You seem to get along pretty well.” Stella said.
“Heheh, well… It wasn’t like that two months ago,” Cress said with a chuckle. “We had a lot more trouble getting along before.”
“Oh really?” Stella asked.
Talia turned her head to the side and gave a nod. “Mmhm, we still have issues sometimes, but it’s a lot better now. You see, my and Cress’s styles tend to conflict a lot. I’m more of the cool-headed type whereas Cress is more of the hot-headed type.” Talia began to give Cress a somewhat judgemental stare. “There have been times when he goes all gung-ho on pseudomon when we can honestly just avoid them.”
“Hey, last time those were all grass types!” Cress exclaimed. “We took them out super quickly.”
“Yes, but that was four roserades that we had to deal with,” Talia recalled. “Energy we didn’t need to expend.”
“Well yeah, but it would’ve probably taken too long to go around them!” Cress rebutted.
“You could’ve at least told me though what the plan was before we dashed in.” Talia countered.
Stella bursted out laughing. “Okay okay I get it guys, you still have a bit of work before you’re the perfect dynamic duo.”
“Yeah, nobody is perfect at the beginning,” Cress said. “But Talia’s right, I am definitely the hot-headed one. I mean, I can be cool-headed if I want… But I just enjoy the direct approach so much! I mean, I’m a fire type, so it makes sense I’d be hot headed!” Cress flared up the heat vent on his head just for emphasis.
Stella snickered at Cress’s joke while Talia just rolled her eyes.
“But anyways, the point is that Talia and I are still pretty green,” Cress explained, “so we need to keep working hard to get stronger! I mean heck, we don’t even have a team name yet!”
“A team name?” Stella asked.
“Yep,” Cress said, “we’re still a trainee team, so we don’t need a name yet. But pretty soon we’ll be upgraded to a full-fledged team! Then we’ll need to decide on one. I’ve had a few ideas like Venomflare or Firepoint, but Talia doesn’t like any of them.”
“Oh really?” Stella asked as she turned to Talia.
Talia nodded before speaking, “They’re too generic. Just using a combination of both of our types as a name is such a cliche among teams. I always thought that it should be something more significant, something that represents our ideals, goals, or aspirations.”
“But Talia hasn’t provided any ideas of her own yet...” Cress muttered.
“Patience Cress, we still have quite a bit of time before we have to decide. We can always fall back on one of your names if need be, though I wouldn’t want to get attached to any of them now.”
“Your aspirations huh…” Stella thought out-loud. “Hey Talia, didn’t you say that you two had different reasons for wanting to join a survey team? What were those?”
“For me, personally I find mystery dungeons absolutely fascinating. Normally they are dangerous, but once you record their properties, the resources they provide can be very useful and could help a lot of pokémon. I’m hoping that one day I can help discover how mystery dungeons work and how they form.” Talia seemed to look ahead into the distance, as if daydreaming. “Perhaps then, we can discover how to manipulate them for the benefit of other pokémon. Imagine being able to create a space that produces infinite food, or automatically makes even more luminous orbs so we can light up more homes at night.”
“Woah...” Stella said, impressed by Talia’s dream. “So… Do you think it’s even possible? I mean, I thought you said nobody knows how they even form.”
“Well, that is true Stella. But there exist pokémon that can make mystery dungeons.”
“Wait really?”
Talia nodded. “Supposedly, various legendary pokémon such as Dialga, Rayquaza, and others have been known to create mystery dungeons to protect their domain. In fact, the legends of the Dyads say that the Dyad of Time had to climb Temporal Tower, a mystery dungeon created by Dialga, before they could reach the time god.”
“That’s amazing!” Stella exclaimed.
“That’s why I’d also like to meet a legendary pokémon. Perhaps I can ask them how they do it, or if not, at least learn something else significant from them.”
“Man...” Cress lamented. “I wish I had a dream as cool as yours Talia.”
“Oh c’mon Cress,” Talia began, “your dream is not so bad.”
“I’d like to hear!” Stella exclaimed.
“Oh well… I guess if you want.” Cress began hesitantly, “I decided to join a survey team really just because I enjoy seeing the world. I get to explore, go to places I’ve never been before, travel to and through mystery dungeons. I get to meet new pokémon and help others. I get to learn so much, every day I feel like I’m growing, not just growing smarter and stronger. I feel like I’m becoming a better pokémon in general. And besides all that, it’s all just really fun, you know?”
Stella scoffed. “That’s an amazing dream Cress! I don’t know what you’re so worried about.”
“Well, you know...” Cress muttered, “It’s nothing all that special. Like I’m not working towards doing something to change society or anything.”
“It doesn’t have to be!” Stella exclaimed. “You should stop worrying about ‘good’ your dream is and stop comparing yourself to others. Your dream is special because it is yours and something you’re really driven to do! I think that’s good enough, isn’t it?”
“She does have a point, Cress,” Talia said.
Cress pursed his lips and slowed down for a moment as he thought about it. “Do you know what, you’re right!” Cress sprinted ahead to rejoin Talia and Stella. “I really enjoy what I do, so it’s the perfect dream for me! It’s about doing what I like!”
“Yeah, you got it!” Stella exclaimed before hesitating and looking down for a moment. “I… I really don’t have any big dreams or aspirations like that, so it’s nice to see that you two have something going on.”
“Hey, maybe you’ll find that spark staying around us for a bit!” Cress said. “Survey work tends to inspire a lot of others.”
“Yeah...” Stella said contemplatively. “Maybe I will...”
The trees eventually became sparser and the path began to slope gently downwards as the trio made their way down the mountainside. After some more trekking, they finally reached the bottom of the valley where the ground was covered more so with gravel and silt rather than dead leaves, as a wide river snaked its way through the valley. A few trees littered the banks of the river here, but the coverage was much sparser than in the forest above. Their paws and claws made gravelly crunching sounds as they found footing on the silver gravel and silt on the riverbank. Periodically, a wooper in the river would surface, staring curiously at the trio as they passed by. Jagged rocks and boulders bordered the river, with a few in the middle of the group’s path, forcing them to circumnavigate the rocks.
As they walked by the stream, Stella continued thinking about her earlier conversation with Cress and Talia about aspirations. She continued to be surprised at how many similarities there were between the pokémon in this world and human beings. Having huge aspirations and dreams, goals to reach for… It made her realize that there was nothing huge in her life that she was super determined to work towards. Stella spent her life studying in school, hanging out with friends, and just generally living out her life. Nothing particularly special there. Running for her school track team was something she enjoyed a lot however. The adrenaline, the satisfaction of improving on your previous time, it was something that gave her a lot of fulfilment in life. “Sure, that’s great and all, but what about beyond that?” Stella thought. She’d always hear other students in her school talk about how they want to be a doctor, an architect, or something else like that. She definitely knew that she didn’t want to be an athlete, it was just a passing hobby for now, but she struggled to think of anything else she was extremely passionate about. Though sometimes she wondered if she should follow in her parents’ footsteps and be a pokémon trainer like her dad, or a scientist like her mom, but she didn’t have a passion for either of those professions.
Deep in thought, Stella turned to stare at the river. It’s clarity surprised her; she could see all of the rocks, gravel, and underwater plants rooted to the riverbed. But she could also make out her own reflection. Even after spending about a week as an eevee, she still found it so strange to not see her human face in any reflection. Those large eyes, tall ears, fluffy tail, and small quadruped body were quite unlike her own. It was then that Stella shook her head slightly, shaking off her worries as she remembered the nature of her circumstances. This was probably an experience that few humans have ever had in the entirety of history.
Maybe she was overthinking things. Maybe she was stressing over stuff in her life that’d only matter years from now. Maybe, she should just focus on what is happening in the moment. Stella stared ahead at Cress and Talia who had taken the lead, as she reflected on recent developments. She had an opportunity to learn about her father whom she never had the opportunity to meet, travel to and learn about a completely new world, understand what it’s like to be a pokémon, talk to other pokémon, and solve a mystery about a legendary scarf.
Stella nodded to herself with a smile. She didn't understand what she was stressing about before, those were all amazing goals to work towards. As she gave a smile with a better sense of her goals, suddenly, Stella was struck by a sudden headache. “Urk!” It felt like a sharp zap travelled up her neck, before piercing her head. Her vision blurred for a moment before returning to normal.
Talia turned around and asked, “Stella, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Stella said as she put a paw to her head, “just a sudden headache. Not sure where it came from.” Just as quickly as it manifested, the headache dissipated away, leaving only a lingering, buzzing feeling in the back of her mind that she barely took note of. She then placed her paw on her scarf; she could’ve sworn that her scarf tightened slightly around her neck for a moment.
“Hrm,” Talia uttered pensively. “Perhaps you’re hungry and haven’t noticed? We haven’t eaten in a while. Now might be a good time for us to stop and eat.”
Stella nodded. “I guess I do feel a little hungry. Though is it okay for us to stop here?”
Talia shook her head. “Not a problem. The dungeon is just ahead, so we’re at a good stopping point anyways.”
Everyone agreed to sit down and eat. Judging by the sun’s angle, it was about early afternoon at this leg of the journey. Everyone took food from Cress’s bag. He carried supplies they wouldn’t need on hand immediately such as food because Cress’s paws made it difficult to use items quickly.
“Cress,” Talia began to ask as she took some food and narrowed her eyes up towards the sky, “did we ever measure the volatility rating for the Collis Valley Dungeon?”
“Uhm, the volatility rating? No... I don’t think we did.” Cress followed her gaze to the sky as he sat down on his rump to eat. It was mostly clear, but Talia’s eyes were focused on some large grey clouds far in the distance. “Why, you think it’ll rain?”
Talia nodded. “Likely. Breeze is coming from the ocean, and this area has had a few rainstorms recently.”
“What’s a volatility rating?” Stella asked as she munched on an apple.
“It’s a measure of how much the danger level of a dungeon can vary,” Talia explained. “Sometimes dungeons can become agitated by events such as solar eclipses, earthquakes, other natural disasters, or just generally bad weather.” Talia paused for a moment to chew on her food. “The volatility rating is a measure of exactly how much the dungeon gets agitated in those cases.”
“Huh.”
“But I don’t think we have anything to worry about,” Cress explained. “This dungeon is pretty tame, so the volatility rating shouldn’t be too high. They usually aren’t with these types of dungeons. Besides, we should be able to get through just before the rain passes over.”
“Hmm I suppose so,” Talia said with a tinge of worry in her voice. “Normally we’d be safer with these sorts of things, but as long as you don’t mind getting a bit soaked when we pass through Veridis Field,” Talia said.
“I’ll be fine!” Cress exclaimed. “A little rain won’t kill me.”
After they finished eating, the trio packed up, stood up, and continued downstream for a few minutes until… “Here we are,” Talia said. “The entrance to the Collis Valley Mystery Dungeon.”
Stella marveled at the tall misty wall that slowly came into view before her. It extended at least twenty meters high and stretched across the length of the whole valley. As they made their way closer, Stella could discern its finer details. The main wall of mist was of a dense pure white, almost completely opaque. Even so, she could make out a few specks of rainbow-colored and sliver-white gleaming particles, fluttering and swirling in the fog. It reminded her of vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.
A layer of lighter mist seemed to pour from the top of the wall like a waterfall, manifesting itself like a curtain just before the main mist screen. It gently made its way down to the ground, creating a thin layer of haze that blanketed the ground, flowing like a river around the trio’s feet.
“Wow...” Stella muttered in wonderment as she approached the misty barrier. “Do... they always look like this?” Stella then stuck her paw into the mist, swinging it back and forth, watching as the mist flowed along with the movement of her paw.
“Sometimes,” Talia said as she checked her bag. “In a few cases the mist wall won’t manifest and the area around the entrance will simply be shimmering slightly. Results in other pokémon accidentally wandering inside because they don’t notice the signs. That’s part of why we have a job. We try to help pokémon who get lost inside and prevent them from getting lost inside in the first place by marking the locations of new dungeons.” Talia then turned to Cress. “Are you ready?”
“Yep, feeling good!” Cress exclaimed.
Talia nodded in response before turning to Stella. “Are you feeling better?”
Stella raised a brow before realizing what Talia meant; Stella’s headache from earlier. It was gone, so she nodded in response. Her concern made Stella realize something about Talia. Something that made her think back to when Talia was telling a story to the children in Collis Village, entertaining them with a lively display. Despite having a serious expression most of the time, the moments when she showed care for someone Stella noticed, was when Talia really showed her true colors. It made her think of Madam Dravé’s reassurance about her companions. “Don’t worry,” Stella said, “feeling better now!”
“Good,” Talia said with a soft smile and a slight nod. “Now a few things before we head in,” Talia continued, “I don’t want you taking any fights Stella.”
“Huh?” Stella questioned.
“Don’t misunderstand. You’re definitely experienced enough now to take a battle against all of the pseudomon in there. But for the sake of brevity, we’d rather have you stay safe and let me and Cress take the fights quickly since we’re used to taking on several in a row.”
Stella wanted an opportunity to try out the moves she learned over the past week into use. So she pursed her lips for a moment in hesitation, considering the circumstances before sighing and finally agreeing with Talia. “Fine, that’s okay with me.”
“Don’t worry about it!” Cress exclaimed. “There’s always next time! And with how hard you’ve been training, I’m sure that next time you’ll get some action.”
Stella simply smiled at Cress before turning back to Talia.
“And that’s it,” Talia said. “For the most part, just stay close to us. But whenever we get into a scuffle, keep your distance. Getting separated is also a possibility, but there are a few ways to regroup easily. I’ll explain once we head in.”
Stella nodded in response as she slowly followed Cress and Talia into the mist. Though as they passed through, Stella began to notice the strange lingering feeling from her headache earlier, nagging at her slightly.
Collis Valley - F15
Although the entrance to the dungeon was quite wide, spanning the length of the valley, the portal of mist they came through was much smaller. It had a misshapen form, but resembled a vertically oblong ellipse with gnarled tree branches and tall grey rocks outlining the edges of the gateway.
There was nothing immediately remarkable about the inside of the dungeon. The terrain seemed relatively the same, jagged rocks, sparse trees, and silvery silt by the riverbed.
Though something off-putting about the environment, something Stella couldn’t put a finger, er rather, paw on. The arrangement of the natural terrain seemed unnatural. The normally unbending river that passed through the valley was now content with zig-zagging through the area ahead, and the rocks and trees in the terrain around the group seemed to be forcefully clumped together in some spots, forming walls in some places and passageways in others.
After taking a quick glance around however, it was the dungeon’s “ceiling” that caught Stella’s attention the most. It looked like a giant dome was surrounding the entirety of the mystery dungeon. Like a bubble, it was slightly glossy and warped any light that came through to a small extent, with small swirls and patches of rainbow blobs flowing through its membrane. Otherwise, the sky beyond the barrier seemed to be completely normal by typical standards. Stella assumed that if any of them could fly, they’d be stopped from leaving the dungeon by the barrier.
“You remember my explanation about Mystery Dungeons, right Stella?” Talia asked.
Stella nodded in response as she looked away from the strange sky and back at Talia. “It’s laid out like a maze. Usually multiple room-like openings connected by hallways. We have to get through multiple dungeon floors so we can pass through and leave. We move between floors by using a gateway called the stairs...” Stella paused for a moment to think. “I think that’s it. Anything I missed?”
Talia shook her head. “Nope, that’s it! Glad you remember.” Talia then turned back to the misty portal they came through and pointed out a symbol scratched into one of the rocks flanking it. “There’s a small area around the stairs that will always remain unchanged, so we can mark it out with a recognizable symbol.”
Stella took a look at the symbol. It was shaped like a right triangle, with two of the sides being the same length, but the hypotenuse was replaced with a zig-zag pattern. A symbol representing a set of stairs. Next to it, there were a few indecipherable scribbles that Stella couldn’t understand.
“Sometimes,” Talia began to explain, “in more commonly traversed dungeons, we’ll leave more visible, stair-shaped stone statues behind to represent where the stairs are.”
“I wonder why they are called stairs in the first place,” Stella said.
“I’d love to know,” Cress said. “Such a weird naming scheme,”
Talia shrugged. “I’d love to know too, but it seems like nobody knows where the name originally came from. It’s just a convention everyone happens to agree on and has been passed down from team to team. I have my own theory however, that one of the first mystery dungeons was a building. Ancient pokémon found out that each different ‘segment’ of the dungeon corresponded to a different floor of the building, and that’s what inspired the naming scheme.”
“Huh, that’s an idea.” Stella said before turning back to the symbol. “But what do these scribbles mean to the side of it?”
“Hmm?” Talia asked with a confused expression. After a brief moment, her eyes suddenly lit up in realization. “Ah! I forgot you can’t read. It tells us what floor we are on,” Talia explained. “Right now, we are on floor fifteen.”
“Hey, I can read!” Stella complained. “Just not pokémon script… But why fifteen?” Stella asked. “Why not floor one?”
“Remember how I explained that most dungeons are one-way?”
Stella nodded. “Right, you can only move through floors in one direction. Then the end of the dungeon will cycle right back to the beginning, taking you back to the entrance.”
“Right, but unlike most dungeons,” Talia explained, “Collis Valley is a two-way dungeon where you can move upstairs or downstairs freely. When we came to Collis Village, we originally had to traverse through this dungeon upstairs, traveling from floor one to floor fifteen.”
“But now we’re going in the opposite direction, so we have to travel downstairs?” Stella asked. “From floor fifteen to floor one?”
Talia nodded. “You got it! Normally others don’t get it that quickly, so I’m glad you understand.”
“Seems pretty intuitive,” Stella said. “It’s just like a tunnel with wacky spatial anomalies and fake pokémon inside. No biggie.”
Cress let out a huge yawn. “Hey, can we get a move on?” an annoyed Cress asked. “We’re spending a lot of time chatting, but not a lot of time moving.”
“Agreed,” Talia said, “never a good idea to stay in one place for too long.”
Talia took the lead as Cress and Stella followed closely behind. With no resistance whatsoever, it wasn’t long before they found the next set of stairs.
Like the gateway into the dungeon, this “set of stairs” was also shaped like an ellipse, bordered by warped natural terrain. The same triangular engraving, marking it as the stairs, was visible on one of the rocks besides it. But unlike the entrance, the mist was replaced by a thin glossy membrane that looked similar to the barrier making up the “ceiling” above them.
“If we ever get split up,” Talia explained, “we can regroup at the last set of stairs. They’re a good regrouping point since they are easily recognizable and pseudomon can’t pass through the barrier. Only we can.”
“Right,” Stella said as she nodded in understanding, before following Talia through the bubbly membrane. Stella took a deep breath as she stepped through, mentally preparing herself for whatever strange sensation would wash over her once she went through the shimmering barrier. But contrary to her expectations, no particular feeling came to her when she did; It was almost as if the barrier wasn't even there.
Collis Valley - 14F
“Ooo, gravelerock!” Cress exclaimed as he sprinted over to a nearby pile of pebbles.
“Gravelerock?” Stella asked as she approached Cress.
“Yeah!” Cress said as he picked up one in his mouth. “Thewyre swpecial wocks u kan thwrow swuper fhar!”
“What? I don’t understand what you are saying. Also why...? Why did you put that rock in your mouth?”
Cress rolled his eyes as he stood on his hind legs and turned to face a tree. “Gwust wahtch twhis.”
Cress puffed up his cheeks and spat out the rock. It first flew at the tree trunk Cress aimed at, rebounding off of it, then made a whizzing sound as it zoomed past Stella’s head, before ricocheting off of a boulder into a pseudo-totodile that had just made its way into the room. The totodile exploded into a fine rainbow mist of emera powder as soon as the gravelerock collided with it, stunning the whole party into silence.
For a moment, only the sound of wind rustling through the trees and water flowing through a nearby creek could be heard . That is, until Talia decided to be the first to break the ice. “Nice shot.”
“Uh… Thanks,” Cress finally said. “Guess I got lucky.” He turned to Stella. “I think you can see their utility now.”
Stella simply nodded as she watched Cress pick up a few rocks with his mouth and put them into his bag. “Well that’s a strange way to have my first encounter with a pseudomon end,” Stella said as she watched the rainbow mist dissipate. For the short moment it appeared, the mist seemed to glitter and catch the light.
“Normally they don’t go down that easily,” Talia said. It’s just that this dungeon generally has a lot of weak pseudomon, so they’ll tend to go down in one or two blows.”
“Right,” Cress added. When he finished packing all the rocks away, he explained that, “by the way, if you put one in your mouth and apply pressure like you’re breathing out or are about to use a move from your mouth, something like flamethrower, the gravelerock comes flying out. Fun and super easy to use, but if you already have a ranged attack, they’re not really all that practical to carry around. I’ll take some with me though, just to have fun with them when we get back to Luminaire.”
After the brief distraction, the trio continued through the dungeon. The rest of the floor was relatively uneventful. Talia held the lead, keeping an eye out for any threats. Stella followed closely behind Talia, taking in more of the strange and abnormal terrain. Cress on the other hand, stayed farther behind the group, holding up the rear. But that nagging feeling in the back of her mind only seemed to grow stronger. It was almost as if she forgot something, and her mind was slowly working its way towards remembering it.
Collis Valley - 11F
The group continued to travel through the vague manifestations of rooms and hallways, formed by the trees and rocks scattered about. Beside the totodile, they only had a brief encounter with a spearow and buizel on floor thirteen, and an encounter with two pseudo-woopers on floor twelve. Cress and Talia quickly took each one out without taking even a single hit themselves. Just like the duo had said before, they seemed to have everything covered. Though quite oddly, Cress had a habit of picking up any and all food items, such as apples and berries, they’d find scattered across the dungeon floor. Stella however, wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to eat food created by an unnatural and anomalous spatial distortion phenomenon.
Even though she was glad to be traveling with strong companions, there was one thing that concerned Stella at the moment. The strange notion from earlier continued to stay in her mind, and only seemed to grow gradually stronger. It troubled her to no end, making her realize that it wasn’t just some random oddity. It wasn’t a sensation like something you’d “feel” with your senses, but more like an idea you’d get your thoughts stuck on. It was as if a sort of subtle, detached notion had itself manifested in her head and was trying to get out. “
What is this feeling, this… thing? Where is it coming from?” Stella wondered as they continued down a hallway into another vague manifestation of a room. As soon as they entered the room, Talia looked around for a moment before picking the passage to their left. Cress and Stella followed Talia’s lead as they headed towards the other passageway.
Suddenly, Stella froze. Her whole body tensed up, fur stood on end, and eyes went wide, as a chill travelled down her spine. The strange notion, this idea that had been bobbing around in her head, finally made its way to the forefront of her mind, manifesting itself as fear. “
What? What’s this sudden feeling?” Instinct drove her to start looking around frantically, as if searching for something, though she didn’t know what for.
“Stella?” Cress asked from behind, concern showing on his face. “Are you ok-”
Time suddenly slowed to a stop as the harmony scarf tightened slightly around Stella’s neck. Cress’s mouth stopped mid-sentence, the river stream nearby stopped flowing, and the sound of wind gently rustling through trees was replaced by an eerie silence. The world around her seemed blurred slightly and felt distant. Her body was frozen, but her mind was still active, almost as if she was simply a spectator to what she was about to witness.
In that split second, the abnormal anxiety that consumed her was gone, and a new abnormal feeling took its place. However, instead of being only in her thoughts, this new sensation washed over her whole body. Amorphous blobs of rainbow light appeared before her. She could see and somehow feel them passing through and around her, but their unfamiliar shapes, and her inconsistent vision, left nothing for her to make sense of. She had little time to be confused by the extraordinary sensation because, as quickly as it manifested, her scarf loosened and everything returned to normal.
“-ay?” Cress finished.
Stella had barely a second to process what had just happened. As if her feet moved on their own, Stella instinctively leapt to the side, narrowly dodging a vine whip from a camouflaged ivysaur that had been hiding in some bushes next to them.
“What the!?” Cress blurted out as the ivysaur’s vines whipped against the gravel making a loud
“CRACK!” sound.
Talia turned around just as Stella roughly hit the ground after dodging the attack; she landed on her side, skidding across the gravel for a brief moment. The pseudo-ivysaur then jumped out of the bushes, hissing at Stella who had just stood back up. Cress quickly fired an ember in retaliation, hitting the ivysaur square-on from the side. As a result, the ivysaur focused their efforts on Cress, quickly turning towards him and firing a slew of razor leaves. Cress tried quickly to dash out of the way, but ended up getting grazed by a few leaves which knocked him off balance, “Arrrgh!”
Talia then came at the ivysaur from behind, jabbing it with a purple glowing claw. The impact knocked the ivysaur forward for a moment before it suddenly exploded into a fine rainbow mist.
The encounter was brief, only lasting seven seconds.
“Well that was something,” Cress said as he stood up. “Good thing you heard the ivysaur before it attacked us Stella...” His voice trailed off once he saw Stella silently staring at the rainbow mist that was now floating down to the ground.
Stella was silently contemplating what had just happened. She didn’t hear anything. She didn’t even know the ivysaur was there until she heard and saw the vine whip hit the ground. She reacted only out of pure instinct, responding to that feeling, notion, idea, whatever it was that kept poking at her head. Though after her split-second reaction, the “feeling” disappeared entirely, relieving a huge weight off of her shoulders.
“That’s why we have to be vigilant when going through a dungeon,” Talia said. “They may be pseudomon, but they’re smart enough to know that an ambush is a viable tactic.”
“Are you okay Stella?” Cress asked. “I know a situation like that can be pretty scary...”
Stella shook her head. “No worries, I’m fine.” She then proceeded to brush some bits of gravel out of her fur with her paw. “You guys already taught me what I should be expecting in here. Your battle training really helped me keep my nerves.”
Cress smiled at the compliment.
After a short pause, Stella asked, “Did either of you see anything strange actually? Just before the ivysaur attacked? Like a flash of light?”
Cress and Talia glanced at each other before shaking their heads.
“I didn’t see anything,” Cress said.
“Me neither,” Talia replied.
“
So was I the only one who saw it?” Stella pondered to herself. Remembering the feeling of the harmony scarf tightening around her neck, she glanced down at it, wondering if it had anything to do with her strange experience. She didn’t know what to make of it, but she didn’t want to worry Cress and Talia. Whatever it was, it saved her from taking what could’ve been a critical hit from the ivysaur, but she could worry about it after they left the dungeon filled with dangerous pseudomon.
“It’s… nothing then,” Stella said hesitantly.
Talia tilted her head slightly at Stella’s strange comment.
“Though more importantly, Cress,” Stella began to ask, “are you okay after getting hit by that razor leaf?”
“Oh, me? That wasn’t even an effective hit. I’m fine.”
“But those cuts...” Stella noted.
Cress had a few fresh cuts from getting hit by the razor leaf. They were slightly visible under his short fur.
“Oh, these? I’ve had worse. Being a survey team means you get beat up all the time, but it doesn’t take too long to heal anyways. Take a look.”
Stella raised a brow before she saw what he meant. Very slowly, Cress’s wounds seemed to be healing themselves on their own, the cuts were slowly pulling themselves close. “Give it about two minutes and it’ll be as if I never got hit,” Cress said.
Stella leaned forwards and lowered her head as she squinted at Cress’s wounds. “I know pokemon heal much faster than humans do, but I know it’s definitely not that fast.” Stella turned her head to look at Cress. “How?”
“One of the strange things about being in a mystery dungeon is that it makes our metabolism a lot faster,” Talia began explaining as Stella turned to her. “The upside is that we heal a lot faster.”
“But we also get hungrier faster,” Cress interjected. “Which is also a great thing because it means I get to eat more food!”
“Oh, so that’s why we packed for more than a day of food,” Stella realized. “And also why you’re picking up so many berries. I was wondering about that.” Stella then paused for a moment in thought. “Now that you mention it, I definitely feel much hungrier than when we started.”
Talia nodded. “Which is why we need to keep moving. If we stand around here for too long, we’ll starve to death. Or worse.”
“Worse?” Stella asked.
“No worries,” Cress reassured. “We’d starve to death first before we see worse.”
Stella narrowed her eyes. “Well that’s encouraging.”
Collis Valley - 7F
The trio passed through a few more floors. For the most part, Talia took the lead, Cress usually held up the rear, collecting food whenever he could (despite having an overabundance of food), while Stella stayed in the middle. However, any time they encountered a pseudomon, Cress would move up to the front with Talia. The two mowed through everything they saw, with the exception of a few stronger pseudomon, to the point where traveling through the dungeon felt almost monotonous. Go down a hallway, defeat a pseudomon in a couple second skirmish, find the stairs, rinse and repeat. It wasn’t long, however, before something new happened to mix things up.
Stella felt something tiny and cold hit her head as they trekked through the dungeon, leading her to look up towards the sky. Another water droplet fell from above and landed between her eyes. Ripples started forming on the surface of the bubbly membrane as more and more droplets impacted it before passing through. It was starting to rain.
“Huh, guess it arrived earlier than expected,” Cress said as he looked up at the sky barrier. “Oh well, guess that means we’re gonna need to speed it up a bit.”
“You don’t seem too concerned,” Stella noted as she started walking faster along Cress’s side.
“Yeah, not really,” Cress said as he turned to Stella. “Not the first time we’ve dealt with rain before. Might weaken me a little bit, but otherwise it’s not much of an issue.”
“But like Cress said,” Talia started, “we need to speed things up. If it starts raining too much, the dungeon could become more dangerous.” She then pointed upwards towards the sky where the water was passing through the barrier. “Notice how not all the water is getting through.”
Stella looked up and did just that. Though it was raining lightly inside the dungeon, she noticed that it was raining much more heavily outside of the dungeon, just past the barrier. “Why is that?” she asked.
“Remember how I mentioned dungeon volatility ratings before Stella?” Talia asked. “How certain dungeons can become more dangerous under certain conditions like rain?”
Stella nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“The dungeons that have a higher volatility rating are more likely to absorb matter and energy that comes from the outside, except for pokémon who instead will pass right through.”
Stella then realized what Talia meant. “So because not all the rain is passing through...”
Talia nodded. “This dungeon will likely become more dangerous moving forward. It’s theorized that these sorts of dungeons use the energy and matter they absorb to then create more and stronger pseudomon.”
“Yikes,” Stella said with concern in her voice.
“But we shouldn’t be in too much trouble as long as the rain doesn’t get any worse. We can deal with any stronger opponents if need be,” Talia reassured.
Stella nodded, remembering that these two went through dungeons as part of their job. “Right then, lead on!”
As the trio moved ahead, slowly but steadily, the sound of the rain’s pitter patter slowly began to fill the dungeon until they found the next set of stairs.
Collis Valley - 5F
It was like Talia said, the rain provoked the dungeon into spawning more and stronger pseudomon.
“Woah!” Cress exclaimed as he narrowly dodged a water gun from a quagsire. Talia saw an opportunity and used it to close the distance between her and the pseudomon, but the quagsire took notice and quickly spun around, aiming an aqua tail directly at Talia. She, however, had different plans. Just before the aqua tail landed, she manifested a blue hexagonal barrier from her paws for a second, blocking the attack completely. Talia was pushed back slightly and stunned from the impact, but was able to keep the quagsire in place for a moment. With that, Cress flared up his back and dashed forward, letting flames pour out from his mouth, enveloping and coating his body completely as he charged at the quagsire. A trail of steam followed in his wake as he impacted the pseudomon in the gut and sent them flying into a nearby boulder.
“Wham!” The quagsire slammed into the boulder, just before falling to the ground. It was slumped against the rock, apparently stunned from the impact. Suddenly, it raised its head and tried to get up, but just before it could, Talia pulled a toxic spike out of her back and quickly flung it at the pseudo-quagsire, piercing its body and finishing it off in a spectacular shower of rainbow mist.
“And that’s how you do it!” Cress exclaimed. His back was still ignited, steam swirling around him as the rain fell on his ignited vents.
“Woah, I didn’t know you could use protect!” Stella exclaimed as she approached the two.
Talia nodded before getting on all fours and stretching out her arms and legs. “Something I picked up a few years ago. Not something you can learn naturally, has to be taught. It’s quite difficult to use since you can’t immediately follow-up with a move after using a protection barrier. You need a partner to take advantage of your block.” She then stood up on her hind legs and looked at the pile of rainbow powder that was being washed away by the water. “Looks like we really need to step up our game. Not sure if we can keep that up for the rest of the dungeon.”
“Oh c’mon Talia,” Cress complained. “You don’t have to deal with the rain! We’ll be fine for the next seven floors.”
“I’m actually more concerned about you,” Talia confessed.
Cress shook his head. “I’ll be fine. I like to think of it... like a special training session,” he said with a smile.
Stella was concerned too. She noted that Cress was breathing more heavily compared to before it started raining, where he barely showed any signs of exhaustion.
“You know, I could help with the fighting,” Stella recommended. She then shook some water off of herself as it was starting to weigh down on her fur.
Talia shook her head. “Don’t you worry a bit Stella, we’ll be fine.” She said it with confidence, but Stella noticed that she was shivering slightly from the rain. “We’re used to getting roughed up and beat up. You, on the other hand, don’t have a lot of experience fighting stronger pseudomon like these. Fighting pseudomon isn’t the same as fighting other pokémon. Unlike pokémon they tend to be...” Talia paused for a moment as she tried to find the right word “...quite savage”
Stella pouted. She felt a mix of frustration and concern because she wanted to find a way to help, and was also worried about how Cress and Talia were going to handle the rest of the dungeon. But after a moment of consideration, she relented. After all, they definitely knew what they were doing more than she was. Stella let out a long sigh. “Hmmm… Fine then.”
“No worries Stella,” Cress reassured with a smile, “we’ve got this. Just leave the hard work to us.”
Collis Valley - 3F
Unfortunately for the trio, the storm got significantly worse.
The tempest blew stronger through the trees, gravel was being pushed around by the gale, and the previously gentle river accelerated to a torrent as the cacophony of natural sounds intensified.
Stella hid in a nearby bush as she watched the chaos of battle unfold.
“GRRAAAAHHH!!!” Talia yelled as she jabbed a croconaw in the gut with a purple glowing claw. It barely even winced as it immediately countered by headbutting Talia, stunning her for a second before it followed up with a slash that knocked her back into a puddle and left a scratch mark across her chest.
Cress meanwhile was engaged with an agile fearow that kept repeatedly dive bombing him with pecks. Cress could only land a few hits due to the fearow’s agility, but the embers that did hit were weakened by the rain.
The croconaw growled at Talia as it charged at her again. “Cress!” Talia yelled as she kicked the croconaw away from her with her legs before finally getting up. “We need to focus our efforts! Help me with the croconaw first!”
“Right!” Cress exclaimed. He noticed that the fearow was flapping its wings to gain height, something it always did before it dive bombed him, so he decided to take advantage of that. The quilava held his breath, and as the fearow began to dive towards him, he sputtered out a thick black smoke from his mouth which covered a wide area in front of him. The fearow didn’t have enough time to change its trajectory and ended up flying straight through the black smokescreen, past Cress where it disappeared into an outcropping of trees behind him.
“SCREEEEEEEE!!!” It screeched as it disappeared out of view, past the dense vegetation. “Huh, that works.” With the pseudomon temporarily out of the way, he decided to deal with the more pressing issue. He turned his attention towards where Talia and the croconaw were fighting.
Talia had been stalling for Cress, keeping her distance and dodging attacks as they came. A flare at the corner of her vision suddenly caught her attention. She turned to her right for a brief moment to witness Cress’s entire body setting ablaze. Realizing what that meant, she turned her attention back to the croconaw, swiftly dodging another slash from it, before breaking into a forward dash to close the gap.
It tried slashing at her as she approached, but Talia quickly grabbed its arm before the attack could land. The croconaw then tried to slash at her with its other free claw, but she grabbed it too, rendering the croconaw immobile. The pseudomon snarled viciously at the nidorina, causing flecks of saliva to fly into her face as it struggled against her firm grasp. That is, until it realized that it could still pull itself forward to bite Talia’s head off with its jaws.
Just as the croconaw tried to pull itself forwards however, she pushed her legs as hard as she could into the ground, using the pseudomon’s momentum against it to throw it around and behind her.
“GRRRRAAAAHHH!!!” she yelled as she released her grip and the pseudomon tripped directly into the path of Cress’s incoming flame charge. Only a split second passed before Cress hit the croconaw square in the gut, knocking them straight into a tree that splintered into two as the pseudomon crashed through it, before finally fizzling into a cloud of rainbow dust.
“Nice timing.” Talia said after wiping the croconaw spit off of her face.
“You too. Hah… Hah…” Cress said through bated breaths as steam rose from his fiery back. “Think that’s the last of them.”
Talia simply nodded in response.
“Is it safe for me to come out?” Stella asked as her head popped out of the bushes nearby.
“SCREEEEEEE!!!” A grating screech could be heard from the nearby outcropping of trees.
“I guess not,” Stella muttered to herself as she returned to hiding.
“Oh c’mon,” Cress complained.
The fearow from earlier shot out through the tree line, busting through leaves and branches. It immediately dove at the two with glowing wings.
“Follow-up after my protect,” Talia said briefly as she quickly stepped forward.
Cress nodded and stayed behind Talia for the moment.
Just a few feet before the fearow impacted Talia, she erected a protect-barrier which the pseudomon promptly crashed into. Both Talia and the fearow were stunned for a brief moment from the impact, but Cress quickly hopped to the side and followed-up with an ember, a slew of fiery particles flew from his mouth and hit the fearow on the side, knocking it over.
With the two-move combo from Cress and Talia, the fearow was now grounded. It lifted itself onto its talons and turned its head, screeching at Cress for a brief moment before Talia grabbed its attention by swiping at it with a claw. It turned its head towards Talia just before receiving a vicious poison jab-powered uppercut. It was rendered unconscious by the blow as it’s head and neck recoiled upwards before finally falling to the ground. A mere second passed before the pseudomon dissolved into a pile of rainbow dust.
Talia took a deep breath and Cress’s back-fire died down slightly as the two finally relaxed. Cress opened his bag and rummaged around for some food before taking a bite. Talia walked up to him and helped herself to some of the food as well.
Noticing that the fight this time was finally over, Stella left her hiding spot in bushes at the edge of the tree line and sprinted to rejoin Cress and Talia. “Are you two okay?” Stella asked as she approached the two.
Cress simply nodded. His belly swelled up and down as he took in deep breaths. Stella could hear sizzling sounds as rain impacted his fiery back and steam rose from his body.
“No worries, we’re fine,” Talia reassured, as the scratch across her chest began to heal. “Just need a moment to catch our breath. Almost there, just two floors away.”
Cress nodded in response. “Wow, didn’t expect things to get this hard.” He then paused to take a few breaths. “But yeah. Just two more floors. We got this.”
Stella was worried about Cress’s and Talia’s conditions. But again and again, they kept refusing her help. Stella wanted to find words of encouragement for them both since they wouldn’t accept her help, but she couldn’t come up with any, so she stayed silent.
Why were they so insistent on not taking any help from her? Both Cress and Talia trained her personally, so they should know that she had the skill to help them. And sure, the pseudomon were pretty aggressive, but they didn’t fight any differently from normal pokémon. Stella shook her head. “
Maybe I’m overthinking things. I just hate not being able to do anything.”
As soon as Cress and Talia finished eating a quick snack, they continued forward. As they did however, Stella noticed that the sky was much darker than before, and could spy flashes of lighting beyond the barrier.
Collis Valley - 1F
The trio dashed through the stairs, just barely outrunning an ivysaur and quagsire on the second floor.
“Hah… Hah...” Stella panted. “That was a close one. Just a little further.”
Stella was mostly fine, only a little cold from the rain, but Cress and Talia were completely exhausted, having to fight pseudomon after pseudomon.
So it was a huge relief after the trio rounded a corner and saw the exit to the dungeon. It was a bit far away, but it was just at the end of a room through the hallway they were in.
Cress’s eyes perked up when he saw the misty gateway ahead of them. “Oh finally!” He exclaimed.
“Oh what a relief,” Talia said. “We finally get to leave.”
Stella smiled as she saw Cress sprint ahead towards the exit, kicking up water as he dashed through a puddle. It was finally going to be over.
But that victory was short-lived. Stella winced in pain as a sharp headache shot through her head. Her whole body tensed up, fur stood on end, and eyes went wide as an abnormal chill travelled down her spine.
Stella felt the harmony scarf tightening around her neck as complete and sudden silence filled the air. “
Again?! Why?” Stella thought as her entire body slowed to a stop once more and she felt pressure build up in her head. Again, the world around her seemed to blur slightly as time froze, making her feel isolated from the space surrounding her. Again, the universe slowed down, her body frozen, but thoughts still in motion. Again, Stella became a spectator once more. Unable to move, only to witness.
But this time, the experience lasted much longer than a mere few seconds, and so, Stella quickly found that with a bit of effort, she could move her eyes around a little.
Stella was immediately distracted by the sight ahead of her, towards the countless rain droplets that seemed to be hovering around her. “
Wow...” The eevee marveled at the otherworldly, dream-like sight, as slivers of light shone through the floating orbs of water. She then glanced past them towards the source of the light. In the distance, a lightning bolt was splitting into two as it slowly crawled its way across the darkened sky. “
Holy crap that’s actual lightning…” Stella thought as she stared in awe at the cracked sky, as the rest of the world seemed to remain still. “
But it’s not… completely frozen?” Stella wondered as she watched the lightning bolt form new branches as others fizzled out. “
Maybe… It’s all slowed down?”
The droplets of rain initially appeared to be suspended in the air, but after taking a brief moment to watch them, she noticed that the spheres of water actually quivered slightly, and were falling slowly towards the ground at speeds of barely a millimeter per second. “
Oh, so time hasn’t completely stopped,” she noted. “
It’s just really really slow.” A few were only inches from her face, so she could easily see the world refracted upside-down through them. “
So amazing...” It challenged her notions about rain, she always thought they had a sharp tail that stuck upwards as they fell; like how you’d see them depicted in cartoons. She didn’t know that they looked like amorphous orbs of water as they fell.
Stella only admired the floating rain droplets for a brief moment, before her eyes were drawn to a soft glow just ahead of her.
“
Cress...” He was frozen mid-sprint, along with a splash of water that he kicked up as he ran through a puddle. A bright red glow seemed to envelop his body entirely. “
Is that his… aura?” But within him, were a series of rainbow-colored strands of light, flowing through and inside of him almost like a fluid of sorts. They seemed to be flowing from a rainbow glowing point in his core. She had little time to consider it before another cluster of rainbow lights manifested just ahead of the quilava’s frozen form and caught her attention. “
Those same lights...”
Though not completely clear-sighted, Stella could see that the rainbow lights were more like a gas cloud. A nebulous gas cloud that seemed to sparkle a little in the light, almost like a gaseous emera. It seemed somewhat familiar to her.
The cloud began to expand rapidly, before suddenly rebounding and quickly compressing itself, coalescing into the shape of a… quilava? The wispy cloud vibrated and seemed to be blurred around the edges slightly, like a chromatic aberration, but was solid enough to be identifiable as some sort of ethereal projection of Cress, which mimicked the shape of his body along with even his bag and scarf.
“
What the…?” Stella stared as the misty projection sprinted towards the room with the dungeon exit portal, moving exactly like a quilava would. Once it reached the entrance of the room, her vision distorted for a moment as she felt a strange pulse of energy, like a blast of air, pass through her body.
The projection continued into the room, making its way to the center, until suddenly, an amorphous blob of rainbow mist fell from above, onto the floor in front of the projection. The glob seemed to shift and change incessantly, almost as if it was unsure as to what it wanted to be. Cress’s projection quickly hopped backwards, away from the blob before looking up. An uneasy feeling rose in her stomach as she followed the projection’s gaze upwards. Various other wispy clouds of mist, like the one in front of Cress’s projection, were clumped together within the ceiling itself. One by one, they began to fall to the ground where they surrounded the projection.
She couldn’t make out any distinct forms among the amorphous blobs of mist, but a gut feeling told her that they were a threat of some sort. That they were supposed to be pseudomon; a threat. It was the same feeling that she listened to when she dodged the vine whip from the ivysaur after the same experience; that strange notion that dug at the back of her mind. “
What’s the meaning of all this?” Stella pondered as she tried to make sense of the ethereal projections.
With Cress’s projection surrounded, the clouds of mist slowly approached Cress. But just before they could, they all suddenly dissipated, her scarf loosened, steadily yet swiftly rain began to fall again, the lightning bolt far in the distance finally hit the ground, and Cress continued to sprint towards the portal, moving exactly like the projection… Exactly like the projection…
An uncanny feeling of deja-vu passed through Stella’s body as memories quickly flashed through her mind “
...have you considered that perhaps the scarf is trying to protect you?” Madam Dravé had said. It was then that Stella realized. The ethereal projections of mist… They looked like the rainbow nebula that surrounded her in that one dream. “
...it will change with you and let you see the truth of reality itself so you may defy it, seize the future...” the voice in her dream had said.
“
The future?” It was only a brief moment before Stella’s eyes went wide and she finally realized the meaning of what she saw. It was a warning. “WAIT, CRESS!!!” She began yelling in a panicked voice as she sprinted towards him. “DON’T GO THERE!!!”
Cress stopped and turned around just as he reached the entrance of the room. “Wha…?” Cress blurted out of confusion. “What’s wrong? The exit is right there!” But it was too late.
As soon as Cress laid a paw into the clearing, Stella could feel a shockwave of energy emanate from the room Cress was in and travel through her. It was a subtle force, like a blast of wind.
She tensed up and skidded to a stop once the wave passed through her. “Did you guys feel that?” she asked.
“Feel what?” Cress asked.
“Stella, are you okay?” Talia asked.
Stella hesitated for a moment as she looked between the two of them, both showing concerned expressions. “I...” She was barely sure of her own reasoning.
For a moment, only the sound of rain and wind flowing around them could be heard as an awkward silence passed between them.
Suddenly, a humongous feraligatr fell from above, landing directly behind Cress.
Stella held her breath and froze out of fear.
“Cress, look out!” Talia yelled.
Cress quickly turned around and found himself eye-to-eye with the giant pseudomon. It began to open its mouth. Cress’s eyes widened. “OH CRA-” He barely had time to dodge as he was blasted with a torrent of water from the feraligatr’s mouth. The water gun launched him directly into Talia who fell backwards as she caught him, softening his landing. The two skidded across the wet dirt and gravel before coming to a stop.
“Ughhh… You okay?” Talia asked as she pushed Cress off of herself and stood up.
“Ooof. That really hurt.” Cress let out a raspy cough followed by a small grunt. “Think I accidentally swallowed some water. But otherwise I’m fine.”
“What was that!?” Stella exclaimed uneasily.
Talia stared intently at the massive feraligatr as it let out a low, guttural growl. “No, it can’t be...”
Only a moment later, a few other pseudomon began falling from the bubbly ceiling above, landing behind the pseudo-feraligatr. Ivysaur, quagsire, and a few other species of pseudomon could be seen among the group.
“It’s a monster house!” Talia blurted out in disbelief. She immediately began rummaging through her bag.
“Seriously?” Cress whined. He stood up, wincing as he did so. “In this dungeon of all places? What are the chances?”
“A monster house?” Stella asked Talia, her voice choking up at the sign of more pseudomon.
Talia quickly pulled a slumber orb out of her bag. It was a translucent glassy pink, and contained a solid chunk of white calcite in its core, resembling a puffy cloud. “No time to explain, need to stop them before we can’t do anything about it.”
Talia needed to get close to use the orb, so she put it in her mouth and quickly began sprinting on all fours towards the still growing group of pseudomon.
As Talia approached, the feraligatr let loose with a massive water gun, directing it straight at her. She quickly stood up and blocked it with a protect barrier, but the impact staggered her, impeding her from moving forwards. As soon as the shield disappeared, the ivysaur next to the feraligatr leaned forward and let out a barrage of small razor sharp leaves that flew out from the bulb on its back. All aimed at Talia. At that moment, everything went wrong.
Talia put up her arms to block the incoming attack, but the pain from the cuts they made was too much to bear. “AHHHH!” She yelled with an open mouth, which made her drop the slumber orb. The razor sharp leaves then cut through her bag, tearing a hole open in it, and causing its contents to spill all over the ground. Talia gasped. “No! Without our items, we’re-” The feraligatr suddenly shot the distracted Talia with another water gun, tossing her back and scattering the items everywhere.
“Talia!” Cress and Stella yelled in unison. They both ran over to where she landed. “Are you okay?” Stella asked in a panicked voice.
Talia winced as she stood up. She had visible cuts all over her body. “I’m fine, but...” Her voice trailed off as she looked over at where the swarm of pseudomon were crowded together. At first, only the feraligatr and ivysaur noticed them, but now the other pseudomon were starting to take note of their presence. “Damn...” Talia muttered to herself.
“What do we do now?” Stella asked, panic rising in her voice.
Talia looked at all of the items scattered across the floor ahead of her. There wouldn’t be enough time to get anything with the crowd of pseudomon just ahead. Talia took a deep breath and removed her torn bag before speaking. “We can’t take them all at once. We’re going to need to retreat and regroup for now. Maybe we can find an alternate route.” She turned to look at Cress. “Set up a smokescreen and I’ll set up some toxic spikes to slow them down. Then we’ll start running.”
Cress nodded. “Right!” Cress took in a deep breath and began to spew a thick black smoke from his mouth as he started backing away from the group.
At the same time, Talia turned her back to the pseudomon and began scattering toxic spikes from her back across the floor.
Just as the black smoke finished covering the span of the passageway, Stella could barely make out the feraligatr who began rushing towards them on all fours.
Cress let out a sigh of relief, “That should keep them stalled fo-” The feraligatr leapt straight through the cloud of smoke, landing directly in the middle of the trio, and let out a deep, guttural roar.
“WHAAA!” Stella yelled in surprise.
“Now’s a good time to start running!” Cress exclaimed.
“Right behind you there!” Stella replied.
The trio took off at a sprint, with Cress at the lead and the feraligatr close behind at every turn they took. Stella was scared out of her mind, but the familiar feeling of blood and adrenaline pumping through her body, the runner’s high, kept her focused, kept her going. The feraligatr started taking pot shots at the group, firing off random beams of water as they ran. Cress quickly swerved around the corner of a boulder, Talia followed after narrowly dodging a water gun that whizzed over her head, and Stella quickly turned and skidded sideways across the wet earth to slow down, kicking up water and gravel into the air, before rounding the corner.
“How do we lose this guy?” Stella yelled.
“Look!” Cress yelled, “Up ahead!”
There was a large fallen log just ahead of them, and just underneath it, a small alcove caused by a dip in the terrain. However, just ahead to their left, was an open passage that led back to the monster house room they originally ran away from. Luckily for them, it was empty.
“We can get back to the exit stairs through there!” Cress exclaimed.
Unfortunately, a stray water gun whizzed by Stella’s head and hit Cress as they approached the passage entrance. “AHHHH!!!” The impact launched him forward, causing him to slide just underneath the cover of the log ahead of them.
He wasn’t moving.
“We have to help him!” Stella shouted. As soon as She and Talia ducked under the log and made their way to Cress, Talia exclaimed; “Help me pull him through!” Stella started pushing his body out from underneath with her head, and Talia pulled him out by grabbing onto his paws.
Stella and Talia had barely pulled Cress out from underneath the log to the other side just as the feraligatr stuck their head through the alcove, ravenously trying to bite and claw at the trio of pokémon that made it to the other side.
Talia was breathing heavily. “Hah… Hah… We should be safe for the moment.”
Cress meanwhile, was in a daze. “Ughhhhh...”
Talia quickly glanced around the clearing they now found themselves in. “Let’s pull him over here,” Talia said. The two pushed Cress under the cover of some nearby bushes and large tree roots.
“What the hell was that?!” Stella asked Talia.
“A monster house,” Talia said as she started rummaging through Cress’s bag. “Rarely, when a mystery dungeon becomes agitated in just the right way, a monster house forms in an open area. When you enter the trap, several pseudomon will spawn all at once, overwhelming the poor sap that entered the room.”
Stella nodded. “Damn… So that must’ve been what it was warning me about…”
“Huh?” Talia asked with a tilt of her head. “What was?”
Stella shook her head and dismissed Talia’s question. “Nevermind that, we can talk about it later. More importantly though, what about Cress? Will he be okay?”
Talia nodded. “Just a bit stunned from the impact. He should be fine in a bit; remember that injuries heal much faster here.” After a bit of rummaging, Talia pulled an oran berry out of Cress’s bag. “Can you give this to him while I take a look around?”
Stella nodded in response.
As soon as she found the oran berry, Stella pushed it up to Cress’s mouth with her paws. The irony was not lost on her; This was the same situation she was in when she woke up as a pokémon for the first time.
“We’ve got a problem,” Talia noted after taking a brief look around.
“Well, yeah.” Stella said jokingly as Cress finally stuffed the oran berry into his mouth on his own. “Kinda have a fiesty feraligatr on the other side of this log, along with the seven or eight other pseudomon that are now wandering around the dungeon, all probably looking for us. On top of that...” Stella turned to the dazed quilava. “Cress is out of commission for a bit.”
Talia shook her head. “No, I mean we’re trapped in here. This is a dead end.”
It didn’t take long for Stella to realize what Talia meant. The clearing they now found themselves in was surrounded on all sides by steep rocky walls.
“Oh, that’s a problem,” Stella realized.
“Indeed. We can’t climb out if we wanted to; Walls are too slick with water to grip onto.”
“But at least we can wait on this side until it gets tired or something,” Stella said. “We’re safe here.”
As if on cue, the feraligatr let out a frustrated roar from the other side of the log.
“GRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”
Both pokémon tensed up and turned towards the pseudomon. It started to dig away ravenously at the soggy gravel underneath the log, rapidly making the alcove larger and larger. Suddenly, it threw its whole body underneath and started pulling itself through the enlarged alcove. But it got stuck halfway. Its tail made it too wide to pass through immediately.
Talia drew in a sharp breath. “Damn it! At that rate, it’s gonna make it through.” She turned to Stella. “Stay here and hide with Cress. I’ll pull its attention away from you two.”
“But I can help!” Stella protested. “You can’t take that thing on your own.”
Talia shook her head. “But I can stall it long enough for Cress to heal. He only needs two minutes at most with the oran berry.”
“But-”
“Stella!” Talia exclaimed. “We don’t have time to argue. Please, just trust me.”
Stella stared into Talia’s eyes. Her eyes conveyed confidence and conviction, but she was shivering; either from the cold rain or from fear. The cuts across her body had mostly healed, but were still plentiful. Despite that, Stella knew no matter what she said, Talia would insist. Stella simply nodded.
“GRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” With another guttural bellow and one last powerful push, the feraligatr forced itself through the alcove to the other side. Stella and Talia both turned towards the feraligatr. It wouldn’t be long before it found them. Without a word Talia ran towards the pseudomon, bursting out from the bushes.
“Hey fakie!” Talia yelled.
The feraligatr tilted it’s head in confusion for a moment, wondering why its opponent would openly show itself.
“Come and get me!”
“RRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” it let out a primal roar that would shake the will of even the bravest souls. Talia took a step backwards out of hesitation, but ultimately stood her ground.
“Ughhh Stella,” Cress muttered before rolling over and standing up. “What’s happening? So dizzy...”
The feraligatr began to rush Talia on all fours with bared fangs. Talia backsteped several times and scattered out toxic spikes from her back across the floor ahead of her. The pseudomon stepped on them, winced in pain, and lost its footing as it fell to the ground and began to slide across the slick gravel. As it slid across the wet earth, Talia jumped up and forwards into the air, before landing on its back as it slid under her, delivering a single potent poison jab to its back using her falling momentum.
“GRAAAHHHHH!!!” The feraligatr cried out in pain. With the pseudomon now vulnerable, Talia quickly followed up with a flurry of poison jabs to its back.
Suddenly, the feraligatr reached an arm onto its back, grabbed Talia and slammed her against the floor in front of him.
“AHHKKKK” Talia let out an audible choking sound as the air was forced out of her lungs.
“Talia!” Stella yelled.
The feraligatr crawled forward towards the stunned Talia with the intent to tear into her with its teeth. With Talia now between its jaws, it crunched down, but Talia quickly put up a protect barrier, keeping the feraligatr’s jaws pried open long enough for her to roll out of the way.
Talia scrambled to her feet as the feraligatr realized it missed its mark. Both of them stood up eyeing the other, considering their next move.
“I have to do something,” Cress said as he began to walk forward, but tripped out of disorientation. “Ughhh...” It was clear he still needed time to recover.
“Cress...” Stella muttered with clenched teeth before turning back to the scene ahead of her.
The feraligatr quickly launched a blast of water at Talia. She deftly sidestepped away from it, but the feraligatr followed up with another water gun aimed at where Talia dodged to, lifting her off her feet and launching her into the air.
Stella winced as the harmony scarf tightened firmly around her neck like a strained muscle, with even more force than before. This was a desperate warning. Time slowed to a stop again as the world, rain, and wind around her remained suspended.
Talia was now floating, suspended in the air along with the beam of water that was shot from the feraligatr’s mouth. She was glowing in a deep navy blue. It was hard to make out from a distance, but it seemed as if there was a rainbow-colored energy that was flowing through her insides, the same phenomenon she witnessed in Cress earlier.
The pseudo-feraligatr meanwhile, lacked the same properties as Talia. Stella could see through it like Cress and Talia, but it’s insides could only be described as a glowing and chaotic shifting mass of grainy rainbow sand or colorful tv static. It appeared to be very similar to the powder that pseudomon turn into when destroyed.
Like before, a nebulous cloud of wispy gas manifested before Talia and the feraligatr, both taking the shapes of their respective entities and beginning to project their actions. As if time was still in motion, the projection of Talia flew at full speed into a rock behind the actual, frozen Talia. Her projection stopped moving. The projection of the feraligatr then rushed forward, phasing through the real Talia suspended in the air, towards her projection. Talia’s projection made no effort to escape as the feraligatr picked her up in its jaws and…
“
Oh Arceus no...” Stella was unable to look away. Though it was only a projection made of mist, the idea of Talia being eaten dug a pit in her stomach. But what could she do? Talia and the feraligatr were too far away for her to interfere in time. And even if she could, what could she do to stop the massive beast? As her worries continued to mount, the mist dissipated, and time slowly began to resume. “
No!” Talia began to inch her way through the air, and the rain was now falling at a discernable speed. “
What can I do?” Talia flew even faster towards the boulder. “
Is it really hopeless?”
A chill passed through Stella as a familiar memory suddenly manifested itself in her head. “
Will you be subject to the ebb and flow of the universe, or is your will strong enough to make your own change; to create your own destiny? ...I can only hope that even in your lowest moments that your resolve stays true, for the dyadian artifact’s strength comes from only the strength of your will and determination alone”
“
No!” Stella yelled in her mind. “
I have the harmony scarf with me. I have to stay focused. I can figure this out. I have to figure this out!” She couldn’t stay idle and let Talia perish.
As if on her command, Stella felt her mind strain as time stopped speeding up and instead slowed to a near stop, still moving, but much slower than before.
“
Okay okay… I got time. Think Stella, think!”
Stella knew that her only hope was to pull the feraligatr’s attention away from Talia and onto herself. Of course, that meant she would have to fight the pseudomon, but she could figure out how to do that later; She needed to focus on the current problem. From the timing of the projection, she knew she couldn’t sprint fast enough to hit the feraligatr before it attacked Talia, even if she used a quick attack.
The longer time stayed frozen, Stella could feel more and more pressure build up in her head. She only had so much time left.
She could yell at the feraligatr to grab its attention, but the heavy rain surrounding her would likely drown out her voice. Stella wished she had ranged moves to poke the feraligatr from a distance.
“
Ranged moves?” Stella thought to herself. Though frozen, she could still turn her eyes to look at Cress, their only ranged attacker. He was too dizzy to be able to fire off an ember fast enough. “
Can he really not help here?”
Stella paused for a moment in thought, that is, before realizing that wasn’t completely true. Cress couldn’t fire off an ember, sure, but he had something else that could work as a ranged attack, something she could use.
“
Oh thank Arceus Cress for your hoarder mentality.”
Now with a proper plan of action, and her head feeling like it was about to explode, Stella allowed her mind to relax. The harmony scarf loosened around her neck and time quickly resumed, as complete silence was replaced with the roaring sounds of wind, rain, and thunder. With renewed determination, Stella narrowed her eyes and steeled herself. “Let’s do this.”
“Talia!” Cress yelled as soon as time resumed and he watched Talia get launched across the clearing. Stella quickly dashed over to Cress in a heartbeat and stuck her head into his bag. “Huh?! What are you...” The quilava began to protest, but before he could finish, Stella had already grabbed the two items she needed in her mouth and began running into the clearing. At that point, Talia was already lying against the boulder and the feraligatr was now preparing to lunge at her.
Stella dropped one of the items on the ground and kept the other in her mouth. “
This better hurt!” Stella puffed up her cheeks and
“PHWWWIP!” The gravelerock she spit out of her mouth whizzed through the air and
“BAM!” hit the feraligatr in the back of the neck. It recoiled in pain and tripped onto the ground.
“Hey dipshit!”
Stella’s disposition quickly changed from one of worry to one of anger. Though she hadn’t known them for long, Cress and Talia were the pokémon who introduced her to this world and helped her when she felt lost and confused. They helped take care of her and taught her so much over the past few weeks; everything she’d learned about how to be a pokémon was because of them. She wasn’t about to let some freak of nature mess with them, especially now that she had the power to stop it.
The feraligatr quickly turned its head to see who had attacked it. Stella then picked up the other gravelerock she dropped the ground and
“PHWWWIP!” launched it straight at the feraligatr’s face.
“GRRRRAHHH!!!” The feraligatr held its snout in pain as it recoiled from the unexpected sharp pain.
“
Damn, I’m a good shot...” Stella thought.
“Yeah, it hurts doesn’t it?!” Stella yelled. “Why don’t you think about that next time you go harassing my friends!”
“Stella! What are you doing?!” Cress yelled.
“Trying to save Talia and your butt!”
“But you can’t take that thing on your own!”
Stella gritted her teeth. “We’ll see about that,” Stella muttered to herself before facing the feraligatr. She had no other choice to trust the harmony scarf to work its magic. The feraligatr let out a roar of frustration as soon as it realized who its attacker was.
“GRAAAAAHHHH!!!” A sudden rush of adrenaline flowed through Stella’s body as she let out a battle cry
“YAAAAAAA!!!” and began to rush down the feraligatr with a quick attack.
“No Stella!” Cress cried out. He tried to get up and sprint after her, but fell to the ground. “It’ll kill you!”
Stella’s scarf tightened again, time slowed only for a brief moment, but this time she saw a projection of the feraligatr launching a water gun at her, maw wide open. Time quickly resumed, a second passed, and with exact knowledge of how she was to be attacked, Stella deftly dodged the incoming water gun without compromising her speed. The scarf tightened again, time froze, another vision, another projected water gun, then time resumed. The feraligatr was going to aim a little too high, so she only had to duck her head to avoid the next shot. It only barely grazed her ears, passing directly between them. The visions started to become second nature. The scarf tightened, a vision of a water gun, she sidestepped to the right, the stream of water only passing an inch to her left.
“What the…?” Cress muttered as he stared at Stella in awe. “How is she dodging them so flawlessly?”
Once Stella was only a few meters away from the feraligatr, the scarf tightened again and showed her a vision of the pseudomon crouching down to sweep at her with its claw. Big mistake. Once the feraligatr began to crouch down, Stella jumped into the air over its claw. And as the feraligatr began to swipe at where it expected Stella to still be, Stella was already right in the feraligatr’s face.
“WHAM!” With the feraligatr’s face now lower to the ground, Stella had just the right angle to ram into it, knocking the pseudomon back a few meters.
“
Man that felt good.” Stella thought as she landed on the ground after the attack.
The feraligatr then stood up, holding onto its snout with its claw after getting hit there twice by the small eevee.
“GRAAAAAHHHH!!!” The feraligatr roared in anger as it began to rush towards Stella.
“You want some more!?” Stella stood her ground, confident in the scarf’s power. It tightened around her neck again, and showed her the feraligatr rushing her down, throwing out a series of swipes in quick succession until it's ninth swipe where it used too much force and lost its balance, preventing a tenth one. Though the projection passed through her as it rushed towards her, and wasn’t in her immediate line of sight anymore, she could somehow “sense” the projection moving behind her. It was almost like she already knew how it was moving, without even needing to see it herself. Time resumed and Stella began dodging backwards, counting every attack.
“One, two, three...” Backstep, backstep, backstep... “
...four, five, six…” One dodge after another until... “
...seven, eight, nine!” the feraligatr lost its balance for a moment after the ninth swipe. Knowing the opportunity would be there, Stella had already dashed towards the feraligatr’s leg just as the ninth swipe missed, and bit down hard into it.
“GRRRRAAAAAAHH!!!” The feraligatr yelled in pain. It struggled for a moment until it kicked Stella off of its leg. Her teeth raked across the pseudomon’s leg as she was flung off, leaving long marks across the feraligatr’s leg. She went flying and skidded across the gravel for a few feet before coming to a stop. The wounds were glowing and sparkled in a flurry of rainbow colors, revealing a glimpse of the pseudomon’s insides. And yet it still stood. The feraligatr limped slowly towards Stella on its injured leg.
“How are you still alive!?” Stella yelled at the pseudomon in surprise. As Stella tried to get up, the feraligatr suddenly tried to rush down Stella in one final desperate attempt. Stella gasped. She braced for impact, but suddenly,
“AHHHKKKK!!!” The feraligatr let out a sickly bellow, slowed to a stop, fell to its knees, then dropped face-first into the dirt just inches from where Stella lay.
Stella scurried back upon seeing the pseudomon’s gaping jaws land right next to her. It didn’t move. She could only hear the sound of its strained breathing.
“What the...” Once Stella stood up, she understood why it had fallen. Talia was on the feraligatr’s back and had stuck a poison spike in the base of its neck.
“GRRAAAHH!!!” Talia let out a grunt of effort as she thrust her arms downwards and drove the spike deeper into the pseudomon’s nape with her claws, causing it to convulse for a moment before it finally went limp. The feraligatr suddenly dissipated into a colorful rainbow mist, causing Talia to fall to the floor where she landed on her feet. Talia tossed the poison spike to the side, closed her eyes for a moment, and let out a heavy sigh before opening her eyes and smiling. “Good riddance to that beast.”
It took a moment for Stella to process what just happened. Almost instantly, the mood took a complete 180 turn. Tears of happiness started to form in Stella's eyes as a smile grew across her face. “Talia!” Stella exclaimed excitedly before sprinting straight into Talia’s arms.
“Oof!” Talia was caught off guard as Stella leaped into her arms and she embraced the ecstatic eevee in a hug. Though Stella was much smaller than her, Talia was knocked onto her rump by the sudden tackle.
“You’re okay!” Stella exclaimed as she lifted her head to look at Talia. “I thought you were knocked out completely when you got rammed into that boulder.”
Talia shook her head. “I should’ve been, but I only was stunned for a short bit. Just before I landed, I used a protect barrier to shield myself from most of the damage of the impact. Though it wasn’t too strong since I used one just beforehand. Difficult to use multiple in a row.”
“Protect barrier? I didn’t see that. And the visions didn’t show me that either,” Stella muttered to herself. She assumed that Talia took the full brunt of the attack because the ethereal projections showed her that was the case, but she never actually saw Talia land, she only saw her fly through the air, and then noticed that Talia was on the ground after she grabbed the gravelerock. The visions she was shown of the pseudomon attacking her with moves were consistently correct down to the littlest detail, so why was the projection of Talia slightly off?
“Visions?” Talia asked.
Stella shook her head. “I think I have a few things to explain to you guys.”
“Hey you guys!”
The duo turned to the sound of the voice. “WHAAA!” “WOAH!” Stella and Talia both exclaimed as they were tackled and knocked over by an overexcited quilava, throwing them all into a big pile.
“You’re okay Talia! And Stella, that was amazing!” Cress exclaimed. “I’ve never seen such good footwork before! Your dodges were amazing! It was almost like you knew what it was going to do before it did! That was some of the best fighting I-”
“I’m glad that you’re feeling better Cress,” Stella interrupted, “but can you please get off of us now? You’re kinda smushing both of us.”
“Oh!” Cress stuttered in realization. “Sorry about that.” With an embarrassed smile, he proceeded to get off Stella and Talia. “Guess I got a little too excited. But seriously Stella, how
did you pull that off? We didn’t teach you that much.”
Stella nodded. “I’ll explain, but first can we get somewhere safer and where it’s not raining?” Stella then shook off what seemed like a gallon of water from her fur. “This rain is starting to get on my nerves.” Stella put a paw to her head. “Plus I have this ridiculous headache. Wasn’t the dungeon exit right by the entrance to this clearing?”
After the trio snuck their way from the hidden clearing to the dungeon exit, Talia led the group to a small cave just outside the dungeon that acted as a rest point for survey teams and other weary travellers. Talia lost her bag in the scuffle, but they still had Cress’s bag, which was filled with food they had brought along with them for the journey, on top of the extra food he picked up in the dungeon. Despite Cress’s bag being completely intact, both his and Talia’s green scarves were completely shredded from the fighting, making them useless for staying warm when worn, so instead, Cress used them as tinder for a small fire to keep themselves warm. As soon as Talia passed around some food, and the trio all settled down into cozy spots by the fire, Stella began to explain what she experienced.
“So, from what you’re telling us, basically you can see into the future?” Cress asked.
Stella shook her head. “Not exactly.”
“It’s more like…” Stella took a bite out of the persim berry she was holding. “This sort of strange state I guess I can go into. It starts when the harmony scarf tightens around my neck, then time slows down to an extremely slow speed. It’s basically frozen. When everything is slowed down, I can see and also feel these projections of rainbow mist. I don’t have to be looking at them directly to know where they are and how they are moving. I’m not sure exactly how I knew, I just sorta… knew.”
Stella took another bite out of the berry as she tried to figure out if she was even explaining what she saw properly to her companions. “But anyways, they moved around, showing me the actions the pseudomon was about to take, but it looked like the projections only showed what the pseudomon was doing and whoever they attacked.”
Stella scrunched her brows as she paused for a moment to think. “For some reason though, the projection didn’t show Talia using a protect barrier to soften her landing when she was propelled into the boulder. The projections were completely, one hundred percent accurate all the other times, so why not then...?” Stella muttered to herself.
Cress and Talia looked at each other as if looking for an answer from the other. They seemed to have no ideas either.
Stella shook her head. Her headache made it difficult to focus on any one thing for too long, so she decided to leave the speculation for now and instead focus on the rest of what she actually saw. “Well besides all that, I could also see some strange glowing lights inside of both of you and the pseudomon.”
“Glowing lights?” Cress asked. “So… besides being able to predict the pseudomon, you can also see our auras?”
Talia shook her head as she finished her food and crossed her arms together. “Hmmmm. No, that can’t just be it. According to aura sensing pokémon who have written books on the topic, pseudomon don’t have auras. On top of that, auras are typically perceived as surrounding the body. There’s something more to this...”
“Huh...” Stella muttered to herself as she finished the berry she was holding. “Well the glowing lights inside you guys were different than the ones inside the feraligatr,” Stella explained. She then paused for a moment and stared out into the rain as she tried to figure out how she would describe this next part. She turned back to the group. “The ones inside the feraligatr looked more chaotic, like a windstorm, but the ones inside you guys looked more orderly like a river.” Stella then paused for a moment, unsure of herself. “It’s hard to describe exactly. It was a bit overwhelming getting all of that info at once, so remembering it all isn’t that much easier.” Stella grunted and winced as she put a paw to her forehead. “Sorry, but this headache isn’t helping much with my focus either.” Stella turned to Cress. “Can you pass me another persim berry?”
“Sure thing!” Cress walked over to Stella on his hind legs, holding the berry in his front two paws.
Talia watched curiously as the exchange happened. She appeared to be contemplating something.
“Thanks!” Stella said as she fumbled with the berry for a moment before finally balancing it between her paws. “Ugh, I feel like I took twenty math tests,” Stella said before she bit into the juicy berry. “But the sound of the rain outside helps me relax,” Stella said as she stared back out into the rain. “Reminds me of my home back in Syllose…” Her voice trailed off. “It rains a lot there.”
“Oh!” Stella exclaimed in realization. “You know, I thought I saw something that looked like an aura around you two,” Stella recalled as she turned back to the group. “There was a different glow outside both of your bodies, something the pseudomon didn’t have.” Stella turned to Talia. “You had a sort of deep bluish glow around you.” Stella then turned to Cress. “And you had a sort of bright red glow surrounding you.”
“Woah, that’s so cool...” Cress said in amazement. “Sure does sound like aura. Makes sense too that I’d have a fiery red one! Hey, what do you think Talia?” Cress turned his head to Talia, but she appeared to be deep in thought. “Talia?” Cress asked.
“Hm?” Talia muttered before shaking her head. “Oh apologies, I was just thinking of something.” Talia then turned to Stella. “Your description definitely does sound like aura. Or at least, similar enough to what I’ve read on the topic.” Talia paused for a moment before asking her next question. “Say Stella... do you happen to remember when this headache of yours started?”
“My headache?” Stella asked. “Uhm... yeah. It started a little after I saw the projection of the feraligatr attacking you. How come?”
Talia nodded. “I was wondering if it could have something to do with your strange experiences, but you said you had a similar experience happen to you twice before with the monster house and the ivysaur attack?”
Stella nodded.
“Hrmm.” Talia paused for a moment to ponder. “If the headache didn’t start with the ivysaur attack, then maybe it might not be...”
“No no,” Stella said suddenly. “I think you might be onto something there. Whenever time started to freeze, I always felt a sharp headache as the scarf tightened. Almost like I was thinking really really hard.” Stella then scrunched up her brow as she tried to focus while dealing with her headache. “Each time the scarf tightened though, it felt like it got easier. I was getting used to it. But in that last fight with the feraligatr, I figured out I could force time to stay frozen longer so I could have enough time to save you. Because of that, my head started to hurt even more. It was then that I got this more intense headache.”
“Hmmm I see,” Talia muttered. “Then perhaps it’s not time slowing down, but your mind speeding up?”
“What do you mean?” Stella asked as she finished her fourth persim berry.
“What I mean is that the last time I’ve ever seen a pokémon eat that many persim berries in a row is after a psychic burnout.”
“Psychic burnout?” Stella asked with a raised brow.
Talia nodded. “It’s a temporary condition psychic type pokémon can get from using their psychic abilities too much in a short amount of time without proper practice or rest. Usual symptoms are headaches, lack of focus, and a craving for persim berries.”
“But I’m not a psychic type.”
Talia shook her head. “I don’t think it matters in this case. Psychic types use their minds when they use their psychic abilities. Much like our arms and legs are muscles, the brain is a muscle that can be overexerted and tire itself out. An overexerted mind is what ultimately causes a psychic burnout.”
“So if my head hurts more the longer I try to prolong that state,” Stella said as she slowly began to realize. “And now I’m feeling the symptoms of psychic burnout after doing all that...”
“Then it likely means that ability requires a great deal of focus from your mind,” Talia finished. “Perhaps the harmony scarf tightening around your neck is simply a trigger for that mechanism. Once it senses danger, it focuses your mind and helps you process all the information you need quickly, thus why it seems to you that time is frozen.”
“Huh, that makes sense,” Stella replied. “I guess if the scarf is causing all that, then maybe it’s the scarf itself that’s showing me and creating these projections.”
“And our auras too!” Cress exclaimed. “It shows you everything you need to know about what’s going around you in just a split second. That’s amazing! No wonder you were able to fight that feraligatr so well.”
Stella nodded. “I guess so.” She then lifted up the scarf in her paw and stared into its geometric pattern. “Looks like this scarf is the real deal after all.”
Cress then began to stretch out his entire body like a cat, letting out a few puffs of flame out of his back and yawning as he did so. “Ahhhhhhh, good stuff. Feeling ready to head off to bed. How about you guys?”
“Just about,” Talia said. “We’re all exhausted from that ordeal. Best we get some rest as soon as possible. Not too long until we reach Luminaire, but no way we’re getting there now with the sun setting and the rain outside.” Talia turned to Stella. “How about you?”
“Same here,” Stella replied. “I’m feeling the sleepies coming on.” Stella hesitated for a moment before asking her next question. “But before we do, can I ask you two a question?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” “Sure thing.” Cress and Talia both spoke in turn.
“Was there any reason you two were so insistent on keeping me from fighting?”
Talia and Cress looked at each other silently for a moment.
“Look, I know the conditions inside the dungeon were dangerous. And yes, I would’ve definitely gotten hurt.” Stella pursed her lips for a moment as she thought about what she was going to say next. “But both of you taught me what I needed to know to defend myself. You two know I can defend myself. And I don’t want to just do nothing if it means you two have to suffer more. So why...”
“It’s because you are a human,” Cress blurted out. He instantly looked down and seemed embarrassed as soon as he said it. Even Talia who normally held a stern face seemed to be embarrassed.
“A… wha...? What do you mean by that?”
An awkward silence fell upon them before Talia began speaking. “Cress and I talked about it last night after you went to sleep. You are the only human we’ve ever known. Like I’ve said before, your species is held in high regard among us because it was your race that raised us to higher intelligence and originally helped jumpstart our entire society among the many other things your race provided for us.” Talia fiddled with her claws. “And if you’re here in our world, then it must be for something of great importance, like the human from the dyads of legend. Especially with that scarf on you.” Talia let out a deep sigh. “If we let anything happen to you...”
“What? Is that it? Really?” Stella asked with a slight tone of incredulity in her voice.
Cress and Talia went silent, seemingly confused by Stella’s sudden comment.
Stella scoffed. “Ughhhh. C’mon guys, that’s such a silly reason! Don’t you think?”
“Uh...” Cress uttered hesitantly, unsure of what to say.
Stella took a deep breath. “Okay, look guys.” Stella said as she looked between her two companions. “Firstly, yeah. I am a human turned pokemon. But just because I’m a human, doesn’t mean you guys have to treat me any differently!” Stella began raising her voice. “I mean, look at me! I’m a freaking eevee now! And secondly, all that nonsense about me having some ‘special purpose’ or ‘magical destiny’ here? That’s all just speculation! I mean, heck! For all we know, I just happened to randomly stumble onto this scarf and now I’m being taken on the trip of my life every time I go to sleep!”
Stella paused for a moment as she looked between the two of them. They both seemed to be a bit surprised at her outburst. She sighed and quieted down her voice. “Look, I just want us to be friends. No special human status or whatnot. Okay? While I’m here, I’m just another pokémon like you guys. I mean sure, there’s still a lot of stuff I need both of your help with since I’m still not one hundred percent used to all this pokémon stuff.” Stella looked out into the rain for a moment as she tried to find something else to say. “Actually that’s it. I don’t have much else to say.”
She then turned back to Cress and Talia. “I know it was only a minor thing, you two wanting to keep me from fighting. But I hate it when someone else tries to put me up on a high pedestal. And I don’t want you guys to have that perspective anymore.” Stella chuckled to herself. “I guess I had a bit more to say than I thought.” She then shook her head. “I’m just rambling at this point. But yeah, let’s just be friends, ya know?”
A brief moment of silence passed between them before Cress spoke up. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Hear you loud n’ clear.” He smiled before turning to Talia.
Talia crossed her arms and nodded while smiling softly. “Well said. Your comments ring true. We shouldn’t be treating a friend as any more or any less than one of our own.”
Stella nodded as she looked between the both of them. “Well... good! Glad you guys get it. And uh…” Stella glanced downwards awkwardly for a moment before looking back towards Cress and Talia. “Thanks for listening. Both of you.” Stella put on a soft smile. She then stared out into the forest, listening to the torrential battering of rain against soil and leaves, and the periodic sound of thunderous lightning.
Stella then turned back to the fire and stretched out her body, letting out a huge yawn. “Should probably head off to sleep now though. Rain is making me sleepy. Headache isn’t gonna get any better if I just wait around either.” Stella then proceeded to lie down by the campfire.
Cress nodded as he lowered his body to the ground. “Definitely! Feel like I’m gonna pass out. Body is aching all over because of that fight.” He then proceeded to siddle his way closer to the campfire, much closer than anyone else would’ve dared to.
“Agreed,” Talia said as she laid down and curled up by the fire. “Good night you two.”
“Night!” Cress exclaimed.
But before Stella replied, she noticed an issue. Talia was shivering slightly, despite being right next to the fire. She realized that unlike herself and Cress, Talia didn’t have any fur, so it was much harder for her to keep warm.
“Oh this won’t work,” Stella mumbled as she stood up and laid down right next to Talia.
“Stella? What are you-”
“I’m keeping you warm silly,” Stella said. “You’re obviously cold. Especially now that your scarf is gone.”
“But I don’t need-” Talia protested.
“Oh shush,” Stella interrupted. “I’m cold too. We’ll stay warmer this way.”
“Ooooh! Are we doing a lava pile?” Cress asked as he walked over to the two, then laid down and cozied up against Talia’s other side, leaving her sandwiched between him and Stella.
“Cress? You too?” Talia said.
“Heck yeah! Lava piles are always great!” Cress exclaimed.
Talia chuckled for a moment. “Thank you. I appreciate the gesture. Both of you.”
“No problem Talia,” Stella said. “And uh… What’s a lava pile?” Stella asked as she tried to crane her head to get a look at Cress. Talia was about twice as large as Stella so it was easy for her to block Stella’s line of sight to Cress.
“It’s a thing I’d do with my brothers and sisters during the winter!” Cress exclaimed. “We’d all gather together in one spot in our den, then pile on top of each other so that we were a big mass of warmth, fuzziness, and happiness!”
“I’d rather nobody sleep on top of each other tonight,” Talia said.
“Uh yeah. Me neither,” Stella said. “That’s a bit weird. This is good enough.”
“Oh well, your loss then,” Cress said. “Night all.”
“Night.” “Good night.” Stella and Talia both said. The trio, all clumped together for warmth, tried to slowly fall asleep to the sound of rain, thunder, and the crackling thunder.
“Hey guys?” Stella asked.
“Stella, we really should go to sleep now,” Talia said.
“Just one more thing,” Stella said. “I think I thought of a good team name for you guys.”
“I’m down to hear it,” Cress said. “What is it?”
“Talia said that she wanted a team name that represented both of your aspirations in some way. Both of you have dreams where you want to change the world for the better or change yourself, and I was thinking about that crazy windstorm we all just went through”
“Uh huh?” Cress muttered. “On on.”
“Well, I’ve been learning a bit about mythology from different cultures in school recently. This whole experience reminded me of this one deity we learned about. The god of the west wind. The bringer of change and the springtime, the season that brings life.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad.” Talia said. “What would the team name be though? Team Westwind?”
“No...” Stella said. “How about... Team Zephyrus.”
End of Part 1: Zephyrus
