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Hello, everyone! This is a rewrite of my older fic of the same name, which can be found here. I've decided to restart for a lot of reasons, chiefly that when I wrote the last version, it was my first time writing something that long ever, and what four-years-ago-me wrote no longer Produces Joy. So I started writing from scratch at the beginning of 2023, and the fruits of those labours are finally beginning to bloom! This fic is divided into six books, each with around 20ish chapters, which I will try to post one of weekly.
So, what is it? This is a rewrite fic for the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, specifically the last game (Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon). For those who aren't familiar with PMD, don't worry! you can treat this like a normal fantasy story, just with Oops All Pokemon. For the mystery dungeon-savvy, this is a fic that puts Espurr into the place of the main player character, and in general tightens a lot of the screws that the original game had loose (and loosens some others... ).
It's part me wanting to write Espurr more than she was shown in the game, part me wanting to fix the narrative atrocity that was PSMD, and part me just wanting to have fun with a plot and cast that hits dozens of buttons. It's also. not very faithful to the original PSMD at all, except for the broad strokes, and there are some things floating around that weren't in the game at all. So be prepared for that; I don't make any secret of it. The vibe is meant to be intensely 'Harry Potter/Lemony Snicket/Stranger Things middle-to-high-school fiction', with a distinctive splash of the original PMD flavour, if you want an idea of what to expect in general.
A massive thanks to my beta readers, @Namohysip, @Inkedust, @windskull, and ShadowVulpi (you should check their fics out too if you haven't already!), and without further ado, welcome to my fucked up brainchild monstrosity about How I Want To Write A Weirdo Nerd Child Under The Guise Of Fixing A Bad Game please enjoy and don't forget to like subscribe and hit the notification bell for more
~ * Do Psychic Cats Dream of Electric Sheep? * ~
First, Espurr was shoved into the body of a pokemon and hurled into the deep dark woods. Then a voice of life told her she had to save a world she knew nothing about. Then, pokemon started getting hurt. Now her only chance against school bullies, shadowy killers, and otherworldly demons lies with a hyperactive fennekin, a goomy with a stutter, and a cloaked ampharos no-mon knows the first thing about. Extremely normal middle-schooler problems. She’s prepared for this. Definitely.
A PSMD rewrite starring Espurr.
Rating: K+ - T Genres: Fantasy | Mystery | Horror Content Warnings: Death, Bullying, Heavy Themes
Book links: Book I: A Darkling Horizon
Book II: A Cruel Summer
Book III: A Runaways' Plea
Book IV: The Dungeon's Curse
Book V: Darkness Takes Over
Book VI: The Scorched Earth
. . .. . .The airship, Cloud Nine, floated silently above the city of windmills below. It was chilly tonight, bordering on sleet rain and hail — a good example of why Baram Town was the worst city to park the Government of Nebyllin over.
Or, so thought Grovyle Rufus. He hated the extremes of the seasons: blisteringly hot and humid in summer, enough to make the leafblades on the sides of his arms wither from heat; then ice storms and cold the next, just in time to freeze them off. At least there was only a year until Cloud Nine moved. And a year until he was out of a job. Given his age, and Prime Ministers' habit of dying around the ends of their terms, he didn't expect his colleagues were going to nominate him again. Frankly, he was lucky they'd done it twice.
He sat in a cozy office near the stern of the craft, looking through a bunch of documents that had been submitted to him earlier that evening. But try as he might, his eyes kept slipping off the page. How many times had he read that blasted report about diminished berry crops from the South?
Truth be told, his mind was barely following along — not with the berry crops, not with the weather service, and certainly not with the Rescuer's Guild, which was threatening to pull its considerable weight if he signed any more laws to get rid of their cumbersome shipping regulations. That was a problem, and he'd have to sit there and look bad for the press while the idiots in Parliament duked it out, and what could they do about it? It was Wartortle, and the first Human always got what he wanted.
No, that quagmire aside, Rufus' thoughts were quite occupied. They were busy with the horrible chill creeping through his office, and a stray feeling he just couldn't kick. Ever since he'd woken up a few days ago, something had felt different — he couldn't put his claw on it, and neither his secretary nor his very close and trusted friend in Cape Noe noticed a thing, but it occupied his mind so thoroughly he'd spaced out several times in Parliament that day. Which the opposition had gleefully used as fodder for their narrative of an ailing leader well out of his prime.
Well, his knees weren't what they used to be, but his mind was still very much there. He knew what he felt, and whatever it was, something told him it was far more important than anything on those papers.
"Hi."
Rufus jolted with a gasp and spun around, falling out of his chair and hitting the rose-petal carpet. An intruder!
"Guards!" he called, flailing as he hit the floor. "Guards!"
With the little power that remained in him, he summoned energy to the leafblades in his arms, prepared to fight. This wasn't how he'd die. He was going to live to the end of his second term at least.
"Oh, sorry, the guards forgot to be here tonight."
Floating behind Rufus, with the most nonchalant expression on her face, was a pink, catlike creature with a long, wiry tail. Behind her lay an open window, the curtains softly blowing sideways — the source of the chill.
"And your secretary, before you ask." Rufus' blood went colder. That vaporeon hadn't missed a day in her life.
"And the orb line—" Rufus' other arm, silently reaching out of sight for the connection orb under the table, halted. "Everymon in this wing of the building, actually. They've all gone down for drinks at Spinda's.
"They'll be back tomorrow, before you worry," said the pink cat. She shrugged. "Just wanted to avoid any awkward situations, y'know?"
Rufus collected the scattered papers from the floor shakily, staring up at the cat.
"I'm already worried," he muttered with annoyance as he pulled himself back onto his aching feet. "And thisis awkward. And who areyou? It's a crime to break into the Prime Minister's office—"
"I'm Mew!" said Mew, gleefully cutting him off. "And you're Grovyle Rufus the Third. Born in Sawsbury, likes fermented radishes, Prime Minister twice because you cheated in—"
"Alright, alright, enough!" said Rufus, flustered. Was she trying to scare him? Blackmail him? Where was she from? What was she?
But he couldn't see malice written on her face.
"Enough. Just… what do you want?"
"I'm here to talk to you about something important," said Mew. She teleported behind him with a 'pop!' almost faster than he could blink, and when he spun around, she was cheerfully gesturing to his chair. "Have a seat?"
"You break into my office," said Rufus, his tone flabbergasted, "and offer me a seat?"
SIT
The word barrelled into his brain. Suddenly, Rufus was in his seat. Mew appeared on the other side of his desk with another 'pop!', lounging in the air above his visitor's chair.
"It's been a while since I've visited one of your leaders," she yawned. "I'm surprised they didn't tell you about me; although, it has been a century or two…"
If Rufus had any cares to give, he'd long run out of them. He was just along for the ride now. He looked down at the mess of papers on his desk.
"Probably got lost in the paperwork," he muttered, stupefied. Not like he'd know.
"Anyway," said Mew, yawning. "I'm here to tell you we've brought in another Human."
"Another what?"
"Another Human," said Mew. "Don't you know them?"
"Of course I do," scoffed Rufus. There were two of them alive today. He sat back in his chair, and let out a resigned sigh. "Then I was right. Something's changed, hasn't it?"
"You sensed my death," said Mew, like it was no big deal.
If that wasn't the biggest shock of the evening, then nothing was. Mew just shrugged, reading the unwritten words in the air. "Without me, the evil in the world has nothing holding it back from doing whatever it wants. It's only a matter of time now."
"But if you're dead, then… how are you here now?" asked Rufus. Like it was possible for him to be any more flabberghasted.
"It's… complicated," said Mew. "And we're short on time. But you need to know that we've brought in a Human. And right now, she's unprotected. I need you to find her and keep her safe before it's too late. She's the last one you're going to get."
Rufus just lay back in his chair, trying his best to process everything he'd been told. How was he supposed to start, let alone find this... Human?
"Where do I start searching?" asked Rufus tiredly, resigned to his fate. Selfish as it was, he could feel his leaves wilting at the absolute field day his opposition was going to have with this… he could see the headlines already: "Ailing Prime Minister declares random runaway "next Human" in latest loony fantasy!"
There was a large, detailed map on Rufus' desk, portraying every knot of a massive coastline. Mew pointed at the very bottom, towards the long, thin peninsula that was known for having nothing but mountains, farmland, and a few scattered villages. He noticed her paw was already translucent.
"There," said Mew. "I don't know the exact location anymore. I lost it when I… died. But she's somewhere there. You must go at once! Do everything in your power to keep her safe. Promise me?"
Rufus just nodded. What else could he do?
"You have my word."
And then the already fading Mew slowly dissolved into light. And Rufus was left alone to contemplate what he had just seen.
But the feeling, the one that had kept him awake in bed each night, no longer felt strange or overwhelming. Instead, it was filled with a drive. Somehow, deep down, Rufus knew Mew spoke the truth. Wherever this Human was, or whatever she was, there was perhaps no other pokemon in the world that was more important. He had to track her down.
In the back of his head, there was a tickle that went unnoticed. Something silent and dark unclamped from his mind like a leech and swiftly slithered back to the depths as if scorched by the light.
. . .. . .As far as Espurr was concerned, and she figured she was rather smart for a kid, unusual things just didn't happen to people like her. They happened to people who were completely ordinary and turned their homework in an hour before the due date; or to people who were completely unordinary and did squats at the bus stop while wearing a snorkel mask. But they just didn't happen to people caught in the middle. Those were the rules.
Espurr was only sixty-three percent ordinary, which was about as in the middle as you could be. She lived in a normal house in a normal neighbourhood in a normal city that had won an award for being the most boring city in the entire world. They had moved here from half the world away. Her parents wore identical pairs of spectacles, and both were accountants for a company that sold luxury lightbulbs. Espurr read her favourite book about insects in a corner during recess, thought Wednesday was a deep purple colour, and had been kicked off the girls' football team for not showing up to practise. She never had the same answers as anyone else in class, could never wear her hair or clothing in any of the popular styles, and hadn't kept friends since the third grade.
Her life was the same, day in, day out. Unlike those around her, nothing strange or exciting ever happened, and the world seemed to pass her by. There were no sudden wrenches in her plans, no camping or trips out with friends during the summer holidays, no ghosts or plays or sleepovers. No secret texts under a blanket to boyfriends at night, no long-distance phone calls to close friends far away. There was just the bus to school, the walk home, and hours and hours of books and stupid cat videos.
Credit where it was due; the neighbour's tabby cat, a lazy, roaming, ill-tempered beast, often kept her company as long as she fed him. But her life was solitary and uneventful because, as far as she could tell, she was already unusual enough to be a few buns short a batch, and the universe needed to set the scales straight.
She drifted off slowly listening to the wind blow softly against her windowsill, the branches swinging back and forth as if waving their hands to a crowd she couldn't see. It never occurred to her how much of an ordinary thing it was to wake up the next day where she'd gone to sleep.
~\({O})/~
Espurr stirred, groaning and shifting in something that didn't feel like her mattress. Her bedcovers were missing. Her eyes felt glued shut. Her head ached and swam with fog, her legs tired, her throat scratchy, like she was sick with a fever. A pounding headache knocked between her eyes.
She took a breath, and her nose wrinkled up. Something in the air was revolting. It smelled like something had died long ago, and now the stench was floating on the wind, mingling with the other plant smells, poisoning the air.
Plant smells? Was she outside?
Her eyes shot open, then quickly squeezed shut, blinded by sunlight she wasn't expecting to see. It was filtered through the branches of dense, intertwining treetops, the canopies blending and swirling together into a strange painting.
Fright rushed through her. Her eyes went wide open, and she shot up into a sitting position, scrambling on the ground and looking around frantically. Where was she? Had she been kidnapped? How did she get all the way out here?
But there was no-one around. Espurr was in the middle of an empty forest clearing, overcast by shadows, covered in dead leaves, mossy tree roots, and low ferns. The place was silent, empty. Not even the crickets chirped here. The sound of the wind left as quickly as it came, leaving only the eerie rustling of dead leaves in its wake. As the complete, total silence set in, Espurr's heavy breathing slowed, and her fear was replaced with quiet, tense unease.
Her throat screamed for water, so she crawled through the forest ground until she came to the edge of a slowly-flowing river – the only thing that made any sound here. Her body didn't move quite right on the way there, but she found the source of water quickly. Something she couldn't put into words told her to lower her head and drink rather than cup the water in her hands.
Drinking felt weird. Her tongue acted differently, scooping the cool drink up backwards into her mouth. She was too thirsty to care.
It was only when her hand passed in front of her for the first time that she sharply gasped. It didn't look like her hand.. And that caused her to snap awake and look at herself for the first time.
Her reflection in the river's cool, slowly-moving water betrayed her: from head to toe she was coated in bushy lavender fur, extending into white on her arms and legs. Her ears were large and floppy, hugging her head. A fluffy, catlike tail swished behind her. She could feel it swish, every motion alien and unwanted.
She stared at the purple tail in disbelief, her mind racing to find any solution that made sense. That tail couldn't be a part of her, humans didn't grow tails. It wasn't possible. Which meant… something was on her back? The tail swished, lowering, and she felt it lower, which meant it couldn't be something on her back, it had to be her tail, which meant… which meant…
She felt lightheaded staring at it, stumbling to keep her balance, every part of her body feeling unfamiliar, unnatural, wrong. Her breathing sped up into gasps and a terrible pit formed in her stomach as her mind raced and she tried to understand what was happening, what was happening? She'd become some kind of monster, she wasn't even human anymore, no-one would recognize her as a furry, tailed freak! Where was this? Who had done this to her?
Swish.
The sound of long grass and low ferns parting from behind Espurr pulled her out of her panic. A spike of fear cut clean through the shock, her senses snapping back to her. Were there kidnappers after all? She went still and silent, her tail puffing up, twisting her head towards where the sound had come from.
In the darkness of the woods, where the trees leaned inwards and the light didn't dare venture, her new, sharp eyes made out the outlines of three figures watching her. They stood three times her height, their posture like full-grown men, but they were thin and bony, crooked at the shoulder, and out of their heads extended tall, pointy hats. They didn't move a millimetre, and they didn't make a sound. Unsure of what to make of it, Espurr turned towards them, and took a step back on shaky, unfamiliar feet for the first time.
"Hello?" she asked with a trembling, scratchy voice.
There was no response from the three figures in the shadows. They simply remained fixated on her, their heads and pointy cones following every miniscule movement she made. Then, after a long, uncomfortable silence, they turned to themselves, and held up their arms.
Lights flickered from bulbs on their palms, alternating and blinking in strength quickly—red, green, yellow—almost like they were speaking. As the lights illuminated them, Espurr saw them clearly: shrivelled faces shrouded behind gleaming, pinprick eyes, thick and angular cloaks, limbs long and bulky, and each with a crooked skin-cone that stretched far above their heads.
Her eyes widened, and in her fright she made a terrible mistake: she screamed into her paws, scrambled back, and tripped on a stick.
Crunch. Thud. The loud sound brought the Coneheads' attention right back to her. Espurr froze on the ground, eyes wide, breathing violently. The lights in the darkness vanished, and all the sudden the Coneheads were shrouded by the shadows, impossible to see. A whistle was her only warning: a ball of darkness flew out of the shadows, headed straight for her—
If there was one blessing about any of this, all cats had good instincts. Before Espurr knew what was happening, she sprung into gear and threw herself out of the way just in time, hitting the ground and covering her ears. She didn't see what happened to the bush behind her. The sound of roots twisting and branches snapping told her it wasn't good.
Swish. The Coneheads glided out of the shadows, moving swift and silent and uniform. As they brushed up against the shrubbery, Espurr saw how they floated—shrunken, underused legs dangling beneath sleek cloaks as they loomed—and nearly fainted with terror. Time seemed to slow. She watched her life flash before her eyes: her earliest memory of her parents, her eleventh birthday cake, the day she took a train through the woods and pretended it would transport her into a fairytale.
She broke off into a run.
On unfamiliar legs, she stumbled to her feet and took off into the woods. Her legs failed her. She tripped several times. Her body hit the ground, painfully. Sticks and pebbles and leaves scraped her over and over and over with each fall and still she ran. But she continued to pick herself up, running desperately until she could no longer hear the swish of parting ferns behind her, no longer see the gleam of a light from behind a tree trunk.
When she stopped, it was in the middle of another, narrower, darker clearing. Espurr collapsed to her paws and knees, panting wildly as the fear wore off. Her chest hurt, her lungs couldn't take in enough air, and the aches and pains in her body were complaining loudly.
But even though her legs were sore, and her arms and sides hurt from where she fell, she had to keep walking. She just felt more lost than ever now. The next clearing looked like the last two, dead leaves, thick foliage, and tall, mossy tree trunks decorating every inch of the eerily silent forest. The light was slowly seeping away, the trees looming further and further with each lost beam. Espurr's stomach rumbled, and she felt her tail and ears flop down miserably with the hunger pangs. She must have been walking for nearly an hour now, wasn't there anything to eat?
Nothing she could tolerate. A ginger nibble off the nearest fern leaf made her scrunch her face up in disgust. Gross. The neighbour's cat used to eat beetles, but she didn't even want to think about eating those. Just because she was a cat didn't mean she had to act like one.
Soon the air turned colder. The sky became darker, faster and faster. Her breaths came out in cloudy puffs. It was like a sudden icy freeze had descended over the woods. She looked up to the canopy, where the sun was orange and setting through the abstract treetops. It was going to be night soon, and she wasn't any closer to getting out of here. Those Coneheads could find her out in the night, in all this cold… she hadn't realised she was shivering until now. Was it fear or chill?
A tendril of wispy mist swirled around her angular, unfamiliar feet. Espurr looked behind her. From behind approached a massive wall of fog, stretching from the ground all the way up to the branches of the treetops. It was so thick she couldn't see anything through it, and from its direction she caught that scent again – rot. The smell of something dead.
The wind that moved the fog ruffled her fur, battering her face with the smell. Espurr retched, stumbling back and desperately trying to cover her nose with her paws. It was so strong! That was enough to convince her the fog was bad. This was evil fog, and she couldn't get caught in it. She had to get away. But where could she go? It was approaching fast, too fast.
She looked up. The trees around her, stretching higher than the fog, had branches large enough to hold her. If the treetops could hide the sun, could they hide her too?
Anything to get to safety. She didn't know if she could climb with her shorter arms and strange, tip-toe feet, but she had to try. So Espurr scurried over to the nearest tree, a great twisted oak, and put her first foot on the trunk's mossy roots.
~\({O})/~
Night fell in minutes. Curled up in a tree branch just large enough to hold her, silence hung around Espurr, with only her thoughts to keep it at bay.
It was finally sinking in that she might not get to go back home. She didn't even know where she was right now, let alone how to get there from here, and even if she did… A look at her paws and dirty lavender tail was all she needed. How would she even convince people that she was human, let alone her?
With sickly ruminations swimming around in her head, it wasn't long before exhaustion took over and she slowly drifted off to sleep.
Her dreams were made of dark things. She dreamt of an In Between, a horrible, darkened place where only void and suffering dared to venture. It was a nightmare she madly clawed to escape from but couldn't leave on her own. Not until something woke her.
The sound of rustling below wrestled Espurr out of her nightmares. Her eyes opened blearily to abstract moonlight, blurred and scattered by the branches above. Her heart sunk as reality set in. The canopies were dark and twisted now, and so was the whole forest. The ground was blanketed by a sea of thick, white fog, snaking insidiously through the trees as if searching for something.
But what had woken her? She focused her hearing and her vision, looking over the branch…
Swish.
A faint yellow light blinked and lit up the fog below. Other lights followed, flickering away as quick as they'd appeared. Espurr's heart dropped and skipped a beat. Quiet horror flooded through her body. She quickly scrambled away from the edge, her heart pounding in fear, paws clasped against her face, vision spinning. She didn't dare to breathe. The Coneheads! They had found her! How?
Swish.
More dead leaves and ferns rattling against the tattered cloaks of slender floating bodies. She could see the image as clear as day. All three of them were standing at the bottom of the tree. A strange psychic sense told her. Their dark auras fuzzed at the edges of her sight.
But they weren't doing anything. Peeking carefully over the branches as far as she could muster the bravery for, she could see their crooked, dark, pointy cones poking out of the fog, still as shadows. They were just standing there. Were they waiting for something? What for?
The wind picked up again. It blew against Espurr, bringing with it that rotting scent, and this time it didn't stop. She looked in its direction as the wind got stronger, and with the horrid smell came a horrid feeling, like something was coming with the wind. When the branches began to bend against the gale and a roar rose with the wind, Espurr began to realise: she couldn't stay here.
She surveyed the ground from her cage of branches. The fog still blanketed it completely, and she didn't want to get any closer to the Coneheads. And though she really would have liked them, she hadn't grown any wings yet. Why couldn't she have become something with wings?
That only left her one option, which made her tail bush up: the branches of the trees were just close enough to each other that she could hop across, if she was careful. But if it was that or escape on the ground…
Getting onto her paws and knees, Espurr tightly clutched onto the branch for dear life as she edged her way along it towards the limb of the next tree. The rotting scent of the wind had stopped torturing her nose after a bit, but the gale was getting stronger, her fur ruffling wildly, a loud howling rising louder in the distance like a demented roar. Reaching the end of the branch, Espurr realised she wasn't going to be able to clear it with a single stride. She'd need to jump. And fast.
Fear seemed to reverse polarity. Before Espurr knew what she was doing, she was balancing unsteadily on the branch, preparing to jump to the next. Her muscles tensed, but fright froze them before she could jump. What was she doing? If she didn't make it, if she lost balance… she began to wobble, her heart picking up speed—
A howl of the wind blasted through the trees, and all of the sudden Espurr jolted and her new, springlike legs launched off the branch and threw her into the air.
She jumped entire feet higher than she was expecting. The leap propelled her far into the sky, and taken by surprise, she lost her control on the way down. Catlike reflexes kicked in, and in the final seconds she twisted and thrust her paws out and grasped for the branch—
A gust of wind, as if summoned out of nowhere, slammed into her with the force of a lorry. Her outstretched paws missed the other branch by a hair's length. And with a flipping feeling in her stomach and the horrifying, gut-wrenching realisation she'd missed, Espurr whimpered and began the long, heart-wrenching trip towards the ground.
Crack.
A loud yowl pierced the abstract night canopies.
Pain. It was white hot, racing through her and concentrating in her arm — her arm. It was at a funny angle. It wasn't supposed to bend like that! Crimson flashed across her vision, and somehow she knew what it meant. Pain.
Fighting back tears and sobs, Espurr staggered to her aching feet. The pain made it hard to think, see, feel. It hurt so much. Why was this happening? The pain. Red. It hurt. It hurt! She clutched her arm, but that just made it feel worse. How could that make it feel worse? Thick fog was all around her. The rotten wind swooped down and swirled around her, letting out a ghostly laugh like it was taking delight in her suffering. And then she heard it: Swish.
Espurr didn't have to see it; just the image in her head was enough to overload her mind and send her into flight mode. She bolted, fleeing through the woods wherever her legs would take her. The gnarled root of a tree sent her tumbling to the ground. She landed on her bad arm. Crimson flashed across her eyes like splattered blood. She grunted and bit back her yowl of pain, crying quietly and letting her tears flow. It hurt so bad.
She heard it again: Swish. She looked back. Her tear-blurred vision framed an image that burned into her mind: an emerald cape attached to a large, lean, dark figure, striding towards her through the ghostly fog. She felt the evil flow out from them. Their overwhelming aura of darkness singed the ends of their cloak, searing itself into her vision.
Espurr, barely lucid, hanging on by the barest of grips, shut her eyes tight and stumbled into a run again, only able to flee for her life.
~\({O})/~
An audino quietly picked the herbs and weeds from around a small bush in the forest, slipping them into her exploration bag. It was the full moon, and her herb stores were running low again.
Fresh-picked herbs were always available east of the Lively Mountain Range, but rarely grew anywhere west of it. They were so vital to Audino's medical practices, but somehow they were the hardest thing to get a hold of. She could always get them from Kecleon, but the miser overcharged for them and everymon knew it. She had been lucky to find this clutch of them sitting around the nearby mystery dungeon. Mystery dungeons being what they were, Audino had returned once every month at the full moon—she was superstitious—and found the exact same bush with the exact same clutches of herbs awaiting her.
Of course, finding the bush was a different beast entirely—every time Audino came looking for it, it was always in a different place. But that was to be expected of a mystery dungeon. The places were always rearranging themselves however they saw fit. Audino was just grateful she'd found the bush quickly this time. Something was different tonight, and she could feel it in the air. It was like the dungeon had grown darker, making her fur bristle, and her surroundings put her on guard.
The lack of apparitions around at this time of night made her ears twitch with uneasiness too. The dungeon's natural defense apparitions mostly came out when it was dark. The ones here were weak enough for a child to defeat and they knew their limits, but all the same they were never beings to shy away from a fight they thought they could pick. Audino had been in enough dungeons to know… if there were no dungeon apparitions, there was usually something worse around.
And whatever it was, Audino didn't want to meet it tonight. She kept the escape orb she had bought from Kecleon's specifically for this occasion in one of the bag's looser pockets, just in case she'd need to make an impromptu escape.
She looked up from her herb picking as an unnatural wind blew past her, shaking the trees with visible anger as it went. In the distance, she could see what looked like a thick wall of mist. Worry flooded through Audino, her paw slipping into her weathered explorer's bag and clutching her escape orb tightly. This dungeon wasn't supposed to do that... this dungeon was too weak for that. Something was very wrong here.
There was a loud thump in the distance, accompanied by a sickening crack. Audino had half a mind to smash the orb right now and forget her herbs. But that notion disappeared once she heard the yowl of pain that followed. Whatever pokemon had made it sounded rather young… But a dungeon apparition, even a weaker one, could spell trouble for her at this point.
Suddenly, Audino saw the silhouette of a small pokemon running straight in her direction through the fog. Was it a dungeon apparition? Her grip on the escape orb became tight enough to whip out on command. She watched as within seconds, an espurr stumbled out of the distant mist and into the immediate area, running frantically through the woods. For a split second, Audino hesitated. Espurr weren't apparitions native to this dungeon. So why was one here?
She only had to see the look in the espurr's eyes to understand completely. Their eyes glimmered in the moonlight with a look of terror, an intelligent look. By now, the espurr had seemed to realise Audino wasn't a hostile apparition, and changed their course directly towards her.
"Help!" the pokemon hoarsely cried out in terror that wrenched Audino's heart, clutching their left arm to their chest as they stumbled up to her. Audino studied the arm with a nurse's precision, identifying the fracture in a matter of seconds. It wasn't easy to break a pokemon's bones. That thump, that yowl… had something done this to her?
Something that was approaching from the fog at this very moment. Hints of the strongest wind yet began to blow through Audino's fur as she hurriedly beckoned the espurr towards her. Behind the terrified child, she could see a trio of silhouettes approaching, framed by flickering lights. Red, yellow, green…
The espurr reached Audino, violently shivering from cold and terror. Audino hugged her close, keeping an eye on both the wind and the approaching pokemon.
As the wind grew stronger, the pokemon approached, and Audino got her first good look at them: a trio of beheeyem, ghostly lights flickering in the fog. Their crooked cones stood tall into the night; their eyes gleamed brighter than lights and sent chills down Audino's spine. Those weren't wild looks either; they were too shrewd, too calculated. Whatever they were… they knew what they were doing. Audino's eyes narrowed. Her arm around Espurr tightened.
"Stay close, and whatever you do, don't let go. Understand?" Audino instructed loudly. The espurr nodded, staring at the beheeyem and holding back tears.
There was no more time to waste. The howling of the wind was picking up, turning into a rancid gale, and it brought the creeping, looming wall of fog with it. Any longer, Audino knew, and the approaching pokemon would be the least of their worries. In one swift motion, she hugged Espurr tight and whipped out the escape orb.
"Shut your eyes!" she yelled to Espurr, hurling the orb at her feet. It shattered and exploded into a plume of brilliant, blue-white smoke, and when the smoke cleared, Audino and Espurr were nowhere to be found.
Hey, Espy! Glad to see you bringing out your big revision. Didn't realize I missed the first installment, but I'm glad I got in before you got too far along. Congrats on finishing your revisions and getting to the posting phase! I know it was a big project, so it's great to see the fruits of your labors. I'm liking the updated artwork as well!
I certainly remember the first chapter, although I can't recall whether there used to be a prologue or whether it was the same one if so. The prologue sets up some of what's going to be moving around in the background while Espurr is dealing with her transformation. I didn't get far enough into the previous revision to know when Rufus showed up there, but I'm interested in how his efforts will play out this time. He's going to be looking to help her out and keep her safe (or at least, that's his intent at this stage), but I wonder whether Espurr will take that at face value or distrust him instead. Lots of potential for future conflict here.
One thing that interested me in the prologue in particular was the fact that Rufus didn't recognize Mew, which suggests that at least she, if not all legends, don't have a very big presence in the world of everyday pokémon. But iirc basically every legend shows up to do something in SMD, so I'm wondering how they'll play into this story here. Also of course there's the small detail that Mew's dead, lol, which seems to be something of a trend with mews in PMD fic I've read recently...
The first chapter is familiar, like I said, although I don't recall the previous version well enough to comment on specific changes. I enjoyed the whimsical tone of the opening section that goes over Espurr's human life. I haven't actually read any of the Series of Unfortunate Events novels, but this sort of prose is at least how I've always imagined they would read, heh.
Once we get into the dungeon with the beheeyem, the tone shifts quite a bit. I think you do a really good job of bringing out the visceral feel of what it's like to be in that mystery dungeon, with a strong focus on sensory details and the feelings Espurr experiences as she tries to evade the beheeyem. And possibly Dark Matter? That seems like the most likely candidate for the rot-smelling mist, at least. If so then I definitely enjoy that detail; I don't think I've seen DM described as having a smell before, and that detail immediately puts it more concretely into the scene with Espurr. All in all I think the dungeon section here is a nicely tense and well-described scene that establishes the sort of danger Espurr's going to face.
And how hard a time you're going to give her in this story, lol. Arrives in a mystery dungeon only to be attacked by enemies who way outclass her, breaking an arm in the process? Her career as a savior's starting out strong!
Congrats again on getting this published! I'll look forward to more chapters. Also, I'm curious whether you had any particular goals for this revision or areas you were especially focused on making changes. I remember you talking about the work you were doing here, but not the specifics!
Espurr was only sixty-three percent ordinary, which was about as in the middle as you could be.
I love how you can tell from this line alone that she's not ordinary at all, heh.
So when she finished recording her day in her old, battered notebook, like she had all the days before; when her old chewed pencil left the yellowed paper and she shut it and the lamp off and fell backwards into bed, and she laid there waiting for the icy blue covers to warm up and stared at the spiderlike shadows of branches reaching across her ceiling, she reflected on how empty her day was, just like the page she'd been writing on.
This is a real chunky paragraph-long sentence! There are a couple places you could break this up into multiple sentences, and I think it might be a good idea to do so. The semicolon looks rather awkward to me at the beginning of the paragraph, considering how much uninterrupted text comes after.
Espurr stirred, groaning and shifting in something that didn't quite feel like her mattress.
Did you mean to stick a scene break in front of this?
[quote[She was in the middle of an empty forest clearing, overcast by shadows, covered in dead leaves, mossy tree roots, and low ferns.[/quote]
The way this sentence is structured, Espurr is the one covered in dead leaves and ferns, etc. The easiest way to fix that would be to slap "which was" in front of "overcast."
If there was one good blessing about any of this, all cats had good instincts.
Here "silence" is the one curled up on a tree branch. A very quick and dirty example of how you could rewrite this to get the modifiers in the right place is "Curled up in a tree branch just large enough to hold her, Espurr found herself wreathed round by silence, with only her thoughts to keep it at bay."
- You use "abstract" several times as an adjective in the first chapter. I think when you're talking about the treetops, you mean they're kind of blobby-looking and without clear form, but I'm not so sure what you're going for when you apply it to moonlight (diffuse, maybe?). I don't know that it's the best word to use for those things, and you hit it at least three times in Chapter One, which seems like a lot.
Heya, dropping in for the first review of my Review Tag from Union. I admittedly wasn’t really sure what reviewing a rewrite of a story I’d already read once before would be like, but just from the preamble’s notes, it looks like a surprising amount of stuff has been shaken up, so let’s jump right in:
Chapter 1-0
>that Mew chapter art
Huh. That one’s definitely different from what I remembered of the v1 of this story, and definitely has the nicer art. Let’s see where this goes.
The airship, Cloud Nine, floated silently above the city of windmills below. It was far too chilly tonight, bordering on snow—a very good example of why Baram Town was the worst possible city to park the Government of Nebyllin over. Or, so thought Grovyle Rufus. At least there was only a year until Cloud Nine moved. And a year until he was out of a job. Given his age, and Prime Ministers' proclivity for dying around the ends of their terms, he didn't expect his colleagues were going to nominate him Party Leader a third time. Frankly, he was lucky he'd landed a second one.
Oh, so we’re already seeing Cloud Nine right off the bat in this version of events. That’s definitely a change, but it’s definitely pulling the political conspiracy portions of the plot forward a bit.
I don’t recognize ‘Rufus’ from my readings of v1 of Psychic Sheep though. Wonder if he’s one and the same as Grovyle the Thief in this continuity, or if he’s different.
He sat in a cozy office near the stern of the craft, looking through a bunch of documents that had been submitted to him earlier that evening. But try as he might, his eyes kept slipping off the page. How many times had he read that blasted report about diminished berry crops from the South?
Yeeeeeah, that report is totally not just a background thing, I can already tell.
Truth be told, his mind was barely following along—not with the berry crops, not with the weather service, and certainly not with the Rescuer's Guild. It was with the horrible chill in his office, and a stray feeling he just couldn't kick. Ever since he'd woken up a few days ago, something had felt different—he couldn't put his claw on it, and neither his secretary nor his very close and trusted friend in Cape Noe noticed a thing, but it occupied his mind so thoroughly he'd spaced out several times in parliament that day. Which the opposition had gleefully used as fodder for their narrative of an ailing leader well out of his prime.
I mean, the cold in general isn’t kind to reptiles. I can’t imagine that Grass-type reptiles would fare much better. Though based off the ‘leader well out of his prime’ comment, I’m starting to think that Rufus really is Grovyle the Thief. Just quite a bit after the events of Explorers.
Well, his knees weren't what they used to be, but his mind was still very much there. He knew what he felt, and whatever it was, he knew it was far more important than anything on those papers.
Yeah, I figured. Though he really is out of his prime given that he’s automatically crying for guards to come and bail him out. Though I suppose age catches up with everyone at some point.
With the little power that remained in him, he summoned energy to the leafblades in his arms, prepared to fight the intruders. This wasn't how he'd die.
Well, nevermind then. Guess Rufus is going down swinging here.
"Oh, sorry, the guards forgot to be here tonight."
Floating behind Rufus, with the most nonchalant expression on her face, was a pink, catlike creature with a tail too long for her own good. Behind her lay an open window, the curtains softly blowing sideways—the source of the chill.
"And the orb line—" Rufus' other arm, silently reaching out of sight for the connection orb under the table, halted. "Everymon in this wing of the building, actually. They've all gone down for drinks at Spinda's.
Can’t tell if this is Tricky or not, since while Mew’s definitely got the ‘troublemaker’ part down pat, something about this vibe feels a lot more foreboding.
Rufus set down the papers shakily, staring up at the cat.
"I'm already worried," he muttered with annoyance. "And thisis awkward. And who areyou? It's a crime to break into the Prime Minister's office—"
"I'm Mew!" said Mew, gleefully cutting him off. "And you're Grovyle Rufus the Third. Born in Sawsbury, likes fermented radishes, Prime Minister twice because you cheated in—"
I mean, I knew that politics got dirty in Psychic Sheep’s world, but this is definitely getting into the political thriller side of the story nice and fast.
"Alright, alright, enough!" said Rufus, lowering his leafblades, flustered. Was she trying to scare him? Blackmail him? Where was she from? What was she?
Rufus: “And seriously, couldn’t you have sent a letter?”
Mew: “I tried, but I never got a response.”
"I'm here to talk to you about something important," said Mew. She teleported behind him with a 'pop!' almost faster than he could blink, and when he spun around, she was cheerfully gesturing to his chair. "Have a seat?"
"You break into my office," said Rufus, his tone flabbergasted, "and offer me a seat?"
Pretty sure that that’s not a suggestion there, Rufus…
Suddenly, Rufus was in his seat. Mew appeared on the other side of his desk with another 'pop!', lounging in the air above his visitor's chair.
"It's been a while since I've visited one of your leaders," she yawned. "I'm surprised they didn't tell you about me; although, it has been a century or two…"
I actually wonder if Mew was ever meant to be part of the original Psychic Sheep narrative, or if this is a new feature of the rewrite’s plot. Either way, it’s definitely keeping things fresh relative to the original story.
If Rufus had any cares to give, he'd long run out of them. He was just along for the ride now.
"Anyway," said Mew. "I'm here to tell you we've brought in another Human."
Mew: “Er… ‘Rufus’, is it? Are you alright?”
Rufus: “Obviously not when you just went and sprang news on me that there’s a harbinger of the apocalypse that just appeared!”
"Another Human," said Mew. "Don't you know them?"
"I know them," said Rufus. There were two of them alive today. He sat back in his chair, and let out a resigned sigh. "Then I was right. Something's changed, hasn't it?"
… Actually, I just realized that there’s another potential explanation for what ‘Mew’ is doing here, and it potentially involves this speaker very much not being Mew.
"It's… complicated," said Mew. "And we're short on time. But you need to know that we've brought in a Human. And right now, she's unprotected. I need you to find her and keep her safe before it's too late. She's the last one you're going to get."
I… am not convinced that Rufus is going to pull this one off successfully.
"Where do I start searching?" asked Rufus tiredly, resigned to his fate.
Selfish as it was, he could feel his leaves wilting at the field day the opposition was going to have with this… he could see the headlines already: "Ailing Prime Minister declares random runaway "next human" in latest loony fantasy!"
… Has Rufus unironically managed to get an ‘Old Man Yells at Cloud’ headline written about him or something? :V
There was a large, detailed map on Rufus' desk, portraying every knot of a massive coastline. Mew pointed at the very bottom, towards the long, thin peninsula that was known for having nothing but mountains, farmland, and a few scattered villages. He noticed her paw was already translucent.
Ah yes, the same North America expy from the preamble. It’s admittedly a bit of a trip to see the setting so different from the canonical baseline, but I suppose it leans in better with the established backstory of Psychic Sheep than the canon PMD world’s geography did.
"There," said Mew. "I don't know the exact location anymore. I lost it when I… died. But she's somewhere there. You must go at once! Do everything in your power to keep her safe. Promise me?"
I guess we might not be doing a Mew reincarnation plot angle after all.
Rufus just nodded. What else could he do? "You have my word."
And then the already fading Mew slowly dissolved into light. And Rufus was left alone to contemplate what he had just seen.
But the feeling, the one that had kept him awake in bed each night, no longer felt strange or present. Instead, it was filled with a drive. He knew she spoke the truth. Wherever this girl was, or whatever she was, there was perhaps no other pokemon in the world that was more important. He had to track her down.
… Okay, yeah. I’m starting to get that worry again that that wasn’t really Mew. Since I remember the sorts of occasions in the v1 of this story where characters suddenly felt overwhelming impulses to do things. All that’s missing is the explicit instructions from a voice in Rufus’ head.
In the back of his head, something tickled. Something dark and twisted, that swiftly retreated to the deep, dark depths as if scorched by the light.
Wonder if this is going to have the same twist as the v1 of the story where this technically isn’t being directed at Espurr at the moment.
Your burden will be heavier than the ones that came before you. I'm sorry for that; they had somemon to help guide them. But we'll find a way to make do, hmm? Or, you will. You have to!
There's one thing I can do to aid you in your quest… allow me to bestow you with a form fitting for this world. Just answer my questions…
You will… If you answered my questions with an honest and open heart, you should have nothing to fear. You'll be the last of Mew's Heroes; the one to save us all. You have to be.
And now we must part, dear Espurr. My heart goes out to you, in the new world…
Oh, it’s that song again. Well, you can’t say that it’s not fitting for the introduction to a PMD story. :V
Well that was definitely a different experience from what I remembered of the v1 of Psychic Sheep, not that that’s a bad thing, per se. Even in the span of about 1400 words, you did a pretty good job at giving readers a taste of the overall tone of the story and gave them glimpses of the future to look forward to as a world that they would likely find familiar, and yet very different.
I actually don’t have a whole lot to complain about regarding this prologue since it was largely put together very well. There were a couple of paragraphs where I felt that they were a bit overly long and dense, but that’s ultimately a stylistic quibble and there weren’t too many that I noticed.
While I’ve always been a bit leery of rewrites given that they have a checkered history of actually succeeding, what’s there is definitely really promising, @SparklingEspeon . I’ll be back for your first chapter over the course of the next couple days, and if this is how you’re re-opening your story, I can tell I’m going to be in for a treat. ^^
I certainly remember the first chapter, although I can't recall whether there used to be a prologue or whether it was the same one if so. The prologue sets up some of what's going to be moving around in the background while Espurr is dealing with her transformation. I didn't get far enough into the previous revision to know when Rufus showed up there
Rufus is a new character, actually! What's now the first chapter used to be the prologue, but I decided to make that chapter one and add in a new prologue so I could frontload some stuff that should have been out in the open the first time, tbf.
The first chapter is familiar, like I said, although I don't recall the previous version well enough to comment on specific changes. I enjoyed the whimsical tone of the opening section that goes over Espurr's human life. I haven't actually read any of the Series of Unfortunate Events novels, but this sort of prose is at least how I've always imagined they would read, heh.
Ooh, yes! Lemony Snicket Prose (though his narrator is more vocabulary centred) was such a large influence on my prose writing - I love his ironic, whimsical tones a lot, and it changed how I wrote ever since. This is a really nice compliment to receive, especially from someone who's never read ASoUE before...
And possibly Dark Matter? That seems like the most likely candidate for the rot-smelling mist, at least. If so then I definitely enjoy that detail; I don't think I've seen DM described as having a smell before, and that detail immediately puts it more concretely into the scene with Espurr. All in all I think the dungeon section here is a nicely tense and well-described scene that establishes the sort of danger Espurr's going to face.
Fun fact for non-hardcore MD players: in the games, if you stay alone in a dungeon for long enough, eventually a mysterious, unexplained wind will blow you off the dungeon floor and, iirc, eject whatever's in your bag before booting you out. It's the game's version of a timer, but when I started writing I based the winds and smell entirely off that mechanic. You're v right to assume it's connected to Dark Matter here, though...
Congrats again on getting this published! I'll look forward to more chapters. Also, I'm curious whether you had any particular goals for this revision or areas you were especially focused on making changes. I remember you talking about the work you were doing here, but not the specifics!
Thanks! I think the biggest thing I had in mind when rewriting was just, improving things a lot. 2019!me had some capital-W Weird ideas about writing, like Every Chapter Must Be As Long As Possible (I wanted to be one of those cool authors who wrote an ultra-popular MILLION WORD PMD EPIC like Guiding Light, wow sparkles), or Structure Everything Like It's An Eight-Episode TV Show (??). It led to meandering, clunky chapters with a lot of interactions that never came to anything because I was both trying to fluff the wordcount as much as possible and hold back every single little answer to have a thousand twists later. I also felt I'd kind of flunked a lot of character interactions/beats, one of which came back to cause trouble later, and nothing about the internal structures of the world made much sense. So after a year or two of noodling on trying to edit those things out, I sort of realised it would take less energy to just. do it over. And as you can see from the new prologue, this version frontloads a lot! And I'm also working a lot on character development/interaction and making sure the world makes sense this time.
(re: line edits - thanks so much for these! Grammar/syntax/redundant words is my achilles' heel, so it helps a lot to have these things pointed out so I can go back and edit)
Oh, so we’re already seeing Cloud Nine right off the bat in this version of events. That’s definitely a change, but it’s definitely pulling the political conspiracy portions of the plot forward a bit.
I don’t recognize ‘Rufus’ from my readings of v1 of Psychic Sheep though. Wonder if he’s one and the same as Grovyle the Thief in this continuity, or if he’s different.
Yup, a lot more is getting frontloaded in this version! I figured it would do to just be up-front that Cloud Nine/the government is going to be involved from the start, instead of pulling a 'gotcha!' later. I didn't expressly think Rufus could be PMD2!Grovyle, but explorers doesn't super get high billing here, so maybe I'll run with that... pockets the idea
Can’t tell if this is Tricky or not, since while Mew’s definitely got the ‘troublemaker’ part down pat, something about this vibe feels a lot more foreboding.
Lol I will be flat-out open and admit that Partner Was Mew was hands-down one of the most infuriating things about Super to me (so unearned/out of left field??), and I took particular glee writing every single bit of that out :evil:
Ah yes, the same North America expy from the preamble. It’s admittedly a bit of a trip to see the setting so different from the canonical baseline, but I suppose it leans in better with the established backstory of Psychic Sheep than the canon PMD world’s geography did.
Yeah, it was A Decision to make, but the geography of the PMD map was never really going to work here, I think. It was sort of a 'have your cake and eat it too' situation - I had all these locations that needed to inform each other and be easily reachable in a way that they can't if they aren't part of the same continent/administration, so ultimately it had to be all in one place, and I didn't like any of the PMD continents, so I decided to steal some RL land and work based off of that. Some areas I passed up before settling on West-coast North America were the Great Lakes (cool idea but idk the vibes/climate/terrain), the Mediterranean Sea (trite), the island of Great Britain (overused), the US eastcoast (overused), and the Gulf of Mexico+SA-North Coast (too far into the tropics). Also a lot of complicated climate/geographic things that do in fact feed into the plot favoured WCNA. I also stole Nova Scotia bc why not.
Well that was definitely a different experience from what I remembered of the v1 of Psychic Sheep, not that that’s a bad thing, per se. Even in the span of about 1400 words, you did a pretty good job at giving readers a taste of the overall tone of the story and gave them glimpses of the future to look forward to as a world that they would likely find familiar, and yet very different.
I actually don’t have a whole lot to complain about regarding this prologue since it was largely put together very well. There were a couple of paragraphs where I felt that they were a bit overly long and dense, but that’s ultimately a stylistic quibble and there weren’t too many that I noticed.
While I’ve always been a bit leery of rewrites given that they have a checkered history of actually succeeding, what’s there is definitely really promising, @/SparklingEspeon . I’ll be back for your first chapter over the course of the next couple days, and if this is how you’re re-opening your story, I can tell I’m going to be in for a treat. ^^
Really glad you liked it! I've been working very hard on this and have a lot of contingencies in place to make sure this one doesn't flop, so hoping very much it's going to succeed - I guess this is more like a... final draft than it is a rewrite. Thanks so much for dropping by, and hope you enjoy future chapters just as much as this one! (and do let me know where you thought the wordy sentences were - grammar/syntax is my weakness so I'll be happy to do maintenance edits)
It's me again. Writing in books that weren't made for that feels wrong, but here I am.
The house is bright and loud, and dad's in a bad mood. I think he found my report for maths, so I'm hiding under the bed right now with a torch and a pen. They'll go to sleep in a bit, and then I'll feed it to the neighbour's cat. The good news is mum and dad are taking a work trip to Kansas City, so tomorrow it'll just be me on my own. And the day after. And at the weekend.
You wouldn't know, because I've only written in you once, but this happens a lot. I think they like working too much. As for me, I'm looking forward to the quiet, and being able to do whatever I want while they're gone. They're leaving money for pizza, but I'm going to buy chinese instead.
The homeroom teacher asked if I was going to the start of summer holiday party with the rest of the school. I told him I didn't know, but… I don't. The library just got a new book in, and it's one I've been waiting forever to come out. I think books make better friends than people do, anyway. I've written in more books than I've talked to people at school here, and I don't like writing in books.
Just between you and me, I think I won't go. I'm going to stuff my hair in a cap at school and pretend I cut it short, check out all the books I want to get that take at least three days to read, and go walk around on the roof at night. I'll have a really nice holiday all on my own. And all I need around me is books and the TV.
I'm feeling quite tired, so I'm going to go to bed soon. I have to get up early for an exam at school tomorrow anyway. Good night.
~Sincerely, #-*- - -
~\({O})/~
"Oh! You're up now. Good."
Espurr's blurry eyes sliced through her fuzzy dreams and gave way to bright sunshine, gleaming through a window, making her shut them again. She was in a straw bed that rustled softly, settled in a large, airy room with rustic, apricot walls and dark brown floorboards. A wide-brimmed, floral hat hung from a hook in the wall, above a couple brown bags crumpled against the floor. Espurr remembered that bag, how the rough brown surface had felt against her fur…
Her fur. Suddenly she felt it again, suffocating her! Her heart dropped, everything flooding back to her in an instant. Her holiday! She had to get back home!
She tried moving off the bed, to get somewhere, anywhere! But her left arm just wasn't cooperating; it felt dull and stiff, and when she tried to move it, a sharp red pain rang out and made her gasp.
"Oh! Don't do that please." Someone jotted over, the floorboards creaking under them, and she felt unfamiliar paws grab her and settle her back into bed. "You still need rest!"
The voice and sudden jostling jarred Espurr from her panic, and she looked up. Helping her back on the bed was the strange creature from before, who was pink and yellow from head to foot and stood on two legs. She stared Espurr up and down with her piercing blue eyes, making sure she was settled properly.
"Alright now?"
"Where are we?" Espurr dared to ask, biting down the consistent thrum of pain from her arm. She really hoped it wasn't far away…
"None other than Serenity Village," said the pink creature with her back to Espurr, folding something on the counter. "You collapsed the moment we arrived — half delirious, I suspect. Just before our end-of-week shopping trip, too. You're lucky Kecleon's stays open late Saturday nights. Not that I'd buy from him on a good day, but…"
Another dull throb from Espurr's arm. She really must have been delirious. Serenity Village wasn't anywhere on the map — at least, not anywhere Espurr knew about.
"Where's that?" she asked, trying to keep calm. And the quiver out of her voice. Maybe it was just a town she hadn't heard of? Surrounded by… a lot of things she hadn't heard of.
The pink creature looked back from whatever she was doing on the counter and gave her an odd look.
"Serenity Village?" she asked. Espurr nodded.
The pink creature thought for a second, like she was trying to figure out what to say. Espurr could glean that from the edges of her speech, an unsure, wavering pink.
"I'll see if I can get a map from the principal's office later," she decided on, "but it's in the South. You know where that is, right?"
A confused shake. Espurr was sure she looked silly.
That made the pink creature really think.
"Well, I'm sure it's not too far from home," she finally said, trying to sound reassuring. "Do you know where you came from?"
"I'm from... live in Polliston?" Espurr tried. "It's near Kansas City," she added helpfully.
Addled and shaken, things were still coming to her in pieces. She'd have the full picture soon, but she remembered enough to remember her town's name. She was growing more and more certain that it wasn't anywhere near here.
The pink creature 'hmm'd, pulled out a sheet of paper, and turned her back to Espurr as she started writing on it.
"Never heard of either of those villages," she muttered. Espurr thought the idea of calling Kansas City a village was completely batty. She could just about make out the words "confused", "possibly abandoned", and "send out notice to surrounding villages" in whispers to herself as the creature wrote, and bit down some queasiness. Her heart slowly dropped into her stomach, filling her chest with dread.
Finished writing, the pink creature set down her pen, closed the cupboard, and looked again towards the open doorway.
"What are you still waiting out there for? You need treatment!" she called loudly to an unseen person who seemed to be waiting outside the round doorway. Espurr could feel their presence now, fuzzing peach hues around the edges of her mind.
Had she always been able to see colours like that? No, she hadn't, but concentrating hard and trying to shut it off felt like plugging her nose.
"Sorry, Ms. Audino," a high-pitched, childlike voice muttered from outside. "I don't like the school clinic…"
"Well, you wouldn't have to spend time in the school clinic if you didn't go jumping out of trees," Audino said, pouring something into a pair of leaf-made pouches. "Now come in and sit on the nest so I can treat you."
Jumping out of trees… Well, that made two of them, Espurr supposed. At least she wasn't the only lunatic around anymore.
"Not to worry," Ms. Audino continued. "You'll have company."
"Really?!"
The voice perked up with the excitement of a toddler at a candy stall, and a bright yellow fox with fiery ear fluff and blue, ghostlike whisps curling near her tail dragged herself in on one paw and flopped down on another straw bed. She looked at Espurr with wide red eyes, almost like she was plotting murder.
Audino supplied her with a few of the leafy green bags, setting them over the fox's paws.
"IF you rest, you'll be better in a few hours," she said, then got up and looked at Espurr. "Doing alright?"
Espurr was very much not doing alright and could only nod unsurely that yes, she was. Satisfied, Audino grabbed her bag and walked briskly towards the door.
"I'll be back shortly; I've scheduled another appointment for today. I don't want either of you to move a muscle while I'm gone, do you understand me?" Audino directed the last sentence squarely at the fox.
"Yes ma'am! Absolutely understood!" the fox chirped in a tone that Espurr gathered meant it was not understood at all. Audino kept her wary eyes on her for a few seconds longer.
"I expect to see you both sitting on those beds when I return," she said, and then she walked out the door without another word.
A thousand questions flew across Espurr's mind the second it swung shut and they were left alone: How far away was this from the next town? Were they still in Kansas? Could she phone home? Were there phones here? Where could she go to find one? What was her mum's number again? What could she do about… a look down at her purplish fur, which wasn't looking any more like her usual skin than it did yesterday… she didn't really want to look at that. Nevermind that. Phone. She stirred from her nest again, ignoring the complaints of her arm. She needed to find a ph—
"Soooo-o-o-o-o-o-o…" began the fox loudly, crashing a train through Espurr's thoughts and causing her to freeze where she was.
Espurr looked over, wide-eyed, at the creature who shared the room with her. The yellow fox drew her single word out until she was out of breath, then gasped for more.
"What are you in for?" asked the fox, sputtering.
"Wait, you're new here," she piped up just a second late when Espurr was about to respond, leaping onto the side of the bed. Words tumbled out of her mouth like a waterfall.
"Are you…
"Hah! There's no way you're miss Audino's kid, are you?
"…Wait. Are you?
"Huh? Are you? Pleeeaaase tell me!
"Hey, what're you in for? Wait, I feel like I asked that one already…"
"Could you ask those a bit slower, please?" pleaded Espurr tiredly, who was extremely unprepared for this and felt more than a little overwhelmed by the constant onslaught of everything so soon after she'd woken up.
"Oh." The fox didn't seem very phased. She settled back in the bed. "Okay, what are you in for?"
"I fell out of a tree," answered Espurr plainly, rubbing her eyes with her good paw.
That left the energetic fox's mouth hanging wide open.
"Woah," she mouthed in amazement, her eyes brightening. "Well guess what? I'm in here for the same thing! Twisted my tail, sprained three of my paws, and my ear hurts" – she wiggled her left ear and nearly wilted in pain – "but it was all for a noble cause!"
"What… noble cause?"
"I couldn't let a fellow child suffer in the clutches of the evil Nurse Audino for a whole week!" the fox moaned dramatically, clutching a paw to her swooning head before groaning in pain and quickly collapsing backwards onto the bed.
"I'm Fennekin Tricky, by the way," she chirped, popping back up. "My actual name's a secret but I chose this one and that's what everymon else calls me. Do you have a name?"
Espurr huddled a little closer, studying the floorboards like varnished wood had suddenly become wildly interesting. Wouldn't it be nice if she could remember it?
"Just Espurr," she said.
"Aww," said Tricky. Her ears drooped. "I thought you were one of the cool 'mon."
"What's that mean?"
"Like…" Tricky trailed off, searching for the words. "Like, the 'mon with names! From up north!"
"'Mon aren't cool if they're not from up north?" asked Espurr.
"Well duh!" exclaimed Tricky, like this was obvious. "Here they're all boring and think that names should be for like, old people or something. I'm from up north. My mum and dad were born there. Where are you from?"
The big question. Espurr felt positively unsafe spilling her location to someone who looked like they gossiped with the whole town.
"Polliston? In Kansas?" she asked hopefully anyway. "Have you heard of it?"
"What's that?" Tricky asked, her face flat. "Sounds like some hick town in the mountains."
"It's a city..." Espurr trailed off.
Tricky cocked her head. "Are you suuuure you're from around here? We're the biggest city around. Unless you're going to Crossings, but that's like, sooo many miles away so it doesn't count."
Espurr felt jittery enough to collapse into a puddle on the bed. Crossings... she'd never heard of that town, either. And she knew all the cities, from that one time she spent six hours memorising a map of the State. She couldn't be anywhere close to home, could she?
Tricky sighed and yawned, blowing out an orange wisp of flame that danced dangerously close to the ceiling. She stretched in the bed with her paws under the ice. Pausing for just a second and snapping her jaw shut, she pulled her paw out from under the leaves and twisted it just to be sure.
"Oh wow! I'm healed! I'm finally healed!" she screeched.
Excitedly, she pranced out of the bed and did a few victory twirls. Espurr cringed as she watched Tricky's tail painfully cramp up, sending the fox crashing to the floor headfirst.
Thump.
"Ow…" she muttered from the floor. "Work in progress."
And then she was back up again, walking stiffly to avoid wagging her tail.
"Hey, wanna go do a village tour?"
"Didn't Nurse Audino tell us to stay here?" Espurr pointed out. "Besides," she said, tilting her head. "I don't think you can go many places with that tail."
"Eh," Tricky dismissed it with a flick of her ears and a paw-wave. "It'll heal in a few minutes. Besides, if you listen to the adults your whole life, life stays boring! C'mon, have some fun!"
"But that's not the p–"
Not that she had a choice. Tricky quickly sprung from her spot, pranced behind her, and nudged her off the bed completely with a shove.
"Hey!" Espurr yelped, taken aback. But the yellow fox had already chomped down on her good arm and was tugging her along towards the door. "I didn't say–"
"Dif' way!" she yipped excitedly, hopping towards the door with Espurr like a dog toy, and pulling her through it.
The building was located on a steep, grassy hill. Tricky impatiently pulled Espurr down the steps, tugging her by her good arm. Espurr protested, but not wanting to lose a second arm, followed along where she was pulled. Tricky led her down the stone steps and towards a flat, downhill clearing with several wooden stump-desks and a blackboard hanging from the branch of a low tree.
"That's the school – school's out today – " Tricky gasped in between breaths as they passed.
"Tricky!"
Both Espurr and Tricky's heads whipped around, where what looked like a very angry weasel wearing a safety vest was marching towards them.
"Berry crackers …"Tricky mumbled through Espurr's arm. "Bye Watchog! See you tomorrow!"
"Is this another one of your shenanigans?" Watchog angrily asked as he continued marching towards the pair. "Put that poor student back where you found them right now!"
But Tricky was already shoving Espurr off.
"No can do, Watchog! Audino's orders! Espurr needs me to show her around town!"
"No I don't–"
"That's VICE PRINCIPAL Watchog to you!" Watchog yelled after Tricky, drowning out Espurr's meek response entirely. Already, she didn't like him. "And those don't sound like Audino's orders!"
"They are! Trust me!" Tricky yelled as they continued down the downwards path, Watchog and the classroom getting further and further away.
"Trust… you?" Espurr could hear Watchog's stupefied sputtering in the distance. It wasn't hard to see why.
"C'mon!" Tricky said, once they'd reached the base of the hill. Ahead of them was a winding path overshadowed by a forest of tall pine trees.
"The town's this way. Coming?" she looked back at Espurr with large, scarlet, expectant eyes.
Espurr could have gone back to the clinic right then. She was sure Watchog, as huffy and puffy as he was, would've taken her. But the thought was evaporating, barely worth the half-second it would have taken to think. Gears were turning in her head — a town? If she wanted to figure out where she was, and maybe find a way to get home, this was the perfect way to do it. And if Tricky was so eager to roll out the red carpet for her…
"Sure," she said, putting on a brave front and taking a few bold steps forward, until she was under the shade of the pine tree path. "If it's a short trip. Could we be back before Nurse Audino?"
Tricky's ears perked up mischievously.
"Yup!" she said. "You're really coming?"
Espurr nodded.
The fox suddenly looked very excited and like she was going to say something else, but thought better of it and instead made to prance down the path, beckoning Espurr on with her tail. "Follow me!"
Ignoring the dull ache in her bandaged arm, Espurr began to hurry after Tricky on unsteady feet, doing her best to keep up.
~\({O})/~
"This is the village square!" Tricky announced loudly, strolling into the sun.
Espurr took a look around: The pine tree path had let out after a few minutes, and as the trees gave way they'd entered a large, round plaza with colourful houses and tents set up on all sides. The transition from dirt to cobblestone felt strange against her feet. The houses all had domed, acorn roofs, and the paved stones of the square were arranged like a spiral mosaic, trailing in spirals from green into purple into orange. Long, black street-poles extended above the square, topped with bluish glassy orbs that caught the light. A few pedestrians were going about their business, doing what Espurr had to assume was pointedly avoiding Tricky from the large berth they were given.
The shock made her dizzy where she stood. It all looked so… so different… she felt like crumpling to the ground. This was nothing like home. She was far away from home. Too far.
She was never going home.
Desperate gears started turning in her head, trying to find some straw to grasp: there seemed to be streetlights, so was there a phone box around anywhere? She couldn't see one. What about that big, two-storey building with the lights? Lights had to mean power, so–
"That's the Café Connection," said Tricky helpfully, seeing where she was staring. Café… Espurr's eyes lit up. A familiar word!
"Does it ha—" she began hopefully.
"The village is larger," Tricky prattled on obliviously, cutting Espurr off. "But this is where everything happens! You've got your Café Connection, your perfume tent—no-mon talks about the perfume tent—and your Kecleon's stall!" She excitedly pointed them out as she mentioned them; the large, two-storey building with a sloped roof, a striking red teepee-like tent that resembled a bird in decoration, and a green-and-white tent with enough crates and shade behind it that it might as well have been a building on its own.
"Don't steal from Kecleon," Tricky added in a hush, leaning too close to Espurr's ears for comfort. Espurr leaned back a bit. "Trust me."
"And so, you see…"
Stray voices slipped into her ear, drawing her attention away towards the other side of the square, where what looked like a pink deer and something in a metal shell were arguing. Espurr couldn't help it; once she picked up on a conversation in the background, she was listening in and that was that.
"He's nine! We both know he wouldn't walk into one of those places like that! Not unless somemon prompted him first…"
"Well, I'm getting to that…"
"What's so interesting?" Tricky's head curiously slid over to the side of Espurr's. Upon seeing them, her eyes lit up, and suddenly Espurr was being pushed against her will towards the pair by the world's most energetic fox.
"Deerling! Shelmet! Guysguysguysguysguys—"
Deerling, the elder one, looked up in annoyance, her face twisting into tiredness as Tricky pushed the hapless Espurr towards her.
"Um… hi?" Deerling raised a hoof in perplexed greeting, looking at Espurr. "Tricky, what are you up to now?" she asked with a much sterner tone, leaning her head around to look at her. "I thought you were still in Nurse Audino's office for jumping out of that tree."
Espurr was suddenly dumped backwards onto the ground. She fell with a yelp. It hurt! Tricky pranced in front of her stiffly. "Guys—you are never gonna believe this—I found Nurse Audino's kid! Really! See?"
"Loser alert…" Shelmet, the younger one, rolled his eyes.
"Tricky…" Deerling whacked her hoof against her face, then shook her head. She was clearly annoyed now. "Nurse Audino doesn't have kids. Plus, she isn't married, and she isn't a psychic-type. How could this be her kid?" she stuck an irked hoof in Espurr's direction.
"Well…" Tricky's tail drooped. She bit back the pain. "She's… adopted! Nurse Audino saved her life last night!" She nodded very quickly, like the speed would prove her point more. Then she looked at Espurr. "Right?"
Espurr was still uncrumpling herself from the ground, feeling quite nettled — from a broken arm to this? — but she figured out almost immediately that Tricky had just come up with the perfect cover story for her.
"Um, that's right," Espurr added, nodding.
The words felt like putty on her mouth, tumbling onto the ground in ways she couldn't control. Ugh, talking to people just didn't agree with her. Deerling looked surprised; Espurr figured she wasn't very used to being wrong. She quickly stuck out her one good paw, trying to move along. "Hi. I'm Espurr."
Her paw wasn't taken. Deerling looked somewhat confused at the gesture. Espurr, wilting inside, retracted it. Looking down at Deerling's hooves, maybe she should have realised that wasn't normal here. Extremely smart of her.
Deerling shook off the confusion, and then she was all business again.
"Great," she said, bowing her head quickly towards Espurr. "Deerling. See you in class tomorrow." She ignored Tricky, who scowled and then turned her nose up with a 'hmmph', then fixed her piercing glare on Shelmet again.
"And you…"
Shelmet, who had been trying to inch away, froze in terrified silence.
"Show me exactly where Goomy went in," Deerling growled. "We need to get him out of there before his parents come looking!"
Without another word, a hopping Shelmet led Deerling off towards the large town archways ahead of them. In the distance, a path forking off towards dark-looking woods lay ahead.
"So-o-o-o-o…." came Tricky's voice, making Espurr's heart skip. "Are we following them, or are we following them?"
Espurr did not want to follow them.
"I wanted to look around the town a bit more," said Espurr. She'd come here to get her bearings, not to take a detour. "Besides, I thought we were getting back quickly? Going after them would take a while…"
"Yeah, but…" Tricky's tail swished between her legs. "C"mon, it'll be fun!"
"Well, you can follow them," Espurr offered with a shrug. "I'll look around a bit until you get back."
And splitting here would give her an opportunity to explore the place and get back to the room before they wound up in trouble.
"But I thought…" Tricky trailed off, disappointment ringing clear in her voice. "I thought you were gonna…"
"I don't want to get into trouble," Espurr admitted. And I don't want to have come out here for nothing.
"Hah!" Tricky laughed. It sounded fake. "I laugh in the face of trouble!"
She forced out a few laughs to make it sound more real. Espurr wasn't buying it.
"You sound constipated," she said.
"Pbht." Tricky blew a raspberry. "Rude."
"Don't you worry about what Nurse Audino would say if she came back and we weren't there?" Espurr said, a bit more assertively. "You promised it would be a quick trip."
Tricky deflated. Even she couldn't refute that was true. Assuming she'd made her point, Espurr turned around and started searching around the square, her pace quickening as she went. She just wanted to find a phone box. Maybe the Café Connection had one…
"Wait, c'mon!" Tricky cried dejectedly, running back and forth and orbiting Espurr as she walked away from the square. "It won't even take that long! It'll just be in and out! It's probably nothing anyway!"
"Tricky, don't you have other friends to play with?" Espurr pleaded tiredly. "Why can't you go help those two who went ahead? Why do you need me?"
She was injured anyway. It wasn't like she'd be much help at all.
"Because..." Tricky trailed off, her tail swooshing erratically. It cramped up and she shuddered in pain. "They don't... you don't... just, c'mon! Pleeeaaase?"
Espurr did her best to march forward and ignore her. Phone box. Just keep calm… Yesterday was beginning to flash through her head again — her harrowing trip through the woods, the strange pokemon that had chased her… She couldn't go back into another spooky forest. She just couldn't. What if it was the forest? What if the Coneheads were still out there, looking for her? What if they… What if they found Deerling and Shelmet? And Goomy, whoever that was?
Espurr hadn't realised she'd stopped walking until Tricky stopped prancing around her, head tilting in confusion.
"…Does this mean you changed your mind?" she asked hopefully.
Espurr's eyes widened with a gasp, and she suddenly tugged Tricky by her front leg into a narrow alleyway without warning.
"Hide!"
"Hey, what gives—" Tricky started to fuss, but Espurr quickly put her good paw up against Tricky's snout in a shushing motion.
"Shh," she said. "Look. Nurse Audino's coming back!"
Sure enough, the pink-and-yellow pokemon was leisurely hiking into the woods towards the school, unaware that the two kids she'd left alone were watching her at this very moment. Espurr's tail sunk a bit, curling around her. Oh, they were so done for. Could they even get back before Audino did?
"No biggie!" Tricky, unexpectedly, leapt up with new life. "We'll just take the loooong way around. If we're quick, she won't even know we were missing! Follow me!"
She began to dash down the thin alleyway, stopping and turning back some twelve feet away from Espurr.
"C'mon, slowpoke!" She yelled back from across the alley. "At this rate, taking the long way around won't be a shortcut!"
Espurr just couldn't move as fast as Tricky could, and that was a fact. She kept stumbling over her still-unsteady legs and needing to lean against the wall for balance every several strides. How was she even going to keep up, at this rate?
Heya, back for the next review of my review tag. This technically is what was asked for to satisfy it, which is a bit ironic since you bumped things on the day that I wrapped this review up. ^^;
But I suppose that’s a reason to come back to this story sometime soon. Let’s check up and see how Espurr’s doing, hm?
As far as Espurr was concerned, and she figured she was rather smart for a kid, unusual things just didn't happen to people like her. They happened to people who were completely ordinary and turned their homework in an hour before the due date; or to people who were completely unordinary and did squats at the bus stop while wearing a snorkel mask. But they just didn't happen to people caught in the middle. Those were the rules.
Espurr was only sixty-three percent ordinary, which was about as in the middle as you could be. She lived in a normal house in a normal neighbourhood in a normal city that had won an award for being the most boring city in the entire world. Her parents wore identical pairs of spectacles, and both were accountants for a company that sold luxury lightbulbs. Espurr read her favourite book about insects in a corner during recess, thought Wednesday was a deep purple colour, and had been kicked off the girls' football team for not showing up to practise. She never had the same answers as anyone else in class, wasn't allowed to wear her hair or clothing in any of the popular styles, and hadn't had friends since the third grade.
Oh, so Espurr has more of her human memories this go-around, huh? Interesting tweak, and I wonder how it’ll affect the early plot given that in the v1, she has a much more complete memory wipe than this.
Though I wonder if the use of British English spelling is meant to imply anything about her background, or if I’m reading into things a bit too much.
Her life was the same, day in, day out. Unlike those around her, nothing strange or exciting ever happened, and the world seemed to pass her by. There were no sudden wrenches in her plans, no camping or trips out with friends during summer vacation, no ghosts or plays or sleepovers. No secret texts under a blanket to boyfriends at night, no long-distance phone calls to close friends far away. There was just the bus to school, the walk home, and hours and hours of books and stupid cat videos.
Credit where it was due; the neighbour's tabby cat, a lazy, roaming, ill-tempered beast, often kept her company as long as she fed him. But her life was solitary and uneventful because, as far as she could tell, she was already unusual enough to be a few buns short a batch, and the universe needed to set the scales straight.
Yeeeeeeah, assuming that Espurr’s character direction is about the same as it was in v1, I can understand why she takes a shine to recklessly seeking out adventure.
Though I suppose the cat videos and the neighbor cat would explain a thing or two about why the Voice of Life or whoever gave that interview to her chose to cat-ify her.
So when she finished recording her day in her old, battered notebook, like she had all the days before. When her old chewed pencil left the yellowed paper and she shut it and the lamp off and fell backwards into bed, and she laid there waiting for the icy blue covers to warm up and stared at the spiderlike shadows of branches reaching across her ceiling. She reflected on how empty her day was, just like the page she'd been writing on.
I kinda wonder if this sentence ought to be broken up into at least two or three. Like I get that the semicolon is there to conjoin two distinct thoughts, but that is a long singular sentence there. .-.
She drifted away slowly listening to the wind blow softly against her windowsill, the branches swinging back and forth as if waving their hands to a crowd she couldn't see. It never occurred to her how much of an ordinary thing it was to wake up the next day where she'd gone to sleep.
<><><>
Espurr stirred, groaning and shifting in something that didn't quite feel like her mattress. Her bedcovers were missing. Had they fallen off? Her eyes felt glued shut. Her head ached and swam with fog, her legs tired, her throat scratchy, like she was sick with a fever. A pounding headache knocked between her eyes.
I kinda wonder if the paragraph where we go from normalcy to the start of Espurr as a Pokémon works a bit better if it’s separated by a hard scene break. Especially if those memories we saw her having earlier for whatever reason don’t carry on past this point.
She took a breath, and her nose wrinkled up. There was a scent in the air that was revolting. It smelled like something had died long ago, and the stench was now floating on the wind, mingling with the other plant smells, poisoning the air.
Her eyes shot open, then quickly squeezed shut, blinded by sunlight she wasn't expecting to see. It was filtered through the branches of dense, intertwining treetops, the canopies blending and swirling together into a strange painting.
Fright rushed through her. Her eyes went wide open, and she shot up into a sitting position, scrambling on the ground and looking around frantically. Where was she? Had she been kidnapped? How did she get all the way out here?
But there was no-one around to answer her questions. And if there were kidnappers, they must have left. She was in the middle of an empty forest clearing, overcast by shadows, covered in dead leaves, mossy tree roots, and low ferns. The place was silent, barren of even wildlife. Not even the crickets chirped here. The sound of the wind left as quickly as it came, leaving only the eerie rustling of dead leaves in its wake. As the complete, total silence set in, Espurr's heavy breathing slowed, and her fear was replaced with quiet, tense unease.
Yeah, just this description is making things sound like there’s something obviously wrong with it. Which there kinda is since it’s a Mystery Dungeon. So good job painting an image for the readers there.
Her throat screamed for water, so she crawled through the forest ground until she came to the edge of a slowly-flowing river – the only thing that made any sound here. Her body didn't seem to move right on the way there, but she found the source of water quickly. Something she couldn't put into words told her to lower her head and drink rather than cup the water in her hands.
Drinking felt weird. Her tongue acted differently, scooping the cool drink up backwards into her mouth. She was too thirsty to care.
Espurr: “Wait, is it me, or is my tongue constantly going in and out of my mouth? Do I really drink like that?” .-.
It was only when her hand passed in front of her for the first time that she sharply gasped. It didn't look like her hand. She was missing a finger, and the ones she still had were much shorter and chubbier than before. They were completely covered from tip to palm in fur. And that caused her to snap awake and look at herself for the first time.
Her reflection in the river's cool, slowly-moving water betrayed her: from head to toe she was coated in bushy lavender fur, extending into white on her arms and legs. Her ears were large and floppy, hugging her head. A fluffy, catlike tail swished behind her, unnoticed before. Now she could feel it swish, every motion alien and unwanted.
Ah yes, now she is officially ‘Espurr’ now. Let’s go have a live look at how she’s doing, hm?:
She stared at the purple tail in disbelief, her mind racing to find any solution that made sense. That tail couldn't be a part of her, humans didn't grow tails. It wasn't possible. Which meant… something was on her back? The tail swished, lowering, and she felt it lower, which meant it couldn't be something on her back, it had to be her tail, which meant… which meant…
She felt lightheaded staring at it, stumbling to keep her balance. Every part of her body felt unfamiliar, unnatural, wrong. Her breathing sped up into gasps and a terrible pit formed in her stomach as her mind raced and she tried to understand what was happening, what was happening? She'd become some kind of monster, she wasn't even human anymore, no-one would recognize her as a furry, tailed freak! Where was this? Who had done this to her?
Ah yes, so Espurr did get memory-wiped after all given that she has no recollection of her conversation in the prologue. Though I made a couple of suggestions for minor structure and phrasing tweaks.
Swish.
The sound of long grass and low ferns parting from behind Espurr snapped her out of her panic. A spike of fear cut clean through the shock, her senses returning to her crystal clear. Were there kidnappers after all? She went still and silent, her tail puffing up, twisting her head towards where the sound had come from.
You’d think that, but no. It’s something much, much worse.
In the darkness of the woods, where the trees leaned inwards and the light didn't dare venture, her new, sharp eyes made out the outlines of three figures watching her. They stood three times her height, their posture like full-grown men, but they were thin and bony, crooked at the shoulder, and out of their heads extended tall, pointy hats. They didn't move a millimetre, and they didn't make a sound. Unsure of what to make of them, Espurr took a step back on shaky, unfamiliar feet for the first time.
"Hello?" she asked with a trembling, scratchy voice.
Espurr: “Um.. are you aliens? Since you three really, really look like aliens.”
There was no response from the three figures in the shadows. They simply remained fixated on her, their heads and pointy cones following every miniscule movement she made. Then, after a long, uncomfortable silence, they turned to themselves, and held up their arms.
Lights flickered from bulbs on their palms, alternating and blinking in strength quickly—red, green, yellow—almost like they were speaking. And as the lights illuminated them, Espurr saw them clearly: shrivelled faces shrouded behind gleaming, pinprick eyes, thick and angular cloaks, limbs long and bulky, and each with a crooked skin-cone that stretched far above their heads.
Crunch. Thud. The loud sound brought the Coneheads' attention right back to her. Espurr froze on the ground, eyes wide, breathing violently. The lights in the darkness vanished, nightshade swooping back in, and all the sudden the Coneheads were shrouded by the shadows, impossible to see. A whistle was her only warning: a ball of darkness flew out of the shadows, headed straight for her—
If there was one good blessing about any of this, all cats had good instincts. Espurr's new body kicked into gear, and before she knew what was happening, she threw herself out of the way just in time, hitting the ground and covering her ears. She didn't see what happened to the bush behind her. The sound of roots twisting and branches snapping told her it wasn't good.
Espurr: “Nope nope nope nope… I’ve seen enough aliens for one day.”
Swish.
The Coneheads glided out of the shadows, moving swift and silent and uniform, like they were one. As they brushed up against the shrubbery, Espurr saw how they floated—shrunken, underused legs dangling beneath sleek cloaks as they loomed—and nearly fainted with terror. Time seemed to slow. She watched her life flash before her eyes: her earliest memory of her parents, her eleventh birthday cake, the day she took a train through the woods and pretended it would transport her into a fairytale.
I mean, it helps that they are effectively one as puppets of Dark Matter. Though I see that Espurr’s memories really are more intact this time around, even if she obviously doesn’t remember her name yet.
Her body snapped into action, and she broke off into a run.
On unfamiliar legs, she stumbled to her feet and took off into the woods. Her legs failed her. She tripped several times. Her body hit the ground, painfully. Sticks and pebbles and leaves scraped her over and over and over with each fall and still she ran. But she continued to pick herself up, running desperately until she could no longer hear the swish of parting ferns behind her, no longer see the gleam of a light from behind a tree trunk.
When she stopped, it was in the middle of another, narrower, darker clearing. Espurr collapsed to her paws and knees, panting wildly as the fear wore off. Her chest hurt, her lungs couldn't take in enough air, and the aches and pains in her body were complaining loudly.
But even though her legs were sore, and her arms and sides hurt from where she fell, she had to keep walking. She just felt more lost than ever now. The next clearing looked like the last two, dead leaves, thick foliage, and tall, mossy tree trunks decorating every inch of the eerily silent forest. The light was slowly seeping away, the trees looming further and further with each lost beam. Espurr's stomach rumbled, and she felt her tail and ears flop down miserably with the hunger pangs. She'd been walking for hours now, wasn't there anything to eat?
Wait, she has? Or has it felt like Espurr has been walking for hours and that’s Mystery Dungeon weirdness affecting her? Since everything from when Espurr woke up felt like it could’ve fit into less than five minutes. .-.
Nothing she could tolerate. A ginger nibble off the nearest fern leaf made her scrunch her face up in disgust. Gross. The neighbour's cat used to eat beetles, but she didn't even want to think about eating those. Just because she was a cat didn't mean she had to act like one.
I’m actually curious as to if that’s going to wind up happening anyways to some extent as a whole “mind is a plaything of the body” thing later on in this version of this story.
Soon the air turned colder. The sky became darker, faster and faster. Her breaths came out in cloudy puffs. It was like a sudden icy freeze had descended over the woods. She looked up to the forest roof, where the sun was now orange and setting through the abstract treetops. It was going to be night soon, and she wasn't any closer to getting out of here. Those Coneheads could find her out in the night, in all this cold… she hadn't realised she was shivering until now. Was it fear or chill?
I mean, if you can see your breaths coming out in cloudy puffs, it’s not just you, Espurr.
A tendril of wispy mist swirled around her angular, unfamiliar feet. Espurr looked behind her. From behind approached a massive wall of fog, stretching from the ground all the way up to the branches of the treetops. It was so thick she couldn't see anything through it, and from its direction she caught that scent again – rot. The smell of something dead.
I mean, considering what we saw of some Dungeon ‘mon in the v1 of this story…
The wind that moved the fog ruffled her fur, battering her face with the smell. Espurr retched, stumbling back and desperately trying to cover her nose with her paws. It was so strong! That was enough to convince her the fog was bad. This was evil fog, and she couldn't get caught in it. She had to get away. But where could she go? It was approaching fast, too fast.
She looked up. The trees around her, stretching higher than the fog, had branches large enough to hold her. If the treetops could hide the sun, could they conceal her too?
Oh, so she’s going to break her arm in this go-around too, huh?
Anything to get to safety. She didn't know if she could climb with her shorter arms and strange, tip-toe feet, but she had to try. So Espurr scurried over to the nearest tree, a great twisted oak, and put her first foot on the trunk's mossy roots.
Huh. Maybe Espurr really has been walking for hours. Since I remember that time dilation was a thing in some Mystery Dungeons in the v1 of this story and that description certainly felt a lot like it.
It was finally sinking in that she might not get to go back home. She didn't even know where she was right now, let alone how to get there from here, and even if she did… A look at her paws and dirty lavender tail was all she needed. How would she even convince people that she was human, let alone her?
Hrm. Something about the “How was she even going to get home to begin with?” feels a bit repetitive with the opening of the prior paragraph. Maybe it’d make sense to change the nuance of the second one to focus a bit more on a “where would I even start?” sort of tack? Dunno what to suggest there.
With sickly ruminations swimming around in her head, it wasn't long before the exhaustion of her trek took over and she slowly drifted off to sleep.
Ah yes, while the Beheeyem are still out there. Only good things™ can possibly come from this.
<><><>
Her dreams were made of impossible things. She dreamt of an In Between, a horrible, darkened place where only void and suffering dared to venture. It was a nightmare that terrified her, one she madly clawed to escape from but couldn't leave on her own. Not until something woke her.
The sound of rustling below wrestled Espurr out of her nightmares. Her eyes opened blearily to abstract moonlight, blurred and scattered by the branches above. Her heart sunk as reality set in. The canopies seemed dark and twisted now, and so too was the whole forest. The ground was blanketed by a sea of thick, white fog, snaking insidiously through the trees as if searching for something.
I mean, if Mystery Dungeons are still sentient entities in this rewrite, that might be a bit more than just ‘as if’ there.
Though I do wonder if this would’ve made sense to split off as a hard scene break, since we’re skipping ahead quite a bit from the last paragraph with Espurr dreaming and an indeterminate amount of time having passed since then.
But what had woken her? She focused her hearing and her vision, looking over the branch…
A faint yellow light blinked and lit up the fog below. Other lights followed, flickering away as quick as they'd appeared. Espurr's heart fluttered and dropped and skipped a beat. Quiet horror flooded through her body. She quickly scrambled away from the edge, her heart pounding in fear, paws clasped against her face, vision spinning. She didn't dare to breathe. The Coneheads! They had found her! How?
I mean, you kinda feel asleep for an unknown period of time that could’ve been hours, so…
Swish.
More dead leaves and ferns rattling against the tattered cloaks of slender floating bodies. She could see the image as clear as day. All three of them were standing at the bottom of the tree. A strange psychic sense told her. Their dark auras fuzzed at the edges of her sight.
Ah yes, so Espurr already has her psychic powers at her disposal, even if she’s obviously quite unversed at it. I do wonder if it’d make sense for her to think of it as something less definitive than a psychic sense, though. Since Espurr’s in an alien body and experiencing alien senses, would she even reflexively know that that sensation is a psychic sense?
But they weren't doing anything. Peeking carefully over the branches as far as she could muster the bravery for, she could see their crooked, dark, pointy cones poking out of the fog, still as shadows. They were just standing there. Were they waiting for something? What for?
For you to come down so they can finish you off, Espurr. Never seen a wildlife documentary of a predator animal running prey up into a tree?
The wind picked up again. It blew against Espurr, bringing with it that rotting scent, and this time it didn't stop. She looked in its direction as the wind got stronger, and with the horrid smell came a horrid feeling, like something was coming with the wind. When the branches began to bend against the gale and a roar rose with the wind, Espurr started to realise: she couldn't stay here.
Oh, so the floor wiping wind is a thing in this setting here, too. I actually don’t remember whether or not that was a part of the v1 of this story, but it’s definitely a very
mood. It does make me wonder what would happen if a ‘mon got sucked up in it since bad things were established as happening to Pokémon that got lost in Mystery Dungeons in the v1 of this story.
She surveyed the ground from her cage of branches. The fog still blanketed it completely, and she didn't want to get any closer to the Coneheads. And though she really would have liked them, she hadn't grown any wings yet. Why couldn't she have become something with wings?
Because you liked cats as a human and the voice that recruited you here thought that you’d appreciate the morphic resonance? :V
That only left her one option, which made her tail bush up: the branches of the trees were just close enough to each other that she could hop across, if she was careful. But if it was that or escape on the ground, where the Coneheads were…
Getting onto her paws and knees, Espurr tightly clutched onto the branch for dear life as she edged her way along it towards the limb of the next tree. The rotting scent of the wind had stopped torturing her nose after a bit, but the gale was getting stronger, her fur ruffling wildly, a loud howling rising louder in the distance like a demented roar. Reaching the end of the branch, Espurr realised she wasn't going to be able to clear it with a single stride. She'd need to jump. And fast.
Oh, so she is going to break her arm again in this version of the story.
Fear seemed to reverse polarity. Before Espurr knew what she was doing, she was balancing unsteadily on the branch, preparing to jump to the next. Her muscles tensed, but fright froze them before she could jump. What was she doing? If she didn't make it, if she lost balance… she began to wobble, her heart picking up speed—
A howl of the wind blasted through the trees, and all of the sudden Espurr jolted and her new, springlike legs launched off the branch and threw her into the air.
She jumped entire feet higher than she was expecting. The leap propelled her far into the sky, and taken by surprise, she lost her control on the way down. Catlike reflexes kicked in, and in the final seconds she twisted and thrust her paws out and grasped for the branch—
A gust of wind, as if summoned out of nowhere, slammed into her with the force of a truck. Her outstretched paws missed the other branch by a hair's length. And with a flipping feeling in her stomach and the horrifying, gut-wrenching realisation she'd missed, Espurr whimpered and began the long, heart-wrenching trip towards the ground.
Aaaaaand there it is. Though knowing what I know about how Mystery Dungeons worked in the v1 of the story, I have to wonder if the gust of wind was the MD deliberately sabotaging Espurr there.
A loud yowl pierced the abstract night canopies.
Pain. It was white hot, racing through her and concentrating in her arm—her arm. It was at a funny angle. It wasn't supposed to bend like that! Crimson flashed across her vision, and somehow she knew what it meant. Pain.
Espurr: “Um… how loud was I screaming there again?”
Fighting back tears and sobs, Espurr staggered to her aching feet. The pain made it hard to think, see, feel. It hurt so much. Why was this happening? The pain. Red. It hurt. It hurt! She clutched her arm, but that just made it feel worse. How could that make it feel worse? Thick fog was all around her. The rotten wind swooped down and swirled around her, letting out a ghostly laugh like it was taking delight in her suffering. And then she heard it:
Espurr didn't have to see it; just the image of it in her head was enough to overload her mind and send her into flight mode. She bolted, fleeing through the woods wherever her legs would take her. The gnarled root of a tree sent her tumbling to the ground. She landed on her bad arm. Crimson flashed across her eyes like splattered blood. She grunted and bit back her yowl of pain, crying quietly and letting her tears flow. It hurt so bad.
Huh. I didn’t remember this synthesia thing being a part of the analogue to this chapter back in v1, but I do remember it popping up on occasion later on. Interesting dynamic there, and it helps sell the sense of frantic desperation quite well.
She heard it again: Swish. She looked back. Her tear-blurred vision framed an image that burned into her mind: an emerald cape attached to a large, lean, dark figure, striding towards her through the ghostly fog. She felt the evil flow out from them. Their overwhelming aura of darkness singed the ends of their cloak, searing itself into her vision.
Espurr, barely lucid, hanging on by the barest of grips, shut her eyes tight and stumbled into a run again, only able to flee for her life.
An audino quietly picked the herbs and weeds from around a small bush in the forest, slipping them into her exploration bag. It was the full moon, and her herb stores were running low again.
Fresh-picked herbs were always available east of the Lively Mountain Range, but rarely grew anywhere west of it. They were so vital to Audino's medical practices, but somehow they were the hardest thing to get a hold of. She could always get them from Kecleon, but the miser overcharged for them and everymon knew it. She had been lucky to find this clutch of them sitting around the nearby mystery dungeon. Mystery dungeons being what they were, Audino had returned once every month at the full moon—she was superstitious—and found the exact same bush with the exact same clutches of herbs awaiting her.
I mean, if Kecleon in this story gets them the same way he canonically does in Rescue Team… yeah, he’s definitely overcharging. ^^;
Of course, finding the bush was a different beast entirely—every time Audino came looking for it, it was always in a different place. But that was to be expected of a dungeon. The places were always rearranging themselves however they saw fit. Audino was just grateful she'd found the bush quickly this time. Something was different tonight, and she could smell it in the air. It was like the dungeon had grown darker, making her fur bristle, and her surroundings put her on guard.
Oh, so the “evil smell” of the Mystery Dungeon is something that Pokémon in general can pick up on.
The lack of apparitions around at this time of night made her ears twitch with uneasiness too. The dungeon's natural defence apparitions mostly came out when it was dark. The ones here were weak enough for a child to defeat and they knew their limits, but all the same, they were never beings to shy away from a fight they thought they could pick. Audino had been in enough dungeons to know… if there were no dungeon apparitions, there was usually something worse around.
I mean, I suppose ‘puppets of Dark Matter that may or may not be Void Shadows’ would be quite a bit worse, yes.
And whatever it was, Audino didn't want to meet it tonight. She kept the escape orb she had bought from Kecleon's specifically for this occasion in one of the bag's looser pockets, just in case she'd need to make an impromptu escape.
Which considering Espurr’s pursuers… yeah, probably for the best, really.
She looked up from her herb picking in confusion as an unnatural wind blew past her, shaking the trees with visible anger as it went. It stank of vicious rot. In the distance, she could see what looked like a thick wall of mist. Worry flooded through Audino, her paw slipping into her weathered explorer's bag and clutching her escape orb tightly. This dungeon wasn't supposed to do that... this dungeon was too weak for that. Something was very wrong here.
I actually wonder if Mystery Dungeons are also extensions of Dark Matter in this setting. Since its behavior has been eerily coordinated along with the Beheeyem’s there.
There was suddenly a loud thump in the distance, accompanied by a sickening crack. Audino had half a mind to just smash the orb right now and forget her herbs. But that notion disappeared once she heard the yowl of pain that followed. Whatever pokemon had made it sounded rather young… But a dungeon apparition, even a weaker one, could spell trouble for her at this point.
Suddenly, Audino saw the silhouette of a small pokemon running straight in her direction through the fog. Was it a dungeon apparition? Her grip on the escape orb became tight enough to whip out on command. She watched as within seconds, an espurr stumbled out of the distant mist and into the immediate area, running frantically through the woods. For a split second, Audino hesitated. Espurr weren't apparitions native to this dungeon. So why was one here?
Wait, I just realized that dungeonmons are being called ‘dungeon apparitions’. Implying that they’re more on the ghostly side of things this time around?
Espurr: “Help! Help! These weird coneheaded… things are after me!” O.O
Audino: “I beg your pardon-?” ._.;
She only had to see the look in the espurr's eyes to understand completely. Their eyes glimmered in the moonlight with a look of terror, an intelligent look. By now, the espurr had seemed to realise Audino wasn't a hostile apparition, and changed their course directly towards her.
"Help!" the pokemon hoarsely cried out in terror.
that wrenched Audino's heart wrenched at the espurr’s terrified cries, and watched how they clutched their left arm to their chest as they stumbled up to her. Audino studied the arm with a nurse's precision, identifying the fracture in a matter of seconds. It wasn't easy to break a pokemon's bones. That thump, that yowl… had something done this to her?
IMO, Espurr’s line works a bit better if it’s separated from the following paragraph, with the first sentence in particular of the second paragraph feeling like it loses its impact a bit from its length and the multiple things going on in it.
Something that was approaching from the fog at this very moment. Hints of the strongest wind yet began to blow through Audino's fur as she hurriedly beckoned the espurr towards her. Behind the terrified child, she could see a trio of silhouettes approaching, framed by flickering lights. Red, yellow, green…
The espurr reached Audino, violently shivering from cold and terror. Audino hugged her close, keeping an eye on both the wind and the approaching pokemon.
Audino: “Okay, yeah. I think I’ll skip the herbs today!” O_O;
As the wind grew stronger, the pokemon approached, and Audino got her first good look at them: a trio of beheeyem, ghostly lights flickering in the fog. Their crooked cones stood tall into the night; their eyes gleamed brighter than lights and sent chills down Audino's spine. Those weren't wild looks either; they were too shrewd, too calculated. Whatever they were… they knew what they were doing. Audino's eyes narrowed. Her arm around Espurr tightened.
"Stay close, and whatever you do, don't let go. Understand?" Audino instructed loudly. The espurr nodded, staring at the beheeyem and holding back tears.
Ah yes, time to pop that Escape Orb, since… yeah. If these three still have their party trick from the v1 version of the story, attempting to outrun them is a really, really bad idea.
There was no more time to waste. The howling of the wind was picking up, turning into a rancid gale, and it brought the creeping, looming wall of fog with it. Any longer, Audino knew, and the approaching pokemon would be the least of their worries. In one swift motion, she hugged Espurr tight and whipped out the escape orb.
"Shut your eyes!" she yelled to Espurr, hurling the orb at her feet. It shattered and exploded into a plume of brilliant, blue-white smoke, and when the smoke cleared, Audino and Espurr were nowhere to be found.
I actually am a bit surprised that the Beheeyem didn’t make more of an effort to get at Espurr here. Though if Dark Matter still has a mole in Serenity Village in this go around, I suppose that could explain a thing or two about the seeming lack of fight here. And it’d be a decent hint that Espurr’s not as safe as she really thinks she is.
Huh. Nice track, and it works pretty well with this chapter. I really should get around to watching PiB 2 sometime.
Okay, so full disclosure, I read the analogue to this chapter in the original version of the story, so quite a bit of it felt familiar to me… except for the parts that didn’t. Especially the opening showing us glimpses of Espurr’s life as a human. I had to look back to sanity-check it, but yup. It definitely wasn’t there. So kudos on managing to make things feel fresh for your repeat readers. It doesn’t hurt that the sequence of events was fun to read, since it does a good job of selling a sense of suspense and getting into the heads of the characters.
I don’t have a whole lot to complain about regarding this chapter beyond a couple of quibbles I had about phrasing or some paragraphs that I felt worked better broken up into smaller ones. The one kinda biggish complaint that I have is that there were two points where it honestly felt like you could’ve dropped in a hard scene break to better sell a sense of ‘change in time and/or place’, but even then, it still worked decently enough, and it could just be a difference of authorial style speaking.
But all-in-all, it and the Prologue felt like a really solid opening, @SparklingEspeon . It does a good job standing on its own merits, and even for people who’ve read the original version of the story, it still felt refreshing to come back to things and see the things that changed here and there.
My plate is admittedly a bit full with reading targets for the foreseeable future, but I’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Since just from what I’ve read thus far of it, I can tell that it’s going to be quite the ride. ^^
Kudos, and best of luck with the v2 of your story.
1-3: Chapter Three - We Sneak Off Into The Creepy Woods
. . .. . .This wasn't the way back at all, Espurr was quickly realising. The buildings of the village had long since turned to dense trees that blotted out the sun and cast everything into various shades of blue and purple. It was darker than the foggy green forest she'd woken up in before, more ominous and looming.
"Are you sure this is the way back to school?" she asked Tricky, who was sniffing something out on the ground as they walked through and brushed aside blue and purple ferns and underbrush.
"Yep! Toootally. We're taking the loooooong way around," the fox remarked, her eyes and nose glued to the trail ahead. Espurr could see her mental smirk. She drilled holes into the back of Tricky's head with her suspicious gaze.
"What sort of shortcut takes us further awa—"
"Stop!"
Tricky suddenly perked up straight, sticking out a paw and her tail to stop Espurr from heading any further.
"I'm going in after him!" the sound of voices through the underbrush up ahead caught Espurr's ears.
"No! You c-can't! We… we're not gonna let anything bad happen to you!"
"Like you didn't let anything bad happen to Goomy?"
There was a scoff, followed by the clip-clop of someone backing away.
"Save it. You two go in after him if you're so chivalrous."
"W-why do we need to do that? I'm sure he's fiiiine, he's just late."
"Pancham, you eejit, he should have been back hours ago!"
"You brought us here?" Espurr snapped under her breath at Tricky. The corners of her vision were tinted with magenta annoyance, and rightly so! Now they were certain to get in trouble, and if those strange creatures happened to be lurking around… "I thought we were going back to the school!"
"Well, yoouu weren't going to come on your own…" Tricky said. "Soo I had to improvise!"
"But…" Espurr stopped, at a loss for words. She glared daggers at Tricky, stomping the ground. "If I wanted to come, don't you think I would have said so the first time? You can't just—"
"But this is way more fun than sitting around in the school!" Tricky pleaded, almost like she was trying to convince herself. "You wanna have fun, don't you?"
Cold anger laced Espurr's face, lashing across her eyes as ice blue. She made sure as much of it pierced through as possible. If she'd had laser eyes, Tricky would have been a pile of dust.
"I guess we have very different ideas of f—"
"Who's that?" Deerling yelled loudly towards the brushes, stealing the voice out of Espurr's mouth. "Show yourselves!"
Tricky bounded forward, throwing apart the blue-purple leaves of the foliage. Espurr brushed past them, following her out into a small, overcast clearing.
"Oh…" Deerling, standing in the middle, relaxed as Espurr gingerly picked some twigs out of her fur. "It's you two."
"You guys left without meeee…" Tricky pranced forward and whined, her voice theatrically sad.
"Well, I didn't see you signing up to help," Deerling pointed out, staring daggers at Tricky.
"Well, no-mon told me!" Tricky whined.
"There is a good reason for that," Deering snapped, turning around. She nodded her head down at Tricky's silently cramping tail, which she was walking stiffly to avoid provoking. "Besides, you're injured. Just go back to the school clinic."
"Yeah! We don't need a loser like you taking up precious space when we're short on time," a third voice interjected. The words had come from a two-legged, stout panda who leaned against one of the trees, his arms folded. Pancham, she assumed. He was chewing a twig in his mouth like he thought it made him look cool. One look and Espurr could tell they weren't going to be friends.
"Who's the new kid?" Pancham asked, twirling the twig around in his teeth.
"Nurse Audino's child," everyone but Espurr replied in unison.
"Hmmph," said Pancham, spitting his stick on the ground. Espurr looked at the wad of spit and suppressed a shiver of disgust. They definitely weren't going to be friends.
"Look, we're on a clock here!" Deerling stepped up. "Goomy should have been back hours ago. He could be in serious trouble! And if you don't want to get grounded for life by your parents…" she glared pointedly at Pancham and Shelmet. "Then it's our responsibility to help him!"
"Hey," Pancham said, raising his arms. "Dad's outta town, he ain't gonna do jack squat. Besides, it's not a big deal. You're freakin' out over nothing."
"I am not freaking out over nothing, Pancham!" Deerling growled at him. "You know that! You all know that! We can't leave him in there!"
Tricky's ears quickly flattened, and out of nowhere Espurr was blindsided by a cloud of haze that coloured her vision blue and blotted out her thoughts. She realised that it was coming from Tricky, who looked distressed. Desperate to get free of the mind-fog, she moved away from Tricky, and it lifted just enough for Espurr to think again. Soon after, it was gone, and Tricky had settled back into her normal peppy self. Espurr looked at Tricky with concern: what was that?
But Tricky was trying to ignore her.
All the overlapping voices and arguing that had been going on in the meantime were making Espurr's head hurt. All she wanted more than anything was to be back safe somewhere quiet at the school. She hadn't signed up for this! But at the same time… Espurr looked towards the forest ahead of her, and saw the dark, tangled mass of trees that lay ahead. Even from here, she could tell something was wrong with it. There were little things off; how it hit the light and seemed to shimmer, how it smelled, musty with a hint of black rot fuzzing around the corner. And there was another kid just like her stuck in there…
What if the Coneheads got him?
The thought of going in after him made her stomach flip. She didn't even have both of her arms right now. But the thought of going back to the school knowing there was someone stuck in there just like her made it flip more. She couldn't just leave him alone in there, could she? She'd never forgive herself.
"He's gonna be fine!" Pancham shouted dismissively over the rest of the yelling. "All of this because—"
"We'll go."
The clearing fell silent. Everyone looked in surprise at where the voice came from. Tricky's mouth fell open in awe and stayed that way. Espurr looked around to make sure everyone's attention was on her, then put her good paw down.
"…Are you sure?" Deerling asked, eyeing Espurr's cast. "You don't look too good."
Espurr's attention was drawn back to her cast, and the dull maroon throbbing of her bone that was slowly beginning to become sharper. She had a feeling she was going to regret this. A lot.
"Well, you need a volunteer, don't you?" she pressed. "I don't see anyone else… unless you want to get an adult involved?"
"No," said Tricky, Pancham, and Shelmet all at once.
"Then I guess it's settled," she said.
"Hey, we won't stop you." Pancham said, gladly stepping aside. Shelmet quickly followed suit, bobbing his shell with a wide grin.
Deerling sent them a quick glare, then cleared a path for Espurr and—reluctantly—Tricky.
"Have fun getting killed!" Shelmet yelled after them.
"Shelmet!" hissed Deerling back with vitriol. Shelmet disappeared into his shell with a squeak. "All of you, back to the town. We're getting some more help."
As they walked in, the bushes began to close up the way back. Espurr looked back as they curled up around each other, creating a dark wall of blue leaves behind them. From here on out, the forest looked like it wanted to tear them limb from limb.
Maybe it did.
~\({O})/~
Foreboding Forest – Area I
"I'm gonna be honest with you…" Tricky excitedly scampered all around Espurr as the two of them made their way through the shadowy forest. "That was amazing! I didn't think you were the exploring type! Now we can be fellow explorers together, and brave mystery dungeons together, and even join the Expedition Society together! When we grow up, of course. The Expedition Society doesn't accept children."
Espurr was still cross with Tricky, and it was written on her face. She stumbled over her own feet with a squeak again, for the seventeenth time that day. Sure, the ground was littered with all manner of trip-friendly objects, but she could tell that wasn't the problem. How she wanted her old feet back…
"We're just here for Goomy," she said firmly. "And we're not fellow explorers. Don't get ideas."
If Tricky had heard her, she didn't show it.
Espurr looked up at the woods, noticing the utter lack of wind, how the forest seemed to stare down upon them with a thousand evil eyes, the rancid scent of decay that once again filled the air… Something was wrong here.
"Can you feel it?" she finally asked aloud, shivering. Her tail dipped low, just above the ground. "This place doesn't want us here."
"Well, duuuh." Tricky was blasé, trotting cheerfully. "We're in a mystery dungeon." She dismissed it with a flick of her ears. "I should know, I've been through, like, 30 of these and come out just fine! You'll always know you're in a mystery dungeon when the wind stops blowing, and everything smells bad, and you get that kinda creepy feeling, like somemon's watching you…"
Tricky's word vomit blended in with the background noise as Espurr walked. How far in was Goomy from here? And what did he look like, for that matter? She just hoped he wasn't too far from the entrance…
"…And you know it's time to leave once this really thick fog starts creeping in…" Words finally stopped sprinting out of Tricky's mouth, the fennekin falling silent as she saw the same thing Espurr did: A thick mass of fog slowly crept between the trees, thick and dense, obscuring all it touched.
"…Exactly like that," Tricky quietly finished. She suddenly looked a lot more frantic. "Already?" she yelled to all the trees around them. Her voice echoed up into the hollow, painted canopy. "We were only here for five minutes! How come there's already fog?!"
Espurr watched the treetops above crackle violently, blown by a strong wind that had come out of nowhere. The hackles on her tail rose.
"Tricky?"
"Yeah?" The normally hyperactive fox glanced back at Espurr.
"What happens if you stay in a mystery dungeon for too long?" Espurr asked, her voice wavering with just a hint of fear.
"Well, first, this really freaky wind starts to blow out of nowhere," Tricky started, her tail stiffly curling behind her. "And it just gets stronger every time it comes back. And then if you don't leave after that, then the dungeon starts lashing out at you itSELF—"
Both Espurr and Tricky, jumped a combined total of six feet apart as the trunk of a giant tree suddenly splintered apart, falling to the ground with a deafening crash and flattening the area of ground they had previously been on.
Shaken, Espurr quickly made her way around the tree trunk to where Tricky was still picking herself up.
"Maybe I should just stop talking…" Tricky finally conceded, still catching her breath from the sudden incident.
"Good idea." Espurr readily agreed.
~\({O})/~
This had all been such a bad idea. Goomy only wanted to prove himself to the other kids. He was nine! That was… a big kid's age for sure! But no-mon ever seemed to realize that. Deerling only coddled him, and Pancham and Shelmet bullied him more than the others, and Tricky… No-mon liked to talk about or to Tricky. Not that Goomy hadn't tried. Three months ago—the first and only time he'd attempted making friends with her—she had roped him into stealing unripe strawberries from her Pop's berry patch. That didn't end well for either of them.
But this was just as bad, if not even worse! Pancham and Shelmet had told him to do it. If he could find the paper they had left in this dungeon from the last school field trip, write his name on it, and bring it back to them before nightfall, they said, then they would finally recognize him as one of the Big Kids and stop teasing him! It was too good to be a dream, so he'd taken the dare.
And he'd found the paper too, on the first floor of the dungeon, no less! Watchog had taught him that dungeons always kept anything you dropped in there until somemon picked it up, and he was proud for remembering it. But then this really creepy fog began to roll in, and suddenly everything felt scarier than it should have, and he couldn't bring himself to move. He was too scared to.
And it just got worse the longer he sat there. The fog, the drafts of wind, the scary feeling coming from everywhere… He had heard that there were wild pokemon who lived in mystery dungeons, wild pokemon that would eat you all up for breakfast if they caught you, wild pokemon that had been consumed by the Dungeon Wraith and set out as its personal hunting slaves…
No matter how confidently Deerling told him the Dungeon Wraith was just a story made up to frighten little kids into staying in the towns, Goomy couldn't help but wonder if the off-kilter howls he heard travelling through the woods really were just apparitions. They didn't sound like the howls of any pokemon he knew, off-pitch roars and screeches that rustled through the trees like the moans of ghosts.
Goomy didn't like ghosts. He trembled again, keeping the paper close just in case a sudden wind came up and blew it away. Was he going to die here?
"GOO-MY!"
Off in the distance, to Goomy's left. He looked in that direction, but couldn't see anymon through the thick, prowling fog.
"GOO-MY! WHERE ARE YOU?"
His heart leaping with sudden joy, Goomy realised where he had heard that voice before. It was Tricky!
"I- I—" Goomy's voice stuttered and died in his throat. No! He couldn't be too scared to call for help, not when it was so close! Too scared to move, too scared to talk… Pancham was right. He really was just a little kid after all. Maybe he deserved to be teased and coddled. He'd take that over sitting alone in this dark and scary dungeon any day.
"GOO-MY!"
With a sudden pang of fear, Goomy realised the shouts were coming from his right now. They were passing him!
"I- I… I—I'm HERE! I-I'M OVER HERE!" he yelled out, his voice returning to him with a hoarse crack. His stutter, the one he'd had all his life and just couldn't ever kick, returned with it. His antennae, already flopped down against his head, sunk down a little further in response.
An excruciating ten seconds passed. Goomy didn't hear a response. The color was draining out of his slime. Had he not been loud enough? Did they not hear him?
But all his fears were dashed when two shadows approached through the clouds, the fog parting to reveal—
A pair of furfrou. They leapt out of the clouds in sync, their eyes vacant and their mouths dripping with drool, both aligned in permanent snarls. Goomy couldn't stand it anymore. He broke down in tears, collapsing into a puddle. He was going to become some wild apparition's lunch!
"Begone, foul beasts!"
Tricky's voice whistled through the air again, and the furfrou were suddenly sent running off once a pair of twin embers blasted through the fog and set both their scruffy heads alight. They howled and snarled, tendrils of fog seeming to snuff the fire out as they scurried off. Tricky pounced out of the mist, followed by an espurr who Goomy didn't know but was just as glad to see.
"T-Tricky!" Goomy happily slimed over to Tricky, giving her his best attempt at a non-slimy hug. Despite the warmth from Tricky's fur, he couldn't stop himself from shivering, his slime trembling from the echoes of fear. He'd never get over his cowardness, would he…
Happiness was short-lived, however. The mystery dungeon let out a bellowing screech that blew through the trees and nearly knocked the three of them off their feet.
"Uh-oh…" Tricky looked up at the trees, rattled. "It's getting mad. We should go."
~\({O})/~
"In my two years of service as the esteemed Vice Principal of this school…"
The luminous orbs were uncovered in the Principal's Office, one of the rooms in the back of the School Clinic. They shone with a warm yellow glow, illuminating the spiky fur of Vice Principal Watchog as he paced the office like a military madmon. All three of the other teachers in the room tiredly sat in front of him as he did it. "In my two flipping years of service… one student has been the very bane of my existence."
Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy were all seated in front of Principal Simipour, the head faculty member of Serenity Village's school. He watched Watchog pace back and forth through the office through sleep-worn eyes, the same tired smile adorning his face as he did it. A short stack of papers decorated his desk, blank sides up.
Watchog suddenly spun on his feet, pointing a paw directly at Tricky.
"Thievery, trespassing, cutting school… And now she's corrupting the newcomers! She's making them think they can do whatever they want, whenever they want…" Watchog let out a hysterical chuckle. "Just think, the next generation: A bunch of scummy layabouts who steal and pillage and trespass to their heart's content! Are you all just going to sit back and let this be the future?" he questioned the teachers, gesturing broadly to the trio of students in front of him. "This needs to be nipped in the bud, right here, right now—"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your… maniacal rant," Farfetch'd started carefully, clutching his stalk in his wings. "But is there a reason you've summoned us teachers and these three poor students here after nightfall, when they should be sleeping safely in their beds right about now?"
"Ha!" Watchog squeaked out a sudden laugh, cutting Farfetch'd off with manic eyes. "Oh, I assure you, Farfetch'd, sleep is the last thing on these little devils' minds…"
"Wanna remind me why you made him Vice Principal again?" Espurr heard Audino mutter to Principal Simipour. She sounded quite irritated.
"As it happens," Watchog continued, "I didn't have these students dragged from their beds. Rather, I got a tip-off from our very good student Deerling and ran into them on their way back…" he paused for dramatic effect, "…From the Foreboding Forest."
Silence fell over the room, as the other three teachers tried to digest that. Espurr held in a pout and stared at the floor. Sure, it was late, but if Deerling had even tried to make a case for them, Watchog wasn't buying any of it.
"But what were they doing in the Foreboding Forest, I hear you ask?" Watchog continued. "Why, none other than… a dare!"
He whipped out the paper with Goomy's slimy paw-writing on it, making sure the other teachers could see it.
"And here's the proof!" Watchog crowed triumphantly. "A sheet of paper, straight from the school's stores! And there's only one pokemon who would propose a dare as stupid as this…"
Watchog cast his narrowing eyes down towards Tricky, who immediately looked appalled.
"I-it wasn't me this time! I swear!" Tricky cried out in her defence, but found herself breaking under Watchog's intense glare.
"You said you found all three of them exiting the dungeon together;" Principal Simipour spoke, his expression as infuriatingly cheerful as ever. "Yet only one has written their name on the sheet of paper?"
Watchog suddenly looked a lot less confident. "…Yes," he conceded, suddenly losing a good portion of his bravado.
"And assuming the point of this dare was to write one's name on this sheet of paper and bring it back to the village…" Simipour turned to Goomy for confirmation, which Goomy readily provided with a nod. "Then I think it's safe to say these two were not part of the dare in the first place, wouldn't you agree?"
"And knowing that," Simipour continued, "What would you then say they were doing in the dungeon?"
Tricky piped up before Watchog could.
"We were saving Goomy! Pancham and Shelmet dared him to go in and he didn't come back out, so me and Espurr volunteered to go in after him, and we saved him from getting eaten by dungeon 'mon!"
A wave of uneasiness passed through the teachers at the mention of dungeon 'mon.
"See?" Tricky told Watchog indignantly. "The dungeon was only one floor anyway…"
"Then, I think it's settled," Simipour concluded.
Watchog caught his jaw just in time to stop it from falling open in shock. "You aren't seriously going to let them go unpunished, Principal?!" he asked in shock.
"Oh, certainly not," Simipour replied, clasping his hands. "Children going into mystery dungeons unsupervised is grave misbehaviour indeed. But…"
He glanced towards Tricky, Espurr, and Goomy.
"…The cause was noble, and I have a hunch little Goomy here won't be venturing outside the bounds of the village on his own anytime soon. Therefore, excessive punishment is unnecessary. A week's worth of detention will do."
"Detention for a week?!" both Tricky and Watchog cried out.
"But we went in to save someone," Espurr said. She figured she might as well plead her case. "How come we're being punished?"
"For leaving the school without permission while you were injured," interjected Audino sternly.
"Dungeons are incredibly dangerous places. You should have come to an adult instead," Simipour replied.
"Like the adults would ever set foot into a dungeon…" Tricky huffed out of the corner of her mouth.
"One week is final. And unless you'd like me to make it two, I highly suggest leaving it there," Simipour finished, pointing his half-closed eyes towards Tricky.
With little more than a squeak of fear, Tricky disappeared out the door, only stopping once to groan in pain as her tail cramped halfway down the hall.
"Wait!" Audino called out after her, grabbing her exploration bag and dashing out after Tricky. "You still need healing! I'm ordering you back to the clinic!"
The door slammed shut behind them, leaving only three teachers and two students in a silent office.
"I-I think I s-should be going," Goomy finally stuttered out, his antennae slightly floppy. The excitement of the day's events must have been finally beginning to get to him.
"I agree," Simipour replied. "If I remember, you live in the same area as Farfetch'd, correct?"
Goomy thought about it for a second, then nodded. His antennae bounced back and forth. Simipour turned to Farfetch'd.
"If you would do the honours…" he asked. Farfetch'd nodded and left without another word. Goomy slimed off in his wake.
"W-what about Pancham?" Watchog sputtered as the door closed. "Aren't we gonna punish him too? I say two weeks' detention."
"Now now, Watchog," Simipour said. "Pancham and Shelmet's family has been historically difficult when it comes to punishments."
"W—" Watchog began. "W-we can't just not do anything!"
"You know his father," Simipour yawned. "The Kecleon merchant folk are a hassle to deal with, and that's from a distance. Lecture him, tell him to clean the school clinic tomorrow, and leave it at that."
Espurr looked at Watchog as he silently mulled over his options. A moment later, he stormed out, letting the door swing shut behind him.
"Espurr, was it?"
Espurr glanced up at Simipour, who still wore the same, lethargic expression on his face. His eyes were shut like he was an inch from sleep. She nodded. "Yes, sir."
"I heard about your predicament last night," he told her, still seated. "I must say, it was rather reckless of you to charge into yet another mystery dungeon only the day you got here, especially with that arm."
He opened a drawer below his desk and put the stack of papers in front of him into it.
"The pokemon who chased you have been sighted several times in the past several days searching the area. Highly dangerous, do not approach." Simipour's voice lost its airiness. "That is why, for the time being, I strongly implore you to stay within the bounds of this village. For your own safety, of course."
Espurr suddenly felt jittery, almost like she wanted to puke. She barely kept it together.
"You mean… they're lurking around here?" she asked.
"Quite possibly." Simipour closed the drawer and leaned back in his seat. "But, for now, I think it best that you stop allowing such thoughts to clog up your mind, and take kind Nurse Audino up on her offer to let you stay at the School Clinic."
Left to mull over the very frightening prospect of potential boogeymon murderers lurking around the town limits, Espurr nodded silently, and politely bid Principal Simipour good night. She looked back once on the way out, but Simipour was already snoozing with his head on his desk.
~\({O})/~
"And I mean it this time." Audino stopped at Tricky's straw bed on her way into one of the clinic's other rooms. "Stay in your beds, or I'll see what I can do about extending that weeks' detention to a month."
Satisfied at the suitably frightened look on Tricky's face, Audino draped a thick tarp over each of the high-up baskets containing luminescent moss that lit the room with a bright blue glow, then continued into the clinic's other room, leaving the door open just a crack behind her.
"It's so unfaaiiir," Tricky whined once they were alone, flopping down on the bed. "We save Goomy once and we get thrown in detention. The adults never do anything right!"
Espurr carefully helped herself to one of the berries on the plate between them, and took a bite as she tuned Tricky's whining out. She felt very calm while eating, which was odd considering the past few days. It seemed like she should feel more of anything, really. Fear, fright, desperation? Instead, she felt untethered, detached, weirdly floaty, like her mind was still sorting through it all.
"What's wrong?" Tricky asked. Espurr realised rather than eating, she was staring down at her half-eaten berry with a stricken stare.
"Nothing," Espurr said. Another thing she couldn't say aloud. "Just the dungeon."
"I know what you meeeaan," Tricky groaned, flopping herself backwards on her bed of straw. She really didn't. "That dungeon was so cool, though. I've only been in it twice before. Usually it has more floors than that…"
What replaced the emptiness, and Tricky's endless droning, was a hollow feeling Espurr wistfully recognised as homesickness. She wasn't a stranger to that, but it only felt more vast and overwhelming now. The more she learned about this place, the further away everything she did know seemed. How would she ever be able to make her way back home from all of this?
A little while later, Espurr glanced at Tricky, who had drifted off to sleep through her rambling. She was still muttering gibberish in her slumber, the half-eaten celery stalk resting idly at the foot of her dangling paws. Espurr just lay awake in bed, watching nighttime branches grasp along the wooden ceiling that was so unfamiliar compared to the one she knew. What a strange place she'd ended up in, and how she wished for the comfort of her room again…
Dear diary,
I'm writing to you in my head because I don't have a diary right now. I don't know if I'll ever have a diary again. Or if I'll see another book. I don't think they read books here, I didn't see a single one. That's awful and horrifying! I think I would die if I never saw books again. Or a library.
I never thought I would say it, but I actually miss Kansas. Everything's strange here. I miss my house, I miss the library, I miss all the buildings in my town and the stupid oatmeal for breakfast that I hate. I miss the trains that are never on time. I even wish my maths teacher was there to scream at me. I don't… I don't know. I don't know what's going on. I wish someone would just tell me what was going on!
I'm keeping where I come from secret because I don't know how the people who live here would take it. I don't know if there's anyone else like me. Maybe there isn't. Maybe I'm stuck here forever. I'd give anything to go back. I'd do anything if I could just be human again, and if there weren't any mystery dungeons, and if I wasn't in a strange room with a talking fox that no-one else even likes.
Maybe it's a dream. Maybe it's a dream? Please god, please let it all be a dream. I just want it to be… be a… dream…
Heya, I picked up your chapter for offsite review tag, and figured that it’d make for a good Daylight Savings Time special before I get my time and energy too eaten up by NaNoWriMo this month. So let’s jump right in where I left off last time with…
Wait, what’s the reason behind the ispoiler'ed ellipses? Is that intentional? Or were you attempting to have an effect akin to an [ indent ][ /indent ] (sans spaces) block there?
The house is bright and loud again, and dad's in a bad mood. I think he found my report card for maths, so I'm hiding under the bed right now with a flashlight and a pen. They'll go to sleep in a bit, and then I'll feed it to the neighbour's cat. The good news is mum and dad are taking a work trip to another city, so tomorrow it's just going to be me on my own. And the day after. And the weekend.
Ah yes, seeing more snippets of who Espurr was as a human, though I can see the very deliberate use of British English there. I wonder if the world of Psychic Sheep used to be a mainline setting, or one that was flatly like our own without Pokémon this go-around. I suppose we might get to see hints more one way or another through sequences like these.
You wouldn't know, because I've only written in you once, but this happens a lot. I think they like working too much. As for me, I'm looking forward to the quiet, and being able to do whatever I want while they're gone. They're leaving money for pizza, but I'm going to buy chinese instead.
The homeroom teacher asked if I was going to the start of summer vacation party with the rest of the school. My parents won't be home to force me. They wouldn't need to know. I told him I didn't know, but… I don't. The library just got a new book in, and it's one I've been waiting forever to come out. I think books make better friends than people do, anyway. I've written in more books than I've talked to people at school, and I don't like writing in books.
Huh, it’s an interesting dichotomy here for Espurr since you get the sense that she definitely wants to be adventurous, but at the same time just kept closing herself off to other people.
I wonder if this was always how you envisioned Espurr being as a character, since if so, it definitely makes some moments of the earlier parts of v1 read a bit differently.
Just between you and me, I think I'm not going. I'm going to stuff my hair in a baseball hat at school and pretend I cut it short, check out all the books I want to get that take at least three days to read, and go walk around on the roof at night. I'll have a really nice holiday all on my own. And all I need around me is books and the TV.
I'm feeling quite tired, so I'm going to go to bed soon. I have to get up early for some assembly event at school tomorrow anyway. Good night.
… This was the last thing Espurr wrote to herself before getting flung into the far future, wasn’t it?
Though I see shades of that “risk-taking, even if it gets a bit dumb”-ness that Espurr wound up growing into in v1. Wonder if that’ll come along faster in this go-around.
"Oh! You're up now. Good."
Espurr's blurry eyes sliced through her fuzzy dreams and gave way to bright sunshine, gleaming through a window, making her shut them again. She was in a straw bed that rustled softly, settled in a large, airy room with rustic, apricot-covered walls and dark brown floorboards. A wide-brimmed, floral hat hung from a hook in the wall, above a couple brown bags crumpled against the floor. She remembered that bag, how the rough brown surface had felt against her fur…
Espurr: “... So that whole forest thing with the coneheads really wasn’t just a nightmare.”
Her fur. Suddenly she felt it again, suffocating her! Her heart dropped, everything flooding back to her in an instant. Her holiday! She had to get back home!
Yeeeeeeah, looks like I was onto something with that read of the diary entry. Though that now makes me curious as to if Espurr carries some analogue to her British accent as a Pokémon, and if so, how the locals interpret it for where they think she’s from.
She tried moving off the bed, to get somewhere, anywhere! But her left arm just wasn't cooperating; it felt dull and stiff, and when she tried to move it, a sharp red pain rang out and made her gasp.
Ah yes, the psychic synthenesia is back in action.
Espurr: “... Right, I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. Almost forgot about that part.”
"Oh! Don't do that please." Someone jotted over, the floorboards creaking under them, and she felt unfamiliar paws grab her and settle her back into bed. "You still need rest!"
The voice and sudden jostling jarred Espurr from her panic, and she looked up. Helping her back on the bed was the strange creature from before, who was pink and yellow from head to foot and stood on two legs. She stared Espurr down with her brilliant blue eyes, making sure she was settled properly.
She stood up, towering over Espurr, and returned to the cabinet she was rifling through—it was ornate, the white paint peeling, and full of all sorts of strong-smelling things—and pulled something leaflike out of it.
"None other than Serenity Village," said the pink creature with her back to Espurr, folding something on the counter. "You collapsed the moment we arrived–half delirious, I suspect. Just before our end-of-week shopping trip, too. You're lucky Kecleon's stays open late Saturday nights. Not that I'd buy from him on a good day, but…"
Audino: “Again, you were half-delirious. There’s not all that much interesting outside Serenity Village at night anyways.”
Another dull throb from Espurr's arm. It wasn't a wonder she was delirious. Serenity Village wasn't anywhere on the map—at least, not anywhere Espurr knew about.
Espurr: “Considering that I’m a cat at the moment, how sure am I that that weird song from earlier isn’t an accurate description of where I am right now?”
"Where's that?" she asked, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice. Maybe it was just a town she hadn't heard of? Surrounded by… a lot of things she hadn't heard of.
I’m a little surprised that Espurr is considering this train of thought when she’s a cat right now, but I suppose that “I woke up in a functionally different world” sounds crazy saying it out loud even without getting the magical portal wardrobes involved.
Audino looked back from whatever she was doing on the counter and gave her an odd look.
I actually wonder if there will be other PSMD-derived locations that will get slight place renames this go-around to emphasize that this is an AU. Something to keep an eye out for, I guess.
Though waaaaaait, if this narration is meant to be from Espurr’s perspective specifically, does she know that Audino is ‘Audino’ here?
The pink creature thought for a second, like she was trying to figure out what to say. Espurr could glean that from the edges of her speech, an unsure, wavering pink.
Waaaaaait, how is Espurr not reacting more to this “seeing color associated with differing moods” things right now, since I’d assume that she couldn’t do that as a human. Just feels like one of those things that she’d notice, even if it’s one of those “maybe it’s a cat thing” things that she’d not question too hard.
"I'll see if I can get a map from the principal's office later," she decided on, "but it's in the south. You know where that is, right?"
A confused shake. Espurr was sure she looked silly.
A second shake. Espurr only remembered foggy details about her home right now, addled and shaken, but she was growing more and more certain that it wasn't anywhere near here.
Audino: “... How hard did you hit your head falling out of that tree? And here I was worried about your arm...” .-.
The pink creature 'hmm'd, pulled out a sheet of paper, and turned her back to Espurr as she started writing on it. Espurr could just about make out the words "possibly abandoned", and "send out notice to surrounding villages" in whispers to herself as the creature wrote, and bit down some queasiness. She felt her heart slowly dropping into her stomach, filling her chest with dread.
Espurr: “My parents wouldn’t have just abandoned me to get turned into a cat! … Would they?”
Finished writing, the pink creature set down her pen, closed the cupboard, and looked again towards the open doorway.
"What are you still waiting out there for? You need treatment!" she called loudly to an unseen person who seemed to be waiting outside the round doorway. Espurr could feel their presence now, fuzzing peach hues around the edges of her mind.
... Had she always been able to see colours like that? No, she hadn't, but concentrating hard and trying to shut it off felt like plugging her nose.
Oh, so Espurr does notice the synthesia stuff going on after all. Guess she just had to see it a few times for that “... wait”-ness to sink in.
"Sorry, Ms. Audino," a high-pitched, childlike voice muttered from outside. "I don't like the school clinic…"
"Well, you wouldn't have to spend time in the school clinic if you didn't go jumping out of trees," Audino said, pouring something into a pair of leaf-made pouches. "Now come in and sit on the bed so I can treat you."
Let’s… revisit that assessment in about 20 chapters, Espurr.
"Not to worry," Ms. Audino continued. "You'll have company."
"Really?!"
The voice perked up with the excitement of a toddler at a candy stall, and a bright yellow fox with fiery ear fluff and blue, ghostlike whisps curling near her tail dragged herself in on one paw and flopped down on another straw bed. She looked at Espurr with wide red eyes, almost like she was plotting murder.
Yuuuuup, though this is another one of those paragraphs where IMO the dialogue and description components would probably work a bit better separated out from each other.
Audino supplied her with a few of the leafy green bags, setting them over the fox's paws.
"IF you rest, you'll be better in a few hours," she told the fox.
Espurrwho was very much not doing alright and could only nod unsurely that yes, she was. Then Audino grabbed her bag and walked briskly towards the door.
“she” as a pronoun is ambiguous between Espurr and Audino in the original paragraph. I’d suggest a reshuffling along the lines of the above to help clear things up a bit.
"I'll be back shortly; I've scheduled another appointment for today. I don't want either of you to move a muscle while I'm gone, do you understand me?" Audino directed the last sentence squarely at the fox.
Espurr: “(Psst! Do you come here often or something? Since, uh… she kinda had a reaction to you there.)”
"Yes ma'am! Absolutely understood!" the fox chirped in a tone that Espurr gathered meant it was not understood at all. Audino kept her wary eyes on her for a few seconds longer.
"I expect to see you both sitting on those beds when I return," she said, and then she walked out the door without another word.
Ah yes, that’ll keep her safely put in your clinic. Not.
A thousand questions flew across Espurr's mind the second it swung shut and they were left alone:
How far away was this from a town? Could she phone home? Were there phones here? Where could she go to find one? What was her mum's number again? What could she do about… a look down at her purplish fur, which wasn't looking any more human than it did yesterday… she didn't really want to look at that. Nevermind that.
Phone. She was stirring from her bed again, ignoring the complaining of her arm. She needed to find a ph—
I find it hilarious that there technically are phones of a sort lying around in this setting, even if nobody would think to refer to them as a ‘phone’.
"Soooo-o-o-o-o-o-o…" began the fox began loudly, crashing a train through Espurr's thoughts and causing her to freeze where she was.
The fox looked over, wide-eyed, at the creature who shared the room with her. The fox drew her single word out until she was out of breath, then gasped for more.
This paragraph might work better as two smaller ones. Also, you’ve got an ambiguous “she” going on in the original again, this time between Espurr and Tricky
"What are you in for?" asked the fox, sputtering.
"Wait, you're new here," she piped up just when Espurr was about to respond, leaping onto the side of the bed.
"Are you…
"Hah! There's no way you're miss Audino's kid, are you?
"…Wait. Are you?
"Huh? Are you? Pleeeaaase tell me!
"Hey, what're you in for? Wait, I feel like I asked that one already…"
"Do you want your questions answered?"
The fox, mid-prattle, froze and went silent as a board. She stared at Espurr in confusion.
Hrm… I actually wonder how rapid-fire Tricky’s peppering with questions is meant to be. If it’s meant to be rapid-fire, it might make sense to explicitly state that in passing before the torrent of dialogue. Otherwise, if this is meant to be an on-and-off thing, it might make sense to interleave some thoughts and internal reactions from Espurr during all of this to sell more of a sense of time passing.
"Well, duh,"she said.
"Then can you ask them a bit slower, please?" said Espurr tiredly, who was extremely not ready for this and felt more than a little befuddled by the constant onslaught of everything so soon after she'd woken up.
Tricky: “Oh hey, small world! I’m here because of that, too!”
Espurr: “No, you jumped out of yours. There’s a differe-” >_>;
- Beat moment -
Espurr: “... Actually, now that I think of it, I suppose I did jump out of mine, too.” .-.
"Woah," she mouthed in amazement, her eyes brightening. "Well guess what? I'm in here for the same thing! Twisted my tail, sprained three of my paws, and my ear hurts" – she wiggled her left ear and nearly wilted in pain – "but it was all for a noble cause!"
"What… noble cause?"
"I couldn't let a fellow child suffer in the clutches of the evil Nurse Audino for a whole week!" the fox moaned dramatically, clutching a paw to her swooning head before groaning in pain and quickly collapsing backwards onto the bed.
for those coming into this story off the heels of the v1. Since if Tricky’s backstory in this story is remotely close to what it was there…
"I'm Fennekin Tricky, by the way," she chirped, popping back up. "My actual name's a secret but I chose this one and that's what everymon else calls me. Do you have a name?"
Ah yes, I see we’ve got HoC/PoV-style naming this go around. Even if I’m still curious as to what the backstory of the original naming scheme in the v1 of this story was.
Espurr huddled a little closer, studying the floorboards like varnished wood had suddenly become wildly interesting. Wouldn't it be nice if she could remember it?
"Just Espurr," she said.
"Aww," said Tricky. Her ears drooped. "I thought you were one of the cool 'mon."
So ‘cool ‘mon’ have names in this setting, huh? That now makes me wonder what the rules are for who gets a name and who sticks with their species name.
"What does that mean?"
"Like…" Tricky trailed off, searching for the words. "Like, the 'mon with names! From up north!"
Oh, so it’s a cultural thing in this world. Though that makes me wonder how in Serenity Village one would disambiguate between two individuals of the same species.
"'Mon aren't cool if they're not from up north?" asked Espurr, curiosity overtaking her for a second.
"Well duh!" exclaimed Tricky, like this was obvious. "Here they're all boring and think that names should be for like, old people or something. I'm from up north. My mum and dad were born there. Where are you from?"
Lotsa little differences from the OG version of this story popping up, since I don’t think that it was ever delved into as to what Tricky’s (self-claimed) background was back then. Though that makes me wonder what is the convention for naming and how and when one gets them in Serenity Village?
The million dollar question. Espurr felt positively unsafe spilling her secrets to someone who looked like they gossiped with the whole town.
That’s less “gossiping” and more “eavesdrop and then turn around and loudly blurt it out for the whole world to hear” >:V
"I don't remember right now," she settled for. If her city's name wasn't coming back to her just yet, did it count as a lie?
"Boooring." Tricky yawned, blowing out an orange wisp of flame that danced dangerously close to the ceiling. She stretched in the bed with her paws under the ice. Pausing for just a second and snapping her jaw shut, she pulled her paw out from under the leaves and twisted it just to be sure.
"Oh wow! I'm healed! I'm finally healed!" she screeched.
She pranced out of the bed and doing a few victory twirls. Espurr cringed as she watched Tricky's tail painfully cramp up, sending the fox crashing to the floor headfirst.
Espurr: “Didn’t you literally just freeze up in pain five seconds ago?”
Tricky: “Yes, and? That doesn’t mean that I can’t walk...”
"Didn't Nurse Audino tell us to stay here?" Espurr pointed out. "Besides," she said, tilting her head. "I don't think you can go many places with that tail."
"Eh," Tricky dismissed it with a flick of her ears and a paw-wave. "It'll heal in a few minutes. Besides, if you listen to the adults your whole life, life stays boring! C'mon, have some fun!"
"Dif' way!" she yipped excitedly, hopping towards the door with Espurr like a dog toy.
<><><>
The building was located on a steep, grassy hill. Tricky impatiently pulled Espurr down the steps, tugging her by her good arm. Espurr protested, but not wanting to lose a second arm, followed along where she was pulled. Tricky led her down the stone steps and towards a flat, downhill clearing with several wooden stump-desks and a blackboard hanging from the branch of a low tree.
IMO, it probably makes sense to either add more transition describing Espurr and Tricky going through the door, or else if you’re going to keep the transition this sharp, to add a hard scene break between these two paragraphs.
"That's the school—school's out today—" Tricky said in between breaths as they passed.
"Tricky!"
Both Espurr and Tricky's heads whipped around, where what looked like a very angry weasel wearing a safety vest was marching towards them.
As is that in-setting curse. I know that it’s a childish-vibing stand-in for “crap” in this in this story, but I actually don’t remember if you ever explained what the development process behind it was, since it honestly feels like it’d be right at home from the proper games.
"Is this another one of your shenanigans?" Watchog angrily asked as he continued marching towards the pair. "Put that poor student back where you found them right now!"
I actually just realized, but what is Espurr thinking about everything going on right now. Both getting dragged along and of Watchog. Since we get some surface description, but you’d think that she’d have more of an opinion of things. Especially if Watchog subconsciously reminds her of anyone from her life as a human that she didn’t like.
Tricky: “Amended orders! Close enough!”
Espurr: “(This girl is going to get me into shenanigans, I can already tell.)” .-.
"They are! Trust me!" Tricky yelled as they continued down the downwards path, Watchog and the classroom getting further and further away.
"Trust… you?" Espurr could hear Watchog's stupefied sputtering in the distance. It wasn't hard to see why.
Something about this paragraph feels like it’d work better as at least two different ones. There’s potentially other ways of dividing it up, but this felt like the low-hanging fruit solution.
Espurr could have gone back to the clinic right then. She was sure Watchog would've taken her. But the thought had already evaporated, barely worth the half-second it would have taken to think. Gears were turning in her head—a town? If she wanted to figure out where she was, and maybe find a way to get home, this was the perfect opportunity to do it. And if Tricky was so eager to roll out the red carpet for her…
"Sure," she said, putting on a cheery front and taking a few bold steps forward, until she was under the shade of the pine tree path. "If it's a short trip. Do you think we could be back before Nurse Audino?"
Espurr: “Yes…? Though we are going to be able to get back before Audino, right?” ^^;
The fox suddenly looked very excited and like she was going to say something else, but thought better of it and instead made to prance down the path, beckoning Espurr on with her tail.
"Follow me!"
Ignoring the dull ache in her bandaged arm, Espurr began to hurry after Tricky on unsteady feet, doing her best to keep up.
inb4 it was something like “Wait, do you really mean that?” considering what I remember of Tricky’s depiction and backstory from v1.
"This is the village square!" Tricky announced loudly.
Espurr, exiting after her, took a look around: The pine tree path had let out after a few minutes, and as the trees gave way they'd entered a large, round plaza with colourfully-roofed houses and tents set up on all sides. The transition from dirt to cobblestone felt odd against her feet. The houses all had domed, acorn roofs, and the paved stones of the square were arranged in colours like a spiral mosaic, trailing in spirals from green into purple into orange. Long, black poles extended above the square, topped with bluish glassy orbs that caught the light. A few pedestrians were going about their business, doing what Espurr had to assume was pointedly avoiding Tricky from the large berth they were given.
The shock made her dizzy where she stood. It all looked so… so different… she felt like crumpling to the ground. This was nothing like home. She was far away from home. Too far.
I actually wonder if that’s going to wind up being a lingering source of emotional turmoil for Espurr this go-around, or if the amnesia helps insulate her from the worst of its effects.
Desperate gears started turning in her head, trying to find some straw to grasp: there seemed to be streetlights, so was there a phone box around anywhere? She couldn't see one. What about that big, two-story building with the lights? Lights had to mean power, so–
Huh. I actually didn’t remember there being technology this dispersed into Serenity Village in v1 beyond some appliances in villagers’ homes. It’s a nice little touch, and definitely going to hit very differently once the story of how they’re kept on eventually comes out.
"That's the Café Connection," said Tricky helpfully, seeing where she was staring. Café… Espurr's eyes lit up. A familiar word!
"Does it ha—" she began hopefully.
"The village is larger," Tricky prattled on obliviously, cutting Espurr off. "But this is where everything happens! You've got your Café Connection, your perfume tent—no-mon talks about the perfume tent—and your Kecleon's stall!" She excitedly pointed them out as she mentioned them; the large, two-storey building with a sloped roof, a striking red teepee-like tent that resembled a bird in decoration, and a green-and-white tent with enough crates and shade behind it that it might as well have been a building on its own.
I went and double-checked Serene Village’s BP page since it’s been a while since I played PSMD, but nope, this looks like it was created specifically for this world. Though just how musky do the locals get at times if there’s a market for perfumes in a little village like this?
"Don't steal from Kecleon," Tricky added in a hush, leaning too close to Espurr's ears for comfort. Espurr leaned back a bit. "Trust me."
Tricky is giving this advice from personal experience, isn’t she?
"And so, you see…"
Stray voices slipped into her ear, momentarily drawing her attention away towards the other side of the square, where what looked like a pink deer and something in a metal shell were arguing. Espurr couldn't help it; once she picked up on a conversation in the background, she was listening in and that was that.
"He's nine! We both know he wouldn't walk into one of those places like that! Not unless somemon prompted him first…"
Ah yes, so Goomy getting lost one of the local Mystery Dungeons is a thing in this go-around as well.
"Well, I'm getting to that…"
"What's so interesting?" Tricky's head curiously slid over to the side of Espurr's. Upon seeing them, her eyes lit up, and suddenly Espurr was being ploughedpushed against her will towards the pair by the world's most energetic fox.
Okay, I’m assuming that “ploughed” is meant to be something like “pushed” or “shoved”. If so, you might find it handier to use those words unless “ploughed” is a Britishism I’m not aware of.
Deerling, the elder one, looked up in annoyance, her face twisting into tiredness as Tricky pushed the hapless Espurr towards her.
"Um… hi?" Deerling raised a hoof in perplexed greeting. "Tricky, what are you up to now?" she asked with a much sterner tone. "I thought you were still in Nurse Audino's office for jumping out of that tree."
Ah yes, Deerling’s still got that passive-agressive complex from the v1. I do wonder if it’ll be played in a more sympathetic light this go around or if she’s going to be as cruel as v1 Deerling could be at times.
Espurr was suddenly dumped backwards onto the ground. She fell with a yelp. It hurt! Tricky pranced in front of her stiffly.
"Guys—you are never gonna believe this—I found Nurse Audino's kid! Really! See?"
"Loser alert…" Shelmet, the younger one, rolled his eyes.
"Tricky…" Deerling whacked her hoof against her face, then shook her head. She was clearly annoyed now. "Nurse Audino doesn't have kids. Plus, she isn't married, and she isn't a psychic-type. How could this be her kid?" she stuck an irked hoof in Espurr's direction.
Espurr was still uncrumpling herself from the ground, feeling quite nettled—from a broken arm to this?—but she figured out almost immediately that Tricky had just come up with the perfect cover story for her.
"Um, that's right," Espurr added, nodding.
The words felt like putty on her mouth, tumbling onto the ground in ways she couldn't control. Ugh, talking to people just didn't agree with her. Deerling looked surprised; Espurr figured she wasn't very used to being wrong. She quickly stuck out her one good paw, trying to move along.
Deerling: “... Has Tricky been putting you up to anything? You can just say so if that’s the case.”
Espurr: “No, no! I’m totally her adopted daughter! She’s uh… very motherly?” ^^
Her paw wasn't taken. Deerling looked somewhat confused at the gesture. Espurr, wilting inside, retracted it. Looking down at Deerling's hooves, maybe she should have realised that wasn't normal here. Extremely smart of her.
Oh boy, that’s a good omen for what Deerling’s going to be like this time. Just like she was last time.
Though, IMO, this paragraph should be broken up, and you probably would find it worthwhile to explicitly note that Deerling is turning her attention away from Tricky and back to Shelmet with that hint of murder that I’m assuming’s in her voice rn.
Shelmet, who had been trying to inch away, froze in terrified silence.
"Show me exactly where he went in," Deerling growled. "We need to get him out of there before nightfall!"
I think that you had a bit accidentally cut after the bit about the “archways”, since it cuts off very abruptly and reads as if more was originally meant to be there, but was accidentally cut from drafting or something like that.
"I wanted to look around the town a bit more," said Espurr. She'd come here to get her bearings, not to take a detour. "Besides, I thought we were getting back quickly? Going after them would take a while…"
"Yeah, but…" Tricky's tail swished between her legs. "C"mon, it'll be fun!"
I actually wonder if it’d have made sense to draw more attention to Tricky’s mood here. e.x. if it’s taking a definitively annoyed turn or something like that.
"Don't you worry about what Nurse Audino would say if she came back and we weren't there?" Espurr said, a bit more assertively. "You promised it would be a quick trip."
Tricky deflated. Even she couldn't refute that was true. Assuming she'd made her point, Espurr turned around and started searching around the square, her pace quickening as she went. She just wanted to find a phone box. Maybe the Café Connection had one…
"Wait, c'mon!" Tricky cried dejectedly, running back and forth and orbiting Espurr as she walked away from the square. "It won't even take that long! It'll just be in and out! It's probably nothing anyway!"
Espurr: “Tricky, don’t you have those others who went ahead of you? Why not play with them?”
Tricky: “Y-You don’t understand, I was looking forward to this, and…”
Espurr: “(This girl has some serious issues that she’s not telling me about, doesn’t she?)” .-.
Espurr did her best to march forward and ignore her. Phone box. Just keep calm… Yesterday was beginning to flash through her head again—her harrowing trip through the woods, the strange pokemon that had chased her… She couldn't go back there. She couldn't. What if they were still out there looking for her? What if they… What if they found Deerling and Shelmet? And Goomy, whoever they were?
Actually, wait. Did Espurr hear enough to deduce that Deerling was going to the same Mystery Dungeon she woke up in yesterday? Or for that matter that those two are rescuing someone named ‘Goomy’ when a text search shows that there was literally zero instances of ‘Goomy’ as a term prior to this point?
It kinda feels like Espurr knows information here that’s informing her thought process that she logically shouldn’t. Enough to the point that it makes me wonder if a couple paragraphs were accidentally cut during drafting.
Espurr hadn't realised she'd stopped walking until Tricky stopped too, her head tilting in confusion.
"…Does this mean you changed your mind?" she asked hopefully.
Sure enough, the pink-and-yellow pokemon was leisurely hiking into the woods towards the school, unaware that the two kids she'd left at the school were watching her at this very moment. Espurr's tail sunk a bit, curling around her. Could they even get back before Audino did?
"No biggie!" Tricky, unexpectedly, leapt up with new life. "We'll just take the long way around. If we're quick, she won't even know we were missing! Follow me!"
She began to dash down the thin alleyway, stopping some twelve feet away from Espurr.
"C'mon, slowpoke! She yelled back from across the alley. "At this rate, taking the long way around won't be a shortcut!"
Espurr just couldn't move as fast as Tricky could, and that was a fact. She kept stumbling over her still-unsteady legs and needing to lean against the wall for balance every several strides. How was she even going to keep up, at this rate?
Huh, well that’s definitely different in presentation from what I recall of this chapter’s analogue in the original version, though I think the decision to cut things down into more digestible chunks was warranted, since it did a lot to help ease the audience into getting to know Tricky and Serenity Village a bit more before we get into the thick of bailing Goomy out from the local Mystery Dungeon. By and large, I thought that the prose and characterization was smooth, though it’s definitely a different experience coming into this story as a repeat reader versus totally blind, even if there’s still enough to keep it fresh either way. I do wonder if that was all consciously planned, or if it just kinda happened, but regardless, I thought it turned out well.
I had a couple of quibbles with this chapter. Not huge ones, but still ones that I noticed. There were a couple parts where it felt like information somehow was missing, with the biggest offender I could see being the bit where Espurr changes her mind on blowing off the rescue party for Goomy, which… honestly feels like it was written in mind for a couple paragraphs that somehow missed the final draft given that Espurr is suddenly privy to names and location information that weren’t explicitly introduced in the story. Like “something something, psychic powers” can be a valid workaround, but even if so, one would ideally need to show off more of the process of discovery to learn those bits of information.
Other smaller quibbles that I had mostly pertained to a couple spots where I didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on paragraph formatting and that one section that felt to me like it could’ve been a good place for a scene cut. There might have been more issues that I overlooked, but I was honestly too busy being engrossed in the chapter to really notice them, which I suppose is a testament to the strength of your writing.
Kudos, @SparklingEspeon , and I hope the feedback was helpful for this chapter. You’ve definitely been doing a good job thus far of ironing out those kinks and glitches that bugged you so much with the v1, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of where the rewrite goes and what new territory it winds up covering.
Hi Espy, I’m here for a little review trade on Do Psychic Cats Dream of Electric Sheep! Again!
Im covering, Prologue 1- A Visit, Chapter 1 A Traveler From Afar,
This rewrite feels just like it should. It made me remember the tension and fun of the original opening and then a new bit of mystery.
Even though it’s been a few years since I read your fic's opening chapters (alas I wished I got further than the old Chapter 6) I remember the way set things up for the most part.
This time we start with your original characters that I've seen hints of before, the Mew, separate from the partner as it seems. And we start off with someone interesting, Rufus the Groyvle. He's requested by Mew to make sure that the young Pokémon who will save the world be protected because, well, Mew is dead.
I really love these descriptions, which is something you excelled at, and you are really dialing it up here. At times perhaps maybe make sure it doesn't drag on a bit, to help with pacing, which I'll get into in a bit.
This style you used to explain characters' situations was definitely familiar to me, as you did say you based it off books. I will admit I particularly don't favor it, but the funny way you used it to showcase certain scenes and to really intensify others softened me up.
I'd prefer if you interchange Pokémon character name and species more often. It really enhances the reading experience and allows for some dynamism. And helps ground either the visualization or the writing in places it might feel a tad weak.
Like I understand that you choose not to give Espurr a name at all, which is fine, but not using Rufus's species after his introduction and waiting to say characters species name did drag things out a bit. Especially the scene with the Beheeyem, as Espurr is introduced as Espurr even when she's a human, but we can't get a translation of Pokémon names for quite a few paragraphs.
The tension from the moment Espurr first encounters the Beheeyem was definitely more pronounced. The monster like description of them and the haunting vibe and fog of the forest later on just before Espurr breaks her arm again were truly great.
The way you’ve morphed the world of PSMD into your own was showcased much stronger this time around.
I can't wait to be back for another review and to keep reading your freshened rewrite!
Though that now makes me curious as to if Espurr carries some analogue to her British accent as a Pokémon, and if so, how the locals interpret it for where they think she’s from.
I left her location ambiguous, but envision her speaking vanilla english probably either in Estuary or some causal/blended form of RP. However as with the latin above I am running everything on "TV animals are speaking human talk for convenience's sake" logic, so you can imagine her with whatever accent you want really. In-universe she would probably sound slightly funky to locals, but this is largely endemic of her being an outsider at all, and they'd most likely assume she's from a neighbouring region/province.
The one kinda biggish complaint that I have is that there were two points where it honestly felt like you could’ve dropped in a hard scene break to better sell a sense of ‘change in time and/or place’, but even then, it still worked decently enough, and it could just be a difference of authorial style speaking.
I'll have to think on these I think... I'm trying to minimise the amount of scene breaks I do per chapter because I don't want eleven-scene monstrosities for sub-4k word pieces, but maybe these can be softer transitions or I might just have to suck it up and do them anyway.
Regarding chapter two - the things you pointed out were much appreciated! I've since gone and fixed all of them. You were right that some things were left out that shouldn't have been... I think after staring at the draft so much I sort of. forgot about those. I also worked in a couple of the flavour bits bc those were really perfect, so thanks for those also
Glad you enjoyed these overall! As I said before, general, in-text blips are not my strong suite on my own writing, so that's definitely bound to be the weakest part, but it's good to know that you enjoyed the chapters all the same.
This style you used to explain characters' situations was definitely familiar to me, as you did say you based it off books. I will admit I particularly don't favor it, but the funny way you used it to showcase certain scenes and to really intensify others softened me up.
Like I understand that you choose not to give Espurr a name at all, which is fine, but not using Rufus's species after his introduction and waiting to say characters species name did drag things out a bit. Especially the scene with the Beheeyem, as Espurr is introduced as Espurr even when she's a human, but we can't get a translation of Pokémon names for quite a few paragraphs.
This can definitely be a bit clunky... it's possible I might just write it out later, though in some cases (the beheeyem specifically) the mysteriosity is what I was going for, so it'll most likely vary by scene.
The tension from the moment Espurr first encounters the Beheeyem was definitely more pronounced. The monster like description of them and the haunting vibe and fog of the forest later on just before Espurr breaks her arm again were truly great.
The way you’ve morphed the world of PSMD into your own was showcased much stronger this time around.
The Daily Pelipper – Your one reliable source of news
BREAKING: Current Prime Minister to tour country, ending in South Ophria
Baram Town – After a successful two terms in office, Prime Minister Grovyle Rufus, Conservative Coalition leader, will be capping off his time as head of government with a celebratory tour of the country – ending in its southernmost province, South Ophria. Late this May, the grovyle will tour its largest city, Crossings, before ending in Serenity Village, the largest town west of the mountains.
A successful two terms in government is an unusual feat in recent memory for a Prime Minister – rarely has one been able to fully complete more than one term without meeting some ill fate before the end. Many of the superstitious believe that the position is cursed, ever since the radical candidate Ninetales Winslow suffered a crippling defeat over twenty years ago.
The administration is reported to have made this decision as a ceremonial passing of the torch, as the government will leave Baram Town, Luftand, in the summer of next year and settle in Crossings, South Ophria for its next term and next Prime Minister.
CHAPTER FOUR: A GHOST DRAGON INVADES MY DREAM
~\({O})/~
Slowly coming to, Espurr felt dizzy.
She tried to sit up, yawning and rubbing her eyes with both paws.
Wait, her broken arm was healed?
She twisted her left arm in curious surprise, watching it move around just like new. The shock was cold and slow-moving. Then she snapped awake, realising that she wasn't in her bed. She yelped and jumped in fright.
Darkness cast its cloak upon her from all sides, blotting out the walls and the roof and anything that was laying about in the background. Even the straw bed she'd drifted off on was gone; instead, she was laying on the ground in the middle of a pool of shallow water that didn't feel wet. She scooped her paw into it out of curiosity, marvelling at how it came out completely dry. Despite how dark it was, she could see her reflection perfectly, as if the sun was illuminating her fur coat. Where was she?
And why was she out of her bed, again? Espurr was quite sure this was setting a new record for supernatural kidnappings somewhere, and it was starting to get on her nerves. If someone was going to kidnap her anyway, the least they could do was show themse—
Sudden light from behind lit up the not-wet-water with a warm blue glow. Startled, Espurr quickly stood up and whirled around, immediately shielding her eyes from what was a sphere of too-bright light floating above her. She took a few steps back, squinting, preparing herself to run if she had to.
"Hello?" she asked, her voice wavering.
"Hello," said a voice pleasantly. The sphere of light descended towards the water, forming into something more solid. It took the form of a glowing, three-headed dragon, which Espurr briefly recognised from an old mythology book she'd read.
"Who… are you?" she asked, too taken aback to ask anything else.
"Me?" asked the dragon-thing, cocking its middle head. "Oh, well, I'm usually called the Voice of Life. Most call me Hydreigon. You may also call me that. Your name?"
One of the few blank spaces in her head. She still couldn't remember her name…
"People call me Espurr," she settled on, eyeing the ripples in the water.
"Hmm…"
The large, three headed dragon seemed to hum out of one head, then the next, idly floating around Espurr in the black expanse almost like he was a balloon. He settled in front of her with a splash, the large draught of air blowing her back a little.
"I'm wondering a lot of things," said Espurr bad-temperedly, folding her arms. Was this the person who'd brought her here? "We could start with why I'm not in my bed. Either of them."
"You are in your bed, actually," said Hydreigon with a three-headed grin that almost looked like he thought she'd make a tasty snack. "You're dreaming quite deep! It's the only time I could reach you." All three heads suddenly looked sheepish.
"I was hoping you'd ask why you're here," admitted the left one.
"Can you answer that too?" said Espurr.
This looked like it was going to be a while. Her eyes still on the softly-glowing hydreigon, Espurr sat down in the water, her tail perking up behind her. She might as well get comfy.
The hydreigon cleared all three of his throats loudly, then the middle one began to speak in a regal voice: "Every so often, this world faces a catastrophe, which threatens to swallow it up whole. You are hope. An outsider, brought from far away to save everyone from the destruction of the world. If you succeed, your name will be written and sung in the pages of history for eons to come!"
"What if I don't succeed?" asked Espurr.
"Well, none of you have failed so far," said Hydreigon. "Those are good odds!"
"Well, what if I just want to go home?"
Hydreigon looked a bit taken aback.
"Come again?" he asked.
"What if I just want to go home?" Espurr repeated, some tiredness from the past few days cracking through her voice. "I have a maths exam tomorrow, and the material wasn't easy to memorise, and I really want to finish the book I was reading."
As Espurr talked, words and letters seemed to materialise above their heads, foggy, crisscrossing in streams. None of them made sense, but among the nonsense she did recognise the equation from Problem Four on the practise exam.
It was wrong. Again.
"Um, it was bookmarked in a really good place and I don't want to lose it," she continued. "And I have three more books to read after that. One of them is supposed to arrive at the library next week and I've been waiting for it a year, and…"
She tapered off when the Hydreigon didn't seem particularly receptive. In fact, he looked rather guilty.
That wasn't a good sign.
"I'm trying to say, you can get someone else, right?" she finished carefully, then looked up at him in hope.
Silence. Hydreigon looked even more guilty.
"Right?"
"I'm afraid…" Hydreigon's right head tapered off. He gazed into the deep, dark blackness beyond. "I'm afraid we don't have that luxury this time around."
The world seemed to stop turning. The streams of numbers and letters crumbled away into dust.
"Wait," said Espurr, her mind suddenly scrambling. Her tail bristled and curled into the fake water behind her. "Wait. What do you mean?" she asked, her voice rising in worry and desperation. "If you could bring someone in, why can't you take them out again? Oh, can't you find someone else? Please?"
"I'm afraid I didn't do the bringing in," said Hydreigon's middle head, bowing towards the water below. "And time is running out. By now, the powers hunting us will have figured out how to track and intercept journeys between worlds. How do you think They were able to get to you before we could?"
The meaning of They registered in Espurr's mind immediately. Suddenly she could see them, ghostly, blurry images shrouded by the fog of the dream, hunched shadows with pinprick eyes and cones for heads.
"You mean the Coneheads?" she asked, leaning forward.
Hydreigon looked pensive for a moment, then nodded.
"They have many instruments to carry out their dark bidding," he said darkly. "These… 'coneheads' may be one of them, yes."
It was… a lot to think on. Espurr didn't know how she felt right now. Except annoyed. Very vividly annoyed. If nothing else, that shone through. She could have personally picked out three students in her class who would have been better for this! The least they could have done was ask first—would you like to go off to the spooky fantasy world and maybe be a hero but probably die?
Somehow, a lot of students in her class would have leapt at that one.
"So," said Hydreigon, breaking the silence. "I'm quite sympathetic to your plight. If, by the end of this, you wish to be taken back to your own world, then so be it. But as it is, we're in quite the sticky pickle, you see, and while you're here it affects you more than most…"
He trailed off, looking slightly desperate. Espurr had to wonder just how in-control he was right now. Probably not very much. If someone looked a little desperate, they were usually very desperate.
But then, how much sway did she really have? She wanted so much to be back in her bed, her real bed, right now, but she also didn't want to be hunted down by weird conehead things. And if that meant playing hero for a little while…
"So if I help you get rid of 'Them', you promise you'll put me back afterwards?" said Espurr, settling for what sounded like the best deal she was going to get.
Hydreigon, relieved, nodded with all three of his heads. "That's the ticket!" he said.
"Shake on it." Espurr held out a paw. Hydreigon looked unsure of how to handle that, before Espurr remembered that didn't seem to be a gesture here again and she should stop doing that. She took it back awkwardly. Hydreigon simply nodded his heads instead.
"You have my word."
"Then it's a deal," said Espurr.
And just like that, she felt a bit better. There was something she had the power to fix and change now. It sounded daunting… but in honesty, she'd take that over having no idea or direction at all.
"So, what do you know about 'Them'?"
~\({O})/~
Not very much, it turned out. There was 'something something ancient', 'something something evil', but Hydreigon was apparently just as much in the dark as she was. Which made her feel really wonderful about the deal she'd just made. With a three-headed, floating dream dragon. Had he really pointed her in the direction of nowhere and hoped it'd work out? What had she just been roped into?
Oh well. There was still some leeway for her to hope this was all a bad, very elaborate, multitiered dream. Maybe she'd read a bit too much fantasy before bed. Maybe, if all else came to nothing, she'd find a way to get out of here on her own. How far away could she possibly be?
If there were clocks here, they probably would have struck nine in the morning. The sun had already risen, the chilly morning breeze had scattered, and the local birds and squirrels had long stopped squabbling over the branches and tree-nuts. Large, impressive clouds rolled over the sky, turning into fog as they met the slopes of the faraway mountains. If she was home right now, school would have long since been in session.
"Look sharp, class!"
The fifteen other students lounging around and talking with each other in the classroom quickly took their seats when loud, portly Farfetch'd walked in and took his place at the teacher's desk. Behind him, a blackboard swung gently in the breeze from the branch of a low-hanging tree. He picked up a leek half his height, then stomped it into the ground like a cane.
"We have a new student joining us today," he began, clearing his throat. "I'm told some of you met her yesterday, but just for formalities, she'll introduce herself now."
He looked over at Espurr expectantly. Until now, she'd been standing off to the left, where the others couldn't see her, and frankly she'd have liked to keep it that way. She wasn't a spotlight person.
She moved over to the blackboard, stiffening up and facing the rest of the class. Fourteen sets of eyes stared back at her. She wanted to die.
"Good morning," said Espurr, the words sounding unnatural and stale. She really truly hated public speaking. "My name is," – a pause to stomach the inertia – "Espurr. I wish to become a student at the Serenity Village School, and I hope that we can all become good friends and classmates in the future."
Silence swept over the classroom so harshly an already-fidgety Espurr could hear the thirty bugs in the immediate vicinity going about their business. A single "pfffft" emerged from Pancham's side of the classroom. Her tail and ears flattened. The entire affair felt so awkward she wished she could zap away into the creepy woods and live there forever.
"Very well done!" Farfetch'd broke the silence and clapped his wings together in feathery applause.
He was the only one.
Trying to move on, he crossed the final name on the board out with a leek. "There's an empty seat next to Tricky right there. Why don't you take that one?"
Of course she got the seat next to Tricky. And Tricky couldn't have looked happier.
"Isn't this so cool?!" she whispered excitedly the moment Espurr sat down, her tail wagging furiously. "Not only do we get to attend the same school and detentions, but we get to sit right next to each other too!"
Espurr thought she heard Watchog mutter something like "Of course, put the troublemakers together, not like I care, I'M just the Vice Principal…"
Farfetch'd cleared his throat again, thumping his leek into the ground.
"Now… is the class ready?"
The class was not ready by any means, but Farfetch'd continued anyway.
~\({O})/~
School passed quickly. It was shorter than Espurr's old school, and almost none of the classes were objectionable enough to be miserable. Farfetch'd had a sense of timing and humour, and Audino was patient and kind throughout her own class, which was about identifying and using the native types of fruit. Watchog's teaching style, however, was akin to an angry, snarling great dane who was somehow qualified to teach outdoor safety.
"Sit straight!" he barked at Pancham, who had been relaxing in his seat with his feet on the desk.
"Any more of that and it's detention," Watchog growled back. "Don't think your pops will save you forever."
Espurr saw Pancham sit up and make a surly, rude gesture under his seat. She urgently nudged Tricky, who had been playing dead as a form of class protest, so that Watchog's punishing eye didn't wander towards them.
School let out during the highest point of the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest. If the heat was overbearing, a full coat of fur only made it worse. And it was hot like Espurr had never experienced it before: a baking, humid warmth, scorching like the sun itself had veered down to earth. It was in this soup-like heat that Vice Principal Watchog declared it was time to serve detention.
"Now, Principal Simipour doesn't hold the same high standard to punishment that I do…"
Watchog marched down the beaten dirt pathway behind Espurr and Tricky through the village's eastern archways and towards mountains, forest, and vast fields of farmland. Goomy, unable to properly keep up, slimed behind them as fast as he could.
"But your detentions for the following week will be personally overseen by the law-upholding gaze of yours truly, Vice Principal Watchog," Watchog announced, his voice bursting with self-absorbed pompous flair. "And I assure you, I. Will. Be. Vigilant. In my—Sharp left!"
The three students wearily stopped trudging down the path at Watchog's command, instead taking a left off the path.
"Mr. Watchog?" Espurr panted, brushing away the dust Watchog had unwittingly kicked into her fur from behind. Not that it did much; her tail dragging on the ground was picking up twice as much dirt.
"Vice Principal Watchog," Watchog muttered. "What is it?"
"Why are we leading?" Espurr asked between heat-strained breaths. "You have all the directions..."
Vice Principal Watchog sputtered. "I… I have to make sure you don't run off while I'm not looking! Wouldn't be the first time we've had deserters…" he growled, staring at Tricky, who was suddenly very interested in the flowers.
"Sharp right!" he yelled a second later. Everyone perplexedly took a sharp right.
"Now we're just back on the path," Tricky observed obnoxiously, her tone gleeful. "Do you even know where you're going, Mr. Watchog?" she asked cheerfully.
"For the last time…" Watchog sputtered, his face red, "It's Vice Principal Watchog! And yes, I took a wrong turn. All straights from here."
After a few more minutes of silent endurance in the sun as Watchog danced around them frantically, they finally arrived at the berry fields: long, open rows of bushes stretched far into the distance, ending at the neatly-clipped trees that marked the beginning of the forest. Mountains, swathed in rolling fog, loomed in the distance.
"Here we are," Watchog sighed with the enthusiasm of a grumpy swadloon. "The three of you will be spending detention picking this week's lunch. Here's a list from Principal Simipour, it has what you need to pick and where." He handed out a list each to Espurr and Goomy, who took it with his slimy paws. Espurr looked over at Tricky, who was distracted by a large, hovering insect.
"I expect hard work from all three of you!" Watchog continued. "If I catch any of you slacking, I have permission to extend your detention periods… into Summer Vacation," he finished with a grin and a sharp glare intended just for Tricky.
Tricky, who had been doing something Espurr couldn't make heads or tails of up to that point, didn't like the sound of that. She gulped, and began to physically drag Espurr off to the Strawberry Section by her good arm.
Goomy accidentally dropped his copy of the list as he slimed after them. He watched it blow off into the fields helplessly, carried away by a sudden gust of wind.
"That Watchog is evil!" Tricky gasped once they were at the gate of the fields, and Watchog was out of earshot. "He wouldn't cancel Summer Vacation, would he?"
"I-I think he would," Goomy stuttered as he slimed up, his eyes peeled to the paranoid weasel loitering about stiffly in the distance.
Tricky grabbed one of the wicker baskets resting next to the large gate in her mouth, entering the fields with a hop and a bound. "Epferr! You're on reading dudie!" she yelled back through the fields, oblivious to any of her classmates' plights. "Goomy, help me pfick berrpfies!"
Then once again, she left Espurr in the dust. Magenta annoyance tinged her vision once again as she glared—could Tricky be any more carefree? Both Espurr and Goomy traded looks. Goomy looked at his slimy paws that weren't fit for picking berries in any way, shape or form.
"Want to trade?"
Espurr handed her list out to Goomy with her one good arm, heading over to the remaining wicker baskets.
Goomy gave Espurr a grateful nod, bobbing his head readily and taking the sheet.
"Okay… I- It says we need 200 strawberries from t-the orchard…" Goomy began, following Espurr through the gate and into the field, where Tricky was already busy several rows down shoving countless berries into her basket without rhyme or reason.
He panted as he went, drooping, his antennae floppy. It looked like he was suffering from the heat far more than Espurr was. Which made sense, she guessed, looking at him. He was slimy…
"I-I remember when it use-used to rain most of these days," panted Goomy as they picked. "It-it wasn't so hot the-then…"
"It used to rain in the summer?" asked Espurr, filling the basket at a faster rate than he was.
"A-all the t-time," said Goomy, using his paws to pluck a berry from the bush. "Now it's ju-just s-s-sun. I d-don't like the su-sun."
"That makes two of us," said Espurr, putting the basket where it was easier for Goomy to reach. "It only rains a bit where my family moved. I wish it did more in summer."
"W-where d—"
"I'm Espurr," interrupted Espurr quickly before Goomy could finish. "You?"
"G-goomy," said Goomy. "Tha-thanks for g-going in after me yesterday," he awkwardly added.
"What were you doing in there?" Espurr asked.
"A d-dare," Goomy said. He deflated a little. "I-I thought that if-if I brought the paper b-back, then they'd…" he shook his head. "Ne-nevermind."
"No, go on," said Espurr.
"They said they'd stop treating me like a little kid," said Goomy. "But I didn't bring it back alone, so…"
"Well, I think it takes guts to take on the dare in the first place," Espurr replied. "A little kid wouldn't have gotten as far as you did."
Goomy brightened up a bit after that, picking the strawberries faster. They moved on to a new bush.
"H-hey," he said. Espurr, concentrating on holding the now rather heavy basket up with her one good arm, looked at him.
"W-wanna be friends?"
The question made Espurr stop in her tracks. No-one had asked her that before… well, except for…
But Tricky wasn't here. Visible shaking and the squawking of some distant crows in the bushes several rows over told her they were out of earshot.
Well, she did like Goomy, quite a bit more than Tricky...
"Sure," she said. She made to extend her paw out to shake on it, but stopped herself at the last second. Goomy gave her a friendly nudge instead.
She was getting the hang of this.
~\({O})/~
Dear Diary,
Wrote Espurr in her head while she lay on her belly in the straw bed in the dark room.
I think I'm starting to get the hang of things here. It's not that different from home, really. Everyone's still animals, and I suppose me too for now, but there's still school and days and nights and crabby teachers. Just like back home.
A pause. Espurr rolled onto her back, ignoring the dull pain in her arm, staring up at the bare wooden ceiling. She felt like sighing.
I will get back home. I have to. I promise I will. If what Hydreigon said is true, then I shan't be here much longer anyway.
I don't know what I'm supposed to stop yet, but there have to be leads somewhere. I'll start looking tomorrow. The sooner I find it, the sooner I can leave. And this can all go back to being a strange, awful dream.
Her mind, ever contrarian, chose that moment to greet her with a flash of Goomy. Did she want it to be a dream?
Of course she did! She had a life to get back to. Her brain was just being stupid. Besides, she didn't make friends. She chose not too long ago. With those last dying thoughts, she rolled over and stared at the wall, letting her thoughts circle into strange, nonsensical loops as she drifted off to a pleasant, deep sleep.
~\({O})/~
Knock-knock.
The wind of a spring gale howled outside, rustling the leaves in the trees and cloaking the pitter-patter of the endless rain. The sound was comforting to old 'mon Abernathy, who had been there to witness many spring seasons over his long life and intended to stick around for at least a good twenty or thirty more. There hadn't been as many storms in recent years as there were in the raichu's youth, which only made this one a welcome sight. Hopefully the grass and flowers, which had grown yellow and sickly over the years, would brighten up now.
Knock-knock.
It came to Old 'Mon Abernathy's attention right about then that the banging he heard from the door downstairs wasn't the wind rattling his doorstopper.
It came again.
Knock-knock.
Somemon persistent enough to knock three times must want something. He was expecting important visitors in the next few days, but he didn't think they'd come so quickly. And certainly not in the middle of the night… If that was them, he'd best get up and fetch the door. So the elderly raichu pulled himself out of his warm bed, and hopped down the wooden steps of his house to see who was knocking.
"Who is it?" he asked as he swung the door open. The face he expected was one of an audino from Serenity Village, the one that was about to be connected by ferry.
But instead, the figure that greeted him was of somemon tall and lean, dressed in a shadowy, green cloak, hidden by a veil of darkness. They were silent. Abernathy couldn't see their face.
"Hello?" he prompted, trying to get an answer out of the strange figure. Silence. The silence was beginning to unnerve him, making him think that perhaps this spring shower wasn't a sign of good fortune after all.
Still, the figure remained silent.
"I'm going to shut this door now," said old Abernathy, his voice laced with caution. "If this is some kind of prank—"
The figure suddenly stepped to the side deftly, and the last thing old 'mon Abernathy saw before the blast hit him were multitude flashing lights of red, yellow, and green.
South Ophria is the most southerly province of Nebyllin, comprising the southernmost part of the Nebyllish mainland and the Firland Peninsula to the west. Crossings is its capital and largest city, formerly a major garrison of the Rescue Federation and sitting at the intersection of two major rivers. Agriculture is South Ophria's largest industry, comprising over 80% of its yearly output. The main methods of travel throughout South Ophria are by ferry and road.
South Ophria is bordered by Terrabondace to the north, and North Ophria to the northeast. The Province is home to a rugged subtropic biome, housing everything from foggy coastal mountains to low-lying marshes to sunny farmland. Its coastal barrier islands, forming the Wet Banks, are some of the most diverse and notable in all of Nebyllin, ranging from sandy beach deposits to tangled mangrove marshes.
While the Eastern Mainland is well-travelled and populated, the western Firland Peninsula has relatively little connection or population density due to its mountainous terrain, lack of development, and isolation from the rest of the province. Towns in this region are small and undeveloped, but the peninsula is renowned for its untouched natural splendour. Numerous abandoned forts and castles can be found along Firland's coastline and barrier islands, relics of its time as an Annex of the Rescue Federation.
ⓘIt is advised to take heightened caution around Mystery Dungeons in Firland, due to an uptick in rapidly strengthening Dungeons throughout the region.
CHAPTER FIVE: SOMEONE DIES AND WE GO SHOPPING
~\({O})/~
. . .. . .The morning breeze rustled Espurr awake. After a long day yesterday, she'd fallen asleep not long after hitting the straw in her bed, and had pleasant dreams. She yawned and stretched, for the first time in the past few days feeling truly rested. Her sleep had been peaceful, and not filled with talking hydras or strange dark places, and that was a blessing.
The door of the school clinic was ajar, the source of the breeze that was coming in and disturbing her cosiness. Next to it, moving a few bins around, was Audino.
"Oh," said Audino. "You're up. Good. I was just about to wake you."
The pink pokemon moved a bunch of bins to the table near the medicine cabinet as Espurr stretched.
"How come?" Espurr asked groggily, still rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes.
"We're taking you out to town to get you registered," said Audino. "Get you some school supplies too, if you're going to be hanging around."
Hanging around… Espurr didn't expect she was going to be hanging around for too long. She was just here until she found out what was lurking around the village limits. But more importantly…
"What town?" she asked, reluctantly stepping off the bed at Audino's behest as the nurse packed one of the bags that hung from the wall next to the door, and put her bright, wide, flowered hat on her head. "Aren't we already in one?"
"This one's a proper town," said Audino, adjusting her hat and rifling through the bag. She grabbed a pouch that jingled, stuffing it inside before closing the flap. "You'll see when we get there. Oh, and we'll be going by water, so make sure you strap in for a long haul."
By water…
~\({O})/~
It took Espurr a couple minutes to make sure her lavender fur was all brushed straight, the fluffy curls atop her head somewhat tamed and the leaf-green sleeve around her healing arm tucked tight. Audino gave her a small blue ribbon that went in a bow neatly atop her head. She had a bright orange apple and a strange blue fruit to eat for breakfast, which tasted like a strawberry and had the texture of a grape. Then it was time to venture into the outdoors, the chilly morning breeze nipping at her fur as she followed Audino down the pine tree path and towards the town. It was still pleasantly cloudy, the morning fog glowing blue and orange in the light of the rising westerly sun.
The town square, deserted in the early morning, was near a beach, bordering a still bay that widened up into the sea beyond. Audino led Espurr down past the acorn-houses and onto the bay, towards a wooden pole that was sticking out of the sand. Espurr jumped back as the water in front of her suddenly began to bubble, parting around a wide blue head with orange fins.
"You rang?" asked the amphibian pokemon, head poking above the waves.
"One trip to and back from Crossings, please," said Audino, rummaging in her bag. She produced a few shiny golden coins from her pouch, handing them out to the pokemon. "This should cover the fares."
Espurr vaguely remembered Crossings from… the map! She remembered Serenity Village, etched in small black words halfway up, on the other side. They were going inland?
"This is Swampert," said Audino to Espurr. "He'll be ferrying us to and from the town."
"Hi," said Espurr with an awkward wave of her arm that wasn't broken. Marshtomp didn't respond with anything but a grunt. It made her want to shrivel up. Clearly, she hadn't gotten the hang of talking to others yet.
Swampert took the coins in a large slimy webbed paw, looking them over before nodding. "Alright, then." He dipped underneath the water, resurfacing with his back in plain view. A saddle sat atop it, with a few adjustable harnesses. "Hop on."
Swampert's back was slimy, but he was fast. Espurr, frightened, with only a couple straps around her chest and waist protecting her from certain death, clung on for dear life as the pokemon sped across the ocean with the speed of a dolphin, slicing clean through waves and weaving through currents. They made a wide bow around, heading into a wide, murky river that snaked deeper inland. Audino seemed much more relaxed than Espurr was, only making sure the bag was safe and that Espurr hadn't lost hold. Espurr was terrified—how had no-one slipped off and fallen into the ocean before? She tried to ask Audino, yelling over the wind, but between the rippling breeze and the crashing of the waves, her words were lost to the wind.
"What?" asked Audino over the sound of the rippling sea. Espurr could barely hear her either.
It was only about 30 minutes before the water pokemon began to slow, however, and then Espurr saw it – in the distance, quickly getting closer, the bank of a large bay was coming into view. She could see in the distance tall, colourful buildings, rising far above anything in Serenity Village.
They stopped at a pier, atop an enclosed beach near the bank of a river. The water seemed to bend and part gracefully for Swampert, letting him skid onto the shallow waves before sliding to a stop on the beach and lowering his broad back, allowing the two of them to disembark.
"We'll be heading back in a couple hours," said Audino to Swampert once the straps had been undone and they were safely on the beach. Espurr felt dizzy on her feet and like she could hug the beach, if it wasn't too large and sandy. She never wanted to do that again!
"Take your time," said the water pokemon, who'd already gone back to lazily floating in the shallow beach water. "I'm not going anywhere."
And silently, he slipped back underneath the ripples of the river bank without another word.
"What is this place?" asked Espurr as they climbed the uneven stone steps from the beach up towards the rocky hill above. It didn't seem far away from the village at all, but it looked like a whole different world…
"Crossings," said Audino, adjusting the bright, floral, wide-brimmed hat she was wearing. "The largest city in the province. And it just so happens to be where all the good, fair-price shops are."
As they walked up the steps, the rock giving way to clean white cobblestone, Espurr's eyes widened, struggling to take in the view. Crooked, three-storey shops selling shiny blue orbs and polished sticks with runes stocked their wares out front, while others were advertising fresh berries and fruits, as well as large gummy-like things the size of loafs of bread piled up in wooden containers. Pokemon of all shapes and sizes were heading to and fro in droves, looking over all the wares and haggling with market vendors, and some were holding up fliers for their own stores. The smell of baked goods teased Espurr's nose, and she noticed a cosy-looking bakery decked out in lovely shades of orange, foods all displayed in the fancy windows out front. It was filled with glowing, diamond-shaped pastries and massive loaves of bread and little cookies iced to seem like white and purple butterflies. She'd barely finished taking in one sight before another caught her eyes and ears, turning her head another way. She'd never seen something so lively and bright before!
Walking through the streets with colours and wonders and smells that never seemed to end, they soon came upon a building that seemed to dwarf all the others, built like a large, domed castle with vibrant cobalt roofs and a ridged clock tower at the top of the building's highest spire. It sat in the middle of town, and at the top of the massive, studded archway, in large, engraved text, read:
SOUTH OPHRIA DEPARTMENT OF REGISTRY
As they approached the building, they stopped near the giant entrance archways. Espurr got sudden dubious vibes off Audino, like she was hesitant to enter.
"Here's our first stop," she said after a pause, adjusting her hat again and leading Espurr onwards towards the building.
The atmosphere changed immediately once they were inside, the white cobblestone of the town shifting to clean marble floors. The hall was built like a massive cathedral, the arched windows of domed roof sending light into the pristine pillars and corridors below and stretching so much higher than Espurr could have ever imagined. Just the height made her head spin! She felt the urge to stand in the centre and spin around while looking at the top until she got dizzy. But Audino pulled her along, heading for the desk.
The only sounds bouncing around the acoustic halls were the clacking of mechanical keyboards, the closest one 'monned by what Espurr inferred was a slakoth from the card on the counter reading 'assistant Slakoth'.
"Can I help you?" he asked tiredly, lethargically clicking buttons on the keyboard with his long claws. The keyboard was hooked into a strange blue orb, which projected an image onto a translucent panel in front of him.
"We're here to get this one—" Audino tugged on Espurr's arm "—registered."
"Name, town?"
"Espurr," said Espurr, prompted by Audino. "Serenity Village."
"She'll be with the school," Audino added helpfully.
The slakoth nodded, then yawned.
"This way," he said lazily, scooting back his stool and hopping down, heading further into the building. "We take the photos over there."
The photo stall was in the back, surrounded by the massive hall on all sides, and it consisted of a bunch of white panels, a lightbulb, and another blue crystal orb attached to a stick. Espurr was made to face the bulb and the orb as the slakoth struggled to snap it down to an appropriate height.
"Brace for the light," he said, and with a high-pitched whine and a few clicks, the orb apparently took her photo. Bright light flashed her. She gasped and looked away, squinting.
"No!" cried the slakoth. "We'll have to take it again now!"
Espurr felt annoyed as the pokemon repositioned her like a floppy rag doll. She disliked picture-taking.
Someone very loudly cleared their throat. Espurr, who hadn't been expecting it, looked over curiously. Slakoth grunted and turned her head towards the camera again, so she spied out of the corner of her eye. Approaching them was a very large, dusk-coloured, striped crocodile that stood on two legs. He wore an official-looking white scarf, and there were suit cuffs attached to his wrists. On his nametag: Krookodile.
"Audino, of Serenity Village, yes?"
Audino suddenly stiffened up, adjusting her bright floral hat again. Espurr couldn't help but try to listen in, even as Slakoth dragged her by her good arm to get a shot of her from the side, adjusting her annoyedly. Was this what Audino had been fretting about?
"Yes, sir," said Audino hurriedly.
Krookodile sighed. His form was shrouded in lime-coloured tiredness and annoyance. The colours around everything still messed with Espurr's head. "Funny coincidence. I was just about to have you sent for in the mail."
Audino stayed composed, but Espurr could tell it was taking effort on her part. The negative aura reeking off of her was singed a deep blue.
"That's just as well," she said. "I thought it would be a decent time to pay a visit."
"Signing on another student?" asked Krookodile, his eyes landing on Espurr. Espurr tried to look like she hadn't noticed, and like they weren't boring holes into her. "Your establishment is under scrutiny right now. Do you really want to bring on another so close to your inspection date?"
"Last I checked we were within our rights to take up to twenty students with our current staff," said Audino. "This makes fifteen."
Espurr heard Krookodile 'hmm' affirmatively.
"Yes, technically you are," he said. "However, the board, after reviewing your merits and student roster, doesn't think your school is qualified in spirit… for the status of state school. Did you know you take the minimum amount of students to qualify? And frankly, given the previous trouble that was reported to us before, along with the relative lack of discipline you have handled the students involved with since then…"
Students involved with… The gears in Espurr's head were beginning to turn. She tried her best to at least keep one ear on their discussion, as Slakoth forcefully adjusted her into a position where she could see them and checked to make sure she wasn't turning back around. Did that mean… Tricky?
"…You'll understand why the province board has begun discussing whether your school should continue to receive state funding," Krookodile finished.
He was staring Audino into the ground. She was cracking a bit.
"As the intendent assigned to your district, I will be in charge of conducting that inspection." He somehow found a way to lean in closer. "And I should hope you'll be keeping things running spick and span. Just the way a government-funded school should be."
Audino couldn't do much more than nod quickly.
"Yes, sir," she said. "Everything will be done on time just as planned."
"Excellent," said Krookodile. "Don't disappoint me."
He looked over at Espurr.
"And I do hope your…" he trailed off, twirling a set of claws around as he searched for the word. "New student blends in soon enough."
"She will," said Audino quickly and hurriedly.
Krookodile snorted, doing his tie up with his claws.
"Then I will leave you to it. Expect authorities to get in touch a week before the semester end."
And then he walked off. Audino was clearly shaken. Espurr could see the dark, deep green shrouding her. She looked like she wanted to faint.
"Who was that?" asked Espurr, once he was gone.
"That was Krookodile," said Audino, her tone gritted and measured. She looked quite agitated. "He's the superintendent for the district Serenity Village is in. Don't pay him any mind; he's never seen the right side of the bed before."
Flash. Another photo out of nowhere, making Espurr groan and jam her eyes shut from the unexpected flash.
"No-no-no!" exclaimed the irritated slakoth. "We'll have to take it again now!"
All Espurr could do was sigh apologetically. She just didn't like camera flashes!
As the slakoth turned her around and took her picture from behind – flash – Espurr peered through the cracks in the panels, focusing on a large statue that was being wheeled in on the other side of the building. It was surrounded by official-looking pokemon, all wearing pristine white scarves, and Krookodile was going to meet them, so it had to be important… The statue was of a large, rodentlike creature with a long, thin thunderbolt tail, ornately detailed and built to scale. If Espurr didn't know better, she would have said it could have come to life at any moment. Was it possible to sculpt that level of detail? It looked beyond what handiwork was capable of, almost… alive.
And why would they be carrying some statue in like it was some big secret?
There was another thing she noticed too. Lurking in the building, watching them go and trying to pretend like he wasn't, was a large, yellow, sheeplike creature in an emerald-green cape.
Flash. The picture was taken.
A green cape. Striding towards her through the ghostly fog.
Flash.
She remembered.
"What were you looking at?" asked Audino, as the slakoth ushered her off the platform.
Espurr, her heart still pounding, turned back to look at the place she'd been peering now that she was in a clear place.
"There was—"
But the statue was gone.
They must have really wanted to get it out of there, hadn't they…
"Hmm?" asked Audino, looking where Espurr was.
"It's gone now," said Espurr.
And so was the 'mon in the green cloak.
All in all, it took about ten minutes to get the photos and the papers written. Espurr had to sign a few papers and stamp a paw-print in black ink. She'd get a paper in the mail deeming her as with a school in a few weeks.
Their next stop, a few streets away and back into the languid mess of colours and noise and light, was a small, two-storey bookshop named the Crooked Book Nook that seemed to lean ever-so-slightly against the buildings on either side of it. It was almost claustrophobic from the ground floor, bookcases leaning over them like they were sagging from the weight of all the different tomes. Despite that, the shop was well-lit, the first storey an overlook decked out with windows that illuminated the many shelves and tables below. Audino read the signs hanging from each aisle, looking for the correct section.
"You'll need one for dungeoneering class, and one for botany…" Audino trailed off, leaving Espurr to her own devices as she searched. Espurr's eyes widened, glimmering with excitement. Finally, a library! Books being her past time, she couldn't help herself from going through the shelves with glee, eventually gazing at some of the ones on display at a table off to the side.
The books here weren't like the books she had back home, she quickly realised. Many of them seemed almost alive, or enchanted – one book, How to Enchant Things, was covered in runes that seemed to glow with green energy, while another, A Light in The Dark, shone bright light off its pages when she opened it. Half blinded and looking away, Espurr groaned and quickly snapped it shut. How were you supposed to read a book like that?
After the last two, she didn't really want to mess with the one titled Teleporting for Dummies.
"Need help?"
Startled, Espurr nearly dropped the book as she looked up. There was a 'mon in front of her that was hot pink from head to toe, except for their light-pink arms and the giant, poofy bangs that hung from their head. Was it hair?
"No, I think I have it sorted," she said nicely, setting the book down on the table. The creature looked down at it.
"Hey, I recommend you be careful in this section," the pink 'mon said causally, leaning against a bookcase and folding their arms. "One time we stocked a book called The Disappearing Act, which actually disappeared after you sat down and read it. Another time it was The Explosive Guide to Explosives, which… well, needless to say, those weren't exactly bestsellers."
"Why would anymon... make books like that?" asked Espurr, somewhat shocked. Weren't books supposed to be for reading?
"Beats me," the 'mon shrugged. "I just help sell 'em. But if it's worth anything, Campfire for A Rainy Day actually makes for a pretty good campfire. It's waterproof, too. Anyway, acquaintances can call me Tinkaton. You?"
"Espurr," said Espurr. "I'm from Serenity Village."
She raised her good paw to shake before remembering people were mad and didn't do that here.
"Ahh, right," said Tinkaton. "Then you must be here for schoolbooks. They're all the way on the other side of the bookstore—"
"Got them," said Audino from behind, cutting into their conversation. She had three large books in her arms, which Espurr read the titles of: Do's and Don'ts of Mystery Dungeons, The Book of Berries, and An Abridged History of The World. "Let's go ahead and pay for these." She looked at Tinkaton. "Mind ringing us up?"
"Sure thing," said Tinkaton, hopping behind the counter. "You're here for the afternoon?"
"Just another hour, actually," said Audino. "I have to get some more dungeon supplies for exams later."
They left the bookstore through the same crooked doorway they'd entered through, emerging back into the bustling, sunny marketplace.
"I'm just going to make one more stop," Audino explained, turning around the corridor and off the main street, into a more residential sector of town. She stopped Espurr there. "You wait for me here; I'll just be a minute."
And then she was off, leaving Espurr to her own devices off to the side in the large, crowded main street.
All of a sudden, the city seemed so much noisier. The currents of the crowd moved against her, threatening to sweep her away, and before long she was moving along with them, just at her own pace. She took in the sights as she went – what looked like a large, walking sunflower was pushing around a cart with colourful bundles of normal flowers, and a dog made entirely of… bread? Was selling various pastries to whoever would buy one.
Her stomach grumbled a bit. Oh, how she wished she had some pocket change…
There was one wall that two blue monkeys with sponges were cleaning off. It was sectioned off from the public with tape and made of brick, and covered in some kind of drawing that stretched up two stories tall – a black flag with diagonal red stripes converging near the bottom like crossed swords. Above it, etched in dripping white paint, were the words "For Nebyllin!"
The rest of the murals from there didn't seem to grab as much attention from the locals. It seemed like Espurr couldn't pass a building on any of the streets ahead that wasn't covered in some sort of art. One of them, in what she assumed was one of the lesser city squares, was grander than the rest. It stood out from the others, weathered and nearly two storeys high. The oils on brick immortalised the image of a blue otter and a yellow mouse standing at the edge of a cliff, combining beams of light from their paws that were aimed at a colossal snowflake in front of them. She had no idea what it meant. Only a golden plaque on the front gave her any clue.
"The Heroes of Paradise"
"There you are!" came Audino's voice out of nowhere, and Espurr looked back to see her running up, her flowered hat almost lopsided. "I thought I told you to stay in one place!" she admonished Espurr.
"It was only a street…" said Espurr.
"One street too many," said Audino. "Stay in one spot next time!"
Espurr pointed up at Audino's hat, which was beginning to slip off. Audino looked up, and adjusted it. She pulled something out of her bag, and lumped a pastry into Espurr's paws. It was one of the ones that bread-dog was selling.
"Thought you'd be hungry," she said.
~\({O})/~
School was nothing remarkable that day. Espurr was more tired than usual – getting up to go to Crossings had meant she'd gotten up a couple hours earlier than she normally would – and was thankful when it finally ended. She felt like faceplanting into bed the moment the sun went down.
For detention, Watchog made them clean the classroom after school. Which meant plucking weeds near the grass and bushes, polishing the teacher's desk, dusting the blackboard, and finally – putting away the supplies that had been left out during class.
"Hey," she said to Goomy as the two of them were packing up. Goomy looked at her, helping jam some of the school supplies back into a bucket.
"Y-yes?" he asked.
"Do you know who the "Heroes of Paradise" are?"
Goomy looked like he was thinking hard for a couple seconds.
"I-I heard a-b-bout them, b-but I don't know wh—"
"I know!"
Tricky seemed to pop out of nowhere, practically shrieking the words with excitement. She also knocked over the school supplies Goomy had been stacking. Goomy melted a bit with a sigh. Espurr felt bad for him. Tricky was a bit like an annoying rubber chicken grafted to a tap – grating on the ears, and never where you wanted her to appear.
"Where did you hear that?" the fennekin asked, panting obliviously. "Huh? Huh?"
"I saw it today," Espurr said with a hint of annoyance, helping Goomy restack the supplies. "And since you're here, help us restack these?"
Tricky carelessly lopped one thing back into the nearby bin with her tail – not at all where it was even supposed to go! – and then began spewing word vomit.
"The Heroes of Paradise are only like, the most famous heroes in the modern day!" she began. "They said for years and years, there were all these wars, like, between the North and South. And then seventy years ago, the most dangerous blizzard ever engulfed the world. It was caused by the Bittercold! The Bittercold was the amalgamation of everymon's mean thoughts, it just all created a storm and that storm threatened to wipe everymon else out. The Heroes of Paradise were the ones who defeated the Bittercold and stopped the storm from lashing out and destroying everything!"
"Huh…" Espurr's mind was already turning gears. A Bittercold… was that what she was looking for? Could that be the monster she'd been sent here to defeat?
"Where are they now?" she asked. Dead, she assumed.
"Oh, they're up North," said Tricky, spreading out her paws. "In a big city named Pokemon Paradise! They say it's so big that you can walk for hours and never see the end of town!
"They built it," she added sagely.
"A-anyways, I have to go h-home now," interjected Goomy, who had cleanly put everything back in the bucket while they were talking. It was the last thing to put away. Yawning, he bid them goodbye and began to slime off. Tricky yawned.
"Yeah, me toooo…" she whined. "See you later, Espurr!" she waved as she pranced off, leaving Espurr completely alone to put the bucket away in its proper place. At least there wasn't that much inside it, so she could lug it along with one arm. And she could think as she worked.
The entire exchange simply left Espurr with more thoughts than brainpower to dissect them. She didn't see anything like a Bittercold these days. And since the Heroes of Paradise were still alive… why couldn't they handle it? Why had she been brought here in their place?
Disappearance, Suspected Murder in Crossings – the statue killer strikes again
Crossings city police are investigating the disappearance of Raichu Abernathy after he was reported missing, authorities announced.
The 91 year old 'mon's residence was found wide open, with a statue resembling him placed just beyond the doorway. The incident was reported at 4:00, with police arriving fifteen minutes later, the Daily Pelipper confirmed in a press release. This is the latest in a series of similar disappearances occurring in the region.
"The search for Raichu Abernathy and the other victims is ongoing," the West Crossings Police Department responded when asked for a comment. "We ask all citizens to submit a report immediately if he is spotted or if any suspicious activity in your area occurs. Murder cannot be ruled out just yet, but for now we're investigating it as a possibility. It's looking greater by the moment."
No arrests have been made in connection with Abernathy's disappearance or presumed murder, or any of the other disappearances. Concerns have been raised over the crime in such a wealthy portion of the city, along with the statue, which appears to be a perfect replica of the 'mon.
The city did not respond immediately to further requests to comment.
CHAPTER SIX: THE SCHOOL FINALLY HIRES A DECENT TEACHER
~\({O})/~
. . .. . .Even though she was an open book, it still took Tricky an entire day and a half to ask Espurr what was on her mind.
"Doywncomtdinrwfme?"
The hurried mash of syllables slammed into Espurr's ear at a volume that made her wince and pull back. She looked across their desk at Tricky, bewildered.
"…What?" she asked, keeping her voice in a hush to stay undetected. The class was currently copying down notes from the blackboard about ancient Human society — most of which were just horribly wrong and made Espurr want to correct them all. Lawn flamingos were not idols.
"Doyouwanttocometodinnerwithme?"
The voice was loud enough to get the attention of Farfetch'd, who looked up from his papers to survey the classroom. Espurr immediately looked very busy in her notes, which were next to Tricky's notes, which were doodled animals. Once his head had gone down again, Tricky opened her snout and took a deep, dramatic breath, like she was going to blow dragon-fire on something.
"Dyuwunna—"
"Speak slower!" pleaded Espurr in a hush. "And please whisper."
"Do. You wanna. Come. To dinner. With me?" Tricky forced out in the loudest whisper possible.
Espurr stole another look at Farfetch'd, just to make sure he hadn't noticed. If he had, he didn't seem to mind. His face was still firmly down in his schedule book, a quill from his wing feathers scribbling intently.
The truth was, Espurr didn't like Tricky very much. Or people. But Tricky especially. And that Tricky hadn't seemed to pick up on that just made her more and more sure they weren't going to be friends. And worst of all, she still hadn't apologised for — or even mentioned — tricking her into entering the woods that day when they were supposed to be going back to the clinic! That alone soured her on Tricky.
"I need a bit to think on it," she said nicely, hoping Tricky would take the hint.
"Aww, but what's there to think about?" Tricky whispered back, eyes bright and tail lashing. "My Pop's a chef. He makes really good food. Nothing like what the school serves! You really should come."
"Give me some time to decide?" asked Espurr.
She should have turned Tricky down there, she really should have. It wasn't like she wanted to go. But somehow, she just didn't have the heart to say it directly.
Tricky didn't look particularly happy about that, but she perked up nonetheless and was sing-songy for the rest of class.
~\({O})/~
"Today I have a special announcement to make," said Simipour, taking a spot in front of the blackboard. Following him was a pokemon that none of the other kids had seen before, as far as Espurr could tell. His body was covered in smooth, knobbly bark, and he was stout and humanlike. A large leaf hung from his head, but the smile underneath was warm enough to catch her off-guard. He draped his green cloak and his bag in the currently-empty sentry spot, and hung around near the blackboard, leaning against the fence.
He beckoned for the pokemon near the blackboard to come forward.
"This is Nuzleaf," Simipour said. Nuzleaf gave a wave. "He'll be filling in a very important part of your curriculum that you haven't yet covered: elemental power."
"Elemental power?"
The voice had left Espurr's voice before she could even think about it. She looked both ways, then awkwardly rose her good paw, realising she'd asked without. A couple snickers rolled through the classroom behind her, making her feel very embarrassed. Could anyone see the red in her face through her fur?
"Yup," said Nuzleaf, sounding like he hadn't skipped a beat. He didn't sound anything like Espurr had expected, a thick ranch drawl escaping his lips. He kicked off the fence, walked forward and clasped his hands together. "The innate energy shared between each an' every one of ya. The one definin' power an' trait that links all of us together. Our species' hallmark."
Simipour gracefully let Nuzleaf take centre stage as he walked behind the teacher's desk.
"Now, I dunno how much y'all have learned over the past few years," began Nuzleaf, leaning forward. "The other teachers will probably fill me in later, but do any of y'all want to give me a leg up? Can anymon tell me wha' elemental powers are?"
Immediately Tricky was jumping up and down in her seat, her tail lashing furiously. Espurr could hear the 'ooh! Me! Me!'s even though her mouth was closed. Nuzleaf tossed one of Farfetch'd's stalks in the air, caught it, and pointed her out.
"It's like these really cool fighting moves you can do, like blowing fire or blowing water or making plants grow and stuff!" Tricky blurted out, riding up against the limit of how fast you could talk while sounding intelligible.
Deerling, who sat behind Espurr, yawned and snorted. Espurr thought it sounded like scoffing.
"Ahh…" Nuzleaf looked sheepish. "Sorta. But tha's only half the story. Anymon else?"
"Elemental powers are the manifestation of the energy that powers all energy-based beings," Deerling spoke up behind Espurr in a stately, controlled voice. "It's the one common link between all pokemon and affords us the power to defend ourselves like no other animal can."
"Correct!" said Nuzleaf. "Somemon's been studyin'."
Deerling tried, unsuccessfully, to hide that she was proud of herself.
"Elemental powers are the lifeblood of everythin' that ticks in our world," continued Nuzleaf. "As bein's capable of harnessin' that energy, we can not only influence our surroundin's, but also use that energy to create somethin' entirely new. Like so!"
He suddenly pirouetted, sharply raised his hands up into the air, and clapped. The clap sounded thunderous, and a black bolt of energy arched up into the sky before exploding into fizzling fireworks above the classroom. Little specks of shining glitter spread throughout the air, raining down on everyone, before blinking away into nothingness.
"Woah," said Shelmet, before Pancham gave him an annoyed look. Shelmet immediately looked like he wasn't impressed.
Satisfied that he'd impressed the class, Nuzleaf put his hands down and dusted them off.
"Tha' was a move of my own makin'," he said. "I call it 'fizzling fireworks from a night long past'. And by the en' of this week, if you all pay attention, each and every single one of you will be able to do it yourselves. How does tha' sound?"
Espurr, bedazzled, thought it sounded utterly magnificent.
~\({O})/~
Recess was awash with nothing but praise for the new teacher and the cool things he taught.
"Who even is that?" asked a pachirisu through two large cheekfuls of food.
"Swallow your food first," said a pawmo who sat next to her.
"If's for lapher!"
Goomy, in the corner, was trying and succeeding in producing a few stuttering purple sparkles. They'd vanish once they left the tips of his slimy paws, but it was more than most of the other students could muster. He had a small crowd surrounding him.
"Very cool!" said Deerling.
Deerling and Goomy seemed to be close. Even though they sat rather far apart in class, Deerling followed him around nearly the entire day when he wasn't in detention.
"Well, I'm already ahead in class," bragged Tricky in another corner. "See what I can do?" She opened her mouth and blew out a small stream of fire into the air, which became a flaming ribbon that contorted into a rude word. Audino gave her a mean look and quickly swatted her away from the windowsill she was in danger of scorching.
Espurr, in her own little nook and cranny with her lunch, mostly just had to agree. The subjects here were so… different to back home. She could get on-board with these. Especially with a teacher as kind and fun as Nuzleaf was.
But as kind as Nuzleaf was, his class was the last in the school, which meant right after lunch, Vice Principal Watchog shoved them out the door for detention. And Watchog was not a very nice teacher.
"Come on!" he crowed from the fence, like he was an irritable banker short on time. "That soil won't turn itself. You've got three more gardens to plough after this."
Tricky, who was tugging the plough while Espurr and Goomy tugged weeds, grumbled through the reigns, smoke curling from her ears. Espurr, trying her best to work with an arm in a cast, could only sympathise. She'd long since decided Watchog was the new bane of her life.
There was a newcomer in town that day. Espurr heard about him long before she saw anything. A tall, lean, yellow 'mon in an earth-green cloak, who seemed to be rather nosy for an outsider passing through. Almost no-mon knew anything about him, and bad news had followed in his wake — a 'mon was found missing in Crossings, a strange statue presumed to be a calling card left on his doorstep. That rang bells immediately.
It was a bad omen, the village said. He was not to be trusted until proven otherwise. And given what she'd seen in Crossings that other day, Espurr was more than happy to follow that advice. In fact, he got a special spot at the top of her suspect list. Involved in probably a murder… if that wasn't a lead to finding whatever she was supposed to get rid of, she didn't know what was.
Now that school was out and Watchog was dragging them back to town, Tricky was getting ready to ask Espurr out to dinner again.
"Hey, have you thought about it?" she asked, bright-eyed. Espurr really hadn't. Between Nuzleaf and the newcomer, she'd been swept away in other things. And truth be told, she didn't really want to go. Everything about Tricky's inconsiderateness gave her bad vibes.
"I'm a bit tired," she replied, hoping Tricky would take the hint this time.
"That's okay!" Tricky yipped, the hint flying far over her bushy ears. "I can walk you back to the school afterwards!"
Espurr yawned. Inside, she felt herself shrivelling up. She'd just have to be blunt then. "I'm really not interested, Tricky. Sorry."
"Oh…" Tricky seemed to droop a little. Her tail was definitely less lively. "Okay, then… Let me know if you change your mind."
She was droopy all the way back to the town square.
~\({O})/~
It wasn't until the next day that the both of them met the newcomer.
He was loitering around the town square just before sunset. Watchog had made them pick berries again for detention that day, and it had somehow managed to be hotter today than it was the first time. Goomy was looking tuckered out, his slime congealing more than it usually did, and Espurr, silently dying of overheating, was really considering doing some research into whether 'hairless cat' was a style or not. Only Tricky, who seemed to thrive in the heat, was energetic.
"Are you sure you don't wanna go tonight?" she whined, prancing around Espurr desperately as they walked back to town behind Watchog. "Pleeeaase?"
"I'm sure, sorry," said Espurr, trying to trudge along faster.
"But it's leftover night!" Tricky pleaded. "I made sure to leave some of all the best stuff!"
"I'm not hungry," Espurr responded, swallowing her irritation.
"Tricky!" Espurr started, turning around. How many times could she say no? "How else can I tell you I'm not interested?"
Tricky, who had been practically right behind her, recoiled a little. Espurr backed down.
"Sorry," the fox said, drooping over a bit.
"Maybe some other time," offered Espurr limply, hoping not to be rude. She tacked on a smile. She suspected it made her look ghoulish.
Tricky said nothing afterwards, just sitting back on the ground and swishing her tail back and forth as she studied the pebbles on the pavement below her.
"Wait right here," Watchog ordered them as they approached Kecleon's stall. "I have to purchase the non-pickables. I don't want to see you standing one inch out of place when I return, or I'll assign summer detention for all three of you. Got it?"
"Got it…" All three students recited wearily.
Satisfied enough, Watchog started off towards Kecleon's stall, leaving them on their own. Espurr took a seat on the ground the moment he had turned his back, almost drooping with sleep just like her classmates. The day had taken a toll on then, and as someone who had woken up early that day, it was taking most of Espurr's willpower to keep herself awake.
"Good evening."
All three students glanced up wearily at the pokemon who had greeted them, suddenly straightening up and leaping to their feet when they saw who it was. Audino adjusted her exploration bag over her shoulder, her floral hat on her head and a smallish purse in her other paw.
"N-Nurse Audino!" Tricky immediately made an effort to look awake, only succeeding in making herself look constipated instead. "We totally weren't sleeping on you right now. Trust us!"
"I hope 'Vice Principal' Watchog hasn't been too hard on you," she said.
"Only a little," said Espurr.
"I think m-my sl-slime is hardening," said Goomy weakly. Audino, concerned, gave him something to drink.
"You all behaved yourselves?" A brash voice suddenly rang out behind them. Everymon turned around to face Watchog, who lugged back a week's worth of nuts in his paws. He glowered at all three of the students as he approached. "Did anymon move?"
"Oh, put a wooper in it, Watchog," Audino retorted, suddenly less cheery. "They were with me the entire time, and I haven't seen them move once."
Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy were treated to the rare sight of Watchog's face suddenly growing spooked as he noticed who was with them.
"A-Audino!" he exclaimed nervously, tightly gripping the sack the nuts were held in. "Fancy seeing you here…"
"Happened to be in the area; thought I'd lend a helping paw," Audino replied. "Hope you haven't worked them to death."
"And just what are you insinuating by that?" retorted Watchog.
"Oh, nothing," said Audino. "But one makes observations from previous times."
"Really?" Watchog folded his arms defensively. "This again? They're just as happy to cause trouble on any other day. The way I see it, this is a useful waste of their energy."
Clearly, they had beef.
"Oh, you did not just go there…"
On the other side of the square, a 'mon Espurr had only seen once before was stumbling through the square, having just knocked over a vendor's apples.
"Hey!" yelled Kecleon, who managed the tent. "Those are fresh apples! I just had them come in from up north! You'd better hope none of them are bruised!"
"My apologies," said the stranger with an apologetic bow. He helped to pick them up, but Kecleon swatted him away.
"Just go. You've done enough," the lizard irritably muttered. The stranger backed away and moved on.
Espurr realised quickly that something was off about the way he was interacting with people. It seemed to be from one thing to the other; if he wasn't knocking over supplies, he was hitting it up with some of the pokemon on the street. No pokemon who was up to normal things behaved like that; it looked like he was trying to hit as many pokemon as possible on purpose… it took her a second to register that he seemed to be heading this way.
"Ah, two new faces!" said the stranger jovially as he approached. Now that he was up-close, Espurr got a better look at him – tall, bright yellow with black stripes, built almost like a giraffe with a long neck, but with a large, faintly glowing orb on his tail and big, long ears that belonged on a rabbit. He wore a cloak that was just as earthy green and slender as the stories had described. He must have been four times her height.
"Oh, apologies," he said. His voice was light and airy. "Where are my manners? We haven't even introduced ourselves!"
He stuck out a flipper-like paw.
"My name is Ampharos," he said, like he was announcing it to a crowd. "Also known as the dashing wanderer!"
He did a flamboyant flap of his cape, but the breeze just blew it back on him. He shook it off. "And you two?"
"I'm Tricky," Tricky started loudly before Espurr could say they were just some local kids. "And this is Espurr! We're training to join the Expedition Society when we grow up!"
Espurr's jaw nearly dropped. When had she said that?
But before she could refute it, Ampharos had already finished musing and opened his mouth.
"Hmm… Expedition Society, you say," he said. "Very intriguing."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Tricky. "There's, like, nothing here. We're just a loo stop on your way to the mountains."
"That… is classified," said Ampharos. "But I can tell you the sights here are nothing short of spectacular. You must get all sorts of tourists in the spring and summer."
"We don't! We haven't had a newcomer since… since…" Tricky stopped to think for a second, and that second was enough for it to click in Espurr's own head. She was just a nanosecond away from opening her own mouth to tell Tricky no, please don't, but it was too late. By the time the command had reached her mouth, Tricky was already spilling the beans.
"…Since Espurr here! Yeah!"
Espurr wilted. That was her biggest secret, and Tricky had just spilled it to a… to a complete…
Ampharos hmm'd.
"Well, that's very interesting indeed," he said. "I should like to make your acquaintance further at a later time. For now, I have many important things that need attending to. So good day!"
And with one more swish of his cape, like he was some kind of campy superhero, he began to walk towards the Café Connection.
That was it. Espurr was peeved, her ears as pinned as they could go. If cats could turn red with anger, she'd be crimson. How could Tricky just…
"Tricky!" she snapped annoyedly. Tricky looked back at her.
"What?"
"How could you just tell him everything? You know we're not supposed to trust him!"
"But he seemed nice," said Tricky.
"But he's a stranger!" puffed Espurr.
"Sorry…" muttered Tricky. "I forgot."
"How could you forget about something like that?" asked Espurr.
"I just… did!"
Espurr stormed away, making sure that she left before Tricky noticed and she outpaced Tricky before the fox could keep up.
"Have a good night," called out Audino from the distance as she passed them.
Espurr's walk took her to the outskirts of town, along the vast lake that flowed out to the sea and from the mountains in the distance. It took her until the houses had started to dwindle and disappear, leaving only a few shabby huts with dirty walls and muddy front yards, and until the path let up from cobbled bricks into straight dirt. She walked until she reached the house.
The house was out on a small island, with only a rickety wooden bridge leading to it from the mainland. It was dilapidated, run down like it hadn't been lived in for centuries, its walls blackened from mud and some of its roof missing. The architecture looked victorian, like some of the older, crumbling houses back in her city, a complete break away from the airy villas of Serenity Village. The ground it stood on was soggy, marshlike, sand, and the house had begun to lean ever so slightly into the ground. It was crooked. It was a crooked house.
But the most unsettling thing about it was the aura it gave off. Just like when the fog had descended upon her back in those woods, Espurr could feel the evil flowing ou of it. Her ears flattened down, her tail bunched up, and she took a few steps back. It was an evil house, all alone on that island. Maybe it had been banished there because the people who built it realised what they'd made.
"Heeey! Wait for me!"
The sound came from far behind, a distant voice punctured with a twang Espurr recognized even from far away. She only had to turn around to see the distant form of Tricky running towards her from the direction of the village and the mountains dotting the horizon.
"Wait… up…" breathed Tricky hoarsely as she finally caught up, panting and out of breath as she came to a stop on the path next to Espurr.
"Why'd you just run off?" she asked, recovering.
"Because I needed a walk," Espurr said, preparing to walk further down the trail even though she didn't know where it would take her. Anything to get away from Tricky and the house. "Alone."
"But… But I thought…" Tricky stammered from behind her. Espurr wasn't looking or listening. "I thought you were my friend?"
"Friend?"
That struck a pang within Espurr. Before she knew what she was doing, she turned around and walked right back over to where Tricky was sitting.
"No. We're not friends. Friends don't hound other friends so they'll go to some dinner party. Friends don't wrap other friends up into insane quests they get week long detentions over. Friends don't spill everything about other friends' backstories to random strangers they don't even know! And friends don't speak for other friends!"
Tricky, still on the ground, was left speechless by Espurr's words.
"So no," Espurr said, pulling back. "We're not friends. And we're never going to be friends unless you grow. Up."
And with that, she walked right past Tricky, ignoring the looming shadow of the house as it reached out for her in passing, and started heading back towards the town without another word. She could hear Tricky sniffling in the background, and the smallest tug on her conscience appeared, asking her to turn around. But she didn't care. She was over it.
~\({O})/~
The sun had already set by the time Espurr made it back up to the school clinic. Her feet hurt from all the walking she'd been doing today, and the trip up the hill to the clinic building was doing her no favours. So she was happy to get a light, simple dinner, and climb into bed. Audino covered the luminous moss on the houses with simple cloths, and then retired to the backroom office. Espurr flopped on her straw bed, blotting out the dull orange throbbing of her broken arm, staring up at the ceiling as she danced with slumber.
Dear diary,—
Muffled, urgent voices from the room over jarred her out of her thought train. Her hearing was sharp enough to tell that there were people speaking, but not so good to get an idea of what they were saying. When she looked over, she saw that the lights had been uncovered in that backroom where Audino had gone. The warm yellow light shone luminously from under the crack of the door.
Against her better judgement, Espurr let her curiosity get the better of her. She crept off her bed, over towards the door, lowering her ear against it the best she could while remaining hidden. Only then did the muffled voices start making sense.
"Gone? What do you mean done?"
That was Farfetch'd.
"I mean gone," said Audino. "The news came in from Crossings. It was him. The police have no body, suspects, or motive for the disappearance, just that an unusual souvenir was left in his place."
"What kind of souvenir?" Watchog. "And what kind of criminal leaves one behind?"
"The kind who strikes more than once," said Farfetch'd anxiously. She could hear him clutching his leek.
"That's what has everymon worried," said Simipour. "The criminal left behind a full-sized statue of the 'mon who was who was abducted. They seem to have been planning their target for a while, and dumped it there once the deed was done."
A wave of silence passed through all the teachers. It was an uneasy silence, the kind filled with tension.
"Well, perhaps we just got unlucky," a new voice proposed. Espurr recognised the thick ranch drawl — that was Nuzleaf! "The 'mon was old. He could'a had an enemy. Tha' would explain the statue too; ya don' throw somethin' like tha' together in one day."
There was uneasy agreement from the other three teachers on the matter.
"And what of the newcomer?" spoke Farfetch'd.
"This… Ampharos?" Simipour said.
"That's him," said Farfetch'd. "Do we think he's responsible? He came out west from Crossings just yesterday."
"Hmm…" Simipour mused. "Innocent until proven guilty is our policy. We must keep a wary eye out, but not be too quick to take action. You never know what the true story may be."
More uneasy agreements from all the teachers.
"Until further notice, we proceed as usual," said Simipour. "We find another guardian for the student, perhaps somemon with less history. Meeting is adjourned."
It took Espurr a few seconds, and the shuffling of footsteps, to realise they were leaving! She scurried back to her bed, and appeared to be fast asleep as the other three teachers filed out and then left.
But when they were gone, the information rattled around Espurr's head. The murdered 'mon… was meant to be her guardian? Her mind flashed back to the Coneheads. Could they have been responsible? She hadn't seen them after she'd been saved that night, and that dungeon must have been far away… but that didn't mean they were gone. And that city, Crossings, it was close. From now on, she had to be on her guard. Because a supernatural killing and a strange newcomer showing up around the same time could not bode well.
. . .. . .It was early, even for mornings. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, and the grass was still wet with dew from the night. Tricky barely ever got up this early, except for when she was upset.
She braced for a pounce and then jumped through the open window in her room like her pops had told her never to do. Then she pranced around a bit outside, and flopped down belly-first into the grass and rolled around. The dew and grass normally felt good against her fur. It was too bad she just didn't feel like it today.
She let out a sigh, her ears and tail flopping in the grass around her.
Another attempt to make a friend, and she'd botched it. She didn't understand. Why didn't things ever work out for her? Why did it always end with everymon walking away? Who would turn down a dinner party?
And yeah, they'd got off on the wrong foot, and maybe it was her fault, but… how else was she supposed to talk to anymon? And how was she supposed to know what not to tell strangers? Why did she always do everything wrong?
Her tail lashed behind her in silent distress, the brilliant rising sun over the hills and distant beaches joyless and glaring. She rested her head in her paws and puffed out an ember-tinged sigh, stealing daring glances at the rims of the sun like her pops told her never to. Maybe she could say sorry… but that would require Espurr wanting to talk to her. Why apologize to somemon who didn't like her?
It wasn't just Espurr, anyway. The whole town didn't like her. So Espurr was just normal. What was wrong with her?
~\({O})/~
While all the other students chattered excitedly, Espurr was left alone in her own world. Everything seemed to take on a darker tone today. The breeze was ominous, the sky overbearing, and the students who weren't talking were shifty and furtive. The conversation she'd overheard last night had shattered her sense of security completely, made her wonder who the killer was, where they could be hiding… and what they'd do next.
If there was one thing she was sure of, it was that investigating Ampharos had to be a priority. It just had to. He already knew she was the only other newcomer to the village, thanks to a certain fox, so that meant he had the advantage. Which narrowed the list of pokemon he'd be looking for immensely. If he really was the killer, then it was only a matter of time before he'd act. It could be as soon as today. It could be this afternoon. She needed to get a leg up on the game before that happened.
Tricky, next to her, was slumped over on their desk, head in her paws and ears down. It was a far cry from her normally perky self. But Espurr had… ugh, no, she wasn't going to have sympathy for her. They weren't friends. She was holding the line.
"Today's lesson is about medicinal berries, and their many applications," said Audino. Unlike Farfetch'd and Watchog, she brandished a pristine wooden teaching rod instead of a leek, pointing to a blackboard she'd spent five minutes meticulously marking up during the break.
"Come here!" she said, letting everymon huddle around. "Come closer."
On a table she'd set up right in front of the desk, she had two baskets. One was filled with the fruits Espurr knew and recognized, like strawberries, blueberries, and apples, while the other one was filled with things she'd never seen before. One of them looked like a giant, light blueberry, while another seemed a lot like an oversized plum and yet another looked like a mango gone wrong.
"Today, we're going to talk about medicinal berries versus normal fruits," she began. "In one of these baskets, you see everyday cooking food. But in the other…" her paw waved over to the basket of unusual fruits. "You see something much different. These are medicinal berries. They are very different from normal fruits."
She picked the large, blueberry one up out of the basket and held it up for the class to see. "We call this an oran. It's the most special of the medicinal berries because it can harness any kind of power and amplify it. We use it often in first aid for this reason. But if you mix it with any other sort of berry, for instance, say…" some rummaging in the basket. "A tamato berry, the results could be very explosive."
The berries went out on the counter in front of the whole class.
"In this way, by mixing an oran with another, you can create all sorts of chemical reactions," Audino continued. "If I mix an oran berry with a bluk berry, I have a nice, soothing lotion. But if I mix an oran berry with a mago berry, I have an alcoholic drink. For this reason, medicinal berries are very hard to get ahold of without a doctor's qualification or a rescue team badge. But all of you will be learning more about them in the semester to come. On the test, you should be able to put together three different mixes, using more than just two berries, in order to make three different solutions…"
With the exception of Watchog's class, school was just as breezy as it had been for the last two days. But before Espurr's eyes, it mostly blurred together. She was really excited for Nuzleaf's class.
Something about the way Nuzleaf taught seemed to captivate the whole school. His classes were the highlight of most students' day. Yesterday, he'd taught them the correct warmup poses to bring out their energy so they could focus it on something, and even Goomy managed to control his errant sparks. In his off-time, he seemed to enjoy reading, and Espurr was hoping she could catch him some day, even though he seemed to be always busy when he wasn't in class.
He was a returning native after a while abroad, Audino had told them. He'd travelled the world for years after he'd graduated school, only coming back every now and then to pay a few close friends a visit. But this year, he was stopping for good. The school had offered him a position as a teacher in the wake of his return, and he'd taken it up. But details about his far past were foggy. He didn't seem to have any family here that she could see – he apparently lived alone on the far side of town.
Today, he was teaching the first stage of the special move that he'd promised they'd all learn in a few weeks.
"Now everymon take those warmup poses I taught y'all!" he said, taking up his own. It looked like a marionette about to pirouette, his hands up in the air, his legs together, and standing on his very toes. Everymon assumed similar positions, Tricky bracing as if to pounce, Goomy stiffening up, and Espurr straightening up. Her arm, recently freed from its cast, felt stiff from days of disuse, causing her discomfort. She had never felt more aware of it than she did now. Nuzleaf had told her it didn't matter, but she sure felt like it did.
"And now…" Nuzleaf began. "We… spin!"
He pirouetted, and everymon followed him directly. Tricky leapt up and spun in the air. Goomy twisted around. Espurr tried to spin—
But she found herself crashing into the desk instead. Everymon else spun, a few errant sparks erupting up in their air from their twirls. Espurr was taken aback with shock. She picked herself up from where she'd fallen, rubbing her side as she got up. How had she failed when everymon else… ?
Everymon else was looking at her. She suddenly felt very embarrassed, again.
"Now, now," said Nuzleaf, drawing everymon's attention. "No-mon's perfect. Y'all should see all the times I fell over in class. I didn't even spin, I was so bad. Was enough to get the nurse to take me off the lesson plan, she was worried I'd crack my head. Now let's try again…"
In the end, Espurr came out soured on the lesson. Everymon else had managed to at least create some sparks, and every time she'd just managed to lose her balance and fall over. Tricky seemed to be a natural, spitting fire into the air that fizzled like a firework and contorted into several ribbonlike streams. But even with Nuzelaf's attempts to downplay it, it was becoming increasingly clear that she just wasn't as good as the rest of her class.
During recess, when everymon was eating lunch up in the school clinic, Espurr happened to look out the window and notice Nuzleaf down in the classroom outside. Taking her lunch, she scurried out the door and fought against the wind, battering her with her lunch of nuts and berries on her way to the seats.
Nuzleaf was reading an old, dusty book he'd pulled from his bag. The wind kept tossing the pages, and he'd flatten them persistently. Espurr crept into the classroom, and stood, trying to hide her fidgeting, right behind him.
"Hello."
Nuzleaf jolted, spooked. He nearly dropped the book he'd been intensely studying, his face a dark shadow, before he relaxed and pulled it back into something kinder.
"Ah," he said. "Ya scared me. Espurr, was it?"
Espurr nodded.
"Yes, that's me."
"Splendid." Nuzleaf gestured to the seat next to the desk he was sitting on. "By all means, have a seat. Anythin' on your mind?"
Espurr did as she was directed, sitting on the seat where Goomy usually was. Her dull arm pressed up against the stool, reminding her of how stiff it still was.
"Well it's just that…" she began, then trailed off. "I want to learn, but I think maybe I'm not cut out for this."
"Nonsense," Nuzleaf said, waving it off. "Anymon's cut out for it. You've just gotta keep tryin'."
"But I didn't manage to do it correctly even once," Espurr said. "Everymon else did."
"Tha' doesn't mean anythin'," said Nuzleaf. "Everymon learns at their own pace. Maybe you jus' need some practice. Here's a thought—why don't you find a friend that can help ya? I thought you were tight with that fox, Tricky, was it?"
Espurr repressed an air of displeasure. She was sure it showed up in her tail, though.
"Not Tricky," she said.
"Well, maybe somemon else, then," said Nuzleaf. "But that doesn' mean you should just give up. A partner can make even the smallest amount of practice perfect."
Espurr fidgeted some more. Nuzleaf's words sounded right, but…
"Could I… practise with you?" she ventured.
She expected a no. Nuzleaf did seem like a very busy 'mon, after all. But Nuzleaf's face just warmed.
"Sure," he said. "You'll have ta get an early mornin', though. Gotta start before the birds sing and the kids show up to school."
Espurr was elated. She thanked Nuzleaf graciously, before heading back on up to the school.
Lunch was almost over, and it would be time for detention afterwards.
~\({O})/~
When Espurr was young, there was only one place to go to get true natural greenery: the park.
The park wasn't in the city. It was on the outskirts of town, a forest unspoiled by any kind of human building or structure. It was a national park, they called it—just miles and miles of untouched forest. Her city had buses going to and from it, so sometimes after school she'd take walks around the perimeter, until her parents found out and insisted she stop going. But sometimes, on the weekend or on holidays, she'd go with her parents, to have a picnic or to watch the fireworks from a distance.
And oh, were there fireworks! They'd blaze above the city in the summer and on holidays, lighting up the sky with countless colours and glimmering explosions. It was as if the stars were celebrating too, each one adding in their own colour and light.
The fireworks were the most special part of Espurr's year. They were the times when her parents, usually too busy to spend much time with her, finally got to take breaks. And when that happened they'd go out together, usually at the park after packing a picnic or picking up a dinner. Sometimes they'd go hiking after that, or spend a few nights alone upstate. She didn't care what they did, one way or another, as long as she was able to spend time with them.
But as they got busier, the camping visits vanished, and they weren't driving up there on weekends anymore. It was only when the holidays came, and the fireworks would glimmer above the skyscrapers of the city again, that her parents would take her down to that park anymore.
And then one year they didn't. It was a business trip, they said, and if they took it they'd get a hefty bonus. So they flew down south for the weekend, to the big city of concrete and pavements, and Espurr was left all alone for the holidays with only some pocket change for takeout. It was a good thing she was a resourceful kid. She bought herself a tin of Chinese food from a hole-in-the-wall place, then took the bus out of the city like her parents had told her never to do and plopped herself down on the grassy fields with the faded picnic mat they always used. And that new years' eve, surrounded by thousands yet all alone, she watched the fireworks sparkle across the night sky, and felt the hollow loneliness entwine with the pride of being a big kid.
Somewhere deep down, neither of those things really left. Espurr couldn't remember feeling any differently since that year… until she met Nuzleaf.
Maybe, even if she had to stay a while, things here could turn out fine after all.
~\({O})/~
"For your detention today…" began Watchog pompously, as he marched Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy along the sun-beaten path. "You're going to be raking leaves in the Foreboding Forest."
"Ooh! Me!" exclaimed Tricky, who had taken the lead with zeal. "It's the forest we went to the day yo—" noticing Watchog was there, she quickly shut up.
"Yes," said Watchog with a hint of disdain. "It's the forest you criminals so eagerly eloped into when you earned yourself this punishment. And you're going to be in charge of cleaning up the entire area. Ironic, isn't it?"
"I don't think that's the right usage of 'elope'," said Espurr.
"Of course it is!" barked Watchog. "I'm the adult, I know my vocabulary better than a bunch of middle schoolers."
Espurr was sure giving him the actual meaning wouldn't be worth it. He clearly had it all figured out.
As they walked, the sun was quickly snatched away by the shade of thousands and thousands of thick branches and leaves, which cast the ground down below into a blue-purplish darkness. Watchog stopped them when they were in the thick of it, making sure that Tricky wasn't going to bolt off in excitement. He dropped the sack he was carrying on the ground, the metal 'clanks' it made catching Espurr off-guard.
From out of the sack he pulled out three rakes, designed to be held both by paws and by mouths, and handed one to each of them.
"Get raking," he said, then crossed his paws behind his head and relaxed against a tree. "And don't leave my sight. I'll be watching you very closely from here."
"B-but, sir," said Goomy.
"Vice principal."
"V-vice principal," said Goomy.
"What."
"The area's t-too big to rake if we just stay here…"
"I have good eyesight," snapped Watchog. "I'll see you. Now get to work."
Goomy just nodded and started raking.
It wasn't long before they had raked their way far out of his ear and probably eyeshot, and Watchog had fallen asleep anyways. If Espurr listened hard, she could hear the faint sound of his snores.
"Are we done yet?" Tricky whined, looking at the area around them. It mostly looked clean, the leaves scraped into tons of small little piles they just needed to merge into one big one, but outside their immediate vicinity the forest was still covered in tons of leaves.
"Well, he can't mean we're to clean the entire forest," Espurr pointed out.
"A-and he w-wouldn't want us near-near the dungeon," stammered Goomy.
Tricky suddenly perked up.
"The dungeon!" she exclaimed, prancing around and wagging her bushy tail like a little dog. "Hey—I wonder how close the dungeon is! Wanna go look?"
"No," said both Espurr and Goomy.
"Aww," drooped Tricky. "I mean… I guess I can just go look on my own then. I'll just be a second!"
Espurr gave her a stern look. "Tricky, you can't just—"
But Tricky had already taken off. And she was taking her rake with her! Espurr and Goomy looked at each other in exasperation.
"S-she's g-gonna get us in-in trouble," Goomy whined.
"What's new?" sighed Espurr.
At this point Espurr was more than happy to let her take the fall. Let her suffer for once. But at the same time… she looked into the woods, which seemed to open up with its darkness, threatening to swallow them in the closer they dared to go. The thought nagged at her. What if those creatures were still around? What would she say if Tricky ran into them and she'd decided to ignore it instead of going after her?
A look back at Watchog.
Still snoozing. He'd just be useless anyway.
Oh, alright…
They had little choice but to follow. Espurr threw down her rake also, and wordlessly began to trudge on the path that Tricky had taken.
"W-wait," said Goomy. "Wh-where are you g-going?"
Espurr looked back.
"Going after her," she said.
Then she continued onwards.
"W-what about y-your arm?" asked Goomy.
"It'll be fine," Espurr said.
"But I th-thought w-we weren't s-supposed to follow her," Goomy said, struggling to keep up.
"She could run into trouble out there," said Espurr. "We have to find her before that happens – it's for her own safety."
"W-what kind of trouble?" asked Goomy, his voice quaking a bit. Espurr deigned not to answer. She knew how skittish Goomy was.
They were slower, but they took off after her the best they could, lugging along their own rakes. If Watchog found them later, at least they could say they were just raking further out in the woods.
And they'd make for good weapons.
As Espurr stumbled over the roots, she and Goomy managed to lose Tricky in the mess. Or maybe they'd just taken a wrong turn somewhere. The roots had quickly become more twisted, the trunks mossier, the leaves piling the ground so thick Espurr's feet sunk into the mess. The light had dimmed so much it was almost like being in a room with the lights shut off.
They only stopped when Espurr could hear Goomy softly vibrating.
"Are you okay?" she asked, clutching her rake to her chest and protecting her stiff arm instinctively.
"J-just scared," Goomy said, the vibrating lessening. "Did we t-take a wrong turn?"
They might have. The leg of the woods they were walking through looked more like a forest from a horror story. And there was no sign of Tricky.
"I think so," said Espurr. "Maybe we should turn back."
"W-we just came in a straight line, right?" said Goomy. "I'm not g-good with directions."
"I remember a few turns," said Espurr, looking behind her. She'd never been the best with directions either, but she wasn't telling Goomy that.
Swish.
The sound was silent, in the very distant woods off to the side. It wouldn't have even been caught if Espurr's hearing wasn't sharp as a cat's. But she heard it. It was a very distinctive sound. And she'd heard it before.
All of the sudden the woods seemed darker. Every glimmer of sunlight of the tree trunks could have been the flicker of a yellow light. Every shadow could be the tip of a dark cone. The crackle of the dead leaves on the ground could be the sound of a brittle, mottled hand reaching out of the darkness for them. Espurr suddenly felt so dizzy from fright she could barely keep her bearings.
But she needed to. She turned to Goomy.
"We should go," she said in a hush. "Now."
Goomy caught on almost immediately that something was wrong.
"What?" he asked. "W-what's happening?"
"Shh!" whispered Espurr as she carefully walked back the way they'd come. "There's no time to explain right now. Just march."
Goomy looked unsure, but she could see him nod.
They walked back, through the darkness of the forest ground. Espurr kept her rake close to her, in case she needed to use it as a weapon.
Swish.
It was closer now. It was definitely closer, and it came from the other side. Espurr's breath hitched, her heart nearly stopped in her chest. Were they circling her?
She could see tiny pieces and glimmers of things now, signs that they were here, that they knew she was here, that they were getting closer. That glimmer on the tree was definitely a flickering yellow light. That shadow that was too dark to be a shadow was definitely moving. And the shrubbery had clearly been disturbed, and not just by them. It had been killed where it stood, wilted and dead, grey and stiff like stone. It hadn't been like that when they'd walked through it.
Swish.
That was right behind them. It was too close for comfort. Espurr didn't want to think about what she'd see if she turned around. She just knew they couldn't stay here anymore.
"Run!" she yelled to Goomy. Then they both took off as fast as they could. The hum of charging power came from behind them as they dashed through the woods for dear life, then the explosion against a nearby tree. Espurr tripped on a root and fell flat to her face, and as she lost the rake and rolled over she saw it, the massive, shadowy cone attached to two glowing pinprick eyes, and it took everything in her not to scream. She just picked herself up, and ran as fast as she could.
Somehow, by miracle, she and Goomy managed to stumble into the lighter part of the woods again. Espurr stumbled through the trees, unsure if this was the part of the woods they'd been in previously, or if everymon else was okay—what about Watchog? What about Tricky?
But soon she came upon a familiar grove of trees, and saw the ground quickly begin to look a lot neater and tidy. She wanted to jump for joy. They'd made it back!
"Where were you guys?"
The sound, coming from behind, made Espurr jump in fright. She turned around to see Tricky standing there, looking completely unaware. She was covered in dirt, and had a big grin on her muzzle.
Espurr really didn't want to tell her about the coneheads.
"We got lost," she hissed with a glare, making sure to sound as angry as possible, "following you."
"Oh," said Tricky. Her tail lashed the ground in shame. "Sorry… I thought you guys were going to stay here. I came back and was looking for you."
"What were you thinking, running o–"
"What are you three doing? I didn't say breaktime!"
The sound made all three of them jump out of their skin. They turned around to see a clearly groggy Watchog, who'd just woken up from his nap and stormed over.
"We weren't taking a break," said Espurr quickly. "We just finished."
Watchog's face immediately contorted in disbelief, but then he looked around the clearing. Espurr watched his face turn into a slight shock as he saw the clearing around him completely clean.
"Well…" he trailed off. "Fine. I guess you can't clean the whole forest. Where's the rakes?"
It was at that point that Espurr realised she and Goomy had lost their rakes back in the forest.
She cast the forest a big glance. Already she was feeling antsy, her ears listening intently for any sounds of a 'swish' or something similar. She just wanted to get out of here.
"The wind carried them," said Tricky suddenly, breaking the silence. "It got like really strong and just took them away. It messed up the whole place and then we had to clean it again, so that's why it took so long!"
It looked like Watchog wasn't going to believe it, but just then a big gust of wind ruffled him from behind. Espurr hadn't noticed it before, but she guessed it was a bit windy.
Watchog looked like he really didn't want to believe it. But what could he say?
"…Alright," he sighed, giving Tricky the largest 'I know you're lying and just can't prove it' stink eye he could muster. "Let's just go home."
Espurr couldn't have been any more happy to leave these woods than she was then.
~\({O})/~
Watchog abandoned them at the city limits, like the good and diligent vice principal he was. Just this once Espurr would have liked it if he'd obsessively walked them into the town square like he did every other day. Tricky lived on the other side of town, so she left soon after once they entered the main square. Goomy lived in the northeast side, while Espurr was staying at the school clinic, so they both walked north to the square before they had to split.
"H-hey," Goomy said before they did. Espurr stopped to look at him. She hoped it wasn't going to be—
"D-do you know w-what that was back in the woods?" Goomy asked.
Espurr deflated. It was.
Could she lie and say she didn't know? Would that be endangering him?
Would telling the truth be endangering herself?
Well, if there was anymon who deserved to know—and could keep it secret—it was Goomy.
"I've seen them before," said Espurr, settling for a compromise. "Can we talk about it tomorrow?"
She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Goomy nod his jelly-like head.
"Y-yeah."
Espurr nodded affirmatively. "Great. I'm tired, so I'll see you tomorrow."
"N-night."
Then they went their separate ways.
As Espurr lay in bed that night, the pieces of the last few days zoomed around in her head. The dead guardian, the coneheads… were they connected?
The Daily Pelipper – Your one reliable source of news
Energy Companies to make major gains in first monthly quarter of the year
Energy companies have provided the means for a sharp ascent in this year's first monthly quarter, and their latest financial reports have justified the budding confidence from investors.
HAPPI made an increase of 40% on sales of emeras to cities, provinces, and nations across the salty sea, from Pokemon Paradise in Nebel to Treasure Town in Argantium. The Kecleon Company lagged behind slightly at a 35% increase, but is projected to match HAPPI by halfway next year.
"It's important more than ever that we provide the energy needs for a growing and prospering population," said HAPPI Director Sylveon Sparkleglimmer, speaking in Los Arcos, North Ophria, known to many as the energy capital of the world. "The market for quick, easy energy is always growing, and we have strong confidence in the winds of trade to carry us all the way."
CHAPTER EIGHT: PANCHAM IS A GRIMER
. . .. . .There were fifteen students in the classroom Espurr sat in, which she assumed made up all the kids in this small town. She didn't know most of them, and they hadn't really talked much to her. There was Deerling, and a few other girls who seemed a tad bit older than the rest of the class who hung around with her. Goomy sat next to a wooper named Booper in the back of the class who smiled very wide but didn't talk, and there was a gaggle of squirrel-like 'mon who hung around in their own clique.
And then there were Pancham and Shelmet. They were the typical, run-of-the-mill village bully-types.
Shelmet was Pancham's lackey. He didn't agree with Pancham on much, but he valued not being beaten up into a pulp, so he went along with it. Espurr felt somewhat sorry for him, but only a bit. Until he grew a spine, he was just going to be stuck like that forever.
(She had later been informed Shelmet didn't have a spine, and felt slightly worse about her earlier thoughts, but only a little.)
The next day, in the small amount of time between lunch and Watchog carting them off to detention, Espurr pulled aside Goomy, who'd managed to sneak away. Goomy was sure Deerling would come out looking for them sooner or later, so they both decided to leave the School Clinic and camp out in the shade behind it. No-mon came looking there before they looked everywhere else.
"I saw them outside town when I first got here," said Espurr, sitting against the wall. Goomy, munching down on a sandwich he'd made with the remnants of his lunch, nodded as he listened, his antennae bobbing with him. "I don't know what they wanted. I think they just wanted to hurt me."
Goomy shivered a little.
"D-do you think they're d-dangerous?" he asked.
Espurr nodded, leaning forward. She put her own sandwich in her lap. "Like I said. I think they wanted to hurt me. They destroyed a bush when they shot at me. And back in the woods, when they went after us, I saw the grass turn to stone. And then…"
She stopped there. Would it make sense to tell him about the…
…Oh, she might as well.
"A 'mon disappeared in another town. The school said it was called Crossings. And I saw them wheeling in a statue the day I went there. I think he was turned to stone."
"T-turned to stone?" Goomy was shaken. "I've n-never heard of a pokemon that can do that…"
"Well, it exists," said Espurr. "And if they're here, then we have to do something about it."
"Why don't w-we report it to the school?" asked Goomy.
"Because the school doesn't know I was eavesdropping," said Espurr. "And because Watchog and the principal are useless. Watchog will just think I'm making it up."
Even Goomy had to admit that was true.
"What about that Ampharos character?" Espurr continued. "He just showed up a day or two ago, right? And he came from Crossings."
Goomy nodded. "I t-think so."
"What if he's somehow connected? He was looking at me funny a few days ago."
"H-how could we prove it?" asked Goomy.
"We can't." Espurr took a decisive chomp of her own sandwich. "Not without a good opportunity. We'll just have to follow him and make sure the Coneheads can't get to anymon else until we have some kind of evidence."
~\({O})/~
The next few days passed without much event. Espurr would get up in the morning, attend school, try not to fail too much in Nuzleaf's class as she waited for the days he was available to practise on, and then served detention with Watchog. In their short blocks of free-time, Espurr and Goomy did their best to search for clues regarding Ampharos and find anything that might link him to the Coneheads.
There'd been no sighting of the Coneheads ever since their encounter in the forest, which Espurr took as a half blessing – no activity meant no-mon else they knew of was being attacked. But no activity also meant they had no leads, or anything to investigate. So instead, they watched Ampharos the whole evening as he chatted up the bartender at the Café Connection, until Goomy had to leave for home and Espurr had to go back to the school.
"W-what if he just d-does it while we're in class?" Goomy asked. They were currently staking out in the town square, pretending to play a game with pebbles as they watched Ampharos through the window of the café. This had been their plan for the last three days, and it had gotten them nothing.
Espurr, who had been adamant about sticking to the plan, hadn't considered that.
"Well then, there's not much we can do about that…" she trailed off disappointedly, folding her arms. "If only there was a way we coul—"
"I can do it!"
The sudden voice nearly made Espurr jump out of her fur. She and Goomy looked behind themselves to see an eager Fennekin Tricky standing behind them. She looked dirty and in dire need of a fur-brushing, covered in dirt and leaves like she'd been jumping through someone else's garden without permission.
"W-what… we-were you doing?" Goomy asked, looking at the mess.
"Jumping through someone else's garden without permission," said Tricky gleefully. She trotted over, shaking off the leaves and dirt. "It's Hipopottas'. She said mean things to me yesterday so I ate her tulips."
Tricky belched loudly, and a few singed petals fluttered out of her mouth. Espurr shuddered.
"This is a closed meeting," she said primly. "Sorry, but we don't need your help."
Tricky's ears flopped down. She looked like she wanted to scowl. "But I got Pops to pull me out of school for a few days," she said. "Sooo-o-o-o-o-o…"
She made delicate waving with her front paw. "If you needed somemon to spy for you when you're in class…"
She left the ending hanging right open. Espurr knew exactly what she was getting at, and it did not make her pleased.
She was even less pleased that she couldn't refute Tricky was right: there was no good reason not to take her help. And Goomy would very quickly point that out. Even now he looked much more open to having Tricky on the team than she did.
Not that she was going to fold to Tricky's elementary manipulation tactics.
"You can join," she said, keeping her arms folded and her face stern. "But we're still not friends."
If Tricky had been using that as leverage to get back into her good graces, and Espurr suspected she had, that dream was shattered immediately. Espurr could see her drooping a bit even though she tried to hide it. But regardless, she cheered herself up with a manufactured smile and raised her ears and tail again.
"Great! I'll totally follow him around all day tomorrow. You all can count on me!"
Espurr and Goomy, looking at each other, just shrugged.
~\({O})/~
With Tricky on the case for following Ampharos, at least over the next few days, that cleared Espurr up to do some more studying. Thursday, which she had been eagerly awaiting – the first day Nuzleaf could practise with her – approached with due swiftness, and sooner rather than later she was up at the very crack of dawn, before even the birds had begun to sing.
Just like Nuzleaf had instructed her.
She found him stretching on the benches of the classroom. He'd just clearly walked all the way here, and he had his big dusty book open in front of him.
"What's that?"
Nuzleaf spun around, clearly startled by her. Espurr withered just a little. She seemed to have a habit of causing that around him.
"Ah…" he said. "You're up."
He looked down at his book.
"This?" he said. "It's nothin'. Just a little souvenir from the library. I like to pick up some nonfiction in my spare time."
"I like nonfiction too," said Espurr. She took a seat on the bench right next to him.
"What's it about?" she asked.
Nuzleaf looked a little hesitant to answer.
"Ahh…" he began. "Just a little textbook on move techniques, that kinda thing. Gotta know what ya teach an' all."
He closed the book with a snap, expelling a fair amount of dust from its pages. Espurr edged further away from that, trying not to breathe in any book dust. Whatever book that was, it must have been in the back of the library for a while before he'd taken it. Probably in the darkest, musty corner of it.
"Anyways," he said, rising up from his seat and stretching. He put the book in his bag, which he then dropped on his desk. "I reckon it's high time we get started, eh?"
Espurr nodded eagerly.
The sun crested over the blackboard, slowly, waking the birds up as they practisedpracticed.
"I thought a bit about what you were doin' wrong," said Nuzleaf as he got into position, then motioned for Espurr to do the same. She copied him, but couldn't help wobbling a bit.
"See there?" said Nuzleaf, dropping his stance. He motioned for Espurr to keep holding it. She did, but the wobbling wasn't stopping anytime soon. She didn't know how much longer she'd be able to remain upright.
Nuzleaf pointed something out on her back.
"Your tail," he said. "It ain't pointing the right way. You know ya need it to balance properly, right?"
Now that Espurr thought about it, her tail wasn't really looking right, was it? It was all crooked and pointing downwards, which she supposed could be what was putting her off. It wasn't like she knew how to use it well, though.
"Now, if you just adjust it a little…" Nuzleaf motioned for her to raise it, more, more, a little more—
Suddenly, Espurr's wobbling turned into a shifting of the earth, and in just seconds her entire world turned sideways and she hit the ground. Painfully.
"Ughh," she groaned into a face full of grass, trying her best to catch her bearings. The world spun around her in a peculiar way, and she could feel the pain bouncing around through her head, wavering flashes of red.
Nuzleaf helped her up.
"Not ta worry," he said, dusting himself off. "It'll just take some practice, that's all. Why don't we spend the rest of the hour doin' that?"
By the end of the hour, Espurr was happy to say she could balance a little better than she could before. It wasn't perfect, but she wasn't wobbling like a ballet dancer with water in her ears anymore. Once she was done, and it was nearing the time for school to start, Nuzleaf sat her down on one of the classroom benches next to her and gave her a piece of fruit to eat. She didn't recognize it, but it tasted like citrus with the flesh of an apple. Fruits in this world were strange.
"So what's the story behind your tail, anyway?" remarked Nuzleaf as she ate. "Most cat 'mon I know of use 'em from birth.
Espurr looked up at him, the hair on her tail raising ever-so-slightly.
"Y'know," he said. "As your teacher 'n all, might help a tad if I know what I'm workin' with."
Espurr hadn't been expecting him to pry. She didn't have an excuse for that. What was she going to say?
She had to think of something on the spot.
"It's a problem I've always had," she said, trying to make it sound like she wasn't talking out of her ass. "I've just… never used it properly."
"Ah," said Nuzleaf. "Well, I reckon we can get that sorted out. Though how you've been balancin' all this time, I'll never guess."
The practise continued until schooltime arrived, and all the other students started filing in.
~\({O})/~
As it turned out, Tricky was a lot less useful than they thought.
"Well…" she began, her tail swishing behind her and pawing the ground. "I followed him around all I could, but he wasn't doing anything interesting… He just did a bunch of weird stuff in the afternoon like picking flowers."
"Nothing at all?" Espurr asked, disappointed. "Where did he go after that?"
"I kind of lost track after a bit," said Tricky, staring hard into the dust. "But it was all over town."
"That was a bust," said Espurr as she walked away with Goomy. Behind them, Tricky padded off silently, crouching and ears low.
"I-I think she just wanted to hang out," Goomy said.
"Well, we're not on speaking terms," said Espurr coldly. "I'm not interested."
Lunch was another one of those times when it paid well for one to keep their distance from the rest of the class. Not that Espurr had too much to worry about there. The only pokemon who would talk to her, Goomy, was being hassled over by Deerling, while Tricky practically was bowling head over heels to talk to her but Espurr had set the boundaries long ago. The fennekin now just trotted around her corner of the school clinic like she was pouting.
"Psst."
She almost jumped. But she was made of stronger stuff than that. Or at least, that was what she told herself as she turned around.
The face of Pancham met her. Great. He was really who she'd wanted to see standing behind her. He was grinning, so he must have either been trying to scare her, or he was up to something. Espurr assumed it was the latter.
"Do you need something?' she asked bluntly.
"Yeesh," said Pancham, throwing up his hands. "Have some mercy on your poor classmate."
"You don't strike me as the mercy-seeking type," said Espurr.
Pancham raised an eyebrow.
"Cold shoulder," he remarked. "Alright. I can do that. Anyways, I just wanted to congratulate you for saving Goomy back there in the Foreboding Forest. Much bravery, you're his hero forever. But…"
He put his arms behind his head, and jumped on his back into a straw bed that was sitting near them. "Wanna know how you can be my hero?"
His… hero? Did he hear himself?
"Why should I want to be your hero?" she asked him frankly.
"Because being my hero comes with benefits," said Pancham. "Don't you want to not be eating on your own in this little corner of the lunchroom anymore?"
"I think I like it here," Espurr said.
"Well, I'm gonna offer you anyway," said Pancham. "See, the Foreboding Forest is what you do if you wanna give Watch-dog a heart attack. But to really get in with the cool kids around here, Like them—" he pointed to Deerling and the other girls she was surrounded by "—then you'll have to do something a lot more spectacular."
"And that is?" prompted Espurr. As much as she wasn't into it, he did do a good job of sizing up peoples' interests, and he definitely knew it.
"Well," said Pancham mischievously. "I didn't think somemon who wasn't interested would want to know more. Unless you changed your mind?"
"Tell me more and I might consider it," said Espurr.
Pancham's smirk became wider.
"I peeked at the detention cards," he said, his voice dripping with suaveness, "and for your final detention, you three will be going to the luxury location of the abandoned Drilbur Mines."
"Actually, they're not abandoned," Tricky spoke up loudly from her corner of the lunchroom. She'd had her muzzle in a peach, and the juice had made her snout soggy. "The drilbur are still there! I know because I've seen them—"
"Shut it," Pancham cut her off rudely. "Duh, they're still there, it's an active mine. This doesn't involve you."
"But I'm in detention too!" whined Tricky, loudly enough that Espurr worried they were going to get caught. Luckily, Audino was too busy packing something on the other side of the room, where the white cabinet of medicines was.
"So what?" said Pancham. "What I said goes around here, and I say you don't get a say. So shut up and go back to your stupid peach."
Tricky grumbled and gave him a glare, but she did stick her nose back in her lunch.
"So anyways," said Pancham, turning back to Espurr, "There's a section of the mines that's completely off-limits. It's all boarded up, and even the drilbur don't go down there. But I've been there. And you know what's there is?"
He paused, like he expected Espurr to ask him 'what'. No, he definitely expected that.
"What?"
"Gemstones," said Pancham with as much mystique as he could muster. "And all you have to do is bring back two of them for me. Sounds easy, right?"
Nothing that sounded easy came without strings. Espurr saw through him immediately.
"What's the catch?" she asked.
Pancham looked like he wasn't expecting her to ask that.
"It's because it's a mystery dungeon!" Tricky blurted out irritably. Espurr picked up the grating tone. Tricky had looked up from her peach again, glaring in their direction at Pancham. "You should at least say it if you're going to be a grimer."
Pancham sighed, with both Espurr and Tricky's eyes on him.
"Fine," he said, putting his hands in front of him. "Yeah, you got me. It's a mystery dungeon. Was gonna reveal that on my own due time, but ruin it for me I guess. Spoilsport."
That last word was pointed in Tricky's direction. She blew a raspberry at him and pretended to eat again. Espurr could tell by the way her ears pricked up that she was still listening.
She knew what Pancham was onto. He just wanted a way to get back at her for getting them in trouble at the Foreboding Forest all those days ago, and even though she couldn't read it off of him, she could tell that was what he wanted. Besides, the whole thing was stupid and dangerous, and there was no way she would ever willingly let herself get hitched into it.
"Sorry, I'm not interested," said Espurr politely.
"Did I hear some talkin' about the mines?"
Another voice cut through the midst of the lunchroom, causing all three heads to look over. Nuzleaf was standing near them, carrying a tray of his own. Had he been listening in the whole time?
Pancham looked just as surprised as she did.
"T-teach!" he exclaimed, nearly falling out of his seat. "W-what are you doing here?"
"Well, ah heard y'all's interestin' conversation and thought I'd listen in," said Nuzleaf. "Seems to me y'all were talking about that mine the drilbur over at the Rockery boarded up."
Pancham suddenly looked a lot less confident. He looked to Espurr for help, but she just gave him an 'it's your mess' glance.
"Y-yeah," he said, assuming his confident posture again and waving the notion off. "We were just telling ghost stories about it. Y'know, the one with the treasure, and the monster…"
He looked at Espurr. "Weren't we?"
Espurr just nodded.
"Yeah!" Tricky affirmed from her corner.
"Stop butting in," grumbled Pancham.
"Well, that's good," said Nuzleaf. "Because I'd stay far away from there if I were you. 'Specially since the others tell me that shady newcomer's been spotted in the area. The one with the long yellow neck. Gonna be on heavy surveillance for a few days, police say there's been a break-in an' all. Can you believe it?"
And then he moved on with his day, like he had absolutely no idea of the bombshell he'd just dropped. Espurr was left almost speechless. Was this their lead?
"So," said Pancham once Nuzleaf had gone. "Intrigue. Wanna go?"
~\({O})/~
"Not on his terms," Espurr said firmly as she marched down the pathway from the School Clinic. It was a cloudy day today, and the wind was stronger than usual, blowing several leaves along with it. Goomy hurriedly followed along with her, his antennae battered back by the gusts a bit. "But we have to investigate!"
"I-I don't think I sh-should go," Goomy said, quivering slightly. "I'm n-not cut out for mystery dungeons."
Espurr could see his jelly-like flesh shivering. She remembered the foreboding forest. He was right: he really wasn't cut out for them.
"You don't have to," she said. "I'll do it on my own.”
"B-but I don't – I don't think e-either of us should g-go in," said Goomy. He was definitely trembling now.
"But this could be our lead," said Espurr. "Ampharos hasn't done anything suspicious in almost a week, and now he's poking around in the Drilbur Mines? He has to be up to something there."
"L-let me sh-show you something," said Goomy, pulling her along in the direction of the library.
The library was a long, imposing, narrow building with a rickety wooden roof made of stones and cement. It looked like it was centuries old, and belonged next to a shack in the countryside. The tall double doors were crooked and made of wooden planks, and though the building was only one storey it was still tall enough to be two. Or maybe that was just Espurr's new height talking.
Inside looked almost gothic, shelves twenty times her height lining the inside of the building in orderly, neat rows. There was almost no light, which Espurr didn't have trouble with – her new eyes adjusted quite well to the dark – but considered counterproductive to the point of a library.
They used a ladder to get down the book Goomy had read. It was on the very top shelf near the back, something they both figured Watchog had done so Tricky wouldn't be able to get it. According to Goomy, the book was right up Tricky's alley.
"An Atlas of Mystery Dungeons," the cover read. It was brown and leather-bound, and the edges looked tattered and frayed from presumably years of overuse. Whatever this book was, it certainly wasn't part of the normal curriculum.
"Isn't this outdated?" asked Espurr, grimacing at the dust that came off the book on her paw. Gross.
"W-watchog used it until l-last year," said Goomy, opening the book with his paws. "W-watchog's n-not careful with b-books." The book sent a cloud of dust into their face, sending them both coughing.
They turned to page seventy: Anomaly – Drilbur Mines
Goomy pointed out a part of the page to Espurr, and she started reading.
"It says here that a famous outlaw went missing in the mines almost 20 years ago," Espurr read aloud. Below the words, on the page, was a picture of a wanted poster, with a fierce, dragonlike creature that resembled a land-borne shark a bit. The poster labelled the 'mon: OUTLAW GABITE.
Goomy nodded, his antennae bobbing.
"But shouldn't he be dead by now?" Espurr asked, perplexed.
"What about it?" Espurr tilted her head, looking at him.
"I-if you're a powerful 'mon and you die or g-go missing in a dungeon, t-then sometimes… a gh-ghost of you sticks around," said Goomy. "T-they say that's where all the hostile 'mon in d-dungeons c-come from."
Monster… hold on, hadn't Tricky said something about a monster?
"Well, I doubt we'll find anything like that," said Espurr, arms folded. She needed to convince them. And herself. "If Pancham had actually been in there and seen a monster, he wouldn't shut up about it."
"H-how do you know he went in?" pointed out Goomy.
The question made Espurr go silent. She’d… not considered that.
"Well, if he didn't, perhaps he’s making it up," said Espurr hopefully. "And then we won’t have to go in. No-mon said Ampharos went into the dungeon, right?"
Goomy nodded, but unsurely.
~\({O})/~
"Alright, troublemakers," grumbled Watchog at the gates of the village, as he lugged the pack over his shoulder. It was absolutely heaving, almost towering over his head. "let's get going."
Espurr, Goomy, and Tricky were heading down the path away from the Village and towards the farms again, this time taking a sharp turn right as they headed down towards much more craggy rock formations. Watchog walked in front of them this time, having apparently loosened up enough that he wasn't bothered with not seeing them anymore. His pack swayed dangerously as he walked.
"Hey, are you guys doing the dare?"
Tricky whispered it at about as loud a volume as whispers got, wedging herself in between them cheerfully.
"We're just investigating," said Espurr curtly, folding her arms. “No dares. Sorry.”
"But you know you guys need a guide, right?"
Espurr tried to ignore Tricky's whispers, focusing on the ground in front of her very intently as they walked. She wasn't going to drag Tricky into this. She wasn't going to drag Tricky into this. She wasn't going to—
"I know the way!" said Tricky. "And if you want to get past the drilbur, then I'm the only one who knows how. You need me if you're going to do anything, even investigating."
“We’ll see about that,” said Espurr, turning her nose up.
"And here we are," announced Watchog loudly, shattering their conversation as they entered the drilbur mineyard. He let his bag fall to the ground with a loud clatter, stopping Espurr, Goomy, and Tricky in their tracks. "Who around here do I talk to?"
For a second, the mineyard was quiet. Then, over the tops of the rocks, Espurr spotted little heads pop up, one after the other. They scrambled forward and were soon gathered in the middle of the yard.
The poor drilbur carrying what was marked in big, messy letters as "the social interaction rock" scurried forwards, looking feeble with tremors. He raised a large claw and opened his mouth, a sheepish expression on his face, but no sound came out.
He wasn't even as tall as Espurr.
Espurr couldn't wipe the baffled expression off her face. These were the mighty drilbur she needed help getting past?
But Tricky didn't look fazed.
The drilbur, who seemed almost frozen where he stood, finally found it in him to talk.
"W-what brings y-you to our fair mineyards?'' he managed to stammer out, sounding positively terrified to be speaking.
"These three children," said Watchog loudly, gesturing sweepingly to the three of them standing there, "are participating in a segment of mandated community service for the greater good. Would you be interested in taking a few new workers for the day?"
"S-s-see," said the drilbur, practically trembling. "W-we weren't e-expecting that for a w-w-while…"
Espurr looked around the courtyard, which was full of dust, large boulders, and mining equipment from some old carts to pickaxes and crates. Her eyes fixated on a large boulder near the left side of the yard. The rock was somewhat pointy, and from the top blew a clearly visible scrap of cloth: emerald green.
Just like Ampharos' cloak!
"Look," whispered Espurr quietly, nudging Goomy so he'd see. He was slimy. "That cloth!"
Tricky looked in the same direction Espurr was pointing.
"Oh, the dungeon's that way," she said matter-of-factly.
"H-how do you k-know that?" asked Goomy.
"Well duuuh," said Tricky. "I've been there. Not— not in the dungeon! But I know where it is!"
Of course she did.
"A-alright," whimpered the drilbur, finally breaking under Watchog's haggling. "We-we might have a spot f-for them cleaning up over there." He pointed with a claw to the other side of the large mineyard, where there was a large avalanche of rocks atop what used to be a minecart. Some drilbur who hadn’t joined the rest were already around the pile, lugging rocks onto large sleds, which were being tugged away once full.
Espurr's heart sank. She'd planned to wait until Watchog abandoned them, but now that she thought of it… why would the Drilbur let them anywhere near a crime scene?
And there'd be no chance to sneak away. Not in an open area like that.
"Great," said Watchog snappily. "I want to watch them. Anywhere for a teacher to sit?"
"Hey," said Tricky quietly, nudging Espurr with her snout. "If you wanna investigate… now’s the time!"
Espurr looked back at Watchog, who was now fervently debating with the poor drilbur just how close to them he could sit while they worked. Their chance was slipping away. It would only take them a second, and Watchog couldn't fault them that much for slipping away to look at something. He’d just lecture them a little. Right?
She didn’t want to do it. But she’d hold her nose if it meant finding a lead.
“Fine,” she told Tricky. “Let’s do it.”
“W-wait f-for me…”
Goomy, who apparently didn’t want to be left alone with Watchog, went with them as they slipped away from the argument without a sound. Watchog never noticed.
As the three of them snuck up to the boulder and crept around it, they saw a mineshaft that looked like it had been boarded up. And just before that, a few drilbur who were looking over what seemed like a disturbance right near it. Bingo!
But Espurr looked closer. The boards around the mineshaft were broken, and the break was recent. Very recent. So recent there were still shards of wood all around the floor. That meant… whoever had broken in went in.
And it was surrounded by drilbur. Far too many for Espurr to get past on her own.
"We’ll need to go in…" she trailed off in realisation, looking back at Goomy. And Tricky. Tricky, who looked positively batty about the idea. She so didn't want to give Tricky what she wanted…
Tricky's paw immediately shot into the air, her ears and tail brimming with excitement.
"I can help you get in!" she blurted out loudly.
Espurr really didn't want to humour it. But she looked at the Drilbur, who were small but many. And then at Watchog, who somehow hadn't noticed them yet. How long would it be until he did? Seconds?
"Alright," she said resignedly. She did need Tricky’s help. "Just do it before Watchog sees."
And they'd deal with Watchog later. She'd say sorry, but it would be a lie – some more detention was worth not getting petrified at a later date by coneheaded things.
“A-are we r-really doing this?” Goomy’s voice trembled like jello. But it was too late to back out now. Espurr tried to pat him reassuringly. It felt limp.
"On it!" said Tricky with a grin like it was her birthday. She then pranced out from behind the boulder, boldly announcing their presence to the entire collection of drilbur with a paw-wave.
"Hi again, guys!"
"U-uh-oh…" the drilbur all stared at Tricky collectively in shock and horror.
"I-it's the T-t-troublemaker…" one stammered out.
"A-and she brought f-friends!" another finished, pointing straight at Espurr and Goomy. They came out from behind the boulder too, joining Tricky in front of it.
Tricky sent a prompt 'I-told-you-so' smirk Espurr's way, before trotting forwards.
"Y-you're not here again for our g-gold, are you?" one timidly asked.
"Nope!" Tricky trotted towards the mine shaft. "That was last month. Today we're going exploring!"
"B-but you can't!" said a drilbur in horror.
"It's a c-crime scene!"
"P-please think about this!"
"Now where did those three troublemakers get to?"
A voice in the distance. Espurr's ears twitched, and she stole a quick peek around the boulder to see what was going on. Watchog was glancing around the mine-yard angrily, the heavy rucksack and his green cape still swinging from his shoulders.
"Tricky!" Espurr quiet-shouted from the boulder. "Watchog's onto us!"
Tricky looked back for a second, before focusing on the Drilbur with a wide grin.
"Soooo… we'll just be going now," she said, stepping forward. The drilbur moved closer, preparing to stop her.
"We-we're not going to l-let you pass!"
"Fiiine…" Tricky drooped her ears and tails disappointedly, turning away and walking back to where Espurr and Goomy were. The two of them watched her in surprise. It wasn't like Tricky to give up…
"Psyche!"
Tricky suddenly bolted back, launched off the boulder, and rolled into a ball, and smacked into the drilbur, knocking them over like bowling pins. Her attack sent them fleeing for cover or rolling out of the way. Despite herself, Espurr had to admit it was pretty awesome.
"C'mon!" Tricky yelled to Espurr and Goomy, uncurling charging for the dungeon. "They're gonna get up!"
"Hey! You three shouldn't be over there!"
Watchog's bark sent Espurr's heart racing. She and Goomy leapt from the boulder and followed Tricky quickly, just as Watchog suddenly peeked over the rock.
"Get back here, you louts!" he snarled loudly, his face crazed as he stumbled for them.
"No can do, Watchdog! Run for it!" Tricky screeched, running further towards the mineshaft. Espurr and Goomy scurried after her, and the three of them suddenly tripped in just as Watchog skidded to a stop at the shaft. Espurr felt the rush of air as his paw just missed her curls.
"Find them!" was the last thing Espurr heard before they tumbled down into the shaft. Darkness closed around them like an envelope, and all of the sudden they weren't in the real world anymore.
. . .. . .The other side of the mine shaft led to a steep hill that made Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy trip and tumble, sending them falling further down, down—
Espurr shut her eyes tight and tried her best to roll herself into a ball, protecting her face and limbs so they weren't damaged on the way down.
The whoosh of the wind by her ears suddenly disappeared, leaving behind something damp and musty in the air as the three students tumbled into a heap at the bottom of the slope. Once everything had gone still, Espurr dared to take a shaky breath and untangle herself from the others. The air smelled dusty, stale, and faintly like death – the telltale scent of a mystery dungeon. She was beginning to realise they all smelled like that.
"Is everyone alright?" she asked, looking around. There was a tremble in her voice she couldn't quite kick.
"I'm alright…" groaned Tricky, splayed out into a pile of yellow fur and limbs on the ground. Goomy, pulling his slime together and rising out of a pink, gloopy puddle on the ground, nodded shakily, trembling a bit.
"Y-yeah. M-me too."
Espurr pulled herself to her feet and shook the dust out of her fur, looking around them. Her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the caverns quickly.
‘What a mistake,’ she thought to herself regretfully. She was trembling a bit. Why had they come down here?
There was no sunlight around. But that didn't mean the dungeon was pitch-black. It glowed with the light of all the crystals anymon could ever wish for. Green and blue and soft orange gemstones shone along the walls and roofs, glowing dimly and giving the corridors a soft, ethereal glow. Tricky hopped to her feet quickly, the sparkles of all the jewels reflecting in her amazed eyes.
"Wow wow wow!" she exclaimed. "Look at all these gems! And in a mystery dungeon, too! Who would be stupid enough to board this off?"
Immediately, thoughts swarmed to Espurr's mind: the outlaw from that book…
"Maybe something happened here," she said tensely, trading looks with Goomy.
"Y-yeah," said Goomy, still shaken. "W-we read in a book—"
"But they wouldn't close it off forever just because something happened!" said Tricky, cutting them off. "I bet those drilbur were just silly cowards who were too scared to mine in a dungeon."
With that, the fennekin began to trot off cheerfully with her tail high. Espurr wished she could feel that cheer right about now.
She studied the crystals on the wall as they went. From what she had seen of the drilbur, Tricky's explanation mostly checked out. They definitely were cowardly. But she noticed the unnatural, jagged gaps on the walls as they walked too, like there had been a crystal there once and then somemon had torn it out. Maybe it was thieves… but nothing had been stolen in the village, and the drilbur probably would have toughened up by now if they were being stolen from all the time—
"Espurr, Goomy, watch out!"
Tricky's voice shot over from Espurr's left, and she barely had time to react before a brilliant orange ember flashed through the crystals, blinding her and a geodude.
The geodude wasted no time getting back to its feet… hands, and skittered straight for Espurr like a spider. Just the movement was spine-chilling, and it was fast. Espurr gasped, green fear grasping her eyesight. She pushed Goomy away and quickly backed herself up against the crystal wall as the geodude scurried towards her. She had to think quickly. She had to do something! She had to—
The pokemon let out a snarl as it closed the distance. Espurr ducked at the last second, then kicked the geodude's hand out from under it and scampered a good distance away before it could grab her. The geodude slammed face-first into one of the crystals on the wall, landing in a daze. One of Tricky's embers a second later missed but dealt a finishing blow to the blue rock. It shattered into tiny pieces, expelling shimmering white dust everywhere. The geodude hissed, starting to skitter the rest of the distance towards Espurr, until it was blasted from behind by a bunch of purple sparks. The geodude collapsed to the ground, leaving an unstable, frightened Goomy behind it, his slime shivering and his slimy paws still flitting with purple energy.
The whole thing happened in seconds. Espurr watched in silent, wide-eyed terror as the geodude's body degraded before her eyes, collapsing into a pile of reddish dust on the dungeon floor. What had just happened? Had they… killed it? Was this what happened to pokemon when they died?
Tricky scampered over to them. She looked excited, her mouth hanging wide open, her tongue out, and her eyes bugging out of her head.
"Holy mystery dungeon…" the fennekin breathed as Espurr and Goomy picked themselves up and made their way back to her. "…we fought a dungeon 'mon! And WON! This is amazing!"
"Did… did we kill it?" was all a shocked Espurr managed to ask. "It just… crumbled."
"That's 'cause it's not real," Tricky said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"It looked real to me…" Espurr protested. She was pleading with life at this point – if anything would start making sense right about now, she'd gladly take it.
"Well, it's not! The dungeon just makes those, no-mon knows why. But we beat one!"
That was good enough.
Tricky suddenly gasped and scampered ahead, leaving Espurr and Goomy in the dust.
"Come on! I found the stairs!" she yelled, bounding into the distance. Espurr, still shaken from the encounter, looked over to make sure Goomy was fine, then they both took each others' paws and tried to catch up.
Only then, as they walked ahead, keeping an eye out for any more surprise monsters, did the implications of Tricky's statement fully hit her: Mystery dungeons had stairs?
~\({O})/~
Mystery dungeons had stairs.
Perfect, smooth, pristine stairs, and Espurr couldn't even begin making heads or tails of that. Shouldn't they at least get dusty? What about damage, or age? Even as she walked down the steps, which just happened to be the perfect size for Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy, the smoothness of the stone compared to the rough floor of the dungeon baffled her. Did all dungeons have these?
"All dungeons have those," Tricky said dismissively. "Dunno why, don't really care." She shrugged, glancing around the cavern. "Hey, is it darker on this floor?"
It was. The cavern was just a little darker than the last one, and the crystals here glowed dimmer in the encroaching darkness than before. But hadn't they gone up? And here there were red ones. They glittered in secluded spots amongst the many other colours, like a missing colour added to a painting.
Espurr was about to say that it was, but then they both heard the distant skittering echoing through the dark cavern walls, the sound of approaching dungeon wildings.
"I hear more enemies coming," she said instead, urgently.
"W-we sh-should hide," said Goomy, antennae flopped over as the chittering and howls grew. "It s-sounds like a lot."
Before Tricky could even open her mouth in response, several geodude skittered around the corner, rushing right past and around the two students like they weren't there. The three of them shared puzzled looks. Then the sandshrew rolled past. And the roggenrola clopped on by.
Tricky couldn't contain her snickers at the goofy way the retreating herd of dungeon wildlings was running off, but Espurr cast a look to the cavern up ahead. That apparition before hadn't ignored them… but maybe these ones were running from something else. Something like… a larger dungeon pokemon?
And then she heard the distant stomping. And Espurr put it all together.
"Hide!" she suddenly yelped, pulling Tricky by her ear-fluff behind a large, teal-coloured crystal jutting up out of the ground. Goomy hurriedly slimed after them.
"Oww… Watch the ear-fluff!" Tricky complained in a harsh whisper once they were all safely hidden behind the crystal. "How would you like it if I pulled your ear?"
Espurr's ears briefly tingled, and something told her that would be a very bad idea. Goomy snuggled further into the crystal – he could hear what she did now, too.
The stomping slowly became louder. All three of them could hear it clearly now, the sound of a heavy stomp and then the screech of claws being dragged across the floor.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Louder and louder. Espurr realised she was holding her breath. Her vision was tinting green with fear and she didn't know which of them it came from.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Only when the creature was several paces away from their hiding spot was Espurr brave enough to peek out at it. What she saw only made the streaks of green clouding her mind stronger: A monstrous, sharklike creature on two legs lumbered through, dragging its feet through the cavern like a zombie. Its head hung low, drooping down in front of its body, and the blades attached to its thin, spindly arms screeeeched as they dragged against the stone ground with each step. It was at least three times their heights, if not more.
Espurr recognised that 'mon from the book immediately.
"Gabite…" she whispered to Goomy. Goomy’s antennae flopped down and trembled.
As the gabite stomped off the way that they had come, Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy slowly emerged from behind the crystal, stepping on the sea of sparkling gemstone-dust that now littered the floor. Some of the fragile crystals along the walls had exploded in its wake from the footsteps' vibrations. They could still hear the echoing thuds of the gabite's lumbering in the distance.
"What was that?" Tricky whimpered, much of her bravado suddenly lost.
"A-an apparition," said Goomy. "H-he was an outlaw."
"Or he used to be," said Espurr grimly, staring at the dungeon corridor ahead.
"No-mon told me something like that was down here!" cried Tricky, breathing heavily. "Why didn't anymon say something?"
And that was the last straw for Espurr.
"You know, I bet that's why they shut this place down," she started pointedly, folding her arms and glaring at Tricky. "Goomy and I could have guessed that. Maybe you should have listened when we tried to tell you."
Tricky just huddled up near the ground, her paws over her head. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she was breathing heavily.
"Y-you were the one who wanted to come in here…" she deflected, whimpering in response. "It's not my fault!"
"Bu-but wh-what do we do?" asked Goomy. He was ignored, as usual.
"And—" Espurr trailed off, her eyes narrowing. Scarlet anger streaked across her vision. That was it! "And you wanted to come along!" she fumed. "You would have gone anyway, whether we went or not, because you can't resist getting yourself into danger. You were just waiting to slip off the moment Watchog wasn't looking, weren't you? And then you would have been in here all by yourself. Or tell me I'm wrong."
Tricky didn't have an answer. She just curled up tighter into a ball, covering her face with her tail. Espurr scoffed.
"Fine," she spat. "If you want to charge off and bury your head in the sand, then go ahead. Me and Goomy are going to find an actual solution. Like the way out. Let's go."
And with that, she briskly walked off to assess the situation. The sound of Goomy's slime against the cavern floor told her he was following.
"There are stairs just on the other side of the hallway, right?" she asked Goomy. "Maybe the way out is somewhere on the first floor.
She looked back towards the dark corridor, where to her dismay she could see nothing. The crystal's light didn't carry far enough for them to see the end of the hallway. But if it was their best shot, then…
"W-wait," said Tricky from behind them. Espurr and Goomy looked back to see the fennekin standing in the middle of the corridor, her legs still quaking a bit. She sniffled.
"Dungeons rearrange themselves behind you," the fox explained. Espurr could still hear the quake in her voice, but she was slowly calming down. "And they reset themselves every couple days. So the only way out is… down to the next floor. Until we find the exit."
Espurr and Goomy looked at each other. Then they turned around, and made their way back to her.
"How do we know where to find the staircase?" Espurr asked.
"We just…" Tricky trailed off, pawing the ground. "We just have to find it! I'll start."
She perked up immediately. The harsh blue tones Espurr was getting from her disappeared in an instant, replaced by dissonant lemon shades. Tricky scampered off into the hallway, looking for a staircase.
A distant roar from behind them and the agitated chitters of several apparitions sent Espurr and Goomy scurrying after her seconds later.
~\({O})/~
The stress of their earlier argument left a mark on the walk afterwards. It was quiet, slow, sombre. None of them talked much unless it was to fight off an apparition or over if they'd been in this hallway before. Espurr felt the sea blue moodiness from Goomy, and the deep, dark blue Tricky was desperately trying to pretend didn't exist, and a third, ocean blue she realised was herself. She felt bad about lashing out at Tricky like that – even though it was justified.
No-mon knew how long this dungeon went on for. They were on the third floor now if she was counting right. There could be just one more left, or another six. The time after that was spent in silence, walking through the maze-like caverns in search of the next floor down.
Until Espurr tripped.
Catching herself on the ground with a yelp, she scrambled around to look at what she'd tripped on. It was a dusty, ancient leather bag, which was so dull and aged it blended in with the floor almost perfectly.
"You okay?" asked Tricky, bounding over.
"W-what is that?" said Goomy..
Espurr got to her knees, picking the object's strap up.
"It looks like a bag," she said. But who would leave a bag sitting around in the middle of the dungeon?
The inside wasn't any more exciting than the outside was. There were a few berries that might as well have been dust by now, some paper and a pen that had no ink, and a couple of ageing sticks with weird lines on them. There was also a lot of built-up dust that exploded out into their faces, making them all cough and turn away.
Then, Tricky's eyes fixated on something in the distance ahead.
"Woah," she said, suddenly taking off ahead. "Look at that!"
Espurr and Goomy looked up ahead in Tricky's direction, where the fox was busy gawking at the massive silhouette of…
Bones.
Lots and lots of bones. The bag forgotten, the two of them dashed closer to look at it. They formed what had once been a large dragonlike being three times their height, ribs and legs and claws scattered around the floor. Whatever was here seemed to have decomposed rapidly. A large, sharklike skull lay at the crown of the skeleton.
"I think we found Gabite," said Espurr, looking at the massive skeleton that towered over them.
"Or w-w-what's l-left of him," added Goomy.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
In the distance. All of them looked to the cavern behind, eyes widening.
"It found us," gasped Tricky.
She sprung to her feet, bounding further into the dungeon, then thought twice and came back to make sure they were following. "C'mon!" she yelled, dancing on her paws.
Espurr thought quickly, then decided to take the bag and dragged it along as she and Goomy caught up with Tricky. But as usual, she just wasn't as fast as them. She couldn't keep up.
Then Gabite broke out into a run. She could see it now! Stomp stomp stomp. Espurr yelped and quickened her pace, for what little good it did her. She wasn't fast enough!
Gabite charged forward, and in her panic, Espurr tripped over her tail. The bag fell in front of her. She hit the ground hard. It was all over, she couldn't get up or even move fast enough! Turning around on the ground, all she could see was the gabite sliding to a stop, raising a single, blade-like arm, and preparing to bring it down—
A single ember flew through the air, reflecting off the gemstones and blinding both Espurr and the gabite. It struck Gabite in the snout. With a squeal it staggered backwards, and Espurr felt Tricky chomp down on her arm, physically dragging her away. She grabbed the strap of the bag just in time, dragging it along.
"Why diph phou phop?" Tricky asked frantically through her mouthful of Espurr's arm. "I can phee the phtairs from here!"
And as a dragged-along Espurr staggered to her feet, she saw it was true – at the end of the corridor lay the perfect, out of place stairs that would lead them to the next floor. They were paces from escape!
Gabite snarled, nearly recovered. The sound sent both Espurr and Tricky running faster, and by the time Gabite was able to open its eyes again, they were already out of sight.
The roars of the zombie pokemon raged through the cavern as Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy rushed down the dungeon stairs. Espurr glanced back at the stairway as she ran. It was going to close up, right?
"What are you doing?!" Tricky cried out in terror.
"The stairs—" Espurr began.
"—They don't move if somemon's watching them, you ignoramus!" Tricky screeched, rushing back and practically bulldozing Goomy and the poor feline down the cavern hall.
Faster than anything she'd done in this dungeon, Espurr turned her head away. She heard Gabite's terrible roar, and a single thud against stone, but then the light suddenly cut out. Gabite's roars became muffled, then disappeared altogether. Only silence remained.
Tricky stopped when she realised they could no longer hear Gabite's enraged roars.
"Is everyone here? Did… Did we make it?" she asked, catching her breath and giving Espurr a chance to break free from the fennekin's grasp. Espurr looked back to the cavern they'd come from, now shrouded in darkness.
"I-I made it," said Goomy, the trembling wavering through his voice.
"I can't tell…" Espurr responded, nearly too jittery to talk. "It's too dark."
"Well, I can't hear him." Tricky's voice also had some jitter. She shook herself off, the sparkling dust in her coat sending glimmers of light that reflected off the crystals and cast a dim glow around the cavern. Espurr noticed the red hue a few of the gems took. Could it be?
Quickly, she went ahead, shuffling her fur as she went to illuminate the gemstones around her. They weren't in a narrow hall shrouded by rock and crystal anymore. The cavern was wide and unfettered by obstacles. It was almost as large as the entire school classroom, and in the middle of the cave sat the largest mountain of treasure Espurr had ever seen – thousands and thousands of gold coins, dotted with the occasional gemstone from within the dungeon. This must have been Gabite's loot!
As she stood there, wide-eyed, Tricky trotted up, looking around the cavern with amazement.
"Wow…" she began, the stars invading her eyes again. "Remind me why I wanted to leave again? This is amazing!"
"Let's just grab something and leave." Espurr didn't fancy the idea of staying in the cavern any longer than necessary.
“I-I want to go too.” Goomy agreed. As enthralled by the place as Tricky seemed to be, even she didn't contest the idea, and the three of them set out to work picking a few of the better gems from among the pile.
Espurr opened the bag she had slung over her shoulder the best she could with her working arm, allowing Tricky to dump the stones into it. The bag felt heavier now, digging into her shoulder, and adjusting it was painful on her bad arm.
Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.
Faint, in the distance. Espurr glanced at the shadows from behind, writing it off as her imagination. The stairs to this floor were sealed. There was no way for the gabite to get back here before they left the dungeon... Right?
"I see some light!" Tricky announced, looking ahead. Walking around the massive pile of gems, Espurr did indeed see a source of light in the distance. It wasn't daylight, but it wasn't crystal light either. Maybe it was the way out!
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Faster. This time, Tricky and Goomy heard it too. It echoed around the cavern, making it impossible to tell where the sound had come from. Both Espurr and Tricky hurriedly turned towards the underground hallway they had come from.
But when the gabite attacked, it wasn't from the front. The only warning the three students had was the sudden sound of footsteps from the left—
—Stomp-Stomp-Stomp—
"No fair!" Tricky whined, just before they both jumped out of the way of the charging gabite. The monstrous pokemon spun around, digging a blade into the ground as it slid to bank the turn, then bellowed loudly at all three of them.
That was it. Without thinking, Espurr grabbed a big fat gemstone, and with narrowed eyes hurled it straight in Gabite's face. It exploded into shards of sparkling dust, knocking Gabite's head back with a grunt.
Gabite stopped for a few seconds, trying to process what had just happened. Silence settled in the room. Neither Espurr nor Tricky or Goomy dared to move, staring up at it with wide eyes. Espurr’s tail flattened. The gabite remained still for a few seconds more. Then, slowly, its face pulled back into a snarl, and as that snarl grew louder it brought its sharp fin down upon Espurr's head—
—A flaming ember whooshed past Espurr's ears. It hit Gabite square between the eyes, and its blade slashed into some nearby crystals instead of Espurr's skull. Having destroyed some of its treasure enraged Gabite even more, and it began to unleash all fury upon where it thought Espurr and Tricky were. Espurr suddenly felt Tricky chomp down upon her right arm and one of Goomy's antennae, pulling her out of the way of an attack.
Espurr and Goomy, thrown back, stumbled back out of harm's way. In front of them stood Tricky, her mouth flaming with fire.
"Stay behind me!" she growled. Gabite roared and began to charge forward. Tricky released a massive stream of fire from her throat, slamming Gabite in the face and sending it reeling away with a screech. The fire seemed to blind it, causing it to fly into its treasure pile. It let out a piercing screech of rage.,
Tricky bounded over to them, looking them over.
"You guys are okay, right?" she asked hurriedly and frantic.
Gabite hadn't noticed them yet. It was still busy destroying its treasure. Every new coin sent flying, every gemstone exploding into dust, was met with another thunderous roar, and eventually it gave up with the slashing and swiping and just charged headfirst into the pile. Espurr watched the mountain of treasure sway dangerously. And then she put two and two together. Maybe she could…
"I have an idea," said Espurr, crawling over to them. "Stay close to me!"
She focused on a single gemstone, located on the bottom of the pile. She concentrated on it, trying to pull it with her mind. Nuzleaf had said she'd be able to…
Her heart skipped a beat as she suddenly saw the gemstone move a little. But it wasn't coming out any further. It was too heavy. Espurr couldn't free it on her own.
Gabite sniffed the air, its sight finally returning once more. Its eyes fixed on Goomy, Tricky, and Espurr, and seconds later, so did its body. It let out a mighty roar once more, loping towards them with reckless abandon. Espurr poured all her concentration into one final psychic pull—
The gemstone soared free at the last second, whizzing through the air and knocking Gabite's right foot off its mark. Suddenly sent tumbling to its side, Gabite could only brace for impact as its body slammed against its massive pile of treasure. The three of them watched in horror as the mountain of gold clinked, clattered…
And then began to topple with a thunderous sound, burying Gabite under an avalanche of shiny, gleaming coins.
The ear-piercing sound of crashing and screeching gold filled the air for at least a minute, and their sight exploded with gleaming metal and sparkling dust. But then the sounds slowly died away, and only silence was left. A few gold coins clinked as the pile of treasure settled, and the air was thick with sparkling dust.
As the thunderous impact rattled away, the massive hulking beast that was Gabite lay on the ground before them, slain. Slowly, its body crumbled away into more of that reddish dust, which seemed to dissolve before Espurr's eyes.
The three of them looked at each other, struggling not to laugh, or collapse, and giddy with something between distress and excitement. They'd done it!
Heya, it was a bit of a sprint towards the end to beat the deadline, but I suppose I was looking for a reason to come back to this story, and getting rolled this story for Catnip sounds like as good a reason as any to indulge things, so let’s see how things shake out:
Chapter 1-3
>dat artwork
Ah yes, time for the part in the story where we get Psychic Sheep’s rendition of the first mission in Super.
This wasn't the way back at all, Espurr was quickly realising. The buildings of the village had long since turned to dense trees that blotted out the sun and cast everything into various shades of blue and purple. It was darker than the foggy green forest she'd woken up in before, more ominous and looming.
"Are you sure this is the way back to school?" she asked Tricky, who was sniffing something out on the ground as they walked through and brushed aside blue and purple ferns and underbrush.
"Yep! Toootally. We're taking the loooooong way around," the fox remarked, her eyes and nose glued to the trail ahead. Espurr could see her mental smirk. She drilled holes into the back of Tricky's head with her suspicious gaze.
Huh, ‘blue and purple’ vegetation. I wonder if that’s meant to telegraph that they’re getting close to a Mystery Dungeon, or if the plants are just weird™ in this world.
Espurr: “Tricky, I’d like to remind you that my arm is broken right now...”
Tricky: “Look, we’ll totally get back to school! Eventually…”
"What sort of shortcut takes us further awa—"
"Stop!"
Tricky suddenly perked up straight, sticking out a paw and her tail to stop Espurr from heading any further.
"I'm going in after him!" the sound of voices through the underbrush up ahead caught Espurr's ears.
I kinda wonder if “the sound of voices” would’ve worked better before the “I’m going in after him!” line, or else there being more added description of whose voice this is. IIRC from the old version of the story, this is Deerling speaking, but it’s not communicated to the readers at all, while Espurr would be able to recognize her voice by this point.
Espurr: “Yeah, I knew this wasn’t the way back to school.”
"No! You c-can't! We… we're not gonna let anything bad happen to you!"
"Like you didn't let anything bad happen to Goomy?"
"You brought us here?" Espurr snapped under her breath at Tricky. The corners of her vision were tinted with magenta annoyance, and rightly so! Now they were certain to get in trouble, and if those strange creatures happened to be lurking around…
I think that it might have made sense to drop in a sentence or two where Espurr explicitly realizes that Tricky brought her back to the Mystery Dungeon she first woke up in, but that’s just me.
"Well, yoouu weren't going to come on your own…" Tricky said. "Soo I had to improvise!"
Tricky, this is why you have popularity problems in your hometown, just saying.
"But…" Espurr stopped, at a loss for words. She glared daggers at Tricky, stomping the ground. "If I wanted to come,don't you think I would have said so the first time? You can't just—"
"But this is way more fun than sitting around in the school!" Tricky pleaded, almost like she was trying to convince herself. "You wanna have fun, don't you?"
If Tricky’s backstory is remotely like what hers was in the v1 of this story, boy does this whole exchange take on some undertones right about now.
Cold anger laced Espurr's face, lashing across her eyes as ice blue. She made sure as much of it pierced through as possible. If she'd had laser eyes, Tricky would have been a pile of dust.
"Who's that?" Deerling yelled loudly towards the brushes, stealing the voice out of Espurr's mouth. "Show yourselves!"
Tricky bounded forward, throwing apart the blue-purple leaves of the foliage. Espurr brushed past them, following her out into a small, overcast clearing.
Deerling: “Tricky, seriously. Nobody needs you to help with stuff involving Mystery Dungeons!”
Tricky: “But I’m the one who knows how to get in and out of them the best among all of us!”
"There is a good reason for that," Deering snapped, turning around. She nodded her head down at Tricky's silently cramping tail, which she was walking stiffly to avoid provoking. "Besides, you're injured. Just go back to the school clinic."
"Yeah! We don't need a loser like you taking up precious space when we're short on time," a third voice interjected.
The words had come from a pancham who leaned against one of the trees, his arms folded. He was chewing a twig in his mouth like he thought it made him look cool. One look and Espurr could tell they weren't going to be friends.
Yeah, Pancham was definitely not Mr. Congeniality either earlier on in Super or in the v1 of this story. I see that hasn’t changed this go-around.
"Who's the new kid?" Pancham asked, twirling the twig around in his teeth.
"Nurse Audino's child," everyone but Espurr replied in unison.
"Hmm," said Pancham, spitting his stick on the ground. Espurr looked at the wad of spit and suppressed a shiver of disgust. They definitely weren't going to be friends.
Espurr: “I’m… just going to scoot a little bit over this way away from the spitting bear, really.”
"Look, we're on a clock here!" Deerling stepped up. "Goomy should have been back hours ago. He could be in serious trouble! You know what happens when pokemon stay in mystery dungeons too long. And if you don't want to get grounded for life by your parents…" she glared pointedly at Pancham and Shelmet. "Then it's our responsibility to help him!"
Tricky: “Uh… Well… Probably not, but again, I know how to get around these places, Espurr. Getting in and getting out with Goomy should be a cinch!” ^^
"Hey," Pancham said, raising his arms. "Dad's outta town, he ain't gonna do jack squat. Besides, it's not a big deal. You're freakin' out over nothing."
I can only imagine how much Tricky and Deerling are screaming internally right about now.
"I am not freaking out over nothing, Pancham!" Deerling growled at him. "You know that! You all know that! We can't leave him in there, we can't have a repeat!"
While I assume that Deerling’s phrasing is very deliberately meant to avoid spoiling Budew and his role in Tricky’s backstory, I wonder if there’s more natural-sounding ways of communicating the sentiment without giving the game away such as “We can’t leave him in there, we can’t risk another accident!”
Tricky's ears quickly flattened, and out of nowhere Espurr was blindsided by a cloud of haze that coloured her vision blue and blotted out her thoughts. She realised that it was coming from Tricky, who looked distressed. Desperate to get free of the mind-fog, she moved away from Tricky, and it lifted just enough for Espurr to think again. Soon after, it was gone, and Tricky had settled back into her normal peppy self. Espurr looked at Tricky with concern: what was that?
Oh, so Tricky’s backstory is roughly the same as what it was in the v1 of this story. Also, that’d be ‘guilt’, Espurr.
But Tricky was trying to ignore her.
All the overlapping voices and arguing that had been going on in the meantime were making Espurr's head hurt in more ways than one. All she wanted more than anything was to be back safe somewhere quiet at the school. She hadn't signed up for this! But at the same time…
Espurr looked towards the forest ahead of her, and saw the dark, tangled mass of trees that lay ahead. Even from here, she could tell something was wrong with it. There were little things off; how it hit the light and seemed to shimmer, how it smelled, musty with a hint of black rot fuzzing around the corner. And there was another kid just like her stuck in there…
Ah yes, I can see that Espurr’s inner adventurer is starting to stir, though I wonder if the second paragraph would work better as two smaller ones or not.
The thought of going in after him made her stomach flip. She didn't even have both of her arms right now. But the thought of going back to the school knowing there was someone stuck in there just like her made it flip more. She couldn't just leave him alone in there, could she? She'd never forgive herself.
"He's gonna be fine!" Pancham shouted dismissively over the rest of the yelling. "All of this because—"
Espurr: “Yeah, there’s no way he’s going to be fine. Let’s just go in and get him already.” >_>;
"We'll go."
The clearing fell silent. Everyone looked in surprise at where the voice came from. Tricky's mouth fell open in awe and stayed that way. Espurr looked around to make sure everyone's attention was on her, then put her good paw down.
"…Are you sure?" Deerling asked, eyeing Espurr's cast. "You don't look too good."
Espurr: “No, but I can already tell that Goomy’s in trouble, so I’d like to help.”
Espurr's attention was drawn back to her cast, and the dull maroon throbbing of her bone that was slowly beginning to become sharper. She had a feeling she was going to regret this. A lot.
Pancham: “Because if you do that, Shelmet and I are going to die?”
Espurr: “I fail to see any negatives from this, really.”
"No," said Tricky, Pancham, and Shelmet all at once. Espurr wilted inside. There went that. And she didn't quite want to go back to Audino empty-handed anyway.
I’m honestly a bit surprised that Deerling hasn’t had more to say about things here-
Deerling sent them a quick glare, then cleared a path for Espurr and—reluctantly—Tricky.
"Have fun getting killed!" Shelmet yelled after them.
"Shelmet!" hissed Deerling back with vitriol. Shelmet disappeared into his shell with a squeak. "All of you, back to the town. We're getting some more help."
Oh, there’s her commentary. Though I should be a lot less surprised that Deerling would be the one who’d take the sensible route, even if I wonder if she should’ve more explicitly rationalized “Goomy needs help, we’ll get reinforcements” to everyone since you just know that she’d be side-eyeing heavily at the idea of Tricky leading a ‘mon through a dungeon expedition, especially an injured one from past events.
As they walked in, the bushes began to close up the way back. Espurr looked back as they curled up around each other, creating a dark wall of blue leaves behind them. From here on out, the forest looked like it wanted to tear them limb from limb.
Oh, I see that we don’t have “floors” for Mystery Dungeons in this setting but something more general.
"I'm gonna be honest with you…" Tricky excitedly scampered all around Espurr and Deerling as the three of them made their way through the shadowy forest. "That was amazing! I didn't think you were the exploring type! Now we can be fellow explorers together, and brave mystery dungeons together, and even join the Expedition Society together! When we grow up, of course. The Expedition Society doesn't accept children."
Ah yes, I can already see Tricky’s having the fantasies of having a new bestie flying through her head.
Espurr was still cross with Tricky, and it was written on her face. She stumbled over her own feet with a squeak again, for the seventeenth time that day. Sure, the ground was littered with all manner of trip-friendly objects, but she could tell that wasn't the problem. How she wanted her old feet back…
Espurr looked up at the woods, noticing the utter lack of wind, how the forest seemed to stare down upon them with a thousand evil eyes, the rancid scent of decay that once again filled the air… Something was wrong here.
Espurr: “... I’m sorry, Tricky, did you say that you went to places like this for fun? How on earth do you enjoy being here?”
"This place doesn't want us here," she finally said aloud, shuddering. Her tail dipped low, just above the ground. "Can you feel it?"
"Well, duuuh." Tricky was blasé, trotting cheerfully. "We're in a mystery dungeon." She dismissed it with a flick of her ears. "I should know, I've been through, like, 30 of these and come out just fine! You'll always know you're in a mystery dungeon when the wind stops blowing, and everything smells bad, and you get that kinda creepy feeling, like somemon's watching you…"
I have to wonder how many of those came after the moment with Budew. Since considering how she reacted to what happened to him, it adds some… undertones to Tricky’s casual disregard for her own safety.”
Tricky's word vomit blended in with the background noise as Espurr walked. How far inwas Goomy from here? And what did he look like, for that matter? She just hoped he wasn't too far from the entrance…
"…And you know it's time to leave once this really thick fog starts creeping in…" Words finally stopped sprinting out of Tricky's mouth, the fennekin falling silent as she saw the same thing Espurr did: A thick mass of fog slowly crept between the trees, thick and dense, obscuring all it touched.
"…Exactly like that," Tricky quietly finished. She suddenly looked a lot more frantic. "Already?" she yelled to all the trees around them. Her voice echoed up into the hollow, painted canopy. "We were only here for five minutes! How come there's already fog?!"
Espurr: “I can already tell that I’m going to regret asking this, but given that things are obviously not going well at the moment, I think that it’d probably be best to know what we just got into.” >_>;
"Well, first, this really freaky wind starts to blow out of nowhere," Tricky started, her tail stiffly curling behind her. "And it just gets stronger every time it comes back. And then if you don't leave after that, then the dungeon starts lashing out at you itSELF—"
Both Espurr and Tricky, jumped a combined total of six feet apart as the trunk of a giant tree suddenly splintered apart, falling to the ground with a deafening crash and flattening the area of ground they had previously been on.
Espurr: “And… uh… how do we get out of this, again?” O_O;
This had all been such a bad idea. He'd only wanted to prove himself to the other kids. He was nine! That was… a big kid's age for sure! But no-mon ever seemed to realise that. Deerling only coddled him, and Pancham and Shelmet bullied him more than the others, and Tricky… No-mon liked to talk about or to Tricky. Not that Goomy hadn't tried. Three months ago—the first and only time he'd attempted making friends with her—she had roped him into stealing unripe strawberries from her Pop's berry patch. That didn't end well for either of them.
Again, Tricky. This is why you have popularity problems in Serenity Village.
But this was just as bad, if not even worse! Pancham and Shelmet had told him to do it. If he could find the paper they had left in this dungeon from the last school field trip, write his name on it, and bring it back to them before nightfall, they said, then they would finally recognise him as one of the Big Kids and stop teasing him! It was too good to be a dream, so he'd taken the dare.
They were totally never going to stop teasing him even if he found the paper, I can already tell.
And he'd found the paper too, on the first floor of the dungeon, no less! pu[Watchog had taught him that dungeons always kept anything you dropped in there until somemon picked it up[/u], and he was proud for remembering it. But then this really creepy fog began to roll in, and suddenly everything felt scarier than it should have, and he couldn't bring himself to move! He was too scared to.
Huh. I didn’t remember that detail from the v1, but given how there’s been 10,000 years of history in this story, I suppose that’s an easy way to justify all the random Poké and item drops lying around in Mystery Dungeons.
And it just got worse the longer he sat there. The fog, the drafts of wind, the scary feeling coming from everywhere… He had heard that there were wild pokemon who lived in mystery dungeons, wild pokemon that would eat you all up for breakfast if they caught you, wild pokemon that had been brainwashed by the Dungeon Wraith and set out as its personal hunting slaves…
I mean, they were straight-up zombies in the v1, so I think that’s a bit more than ‘brainwashing’, Goomy.
No matter how confidently Deerling told him the Dungeon Wraith was just a story made up to frighten little kids into staying in the towns, Goomy couldn't help but wonder if the off-kilter howls he heard travelling through the woods really were just apparitions. They didn't sound like the howls of any pokemon he knew, off-pitch roars and screeches that rustled through the trees like the moans of ghosts.
Goomy didn't like ghosts. He trembled again, keeping the paper close just in case a sudden wind came up and blew it away. Was he going to die here?
Obviously not, since you show up in chapter art for some of the later chapters of this story. Also that would be really, really depressing and I didn’t recall this story going into the deep end that quickly last time.
"GOO-MY!"
Off in the distance, to Goomy's left. He looked in that direction, but couldn't see anymon through the thick, prowling fog.
"GOO-MY! WHERE ARE YOU?"
His heart leaping with sudden joy, Goomy realised where he had heard that voice before. It was Tricky!
Goomy: “Oh yay me… it’s Tricky. The daredevil who got me in trouble with that berry patch.”
"I- I—" Goomy's voice stuttered and died in his throat. No! He couldn't be too scared to call for help, not when it was so close! Too scared to move, too scared to talk… Pancham had been right. He really was just a little kid after all. Maybe he deserved to be teased and coddled. He'd take that over sitting alone in this dark and scary dungeon any day.
"GOO-MY!"
With a sudden pang of fear, Goomy realised the shouts were coming from his right now. They were passing him!
"I- I… I—I'm HERE! I-I'M OVER HERE!" he yelled out, his voice returning to him with a hoarse crack. His stutter, the one he just couldn't ever kick, returned with it. His antennae, already flopped down against his head, sunk down a little further in response.
Goomy: “They heard that, right? Please tell me they heard that…”
An excruciating ten seconds passed. Goomy didn't hear a response. The colour was draining out of his slime. Had he not been loud enough? Did they not hear him?
I kinda wonder if the part where Goomy breaks down works better split off into its own paragraph, since it’s a bit different idea-wise from the stuff that precedes it.
"Begone, foul beasts!"
Tricky's voice whistled through the air again, and the furfrou were suddenly sent running off once a pair of twin embers blasted through the fog and set both their scruffy heads alight. They howled and snarled, tendrils of fog seeming to snuff the fire out as they scurried off. Tricky pounced out of the mist, followed by an espurr Goomy didn't know but was just as glad to see.
Goomy happily slimed over to Tricky, giving her his best attempt at a non-slimy hug. Despite the warmth from Tricky's fur, he couldn't stop himself from shivering, his slime trembling from the echoes of fear. He'd never get over his cowardness, would he…?
I mean, ‘never’ is a very long time, Goomy. Also, you got over said cowardliness during a more climactic moment early on in the v1, so my baseline expectation is that you’ll get over it soon enough.
Happiness was short-lived, however. The mystery dungeon let out a bellowing screech that blew through the trees and nearly knocked the three of them off their feet.
"Uh-oh…" Tricky looked up at the trees, rattled. "It's getting mad. We should go."
Goomy: “Um… And just how are we supposed to do that again?”
"In my two years of service as the esteemed Vice Principal of this school…"
The luminous orbs were uncovered in the Principal's Office, one of the rooms in the back of the School Clinic. They shone with a warm yellow glow, illuminating the coat of Watchog as he paced the office like a military madmon. All three of the other teachers in the room tiredly sat in front of him as he did it.
"In my two flipping years of service… one student has been the very bane of my existence."
Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy were all seated in front of Principal Simipour, the head faculty member of Serenity Village's school. He watched Watchog pace back and forth through the office through sleep-worn eyes, the same tired smile adorning his face as he did it. A short stack of papers decorated his desk, blank sides up.
Part of me wonders if this is a little too accelerated of a jump-ahead and we should’ve seen a bit more of Espurr and the gang actually getting out and discovering that they’re in trouble. Especially when that can potentially be handled by something as simple as “pop Escape Orb to bounce” in the end of the prior scene and then revealing that Watchog / some other adult was waiting for them on the other side in the narration of this one.
Watchog suddenly spun on his feet, pointing a paw directly at Tricky.
"Thievery, trespassing, cutting school… And now she's corrupting the newcomers! She's making them think they can do whatever they want, whenever they want…" Watchog let out a hysterical chuckle. "Just think, the next generation: A bunch of scummy layabouts who steal and pillage and trespass to their heart's content! Are you all just going to sit back and let this be the future?" he questioned the teachers, gesturing broadly to the trio of students in front of him. "This needs to be nipped in the bud, right here, right now—"
Ah yes, Watchog just going and reminding everybody why nobody likes him either in Super or in this story.
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your… maniacal rant," Farfetch'd started carefully, clutching his stalk in his wings. "But is there a reason you've summoned us teachers and these three poor students here after nightfall, when they should be sleeping safely in their beds right about now?"
"Ha!" Watchog squeaked out a sudden laugh, cutting Farfetch'd off with manic eyes. "Oh, I assure you, Farfetch'd, sleep is the last thing on these little devils' minds…"
Farfetch’d: “... You’ve been drinking Chesto Tea again, haven’t you Watchog? I can see it in those bloodshot eyes of yours.”
"Wanna remind me why you made him Vice Principal again?" Espurr heard Audino mutter to Principal Simipour. She sounded quite irritated.
"As it happens," Watchog continued, "I didn't have these students dragged from their beds. Rather, I got a tip-off from our very good student Deerling and ran into them on their way back…" he paused for dramatic effect, "…From the Foreboding Forest."
Yeah, see the earlier recommendation about showing more of this happening. Since it genuinely does feel like we missed a step getting here.
Silence fell over the room, as the other three teachers tried to digest that. Espurr held in a scowl. So Deerling had gone and gotten help… why hadn't they done that first?
"But what were they doing in the Foreboding Forest, I hear you ask?" Watchog continued. "Why, none other than… a dare!"
Tricky: “I mean, I wasn’t the one who gave the dare, so-”
Watchog: “A likely story!”
He whipped out the paper with Goomy's slimy paw-writing on it, making sure the other teachers could see it.
"And here's the proof!" Watchog crowed triumphantly. "A sheet of paper, straight from the school's stores! And there's only one pokemon who would propose a dare as stupid as this…"
Watchog cast his narrowing eyes down towards Tricky, who immediately looked appalled.
"I-it wasn't me this time! I swear!" Tricky cried out in her defence, but found herself breaking under Watchog's intense glare.
"You said you found all three of them exiting the dungeon together;" Principal Simipour spoke, his expression as infuriatingly cheerful as ever. "Yet only one has written their name on the sheet of paper?"
Watchog suddenly looked a lot less confident. "…Yes," he conceded, suddenly losing a good portion of his bravado.
Espurr: “(Tricky, how on earth do you stand this guy?)”
Tricky: “(I don’t, which is why I troll him whenever I can.)”
"And assuming the point of this dare was to write one's name on this sheet of paper and bring it back to the village…" Simipour turned to Goomy for confirmation, which Goomy readily provided with a nod. "Then I think it's safe to say these two were not part of the dare in the first place, wouldn't you agree?"
I wonder if more could potentially be said about Watchog looking like he’s dying inside during all of this, since you just know that that’s the sort of expression he’d have right about now, and it might be a bit funny to play that up a bit more.
Tricky piped up before Watchog could.
"We were saving Goomy! Pancham and Shelmet dared him to go in and he didn't come back out, so me and Espurr volunteered to go in after him, and we saved him from getting eaten by dungeon 'mon!"
A wave of uneasiness passed through the teachers at the mention of ‘dungeon 'mon’.
Tricky: “Look, I know that I do a lot of risky things sometimes, but I wouldn’t do something like that.”
Watchog: “Actually, I seem to vividly recall that it was you who-”
Tricky: “Look, I wouldn’t, alright?!”
"See?" Tricky told Watchog indignantly. "The dungeon was only one floor anyway…"
"Then, I think it's settled," Simipour concluded.
Watchog caught his jaw just in time to stop it from falling open in shock. "You aren't seriously going to let them go unpunished, Principal?!" he asked in shock.
Espurr: “Wait, we’re actually not getting in trouble for this?”
"Oh, certainly not," Simipour replied, clasping his hands. "Children going into mystery dungeons unsupervised is grave misbehaviour indeed. But…"
He glanced towards Tricky, Espurr, and Goomy.
"…The cause was noble, and I have a hunch little Goomy here won't be venturing outside the bounds of the village on his own anytime soon. Therefore, excessive punishment is unnecessary. A week's worth of detention will do."
Tricky: “Well, when was the last time any of you went in one, huh-?”
Watchog: “Tricky, that’s literally what the class I teach is about!”
"One week is final. And unless you'd like me to make it two, I highly suggest leaving it there," Simipour finished, pointing his half-closed eyes towards Tricky.
With little more than a squeak of fear, Tricky disappeared out the door, only stopping once to groan in pain as her tail cramped halfway down the hall.
"Wait!" Audino called out after her, grabbing her exploration bag and dashing out after Tricky. "You still need healing! I'm ordering you back to the clinic!"
"I-I think I s-should be going," Goomy finally stuttered out, his antennae slightly floppy. The excitement of the day's events must have been finally beginning to get to him.
"I agree," Simipour replied. "If I remember, you live in the same area as Farfetch'd, correct?"
Goomy thought about it for a second, then nodded. His antennae bounced back and forth. Simipour turned to Farfetch'd.
Wait, those two are in the same family as each other? Or was that a typo and you meant families, plural?
"W—" Watchog began. "W-well we can't just not do anything!"
"You know his father," Simipour yawned. "The Kecleon merchant folk are a hassle to deal with, and that's from a distance. Lecture him, tell him to clean the school clinic tomorrow, and leave it at that."
I went and looked this up and… huh. Kecleon and Pancham/Pangoro really do share an Egg Group. Though I suppose having a dad that nobody wants to mess with would explain why Pancham’s such a little snot.
Espurr looked at Watchog as he silently mulled over his orders. A moment later, he stormed out, letting the door swing shut behind him.
"Espurr, was it?"
Espurr glanced up at Simipour, who still wore the same, lethargic expression on his face. His eyes were shut like he was an inch from sleep. She nodded.
I actually wonder if the twist behind him in v1 is going to be back this time around, or if he’s different in this go-around.
"I heard about your predicament last night," he told her, still seated. "I must say, it was rather reckless of you to charge into yet another mystery dungeon only the day you got here, especially with that arm."
He opened a drawer below his desk and put the stack of papers in front of him into it.
"The pokemon who chased you have been sighted several times in the past several days searching the area. Highly dangerous, do not approach." Simipour's voice lost its airiness. "That is why, for the time being, I strongly implore you to stay within the bounds of this village. For your own safety, of course."
Espurr: “I… really did not need to think about that, thanks.”
"Quite possibly." Simipour closed the drawer and leaned back in his seat. "But, for now, I think it best that you stop allowing such thoughts to clog up your mind, and take kind Nurse Audino up on her offer to let you stay at the School Clinic."
Left to mull over the very frightening prospect of potential boogeymon murderers lurking around the town limits, Espurr nodded silently, and politely bid Principal Simipour good night. She looked back once on the way out, but Simipour was already snoozing with his head on his desk.
Espurr: “There is no way I’m going to be able to fall asleep tonight.” ._.
"And I mean it this time." Audino stopped at Tricky's straw bed on her way into one of the clinic's other rooms. "Stay in your beds, or I'll see what I can do about extending that weeks' detention to a month."
Satisfied at the suitably frightened look on Tricky's face, Audino draped a thick tarp over each of the high-up baskets containing luminescent moss that lit the room with a bright blue glow, then continued into the clinic's other room, leaving the door open just a crack behind her.
"It's so unfaaiiir," Tricky whined once they were alone, flopping down on the bed. "We save Goomy once and we get thrown in detention. The adults never do anything right!"
I would contest Tricky’s point, but given that there are two Pokémon in that room that aren’t exactly well-adjusted… I can’t say she’s fully wrong about it.
Espurr carefully helped herself to one of the berries on the plate between them, and took a bite as she tuned Tricky's whining out. She felt very calm while eating, which was odd considering the past few days. It seemed like she should feel more of anything, really. Fear, fright, desperation? Instead, she felt untethered, detached, weirdly floaty, like her mind was still sorting through it all.
Espurr: “Well, that and I’m kinda cringing at the thought of having to see Watchog again on a regular basis. But yeah, that would do it.” -_-;
"I know what you meeeaan," Tricky groaned, flopping herself backwards on her bed of straw. She really didn't. "That dungeon was so cool, though. I've only been in it twice before. Usually it has more floors than that…"
What replaced the emptiness, and Tricky's endless droning, was a hollow feeling Espurr slowly realised was homesickness. The more she learned about this place, the further away everything she did know seemed. How would she ever be able to make her way back home from all of this?
I actually wonder if in the event that Espurr hadn’t tuned Tricky out at this moment, if she’d likely have noticed that Tricky was likely forcing a smile. Since I’m pretty sure we’re going to see how she really feels about Mystery Dungeons later on, and it’s not quite like this.
A little while later, Espurr glanced at Tricky, who had drifted off to sleep through her rambling. She was still muttering gibberish in her slumber, the half-eaten celery stalk resting idly at the foot of her dangling paws. Espurr just lay awake in bed, watching nighttime branches grasp along the wooden ceiling that was so unfamiliar compared to the one she knew. What a strange place she'd ended up in, and how she wished for the comfort of her room again…
Waaaaaait, how on earth is she doing this without-
I'm writing to you in my head because I don't have a diary right now. I don't know if I'll ever have a diary again. Or if I'll see another book. I don't think they read books here, I didn't see a single one. That's awful and horrifying! I think I would die if I never saw books again. Or a library.
Ah, yeah. That would explain it. Though did Serenity Village really have zero writing posted in public up until this point? Or is that Espurr not realizing that the collections of random footprints are writing in this setting.
I never thought I would say it, but I miss home. Everything's strange here. I miss my house, I miss the library, I miss all the buildings in my town and the stupid cornflakes for breakfast that I hate. I even wish my maths teacher was there to scream at me. I don't… I don't know. I don't know what's going on. I wish someone would just tell me what was going on!
inb4 her math teacher was basically Watchog, but as a human.
I'm keeping where I come from secret because I don't know how the people who live here would take it., I don't know if there's anyone else like me. Maybe there isn't. Maybe I'm stuck here forever. I'd give anything to go back. I'd do anything if I could just be human again, and if there weren't any mystery dungeons, and if I wasn't in a strange room with a talking fox that no-one else even likes.
Maybe it's a dream. Maybe it's a dream? Please god, please let it all be a dream. I just want it to be… be a… dream…
Um, yeah. You’re going to be waiting a long, long while on that one, Espurr. Especially since even before factoring in that this story is an AU, the Super protagonist is canonically the one human that doesn’t leave the Pokémon world.
Alright, made it to the end of things. While this chapter was pretty familiar in its grand sweep, it did its job pretty effectively at doing its rendition of the first mission you get in Super, along with the little bits of worldbuilding and setting lore that emphasize that this is an AU of Super, and to not get too attached to the official canon and how it unfolds since this is a harder-edged take where thar be monsters out there. I also thought that the characterization was well-done, especially for better getting into Espurr’s head as a character in this chapter. Part of me wonders if there was a bit more that could’ve been hinted towards regarding Tricky’s full background considering how these interactions read really differently if you go into this story knowing about it, but eh. There will be plenty of time for that.
I don’t have too much to complain about in this chapter beyond that a couple parts might have worked better with a bit more description. Well, that, and while I get that “cutting the unnecessary bits” is kinda a major part of Psychic Sheep’s v2, I do wonder if the offscreening of the entire bit where Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy leave the Mystery Dungeon and get in trouble with Watchog was cutting things a little too far to the bone, since the jump-ahead felt a little jarring to read.
Though altogether, I think that the story has been holding up quite well, and you’ve definitely shown that you’ve learned a few things from your prior experiences @SparklingEspeon . I don’t know if I’ll get back to this story before RB5 is over, but you’ve certainly gotten me interested in seeing more about where this second take on Psychic Sheep will wind up, since it’s got a hefty dash of “familiar, but different”, while still having some surprises interleaved in.
). 
