Tap tap tap-tap tap
As the sound of a heavy, almost metal-sounding club rang out from the distance, the two Marowak guarding the bluff overlooking the fog of the Mystery Dungeon relaxed their stance. The form of an elderly Marowak emerged from the fog, followed closely by those of three strangers: a dog, a spike lump, and a large awkward-looking bird, all flanked and closely watched by six Cubone.
The pair gave a small bow to the Marowak and waved the group along, as Team Traveller shuffled along down a passage with a light at the end. Their escorts had lead them through maze-like floors, and, on two occasions, in and out of stable zones that had multiple exits- ostensibly 'shortcuts' (though Nida and Elty were half-convinced that the Ground-Types had brought them there to disorient them).
At the very least, the encounters with other ferals in the dungeon hadn't led to a fight… so far. While the run-ins on the way to the chamber often led to their share of growls and snarls, the guarding Ground-Types were quick to keep them from developing into anything further. Even so, the lingering uncertainty of what the team would face at these "colony grounds" remained at the back of the team's minds, leaving the three to look about anxiously for any sign of what the Cubone might be planning.
"So… not talkative much?" Elty asked the lined-skull Cubone, attempting to take his mind off of the predicament they had all gotten themselves into.
"Hrmph," the Ground-Type snapped. "I don't see any reason to talk with you."
"Oh come on, not even a little question and answer session? I mean, Mystery Dungeon ferals have to all be in cahoots with one another to get by in this constantly shifting terrain anyways," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "It's not like anything's going to overhear you and ambush you here with all your buddies around, right?"
"Fine, what is your question?" the Cubone grunted back.
"Well, I noticed that your helmet smelled an awful lot like clay even though it looks like bone," the Growlithe murmured. "Your kind sure go through an awful lot of trouble for keeping up appearances..."
"That's
not a question, and there
is bone mixed in there from our dead!" the Ground-Type growled. "Even helmets that start out as whole skulls get clay added to them with time to patch defects, and patching them up and dying them over allows for more than one generation to pass them on to the next!"
"Which brings me to my real question: Why do you even
wear the mask?" Elty asked, stopping to poke at the Cubone's skull helmet. "If I pull that off, will you die?"
The Cubone shot a piercing glare back at the Growlithe, and shoved him along down the passageway.
"It would be excruciatingly painful," she snarled. "For
you."
"Elty!" Nida hissed. "Not. Helping."
The brewing confrontation was cut short by the reed-chewer tapping Lines on the shoulder with a "Stay focused, Shugodeshi", leaving Elty to mutter something under his breath about "Well aren't you two testy today?" as the group continued on. The light was now clearer and Pleo could begin to make out a room up ahead. He began to wonder aloud.
"Erm… what are we going to talk about?"
"All in due time,
Camome," the Marowak sternly answered. "First, you should take a little time to get to know the
majū that your friends have so wronged."
The three Pokémon were lead into the chamber, where there was a veritable wall of glowering reptilian Ground-Types. Nida and Elty instinctively began to backpedal from the angry glares and growling shouts, only for the Cubone behind them to shove them ahead.
"So
these are the
majū in cahoots with the defilers!" a Cubone with rounder eye-holes cried out.
"Just where do you get off disturbing our dead, huh?!" demanded a Marowak with yellow dye on his claws.
"Yeah, we take the bones from our prey!" a Cubone with a faint, but noticeable spot on its helmet said. "Don't think that we wouldn't do the same to you!"
Elty flinched at the spotted-skull's words and shot a glare at Nida. It was all
her fault that he was here instead of rejoining his crew like he ought to be!
"I
really don't like where this is going," he growled. "
Great idea you had there for playing along with the feral lizards, spike ball."
"And another thing-!" the spotted Cubone began, only to be cut off by the sound of fluttering as Pleo hopped up and flitted over the heads of the gathered Pokémon.
"Eh?!"
"Wait! Stop right there!"
The crowd chased after the flighty bird, as Shugodeshi and her companions dragged Nida and Elty along flailing. Though before any could club him out of the air… he came back down on his own, staring fixedly at some glittering emeras that were piled up in a small clump near a rough cave painting of Cubone and Marowak looking up at the moon and stars in the sky.
"Oh! There's more emeras here too!" he cried. The little Lugia stared into his reflection shining off their surfaces before turning back to the Pokémon around him. "Do you also break them for exposure chests?"
"What? Our
Lapis?" the yellow-stained Marowak asked, putting a claw to his mouth. The creature then shook his head and hardened his eyes into a glare at the strange bird. "No! We use them to make pigments! And don't think that you can get out of-"
"What's a pigment?" Pleo wondered, putting a wing to his beak as puzzled stares went about the group.
"It's a kind of paint!" the Bone Keeper curtly huffed, waving his stained claws. "I was even using it earlier, see!"
"What's a paint?"
"Oh, for crying out- It's this stuff!" the artist Marowak spluttered, before dashing off to grab a crude clay bowl filled with bright, yellow liquid that sloshed about in it. "See? Paint! Now stop distracting us from-"
The Cubone was interrupted by the Lugia dabbling his beak with an exploratory peck into the bowl. He drew his beak back, now covered in the cool, thick fluid, dribbling little bright yellow blotches onto the ground below much to the young Protector's fascinated interest.
"Ooh! It feels like water!" Pleo cheered. "And it leaves colors when it drips!"
"Just what sort of company do these defilers keep?" Dark-skull whispered to Reed-chewer. The female Cubone shook her head and attempted to rope this most…
curious of defilers back onto topic.
"Yes, yes, we use it to make cave drawings," she answered, flippantly waving a claw. "Now-"
"Oh! You draw
here too?" Pleo chirped. "I like drawings! Show me! Show me!"
"Er… well, here's one that I made over by the training grounds of one of the times when I snuck over to the town's shrine," the reed-chewer answered, pointing at the entrance to a chamber with stacks of rocks visible in the distance. On the walls beside the passage's mouth, there was a crude depiction of a Cubone amid huts with creatures wearing purple scarves with fangs and claws bared in the opposite direction, leaving Pleo to wonder aloud...
"Really?
You made that? It looks so pretty!"
"You think so?" Reed-chewer asked, before shaking her head and slinging her club over her shoulder proudly. "I mean, of course! I'm a
natural at painting for the colony!"
"Eh? What are you going on about, Machitabi?" Dark-skull protested, pointing his club at a painting on the other side of the chamber depicting a large group of Cubone and Marowak pursuing a Tropius, a Nidorino, a Marshtomp, and an Archen. "
I've made better drawings than that!"
"Me too! Me too! It's not just Machitabi and Kuraikamen!" the runty Cubone interjected. "Look at mine over there!"
One after the other, the gathered Cubone and Marowak began to latch onto their strange visitor's new topic, and gleefully pointed out their claw-work dotting the walls to the white bird. As the bone lizards grew more amicable and less focused on Team Traveller's status as "defilers," Nida shot a smirk at Elty.
"Looks like things worked out a bit better than you thought," she chuckled, only to be answered with a frowning grumble from the Growlithe.
"Oh
shut up, spike ball."
"Aherm," the leader Marowak interrupted. Her voice caught the attention of the gathered Pokémon, drawing their questions to a stammering halt. "About those questions-"
"About painting?" Pleo wondered, tilting his head curiously.
"Yes-" the elderly Marowak began, only to catch herself and shoot a glare at the impudent bird. "
No! About our
graveyard!"
Yaa-aaaaaah
"What's... a graveyard?" Pleo asked, his voice yawning and drowsy. Pleo's tone made Nida and Elty realize that they too felt tired- after all, they had travelled all this way through the Mystery Dungeon at night, through battles and near battles. Their sudden exhaustion, though predictable, proved frustrating to Tetsuzui.
"I was
going to say that we would get to them first thing in the morning," she growled. "You're tired. Let's get you three to sleep and continue in the morning. It's far too late to be dealing with this numbskullery."
The Marowak turned to the round-eyed Cubone and gestured at the three strangers from outside.
"Mojisenshi, take these three to our
shizoku's den for the night," she said. "Keep guards posted, too. These three may be guests, but I'm not sure if they're
welcome ones yet."
"Wait, are you sending us to
bed?" Elty protested. "But we're old enough to-!"
Thump... thump... thump…
The Fire-Type bit his tongue and looked over in the direction of the Marowak with the metal club. There, the elderly reptile was letting her bone bat against her free claw, leveling a glare at the little dog that made one thing clear…
If there was any funny business, the club would find its target on Team Traveller's bodies soon enough, and with much greater force.
"On second thought, bed's not such a bad idea," he gulped.
"Come on," Round-eyes prodded. "This way."
The three strangers shuffled off for a tall passage in the wall that stretched to the ceiling. It had evidently been hewn from the stone, though the surprising straightness and height suggested that it hadn't been made by burrowing. Nida, Elty, and Pleo were fatigued enough to not particularly question the matter, and did not need much more than a loose presence at their backs to herd them along. As Team Traveller slipped into the den in the wall's cleft, the rest of the gathering began to drift back to their own dens for the night, leaving Tetsuzui to make her way back to her mound at the end of the chamber- burying her ossified head in a claw.
"I can already tell this is going to be an interesting interrogation tomorrow..."
"Huh?! Why are there so many nettles?!"
After resuming their search for the team in the morning, Crom, Kiran, and Ander's trek took them to a place where the treehuts of Seahive Square abruptly stopped at a field with a creek running through it. The trees on the other side were thick, but stripped of their lower branches. From his place on the wooden platform on the edge of the mangroves Seahive was built on, Crom had a bird's-eye view of the entire clearing, and of each and every last of the green, spiny plants below.
"And why would the Pokémon here only have this rickety bridge over them?" he asked, poking at the bridge's rope. He could see it move, meaning that
someone was on it right now, but who would be daring enough to do so? It already hurt enough to be stung by
a nettle, but if the unsafe-looking bridge were to ever go out...
"Just what sort of neighborhood
is this?" he cried.
"One meant to keep unwanted Pokémon
out," Ander sighed, shaking his head.
"
Cómo?" Kiran replied, tilting his head puzzledly. "What do you mean by that?"
"Yeah, why would any neighborhood need something like this?" Crom murmured, putting a claw to his mouth.
The Scyther paused uneasily before reflexively beating his wings and looking down at the swift-winged bird and his charge.
"Because not every neighborhood of Pokémon gains from being open," the Bug-Type said, a hint of bitterness leaking into his voice. "Surely you two would know that by now."
"What are you implying there, Ander?" Kiran demanded. The Swellow gave a flustered ruffle to his feathers, before training a wary look at the Bug-Type. "What kind of Pokémon gains by shutting themselves in like thi-?
OW!"
As the Swellow talked, he was abruptly knocked back by a smaller, but still heavy Pokémon running into him. The bird let out a startled squawk and fell back as everyone's eyes settled upon a little blue dragon with black feathers, and a gray five-tailed comet- three long tails in the center, with two short ones on the sides- running along his head.
This Deino, he was one of the Marked? On closer inspection, the little Dragon-Type's plumes on his face were damp and sullied, and the creature was sniffling...
"Are you hurt?!" Ander exclaimed, as he helped the Dragon-Type back up to his feet. "You should be more careful about where you're going!"
"Is something wrong?" Kiran asked, going over and helping dust the creature off from his crash. "You're crying… You don't look hurt..."
"I-I'm running away from home!" the creature cried, his voice hitching between words. "I-I can't leave Boisocéan! I w-won't!"
"Run-
Running away?!" Kiran squawked. "What are you-?!"
"
Daraen!"
The sound of a panicked roar and the woosh of a large creature flying by made Kiran, Crom, and Ander stumble back. When they looked up, they saw a great three-headed dragon flitting over the end of the bridge, anxiety etched into every line of her heads and beat of her six wings.
"Wh-What are you thinking running off like that?!" she demanded, scooping the flailing creature up off the platform. "You had me worried sick! We need to leave from here before-!"
"
Maman, I don't
want to go!" the little creature's pleading voice interrupted as he struggled against his mother's embrace. "I don't
want to leave all my friends here in Seahive!"
The Hydreigon's face fell, and she lowered her heads before meeting her child's face, with the widened eyes and tensely drawn-in limbs of a creature expecting a sudden ambush by a foe at any moment.
"Daraen,
please, don't do this to me!" she begged. "You know we don't have a choice about-!"
"Margi! Wait!"
More voices were coming now from the bridge. A small line of Pokémon headed by a Croconaw and a Forretress made their way down the span in spaced intervals as quickly as its construction allowed, their eyes and voices filled with the same pleading tone that the dragon and her child had with each other.
"Don't take off so quickly!" a Hoppip pleaded. "Th-There might be another solution!"
"And you left your belongings strewn all over your doorstep!" a Croconaw cried. "You wouldn't just suddenly fly away from home like that, would you?"
"E-Eh?! What's going on here?! Why were you running away?!" Kiran squawked, gesturing at the Deino before turning his focus to the creature's mother. "And why are you also running away?!"
The Hydreigon looked away from the Swellow. Whatever had compelled her to act this way was something that she stubbornly refused to give up. Her still sniffling and shaken child cried out, desperately trying to dissuade his mother from taking him from this town.
"
M-Maman, the Company doesn't even
run this island!" Daraen pleaded.
"Yeah, we can defend you here!" the Forretress cut in.
"And the neighborhood will be able to better fend them off if they come if you stay!" the Croconaw insisted, waving his claws desperately to try and draw Margi's attention. "You're the strongest out of any of us!"
The Hydreigon gave a stubborn growl for silence, which made the alligator and tree bug inch away uneasily, before whirling back to her child.
"Daraen, there's a ship with Company sails in the harbor
right now. Their lackeys are here
this moment and they won't hesitate to hurt you!"
"Huh?!" Crom exclaimed. The Druddigon beat his wings out in a shock. This Hydreigon… was in trouble with the Company? "But why would the Company do that? Wh-What did you do?"
"Because they helped a sea god that the Company is after get away, and the Nidoran and
Caninos with him," a voice explain from behind. Margi dropped Daraen out of surprise with a yelp against the wood of the platform. Everyone turned, and saw a Venipede, a Tepig, and a Purrloin in black scarves with white snowflake designs on them drawing near. The Hydreigon flinched from the Bug-Type's words, and shot a venomous, anxious glare at the magenta bug.
"
V-Venner!" she growled. "Sh-Shut your mouth! You're supposed to be the leader of Team Chasseur, not Team
Cafteur!"
"Oi! Why are you getting so huffy?" the Purrloin added. "That's what happened!"
"Ah!" Crom cried, jumping up in a start. "H-How'd you know about him being a sea god?!"
"We met him and his friends and they told us about it," the Tepig explained. "When we thought things through after we first met each other... it all just seemed to add up."
The three Tromban Pokémon whirled back at the black dragon, wide-eyed. This was the Pokémon that Maranda had been hinting at? The one they had been looking for all day?
"Is- Is that who you helped get away?!" Kiran squawked. "Do you know where they went?!"
The Hydreigon froze blankly at the Swellow's words, before gritting her teeth and narrowing her eyes back at the bird.
"I… I don't need to answer you," she mumbled.
"Please," Ander interjected. "If you know anything-"
"I said I wouldn't answer!" she snarled. "Don't think that just because you're also Marked that I'll make an exception for you!"
Crom's stomach churned. Here was the Pokémon that had seen his friends last, who helped them evade Lyn, and they would lose their trail just because she refused to tell them anything! Without thinking, the Druddigon shook his head and let forth the emotions that he couldn't keep bottled up anymore.
"W-Why are you
doing this to us?!" he shouted. "Why won't you just tell us where Pleo and the others went?!"
The gathering went dead quiet, as all eyes turned to stare uneasily at the young Druddigon. Crom's wings drooped and he hung his head, trailing off weakly.
The platform went silent, before a quiet, chittering voice suddenly spoke up.
"We're from that 'Company' ship you're so worried about."
Crom and Kiran went wide-eyed, and they whirled to see Ander glancing at Margi.
"
Ander?! What are you doing?!" Kiran cried. The other Pokémon similarly went wide-eyed, and everyone who could adopted tense stances, poised for sudden battle.
"You- You really
are out to get them!" the Forretress hissed. The bug chittered angrily and began to spin, trying to build up momentum to ram the ne'er-do-wells off the ledge.
"If you think we're just going to let you get Margi and Daraen like that, you're-!"
"No! No! That's not it at all! It's all some insane scheme that Bluewhorl's leader came up with!" the Scyther hastily corrected, attempting to make himself look small and unthreatening. "Just- Hear us out! Please!"
There was an uneasy pause as the gathered Marked and Team Chasseur's members looked at each other, before looking back at the three cornered strangers. They seemed earnest enough… if they really were out to get Margi, why give themselves away?
"If you're not from the Company, then who
are you?" Margi demanded. "And why would you fly their sails?"
"We're Pokémon who are trying to get back what's ours," Kiran explained. "No dirty tricks, no ulterior motives…"
The Hydreigon hesitated, before hardening her eyes into a glare and began to reply with careful, measured words.
"Well, truthful or not, you're certainly
audacious," she huffed. "Storming along into port in Company colors like that."
"Look, we have a lot to lose… kinda like you, it sounds," the Swellow insisted. "So please… if you know anything at all, if you could tell us, it would mean the world to our town."
"Hrmph, you have a talent for eavesdropping, I'm sure you could have figured it out on your own!" the Hydreigon growled. "How much stays hidden when a stranger flees in front of the entire town-?!"
"Margi," Venner interrupted. "No one in town's been able to figure it out. Even if they
were eavesdropping, how would they find out anything we haven't been able to?"
The Hydreigon shifted her gaze over to the young Druddigon, who had folded his wings back, and was still downcast. The creature shook his head, and finally managed a weak entreaty to the larger Dragon-Type.
"Please," the Druddigon begged. "They're our friends, we just want them back…"
There was a long, tense silence. The three seemed awfully distraught for Pokémon who were told that their target was already being chased by their peers...
Perhaps... they really
were telling the truth...
"... The ship that came for them sailed off in the direction of Kenobi after they left," the Hydreigon finally said. "Unless if the bird and his friends moved on, that's where they would also be."
"K-Kenobi?!" Kiran squawked. "But that's a Company shipyard!"
"The
Caninos insisted that he had some way of lying low there. The alternative was flying back to your island, and they thought it was too risky," the Hydreigon grunted. She shook her heads, and then turned her body to begin to fly off. "And there you have it. Now with that out of the way, my son and I really must-"
"
No!"
Daraen recoiled back and hid behind Ander, the creature stubbornly refusing to come out from behind the mantis.
"W-We shouldn't
have to run away because you helped some Pokémon!" the Deino sniffled "And you
said yourself afterwards that you helped Pleo because it would've been horrible if the Company captured him! It's not right for this to happen!"
"I know it isn't,
mon petit… but sometimes the right thing doesn't always happen, just like it's been for our kind all this time," she explained. "Maranda herself said that the Commissioner who came here promised vengeance, specifically on me… and we can't afford to see if he will break that promise or not."
The dragon sighed and shook her heads, before continuing on in a small voice.
"I don't want you to get hurt, Daraen."
The gathered Pokémon paused and uncomfortably began to look away from Margi. One after the other they slowly began to realize to realize that the Dragon-Types might had to leave after all.
"There isn't going to be a way to get around this, is there?" Francoeur murmured.
"Unfortunately, I don't think there is," Actor sighed, shaking his head. "I mean, those
are some solid points she raised.
"Then… let us help you two," the Venipede said.
"Wh-What do you mean?" Daraen asked.
"To give you a helping claw until we know for sure that it's safe for you and your
maman here. If you need to run, you still have some time to prepare for it," he explained. "Time to put your things together... Time to say goodbyes… Time for other Pokémon to help you..."
"Just what can you do?" Margi muttered.
"We can help you with your job at the fab!" a Sliggoo cried.
"And pack up your house better!" the Hoppip added.
"Getting Daraen a checkup from Maranda either," Actor chimed in. "After all, travel's never easy on looks
or health."
"And letting the town know
why you're gone," Francoeur snorted, which drew a startled cry from the Hydreigon.
"Huh?!"
"Daraen's right, Margi. This really
isn't right, even if we don't have a way to do anything about it right now," he explained. "Then maybe the next best thing we can do is to help the town understand what happened. This isn't something that deserves to be forgotten!"
"And we'll do our part to try and make sure that Lyn won't be able to keep hounding you forever! So that way you can come back here when this all blows over!" Crom chimed in, before catching himself.
Could he really promise that? "I… I mean, I don't know if it'll work… but… officially we're Company Pokémon, right? There has to be something we could do…"
Daraen finally calmed down, reluctantly realizing that perhaps there really wasn't any choice but to run. Even so, everyone here promised they would help them while they were gone, but… something still bothered him.
"
Maman, will- will we come back here someday?" the Deino asked in a small voice. "Do you promise?"
"We'll find a way,
mon petit... we always have," she reassured. The two drew each other into a nuzzle, before Margi let go, looking at the Pokémon around her. "We should get back to preparing, but... thank you all, for everything..."
"It's us that should be thanking you, really," Kiran answered, bowing his head.
"I do have one favor to ask, though," the Hydreigon said.
"What- What's that?" Crom replied.
"If you run into this 'Pleo' again, let him know about what happened," she insisted. "For a demon, his heart isn't where I expected it to be, but what happened to me and my son is something that I feel he needs to understand. For the sake of our world."
The Druddigon's head and wings drooped. She- She wanted to tell him that it was his fault that Margi had to fly away from her home? B-But he didn't do this on purpose! And-
"And tell him that if I had to make the choice again," she added. "That I'd choose the same in a heartbeat."
"Eh?!" Ander cried. "You would?!"
Crom looked back up at the black dragon as she met Ander's befuddled stare. She- She would still want to help him afterwards? Then, maybe she wanted something more than just telling Pleo about how things had gone wrong because of him. It seemed to him that, in her own, still doubtful way…
That this Pokémon wanted to tell him that she hoped that he would turn out to be the Protector he said he was.
"R-Right!" Crom exclaimed. "We will!"
The Hydreigon swooped down and scooped up her child as the Marked Pokémon began to make their way back over the ropeway, while Team Chasseur made their way back for Seahive. Crom, Kiran, and Ander paused for a moment, watching wistfully as the two Dragon-Types headed off into an uncertain future. In spite of all that, it seemed that Margi and Daraen had allies to fall upon in their storm, and now that they knew where Pleo and his friends were…
Perhaps they too, would be able to help when everything had returned to the way things were meant to be.
After cleaning up Pleo's beak, Team Traveller spent the night in a cleft that had been hewn from stone by "sticks with glowy jewels at their ends", as one of the Cubone there put it. There were tight burrows further down the cleft dug into some of the walls, stacked two or three deep in some places, and a set of subchambers separated by dirt and stone walls where the local Ground-Types slept.
"Nngh."
Not that the locals would have deigned to give up such comfortable places to the three suspicious outsiders, cute bird or not. Nida, Pleo, and Elty had to make do with the dead-end cleft in the rock- apparently part of an in-progress expansion. The tight quarters didn't offer much space, leaving the three to sleep in a rough line one behind the other, with Nida at the head of the group. Still, the spartan accommodations sufficed for a long night's rest, leaving the three to murmur dreamy nothings about 'Come on, it's just another floor, Crom...', '"Kun-pay-toh"? What a funny name for sweet seeds...', and 'Oi, one of those shares of loot is
mine...' as they dozed.
But the night came to an end, as Shugodeshi and Mojisenshi looked over the three dozing figures. The colony's resting hours were over, and it was now time to get to the bottom of why Team Traveller had come here.
"Hey, wake up," the line-skulled Cubone grunted, poking at the blue spike ball's head with her club. "The
Zokuchō wants to see you."
The Nidoran twitched and grunted 'five more minutes' as she shifted and continued to sleep. The Cubone narrowed her eyes and poked again, this time drawing a 'Nrgh…
mami,
por favor… not right now,' a sleepy swat, and making the creature raise some dribbling spikes for a passing moment.
"Maybe you need to be just a little more forceful?" the rounded-eyed Cubone suggested. The Ground-Type shook her head, tightened her grip, drew her arm backwards, and swung her club...
THWACK
"
YEOW!"
"Er, I was thinking more 'tugging her whiskers'."
That woke Nida up, and the racket she made similarly dragged Pleo and Elty out of slumber with a sleepy-sounding 'Nngh, are we waking up already?' and 'Bogowie, why couldn't this be the dream instead?' respectively. After a few rubs at her head, the Nidoran locked glaring red eyes with the lizard before her.
"What was that for?!" Nida hissed. "Clubbing hurts the Nidoran!"
"You're wasting the
Zokuchō's time," Shugodeshi grumbled. "Besides, I never
did get a chance to repay you for that
spike you left in my foot yesterday."
The two Cubone watched as the dog and rabbit lowered their ears and scowled, as the bird looked around uneasily.
"Let's… leave the rest of the restitution-settling until after Tetsuzui
-sama gets the trial underway, Shugodeshi," Mojisenshi said, shifting his attention to Team Traveller. "Come along, you
have been keeping us waiting, and the colony
does have business with you beyond letting you gawk at our claw-work."
"Oi! Business?!" Elty cried. "We just came here for that book, and you know it!"
"So then, you'll come along?" the lined-skulled Cubone asked.
"Urgh… fine," Nida growled.
The round-eyed Cubone motioned for the three to come forward, and before long the five Pokémon were making their way past the features of the den on their way back out to the main chamber.
There were the curiously gawking Cubone and the occasional Marowak, a few of whom followed along eagerly to see what would become of these three strange defilers. All along the route, there were drawings of Unown intermingled with sketches of Cubone and Marowak pursuing various Pokémon, some with scarves, some without. A little ways along, an older Marowak was inspecting some white objects heaped up in a shallow pit-room, carefully laid out in neat rows on the ground and propped up against the pit walls.
"Nida?" Pleo murmured. "Where do they get all the bones from? Some place called a 'pray'?"
"Eh?" the line-skulled Cubone replied. "'Prey' isn't a place, it's other-"
"Oh hey, look at the painting there!" Nida hastily interjected.
As the team passed back into the main chamber, they passed a young Cubone getting white-dyed clay daubed on a crack in its helmet by a peer. A little further on, they saw the artist Marowak from the night before dip his claws into a bowl of orange pigment. After getting a small dabbing of the paint on his digits, he turned to add the finishing touches to a tubby fuzzball in a rough depiction of Team Traveller's arrival to the grounds the night before. As Pleo's mind shifted to cheerfully babbling about the picture, the two Cubone, and Elty shot skeptical glances at the Nidoran.
"What was that all about?" Shugodeshi grumbled. "It was a simple explanation."
"Look, Pleo's still
un polluelo," Nida explained. "I don't think it would do any of us good if he felt threatened here."
"Spike ball, what are you
talking about?" Elty whispered back. "If Pleo felt threatened, he might actually
blow away these lousy- Ow!"
The Growlithe swiftly shut up after a swat to his hindquarters from the lined-skull's club to prompt him to keep moving, leaving the group to continue on as Shugodeshi mumbled something about 'no wonder why the Pact makes these Pokémon keep to their towns'. The team went down the length of the passage, past the sounds of Cubone sparring in a long, adjacent room, and to the mound with the two strips of eye-shaped and dot-like runes behind them. There, Tetsuzui was waiting for them with her metal club, perched on the battered remains of an exposure chest. As the colony's residents began to gather around at the base of the mound, Pleo was still in his happy world of colorful lines and smudges.
"Your drawings all look so pretty!" he chirped. "But… what exactly are they all supposed to be?"
"It's a tradition of ours, as being
late seems to be one of your 'civilization'," the elderly Marowak growled. Nida, Pleo, and Elty looked hesitantly at each other before the still-glaring Ground-Type cleared her throat and carried on. "I'm not in much of a mood to go on tangents like last night, so let me keep this interrogation simple and direct…"
The Marowak grabbed Team Taxonomy's red notebook from behind her chest, and dropped it on the ground in front of everyone.
"You're in league with this 'Team Taxonomy', are you not?" she demanded. "Care to explain
why they felt a need to defile the place where our dead slumber?"
"E-Eh?! How would
we know that?!" Nida protested. "They just hired us to get this book back!"
"Bah, a likely story," the Marowak answered dismissively. "I know enough about how your 'civilization' works to understand that Pokémon help each other when they have a
common cause."
"Not getting the tar beaten out of you is
not a common cause-" Elty grumbled, only to be cut off with a stern growl.
"Silence!"
"Uhm, well," Nida began. "Maybe if you
told us what they defiled, we might be able to have some idea?"
"They callously knocked over our colony's gravebones, and damaged the wall with the sacred inscriptions about our Protector!" Mojisenshi exclaimed. "One of them was even a grave that was less than a moon old!"
"And then, on their way
out, they disturbed even
more graves trying to fend off the Spirit Watch on duty at the time!" Shugodeshi growled.
Some raucous jeers and shouts rung out from the gathered colony members, leaving Nida and Elty to grimace and fold their ears back unnervingly. Suddenly, the din was pierced by a cry from a young bird's voice.
"Wait! Wait! Sacred inscriptions?" Pleo asked. "You mean, like the funny writing behind you?"
Pleo pointed to the wall behind Tetsuzui, where neat lines of dot-like glyphs with Unown runes underneath formed an orderly block. The gathered audience seemed to be taken aback at Pleo's description of the runes as 'funny writing', which drew a frustrated huff from the line-skulled Cubone.
"That's
not 'funny writing'!" she snapped back. "That's the system the Unown use to help the Pokémon that live in this dungeon record this island's history and understand the writing of our Protector!"
"The two appear to be fairly closely related to each other, so we have maintained a passage from the holy writings on the walls of our graveyard to act as a guide for our colony's lorekeepers to use in their training," Tetsuzui answered.
'Holy writings on the walls'? Nida's mind turned to the lecture Team Taxonomy gave about writing in the Cradle, and how this Mystery Dungeon was riddled with passages in runes older than even the humans' mystic scripts… when suddenly a perfectly good explanation came to mind.
"Wait a minute!" Nida cried. "I know why they disturbed your graveyard!"
"Oh, do go on," the leader Marowak responded.
"Well, Wally- Er… the Tropius told us that they came to this Mystery Dungeon in order to study the writings here," the Nidoran began. "And, well, he's kinda a big and bulky Pokémon, so if he wanted to inspect a patch of writing on the walls… it's entirely possible that he could have accidentally disturbed those gravebones of yours without really meaning to!"
"Hrmph, I suppose that ignorance would buy him
some respite at his judgement, but just how do you intend to prove their defilement wasn't out of malice?" the Bone Keeper demanded. "The 'Aisle Town' on the other side of the mountains has become arrogant and callous to the
majū that don't live in its territory, and they have allowed
past defilers to come and steal from our graves while daring to hide behind the Pact to deflect rightful judgement!"
"
Chyba żartujesz!" Elty growled. "Look, I know that town Pokémon can be awful snots sometimes, but those Taxonomy dweebs wouldn't want your bones when there's writing for them to jot down into that stupid journal of theirs!"
"Wait a minute… Elty, you're a genius!" Nida exclaimed.
"What, about Team Taxonomy being a bunch of dwee-?"
"No, think about it!" Nida said. "The proof of their intentions! They'd have made field drawings of the writing they came to study, and it would be right there in that journal!"
"Very well then," the Marowak replied. "
Show it to me."
Nida flipped the tome open and leafed through the first few pages. She looked around and saw that the writing there had small eye-like runes written under the normal writing.
"A-ha! See!" she cried. "They
were studying them, and these copies prove it!"
"Hrmph, nice try, but those Unown Runes are
my transcriptions of
their writing," Tetsuzui glowered. "I may not be of your civilization, but I wasn't hatched yesterday!"
The team's heads and ears drooped upon hearing the Marowak's words, and a sinking feeling began to rise in their stomachs. As Team Traveller collectively fumbled for words, the Growlithe of the group finally managed to speak up.
"Your… transcriptions?" Elty asked. "You can
read? But
how? You're a feral still!"
"My mother sent me into the care of
majū in the town during a season of my youth. It was there that I understood the fate of the 'swallowed colonies' of yore," the Marowak answered. "The town promised them safety from
yajū and food in their stomachs, and they came and forgot their ties to the departed and their histories."
Pleo started to interrupt, only to be met by a hardened glare from the Marowak's eyes. After quickly clamping his beak shut, the Ground-Type tightened her grip on her metallic club, and continued on in a bitter tone.
"Before long, their temperament changed entirely, their ranks were turning around and dragging off Cubone from other colonies into the town over a few berries, and leading defilers to this island's graveyard like the rest of that arrogant lot," she growled. "To top it all off, they surrounded the Protector's shrine with their huts and shut
majū like us out from visiting it!"
Nida and Pleo paused and traded uncomfortable looks with each other. Even if ferals had a tendency to ambush Pokémon like them, if what Tetsuzui was saying was true, it was hardly fair of the town to treat them this way. Curiously, Elty didn't seem particularly fazed by the Marowak's testimony beyond giving a grunt and shake of his head.
"So then why are you
here instead of moving onto an island that will treat you right?" the dog pressed, as he bent down and began to paw at the pages of the journal.
"Because,
Gardie," the Marowak retorted. "When I realized what was happening, I came
back and swore upon my ancestors that I would
never live as one of those knot-necks, nor allow them to bully and swallow up this colony!"
"But-" Pleo began. "But that- That's not what Bluewhorl did back on Tromba! They weren't mean to ferals! They even helped to give them food! And Team Taxonomy didn't seem to be mean like that either!"
"Not that this isn't an interesting history lesson, but I believe you asked for proof," the dog harrumphed. Everyone looked down and saw that Elty had flipped through the pages of the notebook up towards the end, where a page full of eye-shaped runes and runes of arranged dots came into view. "How about these? Are
these also your transcriptions?"
More murmuring went out throughout the gathered Cubone and Marowak. This time, the voices sounded more subdued, and even a little satisfied. Could it be that Elty's argument had finally swayed the stubborn creatures?
"I will admit, it's
something," the leader Marowak murmured to herself. "If still circumstantial-"
"So then did they study
you too?" Shugodeshi demanded gruffly as she pointed her bone towards Pleo. The Cubone saw Tetsuzui shoot a withering glare, and after giving a sheepish smile, carried on in a warier tone. "Er… as I meant to say,
Zokuchō. We know from that book that these
majū met this 'Team Taxonomy' before they even came to our graveyard."
"H-Huh?!" Nida cried. "No we haven't!"
"All we've been doing is telling you this truth all this time!" Pleo interjected.
"You're insane!" Elty growled. "We got drug into their stupid book hunt just yesterday, and there's no proof you could point to otherwise!"
"Oh yes there
is," the lined-skulled Cubone shot back. The Ground-Type flipped through the book, until coming to a page with a drawing depicting a white and blue seabird with a long neck and a tapering tail, rising from the ocean.
"Ah!" Mojisenshi cried. "That looks just like the bird with them!"
A wave of glares went around the gathering upon seeing the drawing, leaving Pleo, Nida, and Elty to gulp and fidget uncomfortably.
"So, if you two really haven't met before… how do you explain this picture?" Shugodeshi asked.
"But- But they
didn't meet us until yesterday," Pleo weakly protested. "They even said that I looked like a picture they once saw before…"
"Wait a minute, this
is a picture! It's one of the ones from our town's
ánima, Pleo!" Nida exclaimed. "And if you read the writing they wrote on the sides-!"
"That
Camome is the Guardian of the Seas?!" Tetsuzui cried out.
The Marowak hastily re-read the passage, a short snippet describing a great white bird taller than a house with the power to beckon the winds, which sure enough was indeed identified as the Legendary 'Guardian of the Seas', the Protector of an island of waterspouts. Startled cries went out amongst the gathered Cubone and Marowak as they enormity of their elder's outburst began to down on them. The creature in front of them- could it really have been a
Protector all this time?!
"H-Huh?!"
"But how is that possible?!"
"Wow, and you didn't even have to say it aloud this time,
mewa," Elty chuckled.
"Wanna run that bit about us 'knowing Wally' by us again, bonehead?" Nida smugly asked Shugodeshi. The Cubone for her part seemed startled, why if this was a
god, then…
"B-But if that 'Pleo' with you is a
god, what would you be doing with defilers?!" she demanded. "And why would you attack us like that yesterday?!"
"Oi, attack
you?" Elty growled. "You swung at us first!"
"
Yamero!" the elder Marowak snapped, pounding her club against the ground for attention.
"Mojisenshi, has the graveyard's place shifted since yesterday?"
"Nope, still four floors below our place like yesterday, why?"
"Grab a few fellow-bones and send word to the colonies beyond the Dungeon," Tetsuzui ordered. "Inform them to send emissaries from my
shizoku. We will be consulting our ancestral forebears together with what could be the most important trial we've held since the dawn of the Cradle!"
"Right away!" the round-eyed Cubone answered. The creature darted off into the crowd, where after a few calls and gestures with his bone, a few of his peers were quickly selected before the lot of them made their way for the chamber's exit, leaving Team Traveller to blink curiously and turn to Shugodeshi.
"A '
shizoku''?" Nida murmured. "What did she mean by that?"
"They're other Pokémon like us who come from the group of families that Tetsuzui is a part of," the Cubone explained. "For instance, hers is the
Taiyō-shi, and mine's the
Taiin-shi."
Elty furrowed his brow and shook his head before coming to a seat on the ground, giving an askew glance at the lined-skulled speaker.
"And this is becoming a family matter for your leader
why?" he demanded.
"Because whenever one of us in the colony needs to do something important that requires other colonies knowing about it, it's usually easiest to ask other from your
shizoku from them to be there," the Ground-Type said. "Like for that trial you're all about to go through in a bit."
The three paused, and looked at each other puzzledly. Pleo bobbed his head and ruffled out his feathers before asking absentmindedly...
"Eh? How does this trial work?"
"
WHAT?!"
Pleo's startled cry echoed from inside a shallow 'defendant's hollow', off the walls of a chamber four dungeon floors below the colony's grounds. The spacious cavern was riddled with other earthen mounds, some topped with bone clubs planted in them, a few here and there showing signs of having been dug up recently. The walls were composed of a ruinous brickwork, with one portion covered in long passages of a dot-like script, along with a few cracks left by a large creature that had bumped up against it in a hurry.
It had been a long walk, and then a longer wait for the the arrival of the 'emissaries' Tetsuzui spoke of. The group consisted of three Marowak who loomed over the sides of the shallow depression; one with a darker skull and blood-red eyes, one with a bone that been broken and tapered at the bottom, and one that had green scales. The lot of them stood at the head of a crowd of peering colony members along with Tetsuzui, idly chattering among themselves about their sudden summons. But now, everything was in place for this trial to take place, except for one minor problem…
"You said that we'd have a 'trial' thingy!" the young Lugia exclaimed. "Not that you'd throw a bone at us!"
"Throwing a bone at you
is the trial, young one," the elderly Marowak scoffed. "Every colony on this island knows that consultation of the dead is done through the arc of a flying
Honebūmeran. The verdict is handed down based off how they guide the blows, as interpreted by observers."
"That's why we're here," the blood-eyed Marowak explained.
"B-But that's
crazy!" Elty yelped. "You can't honestly believe that dead Pokémon seriously guide how flying bones land!"
The Growlithe's words drew a sea of glares from the gathered Cubone and Marowak, prompting the little dog to nervously take a step back and hastily amend his words.
"O-Or maybe they can," he gulped, folding his ears and tail back. "
B-Bogowie… Why couldn't we have just stuck with the angry bartender?"
"Well they're certainly an
uncouth lot," Green-scale grumbled. "Who do we start with first?"
"I'd have half a mind to start with the
Gardie there for that disgraceful comment," the Marowak with the tapered club grunted. "But let's get down to business here... Is there any of them that we can judge that will potentially get to the bottom of this sooner?"
"Well, there is the white bird…"
"Um… N-Nida?" Pleo stammered. The bird nervously pulled his head in and attempted to waddle behind Elty, casting an unnerved glance back at Nida after discovering the pudgy Fire-Type was too small to hide behind. "Are they really going to throw a bone at me?"
Nervous laughter and looks started going about the gathered bone lizards. While the creature
was with the defilers who disrupted their graveyard… if it really was a
god, would it be wise to get on its bad side?
"Erm, isn't that the
majū that you suspect to be a
god?" the dark-skulled Marowak asked. "Shouldn't we be trying to
avoid potentially inflicting injury on him?"
"Oh come now, I'm sure it'll understand," the shiny snorted, from behind the others. "It's a
god, and it's just a little bonk!"
"Why don't you come to the front instead of hiding behind the rest of us when you say that?" the tapered-clubbed Marowak growled.
"Hrm… actually, there is a step that we could take even before the team," Tetsuzui offered. "Recall that it's not just these three that are on trial, but also the book they're after."
"Nida, Elty, and Pleo paused and blinked. Had they misheard something? Surely Tetsuzui had made some sort of slip of the tongue…
"Wait, what?" Nida asked, her whiskers twitching tensely as her mind attempted to make sense of the Marowak's words.
"You're going to judge… the book?" Pleo murmured, putting a wondering wing to his mouth.
"Okay, I figured they'd be superstitious," Elty grumbled. "But now I know they're all
insane."
One after the other, the emissaries agreed that starting with the book was the most sensible course of action. After all, if its words were true, it would exonerate this 'Team Traveller' of any of 'Team Taxonomy's' wrongdoing… Surely a god would know best for how to deal with the defilers' sins of ignorance.
It was settled then. The journal was brought out onto a raised mound of dirt in the center of the room, and Tetsuzui approached a line of stones placed in the dirt facing it. She stood at the end, and firmly gripped her metallic club.
"Throw!" Tapered-bone shouted.
The Marowak drew her arm back and hurled it forward, sending her club in a twirling sail through the air towards the book on the mound. On its pass over, the club knocked the journal over, causing it to tumble open along its spine revealing some notes about different colors of Apricorns and lists of 'breakout times', with a scribbled 'need volunteers besides ourselves' in the margin.
The bone then arced around, came flying back, and was caught with a timely claw before being brought back to the elderly Marowak's side as murmuring carried on among the three emissaries.
"Blow along the belly! And the defendant fell onto its back!" the blood-eyed Marowak announced. Cries of "Oh, so
that's the verdict!" and "That's a good sign… I think," went about the Pokémon in the chamber, leaving Team Traveller to tilt their heads curiously at the Marowak with the metallic club.
"Er… what does that mean?" Nida asked.
"That they're all out of their mind and this is a ridiculous farce-?" Elty muttered, only to be cut off by a rough growl.
"It
means you should wait for a verdict, mutt," the leader Marowak snapped. "The dead speak differently for the blows of each colony, so the final interpretation is left up to me."
The Ground-Type paused, and looked up, running a claw under her ossified chin deep in thought.
"Hrm... based off of the verdict the dead handed down that time we broke up that knot-neck 'tea party' here…" Tetsuzui mumbled to herself. "They seem to have ruled that the judged is honest in
intent, so it would appear that this 'Pleo' is indeed a Protector and trying the rest of this group is moot."
Some excited murmurs went out throughout the gathered colony members. The bird in front of them really
was a god! Why, then this meant that they ought to gather all the lore they could about the creature! One by one, the members of the audience began to dart forward, only to abruptly stop after hearing the stiff thumping of Tetsuzui's club against the earth.
"But! Intents can be misguided," the Marowak continued. "And unless your 'Tromba' is inhabited by midgets who would find creatures just barely taller than me 'great', this book and its writer are
also misguided. While the dead will certainly be more merciful than I had anticipated, this Team Taxonomy
must have their characters scrutinized to see if they ought to stand trial."
"Right, that can happen when spike ball here gets the paperwork filled out," Elty overhastily answered. "
Nie ma sprawy-"
"I wasn't finished,
Gardie," the Marowak interrupted, glowering at the small dog. "The dead also ruled that it was a great error to leave such a young and vulnerable god with such scant protection, and
additionally…"
The Marowak paused a moment, before turning in the direction of the escorting Cubone from yesterday, and continued on with her verdict.
"Our own colony has sworn to help protect our own Protector when he awakes," the Ground-Type said. "Learning what will be needed to defend a Protector, should our own turn out to be as… underdeveloped as the one with you, is something that is in the best interests of this colony. Isn't that right… Shugodeshi?"
"Huh?!" Pleo squawked. "She's the one that you want protecting me?!"
"Wh-What?!" the lined-skulled stammered.
"Now
hold on here!" Nida protested. "She just beat me upside the head this morning! Why on earth would I want
her as a teammate?"
"You're going to force us to take
that thing with us?!" Elty barked. "You can't be serious!"
"Oh no, I'm serious. That
is what the dead have ruled, to the best that I can interpret it," Tetsuzui insisted. "And this is something that will help the lot of you."
"
How?" Nida demanded.
"Well, first off, from
your side," the Marowak began. "By your own admission, you're a travelling team, and a very inexperienced one at that. Do you mean to say that you've
never run into any trouble so far that an extra club wouldn't have helped with?"
As Tetsuzui's question echoed in the chamber, memories rushed into the Nidoran's mind. She remembered the team's fight with Hess back in Bluewhorl and how quickly the team other than Pleo was overpowered. Then the harrowing infiltration and flight from Lyn's ship came to mind, along with the subsequent bind the team found themselves in after Pleo and Elty got poisoned in Boisocéan's Mystery Dungeon...
Now that the Marowak mentioned it...
"Well, I suppose that's
true..." Nida murmured.
"When we got in trouble before, we usually
did have another Pokémon helping us out…" Pleo admitted.
Elty furrowed his brow in disgust at the idea of the bonehead that clubbed him around earlier joining the team. Then again... he would soon go back to the Iron Fleet. The
mewa and the spike ball could use the extra help then, and she'd be
their problem and not his.
"Mrgh, fine," Elty grumbled.
"But
Zokuchō!" Lines protested. "I have no idea where they're going to take me!"
"But don't you see? That's the point, Shugodeshi!" Mojisenshi interjected.
"It… is?" she wondered.
"Yeah, it's a chance to hugely expand the lore that our colony knows!" he explained.
"And they don't
seem like the sort of town
majū that have been giving our colony and the others trouble," the reed-chewer added. "Even if they
are kinda pushy."
"If we learn from them what their town has that 'Mossaisle Town' doesn't," Dark-skull chimed in. "Maybe we'd be able to help change that, and work with
majū like the ones where these strangers come from to make it a friendly place again like it was in the old days!"
"And, well… they certainly seem fierce enough," the runt said. "Maybe they'd be able to teach you something you could bring back for us!"
The lined-skulled Cubone paused and ran a claw under her chin as she batted her tail back and forth deep in thought. This
was still a lot to ask, but...
"Well, when you put it like that," the Cubone murmured to herself.
"Er… Tetsu… zui, right?" Nida began. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea."
The Marowak scowled a bit at the Poison-Type's lack of propriety, but brushed the matter aside and decided to pry at the creature's obvious uncertainty.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Well, we're kinda in major trouble," Nida explained. "The Company found out about Pleo and they've been chasing us around to try and get him. I mean, our plan is to toughen up a little and try to find a way to sneak back home, but… I'm not sure when we'll be able to
do that, or what will happen afterwards."
The gathered Cubone and Marowak traded uneasy looks with one another. One of their ranks would not only leave the island but also be hounded by the same group that turned the town against them?!
"I see," Tetsuzui answered. "Well, Shugodeshi. I leave the choice to you. You know the opportunity at hand, and these three have laid out the risks. All that's left is for your decision."
The Cubone faltered, lowered her head, and pondered deeply as she weighed the words she had heard. She thought about the chance for glory and lore to gather, as well as the risks and dangerous foes that would surely be involved. After a long pause, the creature raised her head, and gave a nod that was filled with determination.
"I'll do it," the lined-skull replied. "You said once that the dead reward those who seek out the best for the colony, and… well, I'm not sure how many more times we're going to have a
god come by our grounds."
"Very well, then," the Marowak responded, the creature giving a solemn nod as she passed the journal over to the Cubone. "May the moon and stars be with you."
The small Ground-Type gave a small bow in return before she turned her attention to Nida, Pleo and Elty, and made her way over to her new teammates.
"Well then, I believe that you have a journal to return," Shugodeshi said. The creature handed the red-covered notebook over to the Nidoran, before slinging her club over a shoulder and striking a more curious tone. "So how's this 'being a town
majū' thing work?"
"Mah-juu'?" Pleo asked. "You and the other Pokémon kept saying that here, but I don't know what you mean by it."
"It means 'magical beast', it's how we refer to what you call a 'Pokémon'..." the Cubone explained, before pausing uncertainly. "Or… at least I
think it refers to the same thing."
"Uhm," Nida mumbled to herself. There would be a
lot to teach, and Kiran hadn't recruited a feral onto Traveller while she was around, so she'd have to rely on what she remembered of other teams' experiences. Perhaps, for now…
"I'll explain as things come along, though… why are you called 'Shugodeshi'? It's well... kinda long."
"Eh? It's no longer than the other ones in the colony, but it's because of my role in it," she elaborated. "It's a way of saying 'Guarding Student', because I'm a lorekeeper that's still in training. I mean, I suppose that it's a little out of date
now... Why? Where are you going with this?"
"It means
you're gonna get a stupid name too!" Elty jeered, only to be cut off with a Nidoran's hiss.
"Something a bit
shorter would just be a bit easier, that's all," she explained. "Hrm, you're around to help protect us, or at least partially... What about 'Guardia'? In the island I come from, it's what we'd call a Pokémon that does that sort of thing."
"Guardia does sound nice," Pleo added.
"Eh?" Elty protested. "
That's what you were going to give her? I was thinking more 'Bonehead' or- Gark!"
Thwack
The Growlithe pitched forward with a yelp and flopped on the ground stunned, pawing at a fresh welt on his head. As the world continued to spin around in the little dog's vision, his assailant brought her bone back to her side and shot a glare.
"Shut your trap, mutt," the lizard growled. The Cubone shook her head and flicked her tail a little, before turning her attention back to Nida and Pleo. "As I was saying... while 'Guardia' kinda sounds a little bland… I guess it's fine for now."
The three welcomed their new teammate along, and stuffed Team Taxonomy's notebook into the satchel on Nida's back. After noticing that the audience in the graveyard was beginning to make their way for the exit, the three began to set off, only for Pleo to pause and catch himself after mulling over Guardia's answer.
"Why 'for now' though?" he asked, which drew a chuckle and slight shake of the Cubone's head.
"Well, if getting you back turns out to be a big adventure, I might be able to
earn a better name later on!"
One hour and a circuitous route through a 'shortcut' that lead a few floors up later, Team Traveller found themselves back at the colony's grounds. There were a few things left to be tended to before they left: the newly-named 'Guardia' had her club inspected for defects, and she was presented a pair of Oran Berries, an Aspear Berry, and a Lum Berry for her journey, the lot of them touched by the Distortion...
"You know, you're not half-bad at tying a scarf."
And, after being given the honors by Nida, Mojisenshi fitted a burnt and tattered lavender scarf provided by her new teammates over her neck. The creature tied a simple knot at the back, before pulling his counterpart into an embrace.
"Take care of yourself out there, Shugodeshi."
This was the last of farewells to her companions among the colony, the final thing to be done before this long lore gathering mission away from home.
"That goes double for you too, Mojisenshi!" Guardia shot back. "I wanna be able to kick your tail at loregathering around here the first thing once I get back!"
As the Cubone prattled on and engaged in some parting farewell teasing with the round-eyed Cubone and her companions from Machitabi's patrol, the rest of Team Traveller tilted their heads as they tried to make sense of their new teammate.
"Nida, is she going to kick
our tails, too?" Pleo whispered uneasily. "Won't that hurt?"
"She's using it as a figure of speech," Nida murmured back. "… I hope."
"Well, regardless, you need
help getting back, don't you?" Elty added. "I wouldn't have recommended a
Cubone, but she'd still work, wouldn't she?"
"One thing's for sure," Nida replied. "It seems like she's going to be a handful-"
"So are we going, or what?" Guardia's voice interrupted.
"E-Eh?!" Nida squeaked. "What are you-?!"
"My farewells are done," the Cubone responded. "If I'm going to be going off on a mission for the colony, no sense dawdling around, right?"
"It would be nice to get back to the town sometime
this season," Elty grumbled.
"We should be ready..." Pleo muttered. "Right, Nida? We'd just need to find an open space and then call the teleporter Elty met with with our badges."
"Right," Nida grunted back. "So then let's get going."
The four Pokémon formed a chain of tails and appendages with each other, and slowly began trekking off into the fog. As the forms of the team slipped from view, Tetsuzui turned, and gestured at Mojisenshi, and the members of the patrol Guardia accompanied.
"Keep an eye on them until they reach the surface," she said.
"H-Huh?!" the runt stammered. "Why, they weren't planning anything, were they?"
"Erm… Tetsuzui
-sama," the round-eyed Cubone began. "I'm not sure if I understand why this is needed."
"Yeah, it's not like those two would try anything funny in the presence of a
god," Dark-skull added.
"Even so, it is the wisdom of our forebears to not trust blindly, no matter how honest-seeming the stranger might be," she lectured. "Call it the intuition of an old
Garagara."
"Hmm, right!" the reed-chewer answered. "We'll be sure to keep an eye on them!"
And with that, unbeknownst to the scarved Pokémon ahead of them in the fog, four additional Cubone set off after their tracks, into the mist and the maze beyond.
Author's Notes:
-
(¿)Cómo? - Spanish: (Interjection) "What?"
-
Cafteur - French: "Tattletale"
-
por favor - Spanish: "please"
-
un polluelo - Spanish: "chick", same meaning as "
pollito" though with more endearing connotations
-
Yamero! (止める!) - Japanese: (Interjection) "Stop!", "Enough!" (Hepburn Romanization)
-
shizoku (氏族) - Japanese: "clan" (Hepburn Romanization)
-
Taiyō-shi (太陽氏) - Japanese: "Sun Clan" (Hepburn Romanization)
-
Taiin-shi (太陰氏) - Japanese: "Moon Clan" (Hepburn Romanization)
-
Honebūmeran (ホネブーメラン) - Japanese: lit. "Bone Boomerang", referring to the move that we would know as "Bonemerang" (Hepburn Romanization)
-
Nie ma sprawy - Polish: "No problem"
-
Garagara (ガラガラ) - Japanese: "Marowak"
