To my dear Dad,
I know this may come as a shock, but I’ve decided to leave, and go to Lily Valley in order to train at the Moonlight Academy there. I will be leaving immediately; there will be no changing my mind.
I’m well aware of the dangers that come with the training. I’ve done my research on the most common tactics used by outlaws, and the threats that often result in harm to those traversing mystery dungeons, so I can say that I know what I’m doing. I promise, if things go horribly wrong (they won’t!), I will come back home.
You and everyone else here have been so kind to me all these years, and for that I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You are all in my thoughts; rest assured, I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.
-Love, Silkie
Silkie looked over the letter, and then dipped her talon in ink, stamping the space next to her name with her footprint. The Torchic folded the letter into threes, before lighting a sealing-wax candle with a small Ember, letting it
drip-drip-drip onto the paper, and reached for the stamp bearing her father’s insignia: a diamond shape with a five-pointed star in the middle.
Sighing, the Torchic brushed one of the large feathers that made up her crest out of her face - her crest feathers were unusually, perhaps even unnaturally, large, so much that they fell with their own weight and dragged along the ground as she walked. Silkie placed the letter on her bed, a structure much too large for a Torchic with satin blankets laid neatly atop it. Her father had told her that this bed had been used by a human before her egg had hatched. Once, she’d asked him where that human was now. He’d hesitated for a long, long time, before turning away from her.
“Humans have been extinct for centuries. We’re lucky that they left behind this palace for us to live in,” he’d said.
Silkie gave one last, long look to her room, and closed her eyes, letting another sigh out of her beak. She turned around, picked up a bag next to the door, slung it over her shoulder, and walked out of her bedroom for what she knew would be the last time in a while.
The Torchic was careful to walk as quietly as possible, so that she didn’t wake up her father or any of the other Pokemon who lived at the palace. She made her way down the flights of shiny, hardwood stairs, staying focused on the large pair of stone doors as soon as they appeared in the corner of her vision.
She walked right up to the door, and was about to push it open when she heard a voice from behind her: “Lady Silkie? It’s quite late for an outing, don’t you think?”
Silkie glanced over her shoulder. To her relief, it was only one of the Audino maids who worked here.
If it was someone closer to Dad’s rank… sheesh! I don’t even want to think about it!
“Hi, Lepus,” she said. The Torchic was quite likely the only Pokemon in the palace who knew even the maids by name.
I don’t know why Dad never talks to them as friends. They’re very nice Pokemon! Instead of vocalizing that thought, she smiled nervously at Lepus. “I, uh, I know it’s late. That’s the - that’s the idea.”
“A moonlight stroll, eh?” Lepus asked, laughing softly.
Silkie nodded.
No. No, it really isn’t. Don’t lie. Dad doesn’t like it when you lie. She looked down at the floor, and changed her head’s nodding to shaking side-to-side. “I’m… I’m leaving. For a long, long time.”
“Goodness! Lady Silkie, I would never have imagined that you weren’t satisfied here!”
“Of course I was satisfied! It’s great here and all, but…”
Just tell her. She’d understand, right?
Before the Torchic could speak up again, the Audino knelt down, placing her paw on Silkie’s shoulder. “But you have dreams, don’t you?” Lepus asked.
Silkie smiled. “Funny that you used the word ‘moonlight’... but I don’t have time - I mean, I’ve gotta - I wanna go as soon as possible. There’s a note on my bed. Could you get Dad to read it before he worries about me too much?”
“Of course, Lady Silkie. Good luck!”
A weight lifted itself off of the Torchic’s shoulders. She grinned at Lepus, before twirling around and leaving the palace that she’d called home for her whole life.
~~~
The desert sand slipped around Silkie’s talons, burying them every time she made a step. Sure, it was only sand, and light enough for her to still be able to lift her feet out, but she wasn’t used to walking in sand for too long, not without her father to pick her up and fly back home with her on his back.
What was I thinking? I forgot one of the most important guidelines for exploration! She glanced up at the horizon, which was currently blocked by a rock formation that stood on the sandy ground, providing a higher viewpoint.
If traveling through a desert, account for the delays caused by… by, uh…
She’d climbed up onto the rocks, and noticed a strangely-coloured patch on the sand a few minutes away - a cold, almost bluish white.
Could it be… The Torchic didn’t let herself dare finish that thought. After all, how lucky would she have to be to find a Pokemon in need of rescue all the way out here? Besides, she wasn’t trained or registered as an explorer.
Yet.
Silkie continued to stare at the white patch, stepping down from the rock.
I should go find someone who knows how to help…
The Torchic walked towards it, ignoring the frustration that the sand was causing her. She clawed her way up a hill, looking down towards the bottom of it. Sure enough, a mass of white fur with blue markings awaited her there, rising and falling slowly with the few breaths that it was taking.
An ice-type Vulpix? All the way out in the desert?! If I didn’t know better, I’d say the world was going mad!
Silkie reached into her bag, took out a small, blue berry, and nudged it towards the Vulpix with her beak. This Vulpix was rather ragged-looking, and her fur - usually soft and thick on the mountain variant of her species - was coarse, even patchy in places.
Clearly, she’s taken her fair share of hits. Maybe a good beating or two. Wonder what got her. Corrupts? Outlaws? Maybe a legendary?
Well, couldn’t be corrupts. No mystery dungeons around here, as far as I know. And I don’t know much about legendaries, either. Outlaws it is, then.
“Come on, wake up and eat,” the Torchic mumbled, nudging the Vulpix with her left talon as she continued to study her appearance. The roughness of her fur had distracted Silkie from it, but this stranger was quite muscular, at least compared to the drawings of Vulpix that Silkie had seen in books.
Maybe she’s won a few fights, too?
The thought excited her, and as the stranger’s nose began to twitch, the Torchic found herself flapping her tiny wings in anticipation. One blue eye slid open, and now looked out at the world around it, gazing over everything nearby.
Sand… sand… sand… a berry, and a Torchic.
“Are you okay? Looks like you got beaten up bad by those outlaws!”
The Vulpix’s eye then focused on Silkie, squinting slightly in confusion. “Outlaws, was it?” she asked, in a voice as rough as her current condition. She pushed against the grainy ground, pulling herself onto her four paws, and even trying to make a motion that Silkie thought looked like a hop.
The Torchic didn’t really think about that right then, though. “Well… was it? I don’t really know, I just guessed, I… uh, guess. You gonna eat or what? You must be hungry after that fight.”
“You saw that, then?” the Vulpix asked, still trying to push off of her front paws. “For the stars’ sake, what…” She then looked down at said paws, and raised one closer to herself, turning it over and examining it.
“No,” Silkie sighed. “But you were obviously in a fight! Look at your fur, it’s a mess!”
“Torchic?”
“Oh! The name’s Silkie!”
The stranger looked at the Torchic once again, and began to nod subtly. “Silkie, you know about as much as I do, I’m afraid. Seems I’ve been turned into a Pokemon that’s not supposed to be in a place like this.”
“I’d say! Frost Vulpix typically inhabit northern mountains or - wait. Turned into?”
“Yes, Silkie. You may not be able to believe this, but I used to be a human! And now, through some force I don’t know or understand, I’m not.” The Vulpix turned around to look at her tails. “... five, six… You don’t think it was those…
outlaws… do you?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, go back! Did you actually say ‘human’ right there? I’m sorry to be the one to burst your bubble, miss…”
The stranger scowled as she lowered her eyes towards the desert sand. “Gloria. You may call me Gloria.”
“Gloria, that’s not a very good trick! Everyone knows humans are extinct. If you’re supposed to be a con artist, then you probably haven’t had much success! In fact -” Silkie began to rummage through her bag, and the sounds of various items being shuffled around began to fill the desert. “I feel bad for you, Gloria, just let me give you some money so you can go buy a bit of land…”
“Con artist?!” Gloria spat. “Me?! I assure you, dear miss Silkie, I want no money or goods. All I want is to be human again!”
“
Suuuure…” the Torchic said. “Okay, let’s say you’re telling the truth. Do you have any idea how you’re supposed to, you know…” She looked up and down the stranger’s form. “De-Vulpix yourself?”
The Vulpix sighed, and resumed examining her paws. “I’m afraid I haven’t got a clue where to start. I don’t even know where the nearest town is!”
“Oh! I do!” Silkie yelped excitedly, beginning to flutter and hop about. “I’m going to Lily Valley, and there’s supposed to be a whole bunch of towns on the way! Look!” The Torchic yanked a map out of her bag, and tossed it, allowing it to unfold itself as it fluttered towards the ground.
The map depicted the entirety of what Gloria quickly discovered was called the Astral Continent. There were plenty of different climates across it, from the desert in the east - likely where they were now - to the northern tundra, and elevations from mountains to seas. “What a gorgeous landscape,” the Vulpix commented.
“Okay, which one’s yours?” Silkie asked.
“I’m sorry?”
“What town, duh!” The Torchic used her talons to point at various names scattered across the landmass. “Brass Town? Scupperport? Oh! Oh! Are you from Lily Valley?!”
Gloria laughed nervously. “I…”
“Please, please be from Lily Valley! What’s it like? Do you know anything about the Academy? That’s why I’m going there, you know -”
“I don’t know, Silkie! None of those names even sound familiar!” the Vulpix shouted.
Silkie stopped her excited scampering, letting her shoulders sink. “Oh. Well… what does?”
Gloria scanned the map, tracing under the names of various locations with her paw. Slowly, she began to realize that none of them sparked a memory in her mind. “I’m afraid I can’t…”
“Can’t what? Read?”
“Oh, of course I can read, you insolent, impulsive…” The Vulpix took in a sharp breath. “I don’t have very many memories of my human life! It seems like what I kept was my name, and…”
And what? Gloria wondered. The other memory was quite vague. “And what I believe was a powerful...
thing. It almost seemed like a gemstone, maybe.”
“Gloria, ‘powerful thing’ isn’t really that specific. What do you mean, powerful?”
“I mean, young Torchic, that -”
“Oh, by the way, what makes you think I’m young? I just turned sixteen last season, you know!”
“Please, Silkie, that doesn’t just make you a wise elder. As I was saying, the gemstone felt like it pulsed with a strong energy when I held it.” The Vulpix held up her paws again, thinking about how much she already missed having thumbs. “I remember that I could barely bear to have it in my hands, and yet I held it close. I so desperately wanted it… no. I
needed it.”
“Wh-why?” the Torchic asked. She was already starting to worry about this stranger; maybe she wasn’t a con artist after all?
Gloria paused, looking down at one of her front paws as though the powerful something was still in it. “I don’t remember why. And I have no clue where it was then, or where it is now.”
“But maybe if we find it, you’ll find out what happened to you!” Silkie chirped. “I get it now!”
“Wait, what do you mean, ‘we’?”
“Come on! We’re off to Lily Valley!” Before she could protest, the Vulpix felt five and a half pounds of Torchic on her back. “Hyah! Let’s go, Gloria!”
Did this little Torchic just -?! The Vulpix dug her claws into the sand, before starting to walk through the desert, with Silkie’s guidance.
~~~
“We’re lost, then?”
The two of them hadn’t lasted very long, and had now come to a standstill in front of a strangely-ornate arch in the middle of what was otherwise a very barren landscape. Gloria would’ve passed it off as nothing more than the remnants of an ancient civilization, if it weren’t for the fact that what was meant to be on the other side of the arch was blocked from her view by complete darkness.
“Of course we’re not lost!” Silkie protested. “I know exactly where we’re going! There’s just not supposed to be a mystery dungeon here…”
“So what? Can’t we just go around it?” Gloria asked.
“It’s too late,” the Torchic sighed. “We’re already in it.”
“So, you’re saying we’re…”
“Do
not say the ‘L’ word to me. We aren’t. We were heading northwest, just like we should’ve! Look at the… sun…” Silkie stared at the eastern sky, watching the red-and-gold hues of the dawn paint the world above her. “Oh no. It’s morning already.”
Lepus is going to give that note to Dad, right? I don’t want him to worry…
“What’s wrong with the morning?” Gloria sighed.
“Uh… nothing!” The Torchic hopped off of the Vulpix’s shoulders, looking up at the arch. “Nothing at all. Right now, what we need to think about is getting out of here, and this is the only way out,” she said, tapping the side of the structure.
“Can’t we just turn around and go back the way we came?”
“Of course not! Mystery dungeons mess with your head. They try to trap you, even if they have to distort time and space to do it. If you try to turn around and go back, you’ll end up finding a wall, or a pit, or even looping around back here!” Silkie shook her head. “Honestly, Gloria, didn’t you… Oh. Right, I forgot. Amnesia.”
The Vulpix grumbled something under her breath, walking as close to the arch as she could without touching the darkness within. “So, this here is our exit?”
“Sort of. In order to leave a mystery dungeon, you have to go through a maze. I don’t know how their minds work, if they even have minds to start with, but… well, I think you just have to prove yourself to it.”
“A maze shouldn’t be too hard,” Gloria said, shrugging, and stepped forward, putting her paw into the shadows. “All in favour of escaping the eldritch, maybe-sentient part of the desert, let’s get to it.”
“Gloria! Wait for me!” Silkie dashed into the arch, leaping towards the Vulpix’s disappearing tails. She watched as the world faded around her; quickly enough, it got so dark that she had no clue whether her eyes were actually open or not.
Suddenly, the desert flashed into view again, but instead of a series of mostly-empty dunes, it had become a mostly-flat area, with pale, stony walls surrounding the two of them. The Torchic stepped up beside Gloria, and looked around at the room they’d emerged into. Behind them, where the archway would have been if this were a place of logic, the empty room simply stretched for a few more feet before ending at a solid wall.
“Here we are, I guess…” Silkie mumbled. “All we need to do is find another arch like that. Then we’re free!”
Gloria glanced at the wall to her right. Close to the corner of the room was a corridor, which made a sharp turn left soon after it began. “How do we feel about this hall?” the Vulpix asked.
“It’s the only chance we’ve got,” the Torchic sighed, hopping up onto Gloria’s back again as the Vulpix began to walk. “I still don’t get why this showed up all of a sudden, though! I thought the mystery dungeons in the Brass Desert were further north…”
“I don’t think the mystery dungeon cares what you think. I gather that it’s alive, so I guess it can do whatever it wants.” Gloria opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off by the sound of footsteps on the sand. “Silkie, is there someone else in here?”
“Oh no. I was afraid we’d have to deal with that,” the Torchic whimpered. “It’s… arguably not a someone, more just a something.” Silkie ducked closer to Gloria’s fur, and the Vulpix began to feel the heat radiating off of the Torchic as she rummaged through her brain for an analogy. “Do you know how the immune system works?”
“Can’t say I know whether I cared enough to learn,” Gloria said.
“Okay, uh, first of all, the dungeon needs to detect that we’ve entered. That’s why the arch is there, rather than just being a maze in the middle of the desert - well, that, and mystery dungeons are mostly just pocket dimensions… Anyway, the gateway also acts as a sensor, and tells the dungeon that invaders - us - have entered,” Silkie explained. “And then it sends out corrupts to fight off the invaders.”
“Corrupts? What’s -”
Gloria was interrupted by the sound of the footsteps growing louder. She crouched down, glaring at the hall in front of her, and snarled softly, pulling her lips back on instinct and sneaking towards the sound.
"Gloriaaaaa? What are you doing?" Silkie asked, her wings trembling.
The Vulpix saw a flash of green dart by, and ducked even lower; her stomach was now sifting the sand aside. She breathed out, attempting to make something - anything at all - happen. All that did happen was that the air in front of her got just a little bit colder...
"New plan," Gloria said. "You go fight it."
"S-sorry, what?!" Silkie yelped. "Why me?!"
The Vulpix rolled her eyes. "You're a fire-type, aren't you? It's too hot for me to do anything. Your attacks will do a lot better here than mine."
"Well, yeah, but..." The Torchic whimpered softly, peeking around the next corner. Whatever form the corrupt had taken, it must have been a relatively quick one, as it was now out of sight. "What am I supposed to do if it's a ground-type? I only know Ember and..." Silkie raised one of her talons and clawed at the air. "Whatever this one is!"
"You seriously were never taught what Scratch is?"
"Hey, you're not much better off! You don't know anything about mystery dungeons!" the Torchic shouted. "Okay, fine. But we don't even know where this thing is!"
Gloria gestured to the ground, where a set of footprints made a trail around the corner. “I’d say those are a good bet. Lead the way, explorer!”
Silkie puffed up with pride at being called an explorer, and followed the prints down the halls of the maze. The corridors wound and twisted, often in ways that would never be thought of by a sane architect, until the footprints led into another room, larger than the one Gloria and Silkie had entered into. In the middle of this room was a Capsakid, asleep on its side and facing away, at what was clearly the end of the trail of footprints.
“Hey, perfect! A grass-type for you there, and super easy to sneak up on. Show me what you’ve got, kid!”
“I’m not
that young,” Silkie mumbled, and looked at her new friend. The Torchic crouched down, imitating what Gloria had done before, and stepped over the sand, letting the grains roll off of her talons as she slunk closer to the Capsakid.
Here goes…
Without warning, Silkie leapt forward, and a small flame flew from her beak to the corrupt. It sprung up, but then collapsed instantly, falling on its face as Silkie whirled back around to look at Gloria. “Was that good?”
“Exemplary,” the Vulpix complimented, walking forward to catch up with the Torchic. Her eyes were drawn to the Capsakid, which was slowly sinking into the sand now. “I’m sure you realize that now I have more questions…”
“Right! I’ll explain while we walk.”
Silkie did indeed proceed to explain; as the duo searched the mystery dungeon, she spoke of the rumours and theories about the true origin of corrupts, the weirdest one - according to the Torchic - probably being that corrupts were actually the souls of Pokemon who’d died in a dungeon. “Those scholars claim that the dungeon makes a new body for the soul based on what kind of environment it’s in - so in a desert like this, we’d see Capsakid, Sandile, Trapinch, those kinds of Pokemon!”
“That we are,” Gloria remarked.
“After a corrupt faints, the dungeon usually takes its soul back and reclaims the energy that makes up its body, so that it can do it all over again. However, it’s said that sometimes, the dungeon doesn’t take either one back, and the corrupt becomes controlled by the old soul, rather than the dungeon’s defense mechanisms! At least, according to that weird old Ursaring who lived in the mountains a few hundred years ago. You got that so far?”
The Vulpix nodded. “I hope you don’t expect me to write a test on all of this,” she laughed.
Silkie giggled, forgetting for only a moment that she’d run away from home to do something as incredibly dangerous as this.
That Capsakid went down easy, but I can’t get cocky. What if I end up having to fight a powerful enemy that isn’t weak to Ember? Oh stars, what if I have to fight a Groudon?
“Silkie? The physical realm’s calling you,” Gloria said.
“You’d fight a Groudon for me, right?” the Torchic rambled before she realized what was coming out of her beak.
The Vulpix stared blankly at her for a good few moments, before breaking into laughter. “Good one, Silkie!”
Silkie joined in Gloria’s laughing, and the two kept walking, until they found themselves in yet another rectangular chamber. Silkie stopped, and rummaged through her bag.
“What is it?” Gloria asked.
“You don’t happen to have a piece of paper, do you?”
“I’m afraid that whatever force that transformed me took away everything I may have had beforehand,” the Vulpix sighed. “What do you need it for?”
“It’s helpful to make a map when you’re exploring a dungeon so that you don’t get lost! I just, um, wasn’t expecting to get to one before reaching the next town, so I didn’t take any paper when I left…”
Gloria poked her head into one of the hallways and looked around. “I don’t think you’ll need it,” she said, waving the Torchic over. Sure enough, there was a tall arch, with the same darkness swirling within as the one they’d entered the dungeon through.
“We made it!” Silkie chirped, hopping into the Vulpix’s side in an awkward attempt at a hug. When she crashed into her friend and fell, she instead settled on nuzzling up to one of her paws. Gloria quickly pulled back, and walked into the darkness, Silkie following closely by her side.
The world flashed into sight once more, but this time, the desert gave way to a grassland some meters away from the dungeon’s exit. Silkie ran up to the top of the nearest dune as soon as she blinked back into the outside world, and looked out over the nearby landscape.
“Look, Gloria! Brass Town’s just up ahead here!”
The Vulpix caught up with the Torchic, and followed her gaze, her eyes now seeing a decently-sized town on the horizon. “We should make it by dusk,” Silkie said, and hopped down from the dune’s peak, sliding down the sandy slope and running off into the distance. Gloria took a stunned moment of hesitation to ponder just where the Torchic got all her energy from, and then followed her, going into a sprint to catch up and let her hop onto her back. “Once we make it, we should be able to catch an airship up north!” Silkie called. “Woo-hoo! We’re going to Lily Valley!”
~~~
Meanwhile, back in the eastern part of the desert, a creature unidentifiable to the residents of this world hovered above the sand. The Poipole glanced at an object on the ground, picking it up and touching it to her forehead.
“What is it?” demanded a voice from behind her. The Poipole turned to face the Naganadel that led her swarm, and handed the small blue sphere to them.
“It’s medicine, Master Alius,” she explained. “It was likely dropped here by the Pokemon that His Courage wants us to find.”
Alius rolled the sphere around in their talon. “Yes, I have seen these berries before. Supposedly a common healing resource.” They looked at one of the Poipole in the distance, and shouted, “Selcouth!”
Selcouth hovered up to Lord Alius, lowering his head to them and allowing them to touch the tips of each of his needles before speaking. “Yes, Master?”
“Bring this to His Courage. Tell him that our target has been here, near the… what was it that he called it… yes, the mystery dungeon.” Selcouth nodded, and floated away hastily as the Naganadel turned to the rest of the swarm. “Everyone else, we continue our search!”
“Yes, Master!” cried all of the remaining Poipole in unison. Alius took the lead, holding their wings up in a dominant position - they did not need to flap them due to their ability to levitate - and the swarm gathered behind them, following as they led them west, toward the setting sun.
