Do Psychic-Type Pokemon Dream of Electric Sheep?

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily. The sun shone brightly in her face, and she tried to raise her arm to cover it out of instinct. She then noticed her left arm was in a cast.

“Oh! You’re up now. Good.”

Espurr’s head turned as Audino walked into the room. She beckoned to someone standing outside the door where Espurr couldn’t see them, then walked over to a cabinet filled with several types of herbal remedies. The exotic smells wafted over to Espurr as Audino opened the doors and fished through it.

She tried to raise herself from the straw bed she had apparently been sleeping on, clumsily working with only the use of one arm. Audino turned back at the sound of the straw rustling, looking at Espurr disapprovingly.

“Sit down, please. You still need rest!” she chided the psychic kitten. Espurr sat down again, noticing for the first time how much her body truly ached from the events of the previous day. Her left arm dully ached within the confines of the cast; a vast improvement over the blinding pain from last night… Last night. Espurr suddenly felt a lot less relaxed.

“You collapsed the moment we arrived here. Half delirious, I suspect.” Audino continued to fish through the cupboard. “And just before Errand Day, too. You were lucky Kecleon’s stays open late on Saturdays.”

Audino finally found what she was looking for, closing the cabinet and glancing towards the still-empty doorway.

“What are you still waiting out there for? You need treatment!” She told the unseen pokemon in the doorway.

“Sorry, Ms. Audino,” a voice muttered. “It hurts to walk….”

“Well, that’s why you don’t go jumping out of trees,” Audino retorted, pouring whatever she had gotten into several small leaf-made pouches. “Not to worry,” she continued. “You’ll have company.”

“Really?!?” the voice suddenly perked up with all the excitement of a pokemon kit in front of a candied berry stall, and a fennekin somehow limped through the doorway on only one leg. Audino directed her to the nearest straw bed, which the fennekin threw herself on like it was a pile of autumn leaves.

Audino supplied her with a few bags of ice. “Keep those applied for the next twenty minutes or so,” she ordered, the fennekin reluctantly putting her paws under the ice.

“IF you rest, your injuries will likely heal by the end of the day,” she told the fennekin. “But, unfortunately…” She said, addressing Espurr, “I estimate yours will take a little longer to heal. You should be fully recovered within a week.”

“A WEEK?!?!!” the fennekin moaned, like it was her with the longer sentence and not Espurr.

“A broken bone is no joke,” Audino told her, just a hint of an annoyed edge to her voice. “No matter how resilient pokemon bones are. A week, and no less.”

She grabbed her bag, and began to walk towards the door. “I’ll be back shortly. A poor ursaring is having throat troubles, and I’ve scheduled his appointment in for today. I don’t want either of you to move a muscle until I return; do you understand me?” she asked, punctuating the last sentence with a pointed glance towards the fennekin.

“Y-yes, ma’am! Absolutely understood!” the fennekin chirped happily, in a tone that suggested it was not understood at all. Audino kept her wary eyes on the fennekin a good moment longer.

“I expect to see you both sitting on those beds when I return,” Audino stated, and walked out the door without another word.

“SO-o-o-o-o-o….” the fennekin drew out her single word for as long as possible after making sure Audino had left. “What are you in for?”

“You’re new here,” she piped up just a second later.

“What’s your name?” she asked immediately after that.

“Are you…”

“Hah! There’s no way you’re Ms. Audino’s kid, are you?”

“Wait. Are you?”

“Huh? Are you? Pleaaase tell me!”

“Do I ask too many questions? Some pokemon say I do, but Mr. Farfetch’d says that the worst questions are unasked ones, so I’m going to ask as many as possible!”

“What’s your name? I feel like I’ve asked that one before…”

Espurr watched the Fennekin prattle on and on, unsure of how to answer the hyper pokemon’s questions or even get a word in on the one-sided conversation. How could she, when she herself didn’t even know the answers to half of them?

“…And then I totally robbed like, half my Pop’s oran berry harvest, and then he made me clean the entire house from top to bottom! That was yesterday.” The fennekin finished telling what must have been a lengthy story in the space of half a minute.

“A~nyway, I’m out of things to talk about. Did I ask for your name?” she finished. Espurr blinked at the fennekin, flabbergasted.

The fennekin immediately drooped down, noticing just how much information she’d bombarded her temporary roommate with.

“I came here just to see you, you know,” she muttered.

“You …did?” Espurr asked in pure surprise before the fennekin could open her mouth again.

“Yep! Jumped out of a tree to do it, too. Twisted my tail, sprained three of my ankles, and my ear hurts.” the fennekin tried to wag her tail, and cringed in silent pain. “But it was all for a noble cause!” She stated boldly, perking up. “ I couldn’t allow a fellow child to suffer in the clutches of the evil Nurse Audino for an entire week!” the fennekin moaned dramatically, attempting to put a paw to her forehead, before wincing at the sudden pain and shoving it back under the ice.

“Audino can’t be evil.” Espurr stated, trying her best to ignore the fact that the obviously loopy pokemon in front of her had just endangered her life to meet her. “She saved my life yesterday and patched me up.” She directed her eyes towards the cast on her left arm for good measure.

The fennekin looked at her like she was both crazy and the best thing ever. “Wait. Did you just say she saved your life???”

In that moment, Espurr realized she had gone too far. What was she going to say, that wouldn’t immediately put her in a situation she didn’t want to be in? ‘I woke up yesterday in the middle of the woods with no memories in a body I’m sure isn’t my own, and then spent the night getting chased by three hostile pokemon, and that’s how I broke my arm?’ Just from what she’d seen of the fennekin, her entire life’s story would be spilled to the world in five minutes flat.

“Um… What’s your name?” Espurr asked cautiously, trying to quietly divert the subject.

“Uh-uh! You’re not changing the subject on me-“ the fennekin angrily began-

“If you tell me your name, then I’ll tell you mine.”

“Deal.”

The fennekin cleared her throat dramatically, as if queuing up for a moving performance. “My name is… A secret! But everyone just calls me Tricky, so you can too!” She bravely stared Espurr right in the eye. “Your turn.”

“Oh… I’m Espurr.” Espurr carefully stated.

“Well, that’s boring.” Tricky yawned, stretching the best she could under the bags of ice. Squinting for just a second, she pulled her paw out from under the ice and gave it a twist just to be sure.

“Oh wow! I’m healed! I’m finally healed!” Tricky screeched, jumping up from her bed of straw and ice and frolicking around the room in joy. Espurr watched Tricky’s tail painfully cramp as she tried to wag it, sending the fox plummeting to the ground headfirst.

“My tail still hurts, though…” She muttered from the floor. And then she was back up again, walking rather stiffly to avoid moving her tail. “Wanna go exploring?” she asked excitedly.

Espurr was fairly sure Tricky had some kind of memory problem. “We were told to wait here,” she reminded Tricky. “Besides,” she added, tilting her head. “I don’t imagine you can go many places with that tail.”

“So what~?” Tricky sang. “If you listen to the dumb adults your whole life, life stays boring! Besides, I haven’t showed you around yet!” Without another word or even Espurr’s consent, Tricky began to forcibly push Espurr out the door.

“Tricky!” Espurr cried out in shock.

“Silence, my liege!” Tricky called back in a heavy accent. “This is the most important of occasions, and it demands our full attention!”

Espurr tried to drag her feet against the ground in order to bring them to a halt, but it didn’t even slow Tricky down one little bit. And with her left arm in the condition it was, Espurr found herself left totally helpless as Tricky bulldozed her down the hill and through a clearing full of wooden seats.

“That’s the school- school’s out today-“ Tricky said in between gasps as they passed.

“Tricky!” Both Espurr’s and Tricky’s heads turned to the right, where what could best be described as an angry otter wearing a safety vest was marching right towards them.

“Berry crackers…” Tricky mumbled. “Bye, Watchog! See you tomorrow!”

“Is this another one of your shenanigans?” Watchog angrily asked as he marched towards the pair- “What are you doing with that poor student?!!!” he shrieked in horror once he’d gotten close enough to see what was happening. “Put them down right now!!!”

“No can do, Watchog!” Tricky yelled as she plowed Espurr off. “Audino’s orders! Espurr needs me to show her around town!”

“That’s VICE PRINCIPAL Watchog to you!” Watchog called after her. “And those don’t sound like Audino’s orders!”

“They are! Trust me!” Tricky yelled as she turned a corner.

“Trust… you?” Espurr could hear Watchog sputtering the proposition in disbelief as they rounded the corner, as if the two words were completely foreign to him. She could kind of see why.

“This is the village square!” Tricky announced as they entered what was obviously the village square. She finally stopped plowing Espurr around like a toy, allowing the psychic cat to catch her bearings. “The village is larger, but this is the place where everything happens! You’ve got your Café Connection, which is called that because there’s an actual phone there, your fighting technique shop – no-one EVER shops there – and your Kecleon’s stall!” Tricky excitedly pointed all three out as she mentioned them. “Don’t steal from Kecleon,” she added with a hushed air of finality. “Trust me.”

Espurr wasn’t sure whether to be intrigued or worried by that. She wasn’t even supposed to be here. It had been all of five minutes since she’d woken up, and already she was knee-deep in trouble!

“And so, you see…”

Espurr’s ears twitched, and for a minute she turned away from the fennekin eagerly awaiting her reaction to eavesdrop just a little.

“…He’s nine! We both know he wouldn’t just walk into one of those places like that! Not unless someone 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, who had turned to view the pair of arguing pokemon. Upon seeing them, her entire face lit up, a slight wince betraying the pain from her injured ear.

“Deerling! Shelmet!” she gasped, suddenly plowing into Espurr from behind again and unwillingly pushing her towards the duo. “Guysguysguysguysguys-“

Deerling, the elder of the duo, looked up, her face twisting up into annoyed incredulity as Tricky pushed the hapless Espurr towards her.

“Um… hi?” Deerling raised a hoof in greeting, still trying to figure out exactly what was happening before her. “Tricky, what are you up to now?” she asked in a much sterner tone. ”I thought you were still in Nurse Audino’s office from jumping out of that tree.”

Tricky let Espurr down, dashing out in front of her stiffly. “Guys- You are never gonna believe this- I found Nurse Audino’s kid! Seriously! See?”

“Loser alert...” Shelmet, the younger of the duo, rolled his eyes.

“Tricky…” If Deerling could have facehooved, she would have. Instead, she settled for shaking her head in disbelief. “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, causing her to wince. “She’s… adopted! Audino saved her life last night!” she nodded vigorously, as if that would prove her point even more. “…Right, Espurr?” She looked at Espurr, hoping for confirmation.

It took Espurr a few seconds to realize that Tricky had just come up with the perfect cover story for her. This way, she wouldn’t have to explain herself to everyone!

“…Something of the sort,” Espurr replied. Deerling momentarily looked shocked (Espurr suspected she wasn’t used to having the wrong answers much), but almost immediately she was all business again.

“Great,” she said, shaking Espurr’s good paw the best she could with her hoof. “See you in class tomorrow. And you…” She turned to Shelmet, the little pokemon already trembling at her fury. “Show me exactly where he went in. We need to get him out of there before nightfall!”

Without another word, Shelmet led Deerling off through the town gates, Deerling practically digging her hooves into the ground in anger with every step she took.

“So… Are we following them, or are we following them?” Tricky asked mischievously from beside Espurr.

“We’re going to get in more trouble...” Espurr couldn’t fathom how the fennekin could still want to continue onwards, especially after jumping headfirst out of a tree.

“Ha!” Tricky laughed. “ I laugh in the face of trouble! See?”

“Well, we’re in enough of it as it is. I wouldn’t want to get kicked out the day I got here.” Espurr began to walk as fast as her short legs would take her, heading back up towards the school.

“Come on!” Tricky ran back up, rapidly orbiting her as she continued up towards the town’s northern gate. “You’re just like every other pokemon in this village! We’ll be in and out! It’s probably nothing anyway!”

Espurr did her best to ignore her. The events of yesterday were beginning to flash through her head again- Her harrowing trip through the woods, the strange pokemon that had chased her… Were they still looking for her? What if they were right outside the village at this very moment? What if… What if they found Shelmet and Deerling?

That stuck in Espurr’s mind more than anything else that had come before it. She’d known them for all of half a minute, but they didn’t deserve to go through what she had yesterday. The horror, the sheer terror… No-one deserved to go through that. Espurr hadn’t realized she’d stopped walking until Tricky stopped too, tilting her head in confusion.

“…Does this mean you changed your mind?” she asked hopefully.

Espurr’s eyes widened, and she grabbed Tricky behind one of the houses without even thinking.

“Hey- What gives-“ Tricky started to fuss, but Espurr quietly put her good paw to Tricky’s mouth. She pointed.

“Look! Audino’s coming back.”

Sure enough, the pink and yellow pokemon was leisurely hiking up the hill to the school, unawares that the very two pokemon she had told to stay put were watching her at that moment.

“No biggie!” Tricky suddenly leapt up with new life. “We’ll just take the long way around. If we’re quick, she’ll never know we were gone! Follow me!”

She began to dash down the thin alleyway, stopping some six feet away for Espurr to catch up.

“Come on, Slowpoke!” she yelled. “At this rate, taking the long way around won’t be a shortcut!”

Espurr simply couldn’t move as fast as Tricky could, and that was a fact. She kept stopping to catch her breath and tripping on the various things in the alleyway. Audino had been right, she realized: She did need more rest.

This wasn’t the way back at all, Espurr realized. They had since abandoned the buildings of the Village for trees that blotted out the sun ominously, casting everything below various shades of blue and purple. It wasn’t like the foggy green forest she had run through yesterday, but it was no less foreboding, either.

“Are you certain this is the way back to the school?” She suspiciously asked Tricky, who was sniffing something out on the ground as she went.

“Yep! Totally. We’re taking the looooong way around,” The fox remarked. Espurr could see her mental smirk. She tilted her head in suspicion. The colorful roofs of the village were quickly disappearing in the distance behind them. If this was truly the long way around, then Tricky had meant it in every sense of the word.

“Stop!” Tricky suddenly perked straight up, holding out a paw to stop Espurr from going any further. In the distance, someone was talking.

“I’m going in after him!”

“No! You c-can’t! We… we won’t 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.

“Fine! You two go, then.”

“W-why would we do that? I’m sure he’s fine.”

“Y-yeah, he’s totally fine. And once he brings that paper back, he’ll prove it!”

“He should have been back hours ago!”

Espurr recognized two of the voices as Deerling and Shelmet- but, the other, the third one, was foreign to her. She reluctantly followed Tricky as the fennekin snuck through the underbrush.

Deerling’s ears pricked up at the sound of something sneaking up behind them. 

“Who’s that?” she yelled loudly, taking a battle stance. “Show yourselves!”

Seconds later, she was greeted with the sight of Tricky stumbling out of the underbrush, followed by Espurr not a moment afterwards. Deerling relaxed. “Oh…” she dropped her battle stance. “It’s you two.”

“You guys left without me…” Tricky infused her voice with extra sadness to get the specific effect she wanted.

“Well, I didn’t see you signing up to help.” Deerling pointed out venomously.

“Yeah! We don’t need a loser like you taking up precious space when we’re short on time.” The third, new voice 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 (Although this was only speculation on Espurr’s part), and just for a split second while studying him, Espurr locked eyes with the miniature panda.

“Who’s the new kid?” Pancham asked, twirling the twig around in his teeth.

“Nurse Audino’s child,” everyone but Espurr replied in unison. A moment later, Espurr decided never to lock eyes with anyone ever again.

“Guys, 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 looked pointedly at Pancham and Shelmet. “…Then it’s our responsibility to help him!”

“We’ll go.”

Everyone looked in surprise at where the voice came from. Tricky’s mouth fell open in awe and stayed that way. Espurr slowly put her good paw down.

“…Are you sure?” Deerling asked, eyeing her cast. “You don’t look too good.”

Espurr’s attention was drawn back to her cast, and the dull throbbing of her bone that was slowly beginning to become sharper. But this… Goomy must have been even younger than she was, and she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him to the strange pokemon; should they come hunting once again.

“…I can’t leave him in there.” she stated with an air of sincerity.

“Well, we won’t stop you.” Pancham nodded gratuitously, Shelmet quickly following in his wake.

Deerling sent them a quick glance of annoyance, then reluctantly cleared a path for Espurr and Tricky.

“Have fun getting killed!” Shelmet yelled after them.

“Shelmet!” Deerling’s shrill scolding could be heard but not seen, as the bushes began to physically close up the way back. Espurr watched as they curled up around each other, creating a wall of green behind them. She cast a look to the front. From here on out, the jungle looked downright malevolent.

Maybe it was.

“I’m gonna be honest with you…” Tricky excitedly scampered everywhere around Espurr as the pair 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 tripped over her own feet again. Sure, the ground was littered with all manner of trip-friendly objects, but she could tell that wasn’t where the problem originated from. It felt like… It felt like her feet weren’t her own.

She 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 that once again filled the air… Something was wrong here.

“The forest doesn’t want us here,” Espurr finally said. “I can feel it.”

“Well, duh.” Tricky was nonplussed. “We’re in a mystery dungeon.” She dismissed it with a wave of her paw. “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 someone’s watching you…”

Tricky’s constant expulsion of words blended in with the background noise as Espurr walked. She wondered how far in Goomy was. She wouldn’t have dared to step in here if not for him. 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 fox falling silent as she saw the same thing Espurr was seeing: A thick mass of fog slowly crept between the trees, almost impossible to see through. 

“…Exactly like that,” Tricky quietly finished. She suddenly looked a lot more frantic. “Already??” she asked; to no-one in particular. “We were only here for five minutes! How come there’s already fog?!”

Espurr saw the treetops above crackle violently; blown away by a wind that had come out of nowhere.

“Tricky?”

“Yes?” 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, ticking it off on her paw. “And it just gets stronger every time it comes back. And if you don’t leave after that, then the dungeon begins to lash 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 Espurr and Tricky had previously been on.

Shaken, Espurr walked 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. 



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-one ever seemed to realize that. Deerling only coddled him, and Pancham and Shelmet bullied him more than the others, and Tricky… It was taboo for anyone in Serenity Village to hold more than a minute’s worth of conversation with Tricky. (Not that he hadn’t tried. The first and only time he’d attempted making friends with her, she had roped him into stealing oran berries from her father’s berry patch. That did not 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. And written his name on it. But then this really creepy fog began to roll in, and suddenly everything felt more scary than it should have, and he couldn’t 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 brainwashed by the Dungeon Wraith and set out as its personal hunting slaves…

No matter how confidently Deerling had assured him that the Dungeon Wraith was just a scary 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 reverberating through the woods more and more frequently were really just wild pokemon after all. They didn’t sound like the howls of any pokemon he’d been taught about in school; off-pitch roars and screeches that rustled through the wood like the moans of a ghost.

Goomy didn’t like ghosts. He shivered even more then he already had been, keeping the paper close just in case a sudden wind came up and blew it away. Was he going to die here?

“GOOMY!”

Off in the distance, to Goomy’s left. He looked in that direction, but couldn’t see anyone through the unnaturally thick fog.

“GOOMY! WHERE ARE YOU?”

His heart leaping with sudden joy, Goomy realized 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 had been right. He really was just a little kid after all. Maybe he deserved to be teased. He’d take that over sitting alone in this cold and scary dungeon any day.

“GOOMY!!”

With a sudden pang of fear, Goomy realized the shouts were coming from his right now. They were passing him!

“I- I… I- I’m HERE! I’M OVER HERE!” he yelled out, his voice returning to him in an instant.

An excruciating ten seconds passed. Goomy didn’t hear a response. 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 before the twin beasts. He was going to become some wild pokemon’s lunch!

“Begone, foul beasts!”

Tricky’s voice shot through the air again, and the furfrou were suddenly sent running off once a pair of twin embers flew through the air and set both their afros alight. Tricky rushed out of the fog, followed by an espurr Goomy didn’t know but was just as glad to see.

“Tricky!” Goomy happily glode over to Tricky, giving her his best attempt at a hug. It was a short-lived reunion, however, as the mystery dungeon actively repelled such activities with a bellowing screech that blew through the trees and nearly knocked the three of them off their feet.

“Uh-oh…” Tricky looked up in fear. “It’s getting mad. We should go.”

It was the first thing Tricky had said that day that Espurr wholeheartedly agreed with. 

“In my fifteen years of service as the Vice Principal of this school…” Watchog paced the principal’s office like a stressed-out madmon, all three of the teachers in the room watching him as he did it. “In my fifteen 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 (Audino had recommended he go for a checkup multiple times in the past, but Simipour had always insisted he was just fine), the same tired smile adorning his face as he did it.

Watchog suddenly spun on his feet, pointing a paw directly at Tricky.

“Thievery, trespassing, cutting school… And now she’s corrupting the newcomers!” Watchog’s ranting took on a slightly paranoid tone; one not lost on any of the staff or students in the room. “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 cautiously, clutching his stalk in his wings, “But is there a specific 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 let out a sudden laugh, cutting Farfetch’d off. “Oh, I assure you, Farfetch’d; sleep is the last thing on these little demons’ minds…”

“Wanna remind me why you elected him Vice Principal again?” Audino asked Principal Simipour in a hushed voice.

“As it happens,” Watchog continued, “I didn’t have these students dragged from their beds. Rather; I 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.

“But what were they doing in the Foreboding Forest, I hear you ask?” Watchog continued, only pretending to have heard them ask. “Why, none other than… a dare!”

He whipped out the paper with Goomy’s slimy handwriting on it, making sure the rest of the staff could see it.

“And here’s the proof!” Watchog cried 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 ever-leering eyes down towards Tricky, who immediately looked astonished.

“I-it wasn’t me this time! I swear!” Tricky cried out in her defense, but found herself breaking under Watchog’s intense glare.

“You said you found all three of them exiting the dungeon together;” Principal Simipour finally spoke up, 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 in his deductions. “…Yes,” he conceded, a good amount of his bravado lost.

“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?”

“…Yes,” Watchog concluded, looking suitably cowed.

“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 the dungeon wildlings!”

A wave of uncomfortable shock passed through the teachers at the mention of anymon getting eaten by the dungeon wildlings.

“See?” Tricky questioned Watchog angrily.

“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. “Children going into mystery dungeons unsupervised is grave misbehavior 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 weeks’ worth detentions will do.”

“Detention for a week?!” both Tricky and Watchog cried out, for entirely different reasons.

“Yes, Simipour replied, locking eyes with Tricky. And unless you’d like me to make it two, I highly suggest rolling with it.”

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 of its own accord 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, the excitement of the day’s events finally beginning to get to him.

“I agree,” Simipour replied. “If I recall correctly, You live in the same area as Farfetch’d; correct?”

Goomy thought about it for a second, then nodded. Simipour turned to Farfetch’d.

“If you would do the honors…” he asked. Farfetch’d nodded and left without another word, Goomy sliming off in his wake.

Now it was just Espurr, Watchog, and Simipour in the office. Espurr considered her options, looking at Watchog as he silently mulled over his apparent defeat. A moment later, he stormed out, letting the door swing shut behind him.

“Espurr, was it?”

Espurr glanced up at Simipour, who still wearing the same expression on his face.

“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 your arm being what it is. However, your being here tonight is a convenience, if a minor one.”

He ruffled through a few of the neatly-stacked papers on his desk, pulling out a folder and opening it.

“The pokemon who chased you last night are known as Beheeyem, and they’ve been sighted several times in the past few days searching for you.” Simipour’s voice lost its airy quality for a more sincere tone. “That is why, for the time being, I strongly implore you to stay within the bounds of this village. I say this out of concern for your own safety; not to put a shackle on your freedom. We don’t need another disappearance on our hands.”

“Disappearance?” Espurr suddenly felt like she wanted to puke. “You mean… someone already disappeared?”

“We’ll discuss that another time.” Simipour closed the file, leaning 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 up at the School Clinic.”

Left with no other options, Espurr nodded silently, and politely bid Principal Simipour good night.

“Today was fun.”

Tricky happily munched on a stalk of celery as she watched Audino lock up the school clinic.

“And I mean it this time.” Audino stopped at Tricky’s 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 blueish glow, then continued into the clinic’s other room, leaving the door open just a crack behind her.

Espurr carefully helped herself to one of the berries on the plate between them, and took a bite. Tricky had eagerly informed her that those were the ‘boring oran ones’, but to her, it tasted like the best piece of fruit in the world (if not a little messy). It was amazing; what fear could do to one’s appetite. Espurr hadn’t even noticed how worn-out and famished she was until after her cast had been cleaned, and she’d been given a seashell filled with water to drink. She wondered briefly about what Simipour had meant by ‘another disappearance.’ Had there been others like her? Others, who hadn’t been lucky enough to make it to civilization? Were the Beheeyem responsible for their vanishings?

For the first time, Espurr realized just how much danger she had truly been in last night. If she hadn’t stumbled upon Audino by chance… she might not have survived at all. That was a scary thought.

Espurr glanced over at Tricky, who had somehow fallen asleep mid-meal, the half-eaten celery-stalk resting idly at the foot of her bed. Espurr decided to follow Tricky’s example, and closed her eyes to rest as well.

Then a moment later, she got up, placed the celery stalk back on the plate, and promptly crashed in the straw bed again. 
On4/6/2020 this chapter underwent writing edits.

Music of the week! : D

Many Meetings - Howard Shore

“…And that’s why the Expedition Society has declared Continental Emergency,” Mawile finished explaining, taking a bite from a chesto berry as she talked. “With the Rescuer’s Guild being the issue in question, we’re the closest establishment to step in.” 

Archen lay in the room’s sole bed; sound asleep. That was fine. Mawile considered sleep a natural detriment to the activities of the mind, and with the help of chesto berries she had easily built up enough stamina to regulate her sleep to one twelve-hour period a week. While the other Expedition Society members thought this habit was unhealthy, they couldn’t deny Mawile’s much faster work-rate, and she never had to worry about missing the morning bell.

“Hmm… That’s certainly troubling…” Ampharos began, his voice crackling through the gadget. “But not unexpected; in the end. You’ll be meeting with Law Enforcement?”

“What little is left,” Mawile replied. “It turns out the Air Continent relied on the Rescuer’s Guild a little too much to establish a serious police department, should anything ever happen. Hence; why no-mon heard about this sooner.”

“Troubling…” Ampharos paused again, weighing his next response. “I encountered a few of our shadowy nemeses on the way to Serenity Village as well. A trio of beheeyem, who used attacks much in the same vein as what you just described.”

“What about the Wigglytuff’s Guild?” A third voice suddenly butted in over the line. “Or the Helping Adventurous Pokemon Prosper Institute? Surely; they’d be inclined to help…”

“This is a private conversation, Dedenne,” Mawile chided.

“Not really,” Dedenne’s dry response crackled through the line. “Don’t forget; everything on the line goes through me first. Nothing’s private.”

“I’m afraid she has you there, Mawile,” Ampharos’ voice chimed in. Mawile thought she heard an air of mischief in that tone, but decided to write it off as voice distortion for his sake.

“HAPPI is located on the Mist Continent,” she answered. “They’re currently having a snowstorm in direct opposition to our drought, and couldn’t respond in time even with our early transmission. And the Wigglytuff’s Guild is disorganized-as-usual, so they won’t be of much help responding to off-continent emergencies. We’re on our own.”

“I see…” Ampharos pondered that for a moment. “Anyway, the main reason I called was to inform the Society that I may be staying here in the village a little longer than intended.”

“What?” Both Mawile and Dedenne said at the same time.

“Is this because you’re worried you won’t make it back?” Dedenne asked. “Because we can send somemon. Buizel hasn’t had any serious missions in a week; I’m sure he’d be happy to go-”

“-I’m afraid not,” Ampharos answered, “Although I do appreciate the offer. I’ve run into some… unexpected difficulties searching for the Human.”

This was news to Dedenne, but not Mawile.

“What?” She asked; her voice ridden with disbelief. “You’re searching for a Human? What led you to even consider something so ludicrous??”

“Why not?”

Ampharos’ cheerful reply left Dedenne, for once, speechless.

“…Shouldn’t you at least have some evidence to go on first?” She slowly asked.

“We do.” Mawile put a word in before Dedenne could start another one of her one-sided rambling sessions.

“Jirachi picked up two pulses of immense teleportation energy on the Pokemon Nexus,” Ampharos explained; mainly so Dedenne wouldn’t needlessly spill the news to the rest of the Society. “Both occurred within a couple of days of each other, and both landed in this area. Such energy has only ever preceded the arrival of a human, and the arrival of a human has only ever preceded imminent disaster; which I fear we may be on the brink of. That is why it is of the utmost importance to find this human and bring them back to the Society, where we can properly prepare them for the trials they were brought here to face.”

“Oh… I guess that makes sense.” Dedenne’s cowed voice crackled through the line.

Mawile finished her chesto berry, grimacing briefly at the dry, bitter flavor it had.

“I’m afraid I have to go now,” she told them. “There are countless sheets of paperwork waiting to be filled in, and I must have them all at the Baram Town Hall by sunrise tomorrow.”

“You guys aren’t gonna make any more calls tonight?” Dedenne asked, yawning.

“I’m 99% certain of it,” Mawile stated, inking a pen and pulling the first sheet of a formidable stack of paperwork towards her.

“All agreed, then?” Ampharos asked.

It was all agreed. All three pokemon removed their connection orbs from the slots.

Ampharos, however, stuck his back in immediately after, disabling the ‘call’ function on his gadget. Instead, he tried to sync up with the other orb; the one he had ‘accidentally’ let drop out of his bag for that pair of children to pick up.

It was a little-known fact that the connection orbs could record decent audio and relay it back to the Expedition Gadget when synced up with another orb of the same frequency, like Ampharos had done with his pair of orbs earlier that day. Jirachi had designed the feature specifically for Bunnelby’s spelunking missions, but this was a rather clever use of its abilities, if Ampharos did say so himself. A foolproof way of determining whether the Human was on the school premises or not.

Until the audio recording finally synced up, and Ampharos realized he was listening to a discordant symphony of nighttime sounds instead of hearing the chatter of several children. Baffled; he sped it up. The entire four hours of audio were composed mainly of the same outdoor noises. They must have left it somewhere outdoors, Ampharos realized. He suddenly felt far less clever than he had a second before. They were children. Of course they had lost the orb in the middle of the forest. What had he been thinking?

He began to pour through the audio, stopping it every few seconds to see if he had stumbled upon a hidden clue. They were children, after all. There had to be something hidden in all the mess…

Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open. She was met with the unwavering blackness of the void.

Espurr picked herself up, looking around at the darkness without end. There was nothing here. She couldn’t even see the ground beneath her feet; much less understand how she had anything to push up against.

All around her, she could hear tiny, hushed voices wavering all around the void; indistinct sentences and phrases flitting past her ears before she could understand them. One was louder than the rest. It continued to swirl around her, chanting something Espurr could hear in volume but not understand. She caught only a single word as it passed close to her ear, and it was a word she had recently heard a number of times:

Human.

Espurr quickly singled that one out from all the others. Easy, considering it was both louder and larger. She heard a sudden cackle emanate from the gust of wind, before it took off into the blackness. Espurr tried to follow it. She ran after the wind, simply not able to keep up with it. She kept tripping over her feet; the gust of wind getting farther and farther away with every passing second. And eventually, it slipped away completely, and Espurr collided headfirst with a pure black wall she never even knew was there.

She slowly got back to her feet, rubbing her head. She hadn’t seen a wall…

…And she couldn’t feel one, either. Espurr put her left paw out where the wall used to be, feeling a disturbing absence of anything in its place. Walls didn’t just disappear like that, she decided, looking around in vain. And the lack of any surroundings must have meant… She was dreaming.

Once Espurr came to that realization, everything around her became much, much easier to comprehend. It was still all black, of course. But now; at least, she had an idea of why that was, which was far more than she’d had just a moment ago.

The only problem now was figuring out where to go. It wasn’t like there was a helpful sign to point her in the right direction, when everything was dark and black.

And then, just like that, there was. It was tall; far taller than Espurr. Attached to a thin metal pole; she had to stand a good distance away just to read the words written on it.

The words weren’t like anything she remembered ever seeing. Her eyes flicked over them, easily gleaning the meaning even though the numerals were foreign to her.

F-O-L-L-O-W M-E

Follow? Espurr’s eyes quickly scanned the darkness again for another clue. Where? Was she supposed to just walk in the general direction the sign pointed in? She hoped not.

Espurr’s eyes locked on another sign, standing far away in the distance. It was practically identical to the one she was standing in front of. She blinked twice, and she could no longer see a difference. Follow the signs, then. Espurr figured that was simple enough.

Time seemed to be an abstract concept in dreams, and Espurr found she couldn’t recall whether she’d been walking from sign to sign for five minutes or five days (even though it felt more like five seconds). It never really jumped out at her until she made an effort to question it. However, all thoughts of time left her mind once she heard the sudden gust of wind ripple past her ears, whispering its inane chants as it went.

Immediately, she began to pursue it again, this time making a better effort to not trip over her feet as much. It quickly out-sped her, doing loop-de-loops in the air as if confident in its abilities to outrun her. Rightfully so, it seemed. Espurr tripped again and landed face-first in the… black, she named it. She pulled herself to her feet, trying to will the gust of wind towards her.

It didn’t work. Espurr began to chase it again, running faster than she remembered ever running before.

She really should have seen the second wall coming. Espurr sat up, baring her fangs and hissing at the infuriating breeze. Her head and face stung madly, still bruised and battered from the other two times she had banged her face into something unwillingly. She briefly wondered how a dream could be this painful. Slowly getting to her feet, she stuck a paw out in front of her to see if the wall was still there. It brushed up against an immovable black surface; like a solid stone cave far, far underground. Espurr could hear but not see the chattering of the malicious breeze, growing more and more muffled until she couldn’t hear it at all.

She removed her paws from the wall, deciding to see how far it went. She had not walked even three feet until she was met with the cold embrace of yet another wall. And another, three feet in the next direction. Every direction she went, she was met with cold, hard, pitch-black stone. The space was actively getting smaller, and soon Espurr began to feel rightfully cramped within the walls that didn’t even exist. Somewhere in her mind, she registered that it was all a dream and therefore she couldn’t possibly be hurt, but it all felt so real, and for all she knew she was actually going to get crushed by these walls! Her head bumped up against the wall from above she hadn’t even noticed was there, and she felt two other walls press in from either side as she quickly sat. They began to jut into her arms more and more with every passing second, and Espurr huddled down as far as she could. Soon, she felt the wall press down against her head again. These walls were getting too close for comfort. She wanted to wake up already!

Espurr laid down as it became too small a space for her to sit comfortably in (Or just sit at all), and as she stared up at the roof, she thought she saw the familiar flickering lights she had come to dread- the lights of the beheeyem. They flashed brightly, blinking her directly in the eye. Espurr cowered even further than she already had, shutting her eyes tightly to avoid seeing the bright lights that were even making their way under her eyelids.

There was suddenly a sickening crunch as the walls pressed in even further, and blinding pain filled her left arm- 

“Y’all are trippin’ me. What do I know ‘bout all this language-teachin’ stuff?”

The hushed voice floated through the door, mingling with the first, blue-yellow wisps of daylight creeping through the window. Espurr shot awake, nearly falling out of the straw bed she had been sleeping in. Her left arm; the one in a cast; had fallen into a painful position in her sleep. Espurr laboriously readjusted it into a comfortable position, biting back a low yowl of pain. She heard Deerling shift uncomfortably in the bed behind her, all-but undisturbed by Espurr’s sudden movements.

“Nnghh…” She moaned, falling back to sleep only seconds later. Espurr ignored her in favor of trying to listen to the voices right outside the clinic door.

“You’ll get a curriculum, of course. None of our teachers are left without one.” That was Principal Simipour. Espurr recognized his voice from when he had spoken in the office that night.

“But I ain’t one of them te-“

“You’re the only pokemon we could find in a timely manner. Besides, your name was on the board-“

“That name was done marked up on the board years ago! Was… volunteerin’ for janitor duty an’ stuff like that.”

“I see… Well, it is a bit of an emergency. Our students are all taught basic reading and writing by their parents- it’s one of the Serenity Village School’s base requirements. We simply can’t teach without it. Now, on occasion, there has been the odd student who just hasn’t learnt it all or is on the younger side, and we’ve employed independent tutors to nudge them in the right direction. But with summer vacation right around the corner, those tutors are all on leave, and we can’t just call them back at a moment’s notice. Therefore, we had no other choice. It takes a village to raise a child, after all.”

“But…” The other voice tried to protest, clearly running out of excuses. “Ain’t there hundreds other pokemon more qualified than me?”

“Just follow what’s in the book, and you’ll be fine,” Simipour assured the mysterious pokemon. “And if it’ll make your day any better…”

Principal Simipour’s voice lowered into a whisper, and Espurr had to lean in to hear what the blue monkey was saying. She almost toppled off the straw bed, barely catching ahold of the bed with her good arm and stabilizing herself. There was a loud scuffle against the floor that made Espurr freeze up in fear, but no other significant noise after that. She pulled herself up onto the bed, trying to make as few crackling noises against the straw as possible.

The two adult pokemon outside the shack suddenly went quiet; as if they were onto Espurr.

“Ah…” Simipour sighed after a moment. “Nothing like the sound of students eavesdropping in the morning. Or lack of it, although my Vice Principal might be inclined to disagree with me on that particular preference. I’ll leave you two to get acquainted, then.”

Espurr froze a second time; mortified. Had he known the whole time? She heard him spin around in the dirt, then saw the messy blue crop of hair adorning his head through the window as he passed. A moment later, the door to the clinic creeped open, and a pokemon with a large leaf adorning its head walked in, carrying a large book in his bark-y hands.

“Mornin’…” He said, noticing Espurr. “I see you’re up an’ all.”

He walked over, taking a seat in the straw bed that had accommodated Tricky just a few days before and setting the book aside from him.

“My name’s Nuzleaf.” He introduced himself, holding a hand out towards Espurr. “I reckon I’m to be your language teacher until that blue monkey gets his priorities sorted out.”

Silently, Espurr took it, standing up to reach Nuzleaf’s hand with her good paw. She looked back at Deerling, who was sleeping on her side; her back to the straw uncomfortably. Espurr spared her a look of silent pity. It looked like she had had a rough night.

“Now, I ain’t the expert on teaching,” Nuzleaf began, opening the book to its table of contents. “But I reckon you’ll do just fine flipping through the book yourself.”

And before Espurr could say a thing to the contrary, he lopped the heavy tome into her hands. Hand. Espurr had no chance of holding the large tome with only one good paw. It thumped to the floor of the clinic, jolting Deerling awake once more.

“Huh?” She mumbled incoherently, gazing at Nuzleaf. “Who’s the… leaf-head…”

A moment later, she flopped her head down onto the straw, fast asleep once more. Nuzleaf picked the book up from the floor, glancing around to make sure he hadn’t broken anything or disturbed anymon else.

“…Maybe we should do this outside,” he admitted.

“You okay practicing on your own?” Nuzleaf nervously asked. It was clear to Espurr he hadn’t done this before. 

The school looked like a completely different place in the early morning. The blue light of dawn crested over the blackboard, and Espurr could barely see the sun beginning to rise behind the desks. A light breeze ruffled her fur, of the cool, breezy kind (And not the foul-smelling mystery dungeon variety). Nuzleaf flattened the pages of the book with his hand before the breeze could wreak havoc upon the book, taking a seat in what was currently not Tricky’s desk at the moment.

“Oh. Right. Darn.” Nuzleaf flattened the leaf atop his head back nervously as he took the book once more. “Forgot you can’t read an’ all. ‘Guess I’ll have to do the teachin’, then.”

He walked over to the blackboard, picking up a piece of chalk and marking down several numerals on the board.

“This here…” Nuzleaf began, jotting the rest of the markings down. “Is the Unown Alphabet.” He glanced back for Espurr’s benefit, just to make sure his pupil had gotten that all. Upon finding her staring directly at the blackboard, he put down the chalk and flipped the book open again.

“Now, legend says pokemon borrowed it from the human language an’ all, but… ‘t doesn’t matter,” Nuzleaf continued. “The most important thing is, just about ev’ry pokemon in the world uses this here alphabet. Any questions?”

Espurr could have asked any question in the world, and she knew it. But the second she was called upon, every possible question she could have come up with pertaining to the subject at hand flew out of her mind much like her former memories had, and she was left only with a single one; one that had absolutely nothing to do with the Unown Alphabet.

“…Back there on the porch,” Espurr quietly began, almost in shock at her words. But she had to know. “What did Principal Simipour whisper in your ear?”

Nuzleaf looked a little taken aback by the question.

“So you were eavesdropping…” he muttered to himself. Espurr kept her eyes trained on Nuzleaf, as if doing so would get him to spill the information sooner.

“N-none of your business,” Nuzleaf finished, his voice somewhat shakier than before. “It’s not a place for kids anyway.”

He quickly picked up the chalk and began to write again, ignoring Espurr’s intrigued stare.

“Now, I ain’t gonna tell you the history an’ all- I reckon one of your other teachers will cover that just fine-“ Nuzleaf continued, his back to Espurr. “But I think we can get all these letter sounds sorted out before school-time. This one here reads…”

“M-morning, Mr. Farfetch’d!”

“And a good morning to you, Goomy!”

“Afternoon, Teach.”

“Yeah. Afternoon, Teach.”

“Well, it’s a while until afternoon yet...”

“Hey! Look! It’s Deerling!”

“Ugh… Please don’t make me do this right now, Pancham…”

“Good morning, Deerling.”

“Morning, Mr. Farfetch’d…”

Farfetch’d walked up towards the teacher’s desk, nodding as he passed Espurr’s seat.

“Good morning, Espurr,” He said he said in passing. Espurr discreetly hid her yawn as Farfetch’d took his spot next to the blackboard. As goofy as his accent was, Nuzleaf was quite the ruthless teacher when push came to shove. He had effectively managed to drill the entire Unown Alphabet into Espurr’s brain in the space of two hours (She could still hear his cries of ‘not that one, dangnabbit!’ floating around in her head whenever she thought of the letter ‘E’), although she didn’t expect to remember any of it come nightfall. Already; the letter pronunciations were growing soft and fuzzy in her mind, and she couldn’t shake the unnerving sense of familiarity that came from just looking at the strange alphabet.

Farfetched let out a murmur as he finished crossing out the penultimate name on the blackboard.

“It appears we are missing a student,” he began, his voice bearing no hint of surprise nor agitation. Espurr got the idea said student had been late before.

‘Of course we are,” Watchog grumbled from his spot near the entrance to the school clinic. “Leave it to the Troublemaker to be late. Again.”

“I’m late I’m late I’m so totally late sorry Mr. Farfetch’d-“

Tricky bounded in through the school gate, digging all four of her paws into the ground to bring herself to a halt before she hit the desks. For a moment, it didn’t look like she was going to stop in time, and the fennekin squinted her eyes shut to prepare for impact with the nearest desk-

A moment later, Tricky opened her eyes. She had stopped just in time, her paws pushing up against the desk instead of painfully stubbing into it.

“H-hi.”

Goomy, the occupant of said desk, greeted Tricky cheerfully. Tricky exhaled her breath of relief directly into Goomy’s face without a second thought.

Goomy scrunched up his face in disgust.

“Y-your breath smells like s-spoiled rawst berries…” He complained.

“Hah! Here!” Tricky stuck her nose up triumphantly in Watchog’s direction as she walked to her desk. “And on time, too! So you can’t do anything about it…”

“You were five seconds late…” He growled.

“Is that everyone?” Farfetch’d crossed Tricky’s name off with his stalk. “Very well, then. Let’s begin.”

“This year, we learnt about the properties of Medicinal Berries,” Audino began, putting three tarped baskets and an additional bowl on the teacher’s desk in front of her. “And how mixing the right berries can heal injuries, cure illnesses, and replenish energy, while mixing the wrong ones can make you feel ill, sluggish, or just awful all over.” The blackboard was now covered in a diagram showing which berries did what, and how they mixed together. Audino removed the tarps from the baskets one by one, revealing the assortment of berries hidden within.

“Come on,” She beckoned the class to stand up from their seats. “Come closer.”

Within a moment, the entire class was standing around the teacher’s desk, gazing in at the berry baskets. Tricky looked like she was going to swipe one when Audino’s back was turned, and Espurr, who had not eaten breakfast in the short period of time between Nuzleaf’s class and the start of school, was almost inclined to do the same. However, all notions of secret mid-class snacks were dispelled when Audino turned back around with a pair of gloves and a spoon in her hand, giving Tricky a harsh don’t-you-dare look.

“These berries are not for eating,” she explained. “Today, we will be reviewing how to properly mix berries together, and which ones not to mix. When the test comes around later in the week, you will all be expected to do this on your own, so pay good attention here.”

Most of the class went white through their fur/skin/slime at the realization (They must not have studied much on Berries, Espurr realized). Strapping on the gloves, Audino fished through the first basket, pulling out an oran berry.

“To start off, you will need a berry as your base,” Audino explained. She set the oran berry in the bowl before the class, letting them get a good, long look at it. “Since we’ll primarily be making medicines and other basic mixtures in this class, you will almost always use oran berries, but other base berries exist as well.” Without another word, Audino took a wooden spoon, and began to crush the berry to mush with it.

Showing the class the mashed oran paste, Audino fished in the second bucket for berries. “With an oran berry as your base, you can now begin to add the other berries that will serve as your modifier.” She pulled out a handful of berries, setting them on the table in front of the bowl. “For instance… If I were to mix a chesto berry with our oran berry here, it would then gain the sleep-preventing properties of the chesto berry, amplified by the boosting qualities of the oran. And if I were to add a bluk berry instead, the oran berry would amplify the effects of the bluk berry, thus turning our mixture into a skin-soothing lotion.” Audino held both berries out to the class in turn.

“However…” She picked up the third and final berry, showing it to the students. “If I were to add this mago berry to our oran mixture, what do you think would happen?”

Deerling was the first to raise her hoof among the silent class, who stayed that way for lack of a better answer.

“The… oran berry would amplify it?” She hopefully asked, glancing at the blackboard behind Audino.

“Close.” Audino set the berry down with the chesto and bluk berry. “The mago berry is known for its slight intoxicating qualities- in other words, too many mago berries can make you drunk. But when mixed with our oran berry, the mago berry suddenly becomes a powerful intoxicant: One that can even spell death for a medical patient if administered by accident.” Audino didn’t flinch at the ripple of gasps that spread through the class; the sound of her point properly hitting home.

“Due to its likeness to the original oran berry, many doctors know this particular mixture as the ‘Oren Berry,’ or ‘False Oran,’” She continued, pointing out the mago berry on the blackboard. “And the more medicinal berries one adds atop a pure oran base; the closer the likelihood that you will end up concocting such a dangerous mixture. This is why many medicinal berry mixtures using bases outside oran are frowned upon, or, in some cases, illegal. The results are simply too unpredictable or even dangerous to use.”

Much of the class had a shocked expression on their faces. Tricky in particular looked like she wanted to faint.

“I’m never eating my pop’s cooking again…” she said. Much of the class looked like they agreed with her.

“Now, there’s no need to disappoint your old Pops,” Audino reassured them, picking up the third basket. “This applies only to a specific range of berries- Medicinal Berries.” She showed them the third basket, which was filled to the brim with strawberries and peaches and other various berries. Espurr gazed into the basket along with the rest of the class. Nowhere to be seen were the oddly-colored and shaped berries of the other two.

“These are your average cooking berries,” Audino told them. “While nutritious by default, boosting these berries with the oran mixture does not lead to any notable effects when eaten. They are, for lack of a better term, ordinary berries.”

She set the basket down, and Espurr took a moment to digest the information. Why weren’t all berries the same? She wondered. Why did some cause such drastic changes when they were mixed together, while others were no more than basic foodstuffs? The question hung in her mind, baffling her completely.

“Ms. Audino?” Espurr asked, raising her good paw in the air.

“Yes?” Audino called on her.

“What’s the difference?” She asked. “Why can’t a mango berry cause the same reaction as a mago berry?”

“I…’ll have to refer you to Farfetch’d to answer that question,” Audino began. “He’s the history teacher, after all. All I know on the subject is that Medicinal berries only began to grow after the Human Age came to its end.”

Espurr lowered her paw disappointedly, gazing up at the blackboard filled with the berry drawings and Unown numerals she couldn’t understand in the least. Perhaps the answer was hidden there. Espurr mentally steamed; frustrated. She wished she could read!

“Now…” Audino moved to the side, letting the class finally see the blackboard in its entirety. “I’d like you all to study this blackboard, outlining a chart of which berries; when mixed, create what.”

“Psst.”

The floating nut in the air wavered a little, before Espurr’s concentration pushed it back to a stable spot in midair. Too preoccupied to deal with whoever had snuck up on her little corner of the school clinic, Espurr watched it float; mystified.

She had accidentally dropped it earlier, and it had rolled just out of the reach of her good hand. Frustrated by the latest in a long string of such incidents caused by the clumsiness of her new paws and the added handicap of only having one of them available for use, Espurr kept her eyes on the nut as she got up from her seat to retrieve it. However, she had only taken a few steps towards the nut when; to her shock, it began to rise up from the ground!

The moment the seemingly impossible phenomenon registered in Espurr’s mind, the nut fell to the ground, but Espurr found she was no longer inclined to pick it up. At least, not traditionally.

Instead, she had recreated the scenario several times, first with nuts, then with berries, until almost all of Espurr’s lunch now lay on the floor, and Espurr was sure she was at risk of attracting Tricky’s attention sooner or later. None of the food had floated like that nut had, and Espurr was beginning to grow tired of the fruitless endeavor. The nut had floated. She had seen it! Why couldn’t the rest of them? Why didn‘t they float? Espurr narrowed her eyes at the pile in frustration.

Just then, she thought she saw the pile quiver a little, and Espurr realized she must have been on the right track. She concentrated harder on the pile, trying not to raise the entire mess of berries but only the one nut; and slowly she watched it shakily rise out of her lunch and into midair, wavering at the same level as her face. The sheer excitement almost made Espurr giggly, and after a few minutes of dedicated practice, she could even make it move around in the air a little. If only she could float it back into her hand..

“Psst!”

Espurr jumped, the nut clattering to the ground loudly. She turned around, coming face to face with the wry snout of Pancham. Espurr was taken back for just a second. They hadn’t talked at all since they had met in the Foreboding Forest, and neither side had made any move to change that…

Until now. Espurr wondered why.

“…What do you want?” she asked; suspicious.

“Yeesh…” Pancham muttered, sitting back with his hands behind his head. “Cut your poor classmate some slack! I just wanted to congratulate you on saving that wimp Goomy back in the Foreboding Forest. Instant respect. You’re his hero forever. But…”

Pancham leaned in towards Espurr, his voice lowering to a hush. “Wanna know how you can be my hero?”

If he expected an answer, he obviously wasn’t courteous enough to wait for it. Espurr already felt some mild animosity brewing at how causally he had brushed Goomy off as a ‘wimp’; the pokemon that had toughed out a mystery dungeon for far longer than Pancham would have ever dared!

“The Foreboding Forest is a big deal,” Pancham continued. “…If you’re Vice Principal Watchog. But see, to get ‘in’ with the cool kids around here, you’ve gotta do something that’s a big deal. Something that would give Vice Principal Watchog a heart attack. Something like, say, braving one of the nastiest mystery dungeons around; you catchin’ me?”

Pancham had let his voice raise enough to grab Tricky’s attention. Her ears perked up as the words ‘mystery dungeon’ wafted by, and she dug her snout out of a peachberry, wiping her mouth off with her paw.

“What about mystery dungeons?” She asked loudly, still savoring the sweet taste of the berry.

“Nothing,” Pancham snapped at her; his voice immediately gaining a vicious bite. “’It ain’t for your ears anyway.”

Tricky stuck her nose up at Pancham indignantly and returned to her peachberry, but it was obvious to Espurr that she was still eavesdropping.

“Anyway…” Pancham leaned in again, his voice falling to a whisper. “I can get you in. All I gotta do is switch up Watchog’s detention cards, and you’re good to go. Whaddaya say?” He held out his hand towards Espurr, smirking and bending the twig in his mouth at an odd angle.

“Deal!” Tricky had glanced up from her peachberry again, excitedly talking for Espurr before the psychic kitten could say anything.

“How many times…” Pancham growled, all his swagger suddenly lost for a downright vitriolic look aimed straight at Tricky. “No-mon. Is talking. To YOU!”

His outburst captured the attention of Deerling and Goomy, who were chatting together in another corner of the clinic. They both stared at him annoyedly, before returning to their conversation. Ignoring Tricky, Pancham turned back to Espurr.

“Oh, and did I mention the treasure?” He asked, making Tricky’s eyes widen with excitement.

“Well, I’m having detention too!” Tricky argued back, not about to let it go so easily. “So I count as 50% of the vote.”

“Didn’t I just say butt out?” Pancham asked. “You got a hearing problem? What I say goes ‘round here. Butt out.”

Strangely, Espurr couldn’t get a single clue as to Pancham’s true intentions. When talking to other pokemon, Espurr had realized she could gauge their intentions and their emotions by tuning out the background noise and focusing only on their speech, but it wasn’t happening with Pancham. The words flew off his silver tongue flawlessly, and Espurr couldn’t detect a shred of… anything from them. It was like she was being blocked.

“Just ignore the pest,” Pancham sighed, holding his hand out again. “I need an answer from you now. You in or out?”

The smart thing; Espurr knew; would be to turn him down. To watch the smirk on his face turn into a scowl as he realized not all the students in the school were dim enough to fall for his tricks. For surely this was another one of his schemes! He wanted revenge for being made a fool of at the Foreboding Forest the other day. Revenge for being bested by the new kid and the village troublemaker on day one. And she wasn’t about to let him have it.

“It’s a deal,” Espurr said, shaking Pancham’s outstretched hand. “We’re in.”

For just a moment, Pancham’s face faltered.

“We?” He asked.

“Well, duh,” Tricky piped up. “We’re having detention together, remember? I count as 50% of the vote!”

“’Scuse me for one minute.” Pancham dived behind the straw. Espurr could hear hushed whispers coming from behind the straw (Pancham’s and Shelmet’s; without a doubt, her mind decided), but she stayed where she was instead of confirming that fact for herself. There was no need to clue Pancham in on the fact that she was onto him.

Exactly one moment later, Pancham leapt back over, landing neatly in his seat again and relaxing.

“Excellent,” He smirked. “You’re both on.”

He ushered them closer, his voice falling into the lowest hush he had taken since the start of the conversation.

“Now, here’s what’s gonna happen…”

“Mr. Watchog?” Espurr asked as Watchog packed a large knapsack for the trip. Behind one of the straw beds, Pancham lay in wait.

“Vice Principal Watchog.” Watchog muttered; trying to decide whether water or berries was more important, eventually deciding on both and stuffing them into the bag.

“May I use the library before we leave?” Espurr asked. Watchog looked towards her in suspicion, one bushy eyebrow raised.

“I thought you said you couldn’t read.”

In the background, Pancham gave Espurr a thumbs up. He quietly dashed out from behind the straw, expertly switching the cards hanging from Watchog’s hitchhiking pack, and then it was like he had never been there in the first place.

“Well, Tricky can read for me,” Espurr explained. “And we won’t be long.” 

Watchog almost let out a high-pitched chuckle of disbelief, catching himself in an attempt to remain dignified at the last moment.

“You want to make the Troublemaker read for you.” He said, his voice flat.

Espurr nodded animatedly. Watchog shook his head in disbelief.

“Whatever,” he said. “I have to finish packing this vital supplies anyway. Five minutes. Understand?”

Both Espurr and Tricky nodded, and then they were both gone faster than Watchog could blink. He blinked twice anyway, then shook his head once more and went back to packing the supplies.

Watchog blinked again when he realized the detention card attached to the knapsack read ‘Help Out at Drilbur Coal Mines’ instead of ‘Cleanup Outside Foreboding Forest.’

“Odd…” he glanced at it lopsidedly. “I must have read it wrong.”

“Why are we going to the library?” Tricky asked curiously as they entered the empty warehouse filled with packed bookshelves that leaned over them claustrophobically. She spun on her paws, walking backwards again so she could face Espurr. “The adults don’t like me in here because I’m a ‘hazard to the books’ or something.” Tricky rolled her eyes. She then accidentally walked into a pile of books lying around next to one of the right-hand shelves, stumbling in place and barely keeping her balance.

“Not that they could stop me anyway,” she continued, righting herself and resuming her trot alongside Espurr. “but no-mon ever comes in here willingly, so they’ve never had to try!”

“That makes us the first, then.” Espurr walked over to a ladder attached to the bookcase. She pointed at a golden plaque that had been bolted to one of the bookcases, several Unown figures engraved into its surface.

“What does that read?” she asked.

“Archeology to Electricity,” Tricky translated, her eyes rapidly gliding over the text without a problem. “What are you looking for?”

“Mystery Dungeons.” said Espurr nonchalantly, like it was a matter of fact thing.

Tricky’s eyes lit up in understanding. 

“Right this way…” she beckoned gleefully.

Tricky led Espurr further down the hall, struggling to move slow enough to for Espurr and the heavy ladder to keep up. 

“A Complete Guide to Mystery Dungeons. Page 64; Drilbur Mines.” Tricky read from the thick, dusty atlas they had together managed to pull off the top shelf. “It says there was an explorer who went into the dungeon soon after it popped up and never came out,” she continued, tilting her head in confusion. “They even have a picture!”

Espurr looked at the illustration on the other page; detailing a shark-like pokemon cheerfully waving one of its fins, a brown bag draped over his shoulders.

“He wasn’t famous…” Tricky went on; mild disappointment cracking through her voice. “They refer to him as ‘Gabite’ instead of his real name.”

Espurr felt a sudden wave of anxiety overtake her for a second. The gabite had disappeared many years ago, if the tattered edges and yellowed pages of the book were to be taken at face value, but Espurr couldn’t help but feel for anymon who had met their demise in a mystery dungeon; as well as fear whatever they might have met their demise at.

“Maybe we can research him later,” she finished, eager to move on to the next subject.

“Time’s up, troublemakers!” Watchog yelled from outside the library. “We’re leaving now!”

Tricky hurriedly slammed the book shut and rushed back towards the door. The fennekin’s rough handling must have damaged the book somewhat, as it looked a little more tattered than it had been when they’d pulled it from the shelf, but Espurr wasn’t particularly concerned with that right now.

Right now, she was about to go dungeon spelunking.


“W-well, see, we w-weren’t really expecting you for another t-three days,” The poor drilbur who had drawn the Social Interaction Rock stammered out in front of Watchog. He sent a pleading look back towards the other drilbur who stood several good feet away, receiving nothing but winces and looks of pity in return.

“Psst. Over here!” Tricky quietly beckoned Espurr behind a largish rock, east of Watchog and the stuttering drilbur. Espurr cast a look towards Watchog to make sure he wasn’t keeping an eye on them, then quickly followed.

“We can enter from there.” Tricky pointed to the main mine shaft, guarded by several drilbur who were desperately trying to avoid having anything to do with the group out front.

“But it’s crawling with pokemon,” Espurr pointed out, peeking over Tricky. “Maybe it’d be better to wait for Watchog to let us in.”

“That’s ‘Vice Principal’ Watchog to you.” Tricky heightened the pitch of her voice in an imitation of Watchog’s shrill cries, falling to a hushed whisper immediately afterwards to mute the sound of her snickers.

“Still…” Espurr hid behind the rock once again. “We won’t make it far with that many pokemon guarding it. And we don’t need a reason for the Vice Principal to give us more detentions.”

“Are you talking about the drilbur?” Tricky asked; a hint of rare incredulity to her tone. Espurr nodded slowly. What other pokemon were there?

“Hah!” Tricky waved it off like it was nothing. “They’re pushovers. I’ve made it past them tons of times, and that’s when they’re all guarding that door. We won’t have trouble at all!”

Without another word, she leapt from the rock they were currently behind to another nearby boulder, landing cleanly and looking back at Espurr. Espurr quickly scampered from one rock to the next, tripping along the way. She still wasn’t over that yet.

“What were you up to in the mines, anyway?” Espurr asked as she scampered behind the rock, curious despite herself.

“Treasure hunting.” Tricky snuck behind a third, closer rock, Espurr following not far behind.

“Hi again, guys!”

Espurr watched; shocked, as Tricky announced their presence to the entire collection of drilbur with a brash paw-wave.

“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.

Tricky sent a prompt ‘I-told-you-so’ smirk Espurr’s way, before trotting right out into the open.

“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 week. Today we’re going exploring.”

“Now where did those two troublemakers get to?” Espurr’s ears pricked up, and she noticed Watchog glancing around the mine-yard angrily, the heavy bag still swinging from his shoulders.

“Goomy! do you know something about this?!” her heart sank as she watched Watchog angrily interrogate poor Goomy, who seemed just as at a loss for words as the drilbur did. But it was too late to go back on the dare now, and letting Watchog catch them would just end up in summer detentions for all three students. Espurr didn’t think she could stand a single week of Watchog’s detentions as is.

“Tricky.” Espurr hissed quietly from the rock. “Watchog’s onto us. Hurry!”

Tricky glanced at Watchog, mumbling something under her breath Espurr didn’t’ hear but was sure would have turned a few of the teachers’ heads. She resumed her trot towards the mine shaft a second later; just like nothing had happened.

“So-o-o…. We’ll just be going now, if you don’t mind,” Tricky stated, cleanly cutting her theatrics short and passing several of the drilbur.

“W-wait!” one of them cried out after her, in a vain attempt to stop the fox. “The m-mines aren’t a safe place f-for children! You could g-get in trouble down there!”

Espurr kept an eye on Watchog’s movements, waiting for a safe opening to dart out. Goomy was confusedly loitering around where Watchog had previously been, and…

…And Watchog wasn’t there. Espurr’s heart skipped a beat. While Tricky distracted the drilbur, she quickly scanned the mine-yard to see where he had gone.

Until she realized with horror: He was heading right towards the mine shaft.

“What was this detention, anyway…” Espurr heard him grumble, since he was now close enough to hear. “Perfect spot for troublemaking…”

“Ha!” Tricky laughed, turning around to stare the drilbur down bravely. “I laugh in the face of trouble! See?”

She nodded ecstatically to drive her point home; oblivious to the approaching Watchog. Espurr studied all the drilbur. They weren’t that intimidating… Espurr glanced back at Watchog, suddenly darting to a different position behind the rock just before he could catch a glimpse of her. It was her best chance.

Tricky stopped mid-nod as she saw Watchog suddenly storm straight into her line of vision. Her face of assurance quickly morphed into one of surprised fear as Watchog caught sight of her standing in the middle of the mineshaft.

“Hey! You shouldn’t be over there!” Watchog barked, dashing straight after Tricky. Espurr’s heart jumped once more as she heard him begin to run- she was out of time! Quickly, she darted out from behind the rock, running straight past the drilbur who did nothing to stop her from continuing-

“Run for it!!” Tricky screeched, running further into the mineshaft. Watchog stopped at the shaft, both too large and too unwilling to go in after them.

“You two troublemakers better come right back out of there!” He yelled after them. “I mean it!”

“No can do, Watchog!” Watchog heard Tricky’s distant voice waft out of the mine and into his ears, making his face flush red with fury.

“It’s Vice Principal Watchog, you lout!” he shouted after them in vain; furious.

When there came no reply from the mineshaft, he turned to the drilbur, who visibly shrunk in his presence.

“Find them.” Watchog growled. “it’s your mine!”

With gratuitous nods and whimpers of fear, the drilbur all scuffled into the mineshaft, more eager to get away from the steaming mad Watchog than they were to find the pair of escaped students.
A very confused and slightly frightened Goomy reluctantly decided to get himself some shade from the broiling sun, despite Watchog’s strict orders not to move. It looked like Watchog was going to be a while, anyway. He wouldn’t mind… Right?

“We are so doomed now...” Espurr broke the silence of their walk through the mine with the incredibly sober statement. There was no getting out of this one. Watchog was going to no doubt report them to Principal Simipour the moment they left the mine, and Espurr doubted Simipour would see fit to let them off the hook so easily again.

“Yep…” Tricky panted out, still recovering from the rush of successfully evading Watchog. “…But at least we made it! This beats detention any day.”

Espurr wasn’t so sure it beat detention for the rest of their lives, a fact she was certain Tricky was purposefully ignoring. The thought continued to hang over her head as they continued in silence through the dark tunnels. Every so often, she thought she heard the distant sounds of something tunneling through the ground above their heads, but it was too dark to tell for certain.

It felt like they had walked for an eternity when Espurr saw faint flickers of light emerging from around the corner. Dust had gotten in her mouth and her eyes, and she found herself sorely wishing she hadn’t accepted Pancham’s dare just half an hour earlier. From the way Tricky was panting up ahead, Espurr could tell she was just as parched.

Tricky let out a sharp gasp of joy upon seeing the light, bounding straight for the turn up ahead. Espurr quickly tried to keep up, catching herself on the tunnel wall before she could trip again. However, she soon realized, to her disappointment, that the light ahead didn’t shine brightly enough to be a way out of the mine- instead, it came from a torch that hung from the low cavern walls, illuminating the twin shafts deeper into the mine Pancham had told them about.

Espurr couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face - she wanted to get back above ground! – But Tricky ran over to the mines, more excited than ever.

“This is it!” She shouted back at Espurr in glee. “We made it! Now… which one did Pancham tell us to go through?”

“N-not so fast.”

Both Espurr and Tricky spun around to look at the colony of drilbur who had approached them from behind.

“Y-you aren’t supposed t-to be down here,” one of the drilbur stammered out. “We a-aren’t going to l-let a pair of c-children push us around anymore!”

“Come on, guys…” Tricky moaned, letting her voice drawl. “We’re fine! There’s nothing to worry about!”

As Espurr’s eyes adjusted to the dim light of the torch, she finally saw the drilbur clearly- saw their clearly frightened faces against the flickering flames; saw the way some of them were trembling despite themselves… And then, Espurr realized: They really weren’t that bad after all!

She cast her eyes to the torch flickering to their right, pouring all her concentration into nudging it. If it was anything like that nut…

Sure enough, after a while, she saw it begin to move. The light dramatically shifted as Espurr’s spirits rose and the torch wavered in midair, illuminating everymon’s faces for one swift second; and then Espurr let it drop and the light was snuffed out.

Espurr couldn’t see anything; and neither could Tricky. She could only hear the cacophony of terrified whispers and squeaks from the drilbur as they began to clumsily pursue the two students; only rely on memory as she pulled Tricky towards what she hoped was the right mine shaft with her one good arm. 

And for the third time that day, Espurr painfully banged her head into a wall she hadn’t even seen coming. Or, in this case, a board. The rotted old board of a boarded-up mine shaft. She heard it break away amongst the cacophony of sounds the advancing Drilbur were making, and it didn’t take the power of sight for both Espurr and Tricky to latch onto the same conclusion-

The drilbur were scared out of their minds, of course. But they were more scared of Watchog than they were of a couple of village children. They didn’t want to return to the surface with nothing to show their new, brutal employer! That was why they were so horrified when the espurr and the fennekin grabbed ahold of each other, and jumped into the boarded-up mine shaft.

The labor of drilbur stopped short at the mine shaft, barely able to see the pair of children disappear into its darkness. It had been boarded up for a reason- one of the few times the drilburs’ cowardice had been wholly and utterly justified. Something lived down there. Something wild. Something evil. Something that had gobbled up many of their drilbur compatriots for lunch, and would happily chow down a pair of unsuspecting children as a mid-afternoon snack. And the drilbur were too scared to go after them.

They always were.

“Windy here; isn’t it…” Archen commented as he and Mawile crossed yet another fence-less, sky-high bridge between the massive windmills of Baram Town.

“You’re in a better mood today,” Mawile noted.

“Yeah…” Archen ruffled his feathers nervously. “Well, sleep does wonders for the brain, it turns out. You could stand to get some every now and then.”

Mawile chose to ignore his obvious jab. She knew that Archen simply didn’t like heights, and it would do them no good to get riled up before a meeting with the city council.

Archen looked upwards, seeing not the shadow of another bridge above them but only the looming presence of the windmills’ massive vanes. The thought to look down briefly crossed his mind, but he immediately dismissed it and edged just a little farther from the ends of the bridge. Flying types were flying types, but somemon could have thought to install fences for those who weren’t blessed with the power of flight; he thought to himself.

A pair of murkrow fluttered forwards as Mawile and Archen approached the end of the bridge.

“Names; appointments,” one of the murkrow sighed, despite knowing well who the pokemon who stood before him were.

“Mawile and Archen; Expedition Society,” Mawile responded promptly without skipping a beat. “Here to provide testimony on the petrification of Pokemon Square. Appointments scheduled for 9:00 A.M. on Wednesday.”

The murkrow checked his clipboard, routinely confirming Mawile’s information (which he knew to be true already), then stepped aside.

“The mayor will be with you shortly,” The murkrow bowed, glad to be over yet another routine checking. “Until then, please enjoy your stay in the waiting room.”

Mawile walked forward, throwing open the doors with proper grace as so to see they didn’t hit the wall when she and Archen walked in.

The waiting room was suitably lofty for the space inside the highest windmill in Baram. Many open-paned windows decorated the wall, and the floor was decked out in an impressive display of ceramic tile-art. Archen didn’t like the way it felt against his talons, but he was happier to be over the fence-less bridges between the windmills than he was annoyed by the floor. Mawile, who wasn’t bothered by the tiles at all, strode over and promptly took a seat on one of the lobby’s backless stools.

Archen didn’t have the patience to sit, and didn’t even consider the notion until he noticed he was getting several looks from the few other occupants of the waiting room. He was spared the embarrassment of being caught unawares; however, as one of the windmill’s goliath weathervanes slowly turned over the windows and blotted out all light in the room. When the vane had finished its journey over the window, Archen was sitting near Mawile; with little evidence he had been loitering around in the first place.

“’That right? Well, eat a mudkip for all I care! I’ll poop wherever I darn well feel like pooping!”

Mawile looked up from her personal logs at the insult, watching a livid staraptor throw open the gem-encrusted doors that led further into the windmill and march out angrily. The staraptor made a gesture with its wings Mawile refused to record out of simple decency, then walked back out onto the bridge and let the large double doors slam behind it.

“That was… irregular,” Mawile quietly commented to herself, marking down the broad outline of the event in her logs for future reference. Archen could just hear the bell ringing from below; chiming nine times to announce the arrival of 9:00 A.M.

A third murkrow stepped out of the office, carrying a scroll in its wings.

“Appointments scheduled for ‘Mawile’; ‘Archen’; 9:00 A.M.?” He wearily announced.

“Present.” Mawile stepped down from the stool, discreetly making sure Archen was tailing after her as she walked in the door. Archen ruffled his feathers once more as the doors closed behind the pair of explorers, and then they faced the immense gut of Mayor Honchkrow.

Mayor Honchkrow gestured to a pair of stools with his wings, prompting Mawile and Archen to take a seat.

“I must apologize for my previous client,” Honchkrow said, trying to hide the edge of embarrassment in his tone. “I’m sure you… ‘heard’ all about that on your way in.”

Neither Mawile nor Archen spoke.

“Did you know it’s customary on the Grass Continent to just do your ‘business’ wherever you please?” Mayor Honchkrow asked, after ten seconds of silence had elapsed.

“…No. We did not,” Mawile choked out, causing Archen to spare her a confused look. She must have noticed but opted to completely ignore him, keeping her eyes trained on Honchkrow.

“Well, neither did I,” Honchkrow continued; a false cheerful gait to his voice. “Until I became mayor.”

He clapped his wings together, leaning forward.

“Anyway… now that we have that behind us, let’s get down to the business at hand; namely: Why were two cartographers sent to scope out the crisis on the Grass Continent?” He eyed Mawile as if scoping her for falsehoods.

Both Mawile and Archen shared an indecipherable look at the Mayor’s sudden turn in behavior. That was not the business at hand.

Now; now; nothing wrong with maps,” Honchkrow corrected himself. “I love a good map. They make great napkins. But when mere map-making suddenly becomes interference on the level of a Rescue Federation; one has to assume…”

Honchkrow let the sentence die in his gizzard; the implications ringing clearer than his voice.

“I think you’ll find our alibi steady; both legally and in practice,” Mawile stated calmly, doing her best to keep her cool as always. “As the largest and nearest available registered Exploration Establishment, the Expedition Society was granted the legal power to act in HAPPI’s stead; due to weather blocking any teams arriving from the Mist Continent. Once we arrived and learned of what happened, we proceeded in accordance with the proper instructions issued by HAPPI guidelines via electrical transmission; and are here to deliver our eyewitness reports on the matter.”

Honchkrow was left silent, trying to process the graveller-load of information he had just been saddled with. Mawile took the opportunity to capitalize upon the mayor’s moment of silence, digging in her large exploration bag and producing both her and Archen’s Expedition Gadgets.

“That’ll solve your legal woes,” Mawile told the flabbergasted mayor, setting both Expedition Gadgets on the desk.

“Don’t let it go to your head.” Honchkrow regained his composure at the last minute, staring Mawile down with all his girth. “Or… heads. Which one is it again?”

“Head; thank you.”

Without another word, Mawile clicked both gadgets on, pressing the photo button and slowly scrolling through the photos of the dilapidated Pokemon Plaza. Honchkrow began to fidget uneasily as he viewed the slideshow of perfect stone statues, taking a deep breath once it was over.

“Something else you might want to know,” Archen began before Honchkrow could say anything. “We were attacked right after we took those photos.”

Mawile mentally cursed. How could she have forgotten?

“Is this true?” Honchkrow asked; one eyebrow raised.

“It is.” Mawile scrolled back through the photos. “We were ambushed by what appeared to be a walking anomaly, for lack of a better term. You can see the very edge of it in a few of these photos.” She stopped on the photos for good measure, allowing Honchkrow to find the anomaly himself.

Honchkrow leaned back in his seat, taking a deep breath and rubbing his temples with his wings.

“I want those photos transferred to HAPPI. Send in the thingamabobs if you need to. And then… I want the Expedition Society to stay out of this. If I so much as catch any of you on this continent before this whole thing blows over; there will be dire consequences. For both you and your Society. Now be a good ‘mon and go tell your employees that for me.”

Mawile gathered the Expedition Gadgets from the desk, stuffing them into her exploration bag and ushering Archen out. However, she could not help but stop at the doorway, making rare use of her back maw to speak to Honchkrow.

“The Expedition Society is not under my jurisdiction,” Mawile’s maw rasped out; raspy and guttural from years of non-use. And if you were ever to meet the ‘mon with that power; you wouldn’t be so arrogant in his presence.

Honchkrow jumped in his seat at the sound of Mawile’s second voice.

“Oh! Silly me,” Mawile stated, hiding the smirk on her face. “It is heads. The back maw has a mind of its own sometimes. I’d be wary of making it angry; if I were you.”

Honchkrow stayed frozen, as if unsure whether to believe the explorer or not.

“S-same difference,” he finally managed to say.

Mawile let the doors to Honchkrow’s office close behind her. And as the pair of explorers made their way down the massive windmills, even erudite; disciplined Mawile couldn’t help but hide the beginnings of a well-earned laugh spreading across her face. 
“Not that one, dangnabbit!”

Nuzleaf thwacked one of Farfetch’d’s spare teaching stalks into the board. “This one is ‘E’. Find ‘Z’ for me. Zzzz.”

Espurr was reaching the end of her patience threshold. Nuzleaf was not a born teacher- he had apparently expected her to memorize the entire alphabet within one teaching session, which inevitably led to Espurr playing a large-scale guessing game as she tried to find the letters he asked for. She’d even avoided the ‘E’ for him as much as possible.

Which; unsurprisingly, had led to disaster. Nuzleaf had not once asked for ‘E’ – The only letter Espurr was sure she knew – instead pointing her towards other obscure markings like ‘I’ and ‘M’ and ‘Q’. The class had gone on for the better part of an hour now, and both Espurr and Nuzleaf were well on the way to losing their cool.

“Crapshoots.” Nuzleaf glanced at the sky, taking in the morning sun and gauging the time. “We’re outta time.” Espurr took that as cause for celebration.

“Since ya still didn’t manage to find the darn ‘Z’,” Nuzleaf snapped, thwacking Farfetch’d’s stick to the board again. “It’s here.” He pointed to the very last letter at the end of the board, which Espurr had purposely avoided because it seemed too obvious. “The zigzagoon zigs an’ zags like a Z. See them zags??”

“Mr. Nuzleaf?” Espurr raised her hand before the frustrated Nuzleaf could pack his bags and leave the school.

“What is it?” Nuzleaf questioned sharply.

“Why don’t you just do that for all the letters?” asked Espurr innocently.

Nuzleaf didn’t answer that. He suddenly looked incredibly flustered; his face turning bright green.

“...Didn’ think of it,” he sheepishly admitted.

“Frakkin’ blue monkey…” Espurr heard him mutter to himself as he marched off. “Can shove his ‘guard duty waive’ up his arse. Didn’ tell me it was this hard ta teach pokemon how ta read the alphabet…”

Espurr tilted her head in confusion as she watched Nuzleaf’s figure become smaller as he entered the village plaza in the distance. In the three days she had been here, she had not heard anything about ‘guard duty’... that would be something for her to look into later.

Or now. 
“I don’t know anything about that, why do you ask?” Deerling absentmindedly scratched at her tawny new dark green coat of fur. Espurr sat in the unoccupied desk next to Deerling’s (That Pancham had been so insistent upon taking, but Deerling had requested remain vacant for her own sanity).

“One of the teachers let it slip,” Espurr explain. “I’m still getting the hang of things around here, so I thought I’d ask around.”

“That is really weird,” Deerling admitted, tilting her head. “Although… my parents are always out on ‘important business’ every few weeks… maybe they’re guarding the Ancient Barrow?” She shrugged the best she could. “That’s the only way I can explain it.”

“Ancient Barrow?” Espurr asked.

“Oh. Right. I keep forgetting you’re new. It’s the molt; I swear it…” Deerling massaged her forehead with her hooves briefly.

“The Ancient Barrow is this creepy house that was already standing when the village was founded,” Deering continued. “No-mon knows who built it, or what it was even for. It’s on the outskirts of town, so you won’t see it unless you actually leave the plaza, but seriously. Not even Tricky’s been past the front gate.”

Even Espurr knew that if Tricky was refusing to enter a building/other spooky place, that was a major red flag.

The other students were beginning to file in now, supervised by Audino instead of Watchog. Espurr had to admit the change in atmosphere was pleasant.

“Hey, Espurr! Over here!”

Tricky, who had barged into the classroom at some point, waved back at Espurr from up-front.

“Remember our talk?” Deerling asked, her tone suddenly far less laid back. Espurr nodded. It sounded like fair advice, especially after last night’s encounter.

“Yo Deerling!” Pancham hopped into his seat, leaning back with his feet on the desk. “Looking good with that new summer coat-”

“Go stick your head in a trash can and faint, Pancham.” Deerling fired back.

“You aren’t switching seats, right??” Tricky called back. Espurr hopped down from the vacant desk and walked over to her own.

“What were you doing with Deerling?” Tricky asked once Espurr had sat down.

“Sometimes it’s enjoyable to spend time with other pokemon for a change,” Espurr told her.

“Attention, class!” Everymon looked up from their chatter as Farfetch’d took his place at the teacher’s desk. Watchog lumbered off towards his post. looking like he had lost an entire night’s worth of sleep.

“As I’m sure I don’t need to remind you…” Farfetch’d picked up one of his trademark leeks from the ground, crossing off student’s names quickly. “...Tomorrow marks the date of the first of three pre-summer exams. Namely, my exam. As students, you have a right to know what to expect. And as a teacher, I have the right to brief you on it.”

Farfetch’d pulled a paper out of the history book he had brought with him, straightening it and beginning to read off it slowly.

“The history exam will consist of a set of problems on sheets of paper, written in the Unown language. Participation is mandatory for all students, and where you fall on the test will affect your curriculum next year.”

Espurr quickly raised her hand.

“Mr. Farfetch’d; am I to…” She began, without waiting for Farfetch’d to call on her.

Farfetch’d held his wing in the air to silence her, his eyes remaining on the paper.

“Students who feel they cannot complete the written exam for whatever reason may request an oral session from any of the teachers,” Farfetch’d finished, lowering his wing. Espurr quickly brought her hand down. She knew which teacher she wanted to ask. 
“I’m afraid not,” Farfetch’d said, taking a sip from his recess wooden cup of tea. “I’ve already arranged a session with Goomy for the test. I will direct you to Nurse Audino, however. She’s popular with the less able students.”

“I’m sorry; I just can’t,” Audino told Espurr, setting out the lunch prep. “Deerling came in and asked me only a minute ago. Writing with your nose can’t be easy, so I said yes. Why don’t you ask the Principal?”

“Mine,” Shelmet growled, throwing open the door to the principal’s office with the pointy side of his shell and letting it whack Espurr in the face. Espurr, who was sick and tired of having her face shoved into things, had half a mind to drag him out of there herself and throw him into a wall just to see how he liked it.

As the door closed behind Shelmet, the implication finally hit Espurr full-force. There was only one teacher left, and she surely wasn’t going to learn Unown in a single day…

…Oh no.

“What’s your excuse?”

Espurr spun around, startled. Pancham leaned against the side of the School Clinic, his arms folded.

“You’re a handsie. Just like me.” He made a point of wiggling his fingers just for emphasis. “You don’t need an oral session. Unless…” A cunning smirk spread across his face. “There’s something you’re not telling us?”

Espurr wasn’t dumb enough to fall for that twice.

“I have nothing to say to you,” she told him flatly, then left him on the spot.

“Where’ve you been all recess?” Tricky fell into stride with Espurr as they walked down towards the classroom.

“Trying to get an oral session for the test,” Espurr responded. She looked at Tricky’s paws, which looked in no way suitable for writing with. “Don’t you need one?”

“Nah,” Tricky replied cheerily. “I write with my claws! It might come in handy, when you’re trapped in a mystery dungeon without a pencil, and you have to write a message to save your life...”

“One minute!” Watchog yelled grumpily from below. “Everymon had better get down here!”

Tricky spun on her heels, casually walking backwards down the path.

“Oh- that book on mystery dungeons? I checked it out. And guess what? There’s a small dungeon right near Pop’s oran berry fields! It’s where all the combee make their honey, and they sell it to Kecleon every year, so there’s no way it’s dangerous. Wanna go exploring with me after detention?”

“Tricky…” Espurr carefully skipped a lopsided step in the path. “I think it would be advisable to take a break, after what happened yesterday.”

“But…” Tricky struggled to come up with an excuse. “Once we join the Expedition Society, we aren’t gonna get breaks, so why take any now?”

There it was again. Expedition Society.

“I never agreed to join the Expedition Society,” Espurr said matter-of-factly.

“Sacrilege.”

Tricky couldn’t help but stifle a laugh at Espurr’s shocked face. “C’mon- I’m kidding! You take jokes waaaay too seriously. Besides…” Tricky whispered, as they entered the classroom and took their seats. “I’ll convince you in time... ”

The classroom went deathly quiet as Watchog lumbered up like a zombie possessed, then took his spot at the teacher’s desk.

“May I have your attention; please.” He muttered out, looming over the students from the teacher’s desk. “Firstly, I’m sure I don’t need to remind everymon of what happens if I catch you using the skills taught in this classroom unauthorized outside of it.”

“Detention for life,” the class wearily recited back. “We know.”

“Good.” Watchog picked up one of Farfetch’d’s leeks and whacked the blackboard unceremoniously like a gong.

“Moves in dungeons,” he began, his voice rising to a louder tone. “We already know that all pokemon can use Moves indiscriminately. What type you are affects what kind of Moves you can use: For instance, a fire-type will use fire moves; a water-type will use water moves; etcetera.” He paced the classroom from side to side frenetically like a military commander. “However, Moves also draw from pokemons’ bodies indiscriminately. The energy required to perform a single Move would be enough to completely consume the energy of a small animal.”

A small bird chirped in the trees above. The class silently stared up at the canopy, wondering what a Move could do to it.

“Lucky for you lot of troublemakers, however…” Watchog continued. “Pokemon have much higher energy rates than small animals. As pokemon, you can both use and endure Moves… up to a certain threshold. Every time you use a Move, that depletes some of your internal energy. It also requires the same energy to properly defend yourself against Moves.”

In the back of the classroom, Shelmet lay asleep in his seat, having snuck in and dozed off at some point in the class.

“Everymon awake in the classroom!!” Watchog yelled at him. Shelmet snapped awake, quickly sitting straight up in his seat. Espurr took the opportunity to raise her hand, and since she was at the front of the class, Watchog had no choice but to call on her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“By that logic, it’s possible to die by using a powerful enough move, right?” She asked nonchalantly.

The entire classroom looked somewhat shocked by Espurr’s casual use of the word ‘die’. Watchog quickly wiped the momentary surprise from his face, returning to business immediately afterwards. “I’ll give you that one,” he responded after a moment. “It is theoretically possible for a pokemon to use a move powerful enough to consume their entire energy force. However, your body will shut down long before that happens.”

Watchog addressed the entire class. “What happens when your body is pushed past its energy threshold?” he asked loudly.

“You faint,” most of the class replied back.

“Fainting.” Watchog struck the blackboard like a gong again. “Fainting is what happens when your body loses too much energy. You can Faint from hunger, Move fatigue, or by getting hit with enough Moves. In civilized settings, making your opponent Faint is the universally accepted method of winning a Pokemon Battle. But in Dungeons, Fainting can mean the difference between life and death.”

Watchog cast his intense gaze towards Tricky. “And that is why none of you should be playing around in mystery dungeons,” He finished, glaring at the fennekin accusingly. At Tricky’s determined smirk of ‘Never!’, Watchog changed gears, chucking the leek to its side by the teacher’s desk.

“While going into an actual mystery dungeon is far too unsafe for the likes of you right now,” Watchog went on, “the Principal has given me express permission to use my Vice Principal Powers-” Tricky fail to suppress a loud snort of laughter “-to turn this classroom into a Fully-Safety-Regulated Mystery Dungeon! Ping-Shapow-Whazam!”

Watchog snapped and clapped his fingers together repeatedly, the sounds coming from his mouth devolving into indistinguishable sputtering noises as he continued.

“We’re still in the classroom,” Tricky pointed out after Watchog had finished.

“Yeah. Lame.” Pancham traded looks with a still-sleepy Shelmet.

“Use your imagination,” Watchog grumbled. “It’s not like you’re in any shortage of that.”

He walked in front of the teacher’s desk, staring down the students in their seats.

“Pair up! All of you!” Watchog clapped his hands together. “We’re going to be practicing using Moves today.” And then he looked Espurr’s way, and Espurr thought she noticed a glint in his eyes.

“I need a couple of volunteers…” Watchog began, his eyes gliding to two of the seats at the front of the class. “Espurr; Tricky!” he snapped. “Would you like to volunteer to demonstrate?”

“Why not.” Oblivious to whatever Watchog was planning, Tricky got up from her seat, tapping Espurr on the shoulder with her tail as she passed. Espurr got up from her desk, not taking her eyes off Watchog the entire time. She’d play along until she had an idea of what he was doing.

Watchog positioned them on opposite sides of the teacher’s desk, making them back up until they were standing against opposing sides of the classroom.

“On my mark!” Watchog began, raising his arm into the air. “I want you both to hit each other with your strongest Moves.” Espurr moved her eyes from Watchog to Tricky, who was busy conjuring an ember in her chest. Tricky opened her mouth, and Espurr saw the flickering flame that burned in the back of her throat.

“Entire books have been written on the art of learning Moves,” Watchog declared for the benefit of the class. “But my opinion? The best way of learning moves is in practice. Start!!”

Watchog’s arm came flying down, and in an instant, Tricky planted her paws into the ground and shot a blast of flame straight at Espurr. At a loss for ideas, Espurr did the only feasible thing she could think of in the moment- she ducked. The Ember went straight over her head and dissipated in the distance as it flew off.

Espurr slowly picked herself up from the ground, ignoring the way her coat stung where she’d hit the dirt.

Watchog sputtered in annoyance. “What was that??” he questioned annoyedly. “Again!”

Espurr and Tricky took their positions once more. Watchog stood against the teacher’s desk, raising his arm once more.

“On my mark!”

It was at that point that Espurr realized she had no idea what she was doing. This must have been his plan. He must have known that she didn’t know how to use Moves somehow!

“Ready?” Watchog surveyed the both of them. Tricky nodded readily, practically bouncing in place. Espurr resumed her fighting position. Watchog had said that all pokemon could use Moves indiscriminately, right? Well, she was a pokemon. Logic dictated that she could use a Move.

“Start!”

Once more, Tricky launched an Ember straight at Espurr. And this time, it didn’t miss its target. Espurr was sent flying, landing a good few feet back against the edge of the blackboard tree.

“And that is how to properly use a Move!” Watchog clapped his hands together in applause. Espurr slowly picked herself up from the tree, biting back the dull ache that had popped up where the fracture in her arm used to be.

“Alright; next pair, over here!” Watchog pointed to the ground in front of the teacher’s desk. “You two. Up against the wall with everymon else!”

Pancham and Shelmet rudely pushed Deerling and Goomy aside as Espurr and Tricky took their spots against the notice board next to the steps to the clinic.

“No misbehavior; either of you.” Watchog raised his arm again, eyeing both of them suspiciously. “Three… Two… One…”

“Start!”

Tricky fired another Ember from her mouth, which Espurr narrowly avoided. Watchog gazed down at her disapprovingly as she picked herself up from the ground.

“Again!”

Espurr was hit in the face.

“Again!”

Espurr was sent flying against the desks.

“Again!”

Espurr charged forward with a stick in her hands-

“That’s cheating!”

“My throat hurts,” Tricky complained. “Can we do somemon else for a while?”

“Switch!”

“Wow,” Pancham smirked as Espurr and Tricky took their places against the wall. “You guys are getting beat. I’d hate to see you have to go up against me.”

“I don’t understand it…” Espurr stared down at her paws, frustration building up in the back of her head. Why wasn’t she able to use any Moves? She didn’t have an explanation, no matter how hard she thought.

She looked up at the sounds of crashing coming from the front of the classroom, where an obviously faking Deerling had just let Goomy tackle her to the ground. Espurr thought back to all the training rounds she had been forced to endure in the last fifteen minutes. She ran a mental tape in her head, perusing everything that had transpired in that time. Watchog’s pomp… getting pummeled to the ground… all the getting pummeled to the ground… and Tricky’s warmup.

And then it clicked. Maybe she needed time to warm up!

“Mr. Watchog?” Espurr raised her paw once more. Watchog looked like he wanted to correct a certain honorific, but bit it back for the sake of the class. ”Yes?” He asked; a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“I’d like to try one more time.”

Watchog thought it over for the better part of a minute. Then, he sighed, and pointed to the space in front of the teacher’s desk. Tricky let out a wordless groan, slumping her head in defeat. She began to trudge towards her spot in the classroom slowly.

“Not you.” Watchog verbally stopped Tricky in her tracks. “I promised Audino I’d leave you all relatively unharmed, so up to the clinic you go. Now!”

Without another word, Tricky changed her course towards the school clinic, bounding up the stairs quickly.

“Any volunteers?” Watchog asked the rest of the class.

“I’ll do it.” Pancham’s smooth voice rang out against the silence of the other students. Espurr watched him saunter up to the other side of the teacher’s desk, taking a fighting position confidently.

“One more time! On my mark!” Watchog raised his arm, glancing at both students. “Everymon ready?”

Espurr closed her eyes, blotting out the world. There had to be something she could use. Perhaps her mind trick she had picked up yesterday… except that she couldn’t seem to get ahold of him, and she didn’t want Watchog to accuse her of cheating if she lifted anything else.

“Start!”

Pancham wasted no time charging towards her, his fists brimming with colorless energy. He was going to use a Physical Move on her. But Espurr wasn’t going to let him. Something twitched in the back of Espurr’s mind, and she grabbed it-

-And suddenly, there was the sound of a large ‘boom!!’, and Espurr felt herself get blown to the ground, and then she couldn’t bear to open her eyes again for several more minutes. 
“...Safety. Regulated!”

The rantings of Watchog slowly trickled through the ringing fuzz that was Espurr’s hearing. “Because what could a bunch of kids do?? But no…”

“Oi! Watchog! Calm yourself!” Farfetch’d squawked in the background.

“Calm myself?!” Watchog sputtered. “Look at the classroom! Just think of the carpenting bill for all this! What Move even was that??”

“It wasn’t a Move.” The principal’s voice rang out near Espurr. She could hear his footsteps near her ear. He must have been nearby. “This is what happens when a psychic type pokemon lets their mental power run amok. Luckily for both us and her, she is still young, so the blast wasn’t fatal. However… most psychic types master their talents before they even walk. To see somemon of her age with so little control over her mind is curious; to say the least. Nurse Audino; if you would like to do the honors?”

“Yes, Principal.” There was another set of footsteps, and then Espurr felt herself get lifted off the ground.

“Not fatal; my tail…” Espurr heard Watchog mutter in the distance. “Piece of the blackboard nearly got me in the heart.” She tried to move, but felt Audino adjust her in her arms to stop her from falling out.

“Stay still for me, please,” she heard Audino whisper in her ears.

A single thought plagued Espurr’s mind as she was carried up into the clinic: Logic was infallible, but also ruthless.

And then: What an idiot she had been.

After that the ringing and the headache took over for a little while. 
“Holy mystery dungeon!” Tricky hollered; leaning out the window. “The classroom is wrecked!”

“So wrecked…” Shelmet said in between bites of food, “That school should be cancelled for the summer?”

“Nice try.” Audino said, setting Espurr’s lunch aside and taking a bite of an apple. In the corner, Watchog stared out the window and sputtered to himself in disbelief.

Principal Simipour poured himself a wooden cup of Orangeberry Tea and blew on it to cool it off.

“The classroom’s destruction should do nothing to impede our regular school schedule,” he said. “Classes will continue as normal.”

That garnered collective grumbles from all the other students. Simipour took a sip of his tea indifferently.

Espurr slowly felt the effects of the headache coming off her, until she was able to sit up properly without the entire clinic spinning in front of her.

“Doing better now?” Farfetch’d looked down at Espurr.

Espurr nodded. “I think so.”

“Atta girl.” Farfetch’d lightly tapped Espurr on the head with his leek, before moving off to another part of the clinic.

“Espurr!”

Espurr barely had time to glance in the direction of the voice before she was tackled by Tricky. Soon after, she was swarmed completely by the rest of the students.

“You totally destroyed the classroom!” Tricky exclaimed.

“It was awesome,” Pancham said. “You get that.”

“It was not awesome!” Deerling glanced at Pancham angrily. “Somemon could have been seriously hurt!” She looked at Espurr. “Are you alright?”

“I think I swallowed a wood chip,” Goomy complained.

“Maybe it’ll stay in your belly forever and ever…” Shelmet hissed to Goomy. A scathing look from Deerling a few seconds later made him retreat into his shell.

Audino placed Espurr’s lunch in front of her.

“Seeing as you’re doing better,” she began. “You should be well enough to serve detention after school as well.”

Watchog suddenly stood up.

“That reminds me…” he muttered to himself, before pushing open the door and heading towards the supply building in the distance.

Tricky flopped down upon the bean bag next to Espurr.

“I wonder what detention’s gonna be today?” She mused to herself idly. 
“Separate detentions??” Tricky howled as Watchog pushed her out the door. “But why??”

“Doesn’t matter why,” Watchog grunted. “Any chance to separate troublemakers is a gift to me.” With that, he managed to push the fennekin out the door; Goomy sliming off in their wake.

“You’ll be helping me clean up the clinic today,” Audino said as Espurr approached. “Start by picking up all the bits and pieces of food strewn around the place. I’ll clean the back room.”

With that, she pulled on a pair of gloves and continued into the backroom. Espurr saw a bed and a wall of wooden filing cabinets as it closed after her.

Left to her own devices, Espurr got to picking up all the stray bits of food that had been scattered around the clinic by the rest of the students. There were copious amounts of nuts and seeds scattered everywhere (Because all pokemon ate like hooligans; apparently), the splotchy remains of an oran berry that looked like it had been stepped on, and an entire discarded apple core that was probably Shelmet’s. Espurr even picked out all the small bits of food that had landed in the straw beds (A task spent sorely wishing she could just rip all those bits and pieces out of the straw mentally without suffering a headache).

By the time she was done setting the empty wicker baskets on the counter that was almost taller than she was, Espurr felt thoroughly exhausted. She cast a look at the stack of baskets sitting on the counter to her right. They… had hidden something there; hadn’t they?

That stray thought was enough to jog Espurr’s memory. She had completely forgotten about it in the mess of a day that followed! Casting a look towards the back door of the clinic to make sure Audino wouldn’t suddenly burst in and catch her unawares, Espurr slowly pulled the stack of woven baskets towards her, being careful not to let them topple everywhere as she removed them from the countertop.

She found it stuck to the underside of the penultimate bin at the bottom of the stack; a folded piece of paper that had been glued there with some of Goomy’s slime. Espurr knew the baskets were recycled every three days. One more day; and Audino would have found it. Whatever ‘it’ was. Espurr neatly stacked all the baskets again (For they were quite the mess; just strewn all about), and was in the process of trying to scoot them all back up onto the counter when she heard the door open behind her. It took all her willpower not to jump and accidentally spill the baskets everywhere.

Audino, who had just exited the room and shook her duster off into the wastebin, caught sight of Espurr and quickly ran over to right the baskets.

“Oh, honey! You don’t need to do that part.” Audino took the baskets off Espurr’s hands and set them safely on the counter. She looked down at Espurr. “You should have asked me!”

Espurr quickly stepped on the paper so Audino wouldn’t see it. Audino handed Espurr a smaller duster, picking up her own once again. “The next step is dusting. I’ll get all the high places. I need you to dust in the lower spots for me. Can you do that?”

Espurr thought that was a strange question. She also thought she sensed Audino looking at her strangely as she hobbled off, doing her best to keep that paper out of Audino’s view. Once she had ducked behind the straw beds under the pretense of dusting there, Espurr was finally able to pull the paper off her foot. Not a few seconds later, Audino came dusting around the ceiling in that area, and it was all Espurr could do to slot the paper under the straw and make it look like she had been working.

It was going to be a while before she’d be able to sneak a peek, wasn’t it? 
“Just some regular old cleanup at Kangaskhan’s,” Watchog said as he made Tricky and Goomy march ahead of his through the square. “What could go wrong? Everything. Everything could go wrong. But nothing. Is going. To go wrong. Or I’m not Vice Principal Watchog- Sharp left!”

Tricky and Goomy both made a sharp left, heading up the steps and into the candle-lit interior of the Café Connection.

“And what can I get for y- Oh! Watchog!” Kangaskhan almost dropped the stack of seashells she was drying as she caught sight of Watchog approaching the counter. “It’s not like you to bring students along for your evening drink.”

Ampharos; two seats away, set down his menu at the sound of the word ‘students’. He then slowly raised it up again, just until he could see over the top. Discreetly, he eyed the pair of pokemon by Watchog’s side. There was a goomy (That; Ampharos was not too concerned with), and the fennekin from before. And… nothing. Perhaps the espurr was late? Going off what he had heard from the townspeople, Fennekin and Espurr were like glue- they had rarely been seen apart ever since Espurr arrived in the village… three days ago.

“Alas; duty calls,” Watchog told Kangaskhan. “I’m here on official school business. These two troublemakers have landed themselves detention. I don’t suppose you have some chores they could help out with?”

“Doesn’t the school usually handle detentions?” Kangaskhan cocked a rocky eyebrow.

Watchog leaned in close over the counter.

“I’m not supposed to tell you this,” he began, his voice dramatically low. “But just between you and me: One of the students had an ‘accident’ in the classroom. A big accident. Boom.”

“Boom… ?” The other eyebrow went up.

“Boom.” Watchog waved his hands out, exaggerating the effect as much as possible.

“Well…” Kangaskhan set the stack of seashells aside before she had another chance to drop and crack them. “I guess I could use some help behind the counter. A-“

Tricky suddenly blanched at the word that was about to leave Kangaskhan’s mouth. Kangaskhan quickly corrected herself before the word was uttered in its entirety, sending Tricky a brief apologetic look.

“I mean, Tricky could do that. And Goomy could help me with the dirty dishes. Sound all right?”

Watchog leaned back, taking a seat on one of the stools next to the counter. “Sounds wonderful. And I will have that drink, by the way. Mago berry, please. Here- I’ll pay you-”

As Watchog searched the small bag he had brought along for his money pouch, Tricky quietly slunk off into another section of the restaurant. She never ever got to come in here. It was going to be fun to see what made this place tick!

“H-hey! Wait for me!” Goomy called over the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. Tricky looked back, tilting her head at Goomy in confusion.

“What’s the problem?” Tricky asked.

“You can’t just leave me alone like that…” Goomy said, sliming up to Tricky. “Not like what you did yesterday.”

“What did we do yesterday?” Tricky’s voice oozed with confusion.

“You left me! All alone in the heat with the Vice Principal!” Goomy said; appalled by Tricky’s ignorance.

“Oh, that…” Tricky’s eyes suddenly lit up. “That was fun. You should have joined in!”

“I spent three hours in the hot sun waiting for you guys!” Goomy snapped. “I almost dried out! That wasn’t fun! That was unpleasant! And dusty!”

Their argument was beginning to turn the heads of a lot of serenity villagers. Tricky’s ears slowly lowered at Goomy’s comments.

“Sorry…” she muttered, turning around and trudging back to the front of the counter. Glancing back at Watchog, Goomy began to follow.

Tricky quickly scampered around the corner of the counter at Watchog’s silent command, where Kangaskhan propped her up on a moving cart against the counter.

“Don’t get too rowdy, okay?” Kangaskhan told Tricky. “I won’t have accidents in my restaurant. You’re my waiter for the night. Just take everymon’s orders and bring them to Houndoom in the kitchens. He’ll take it from there. You can start with this one: ‘One Mago berry drink; fermented.’ Got it?”

Tricky nodded so vigorously it unsettled Kangaskhan a little. “Alright then. Go!”

Tricky hopped down from the cart and sprinted into the kitchens, where a houndoom was mixing and chopping and simmering several different things almost simultaneously.

“Oi!” He paused the heating of one dish with his breath to snap at Tricky. “No kits in the kitchen!”

“But I’m the waiter!” Tricky announced with a slight air of pomp. “Also, I have all your orders, so you don’t wanna kick me out.”

Houndoom raised an eyebrow, taking a second to continue simmering the dish again. “Let’s see them, then.”

Tricky cleared her throat. “One Mago Berry-“

“Not like that!” Houndoom snapped. “You’re supposed to write them down first!” He went back to simmering the dish full force, ordering Tricky out with nothing but his eyes. Tricky was gone faster than a speeding Thunderbolt. 
“Once we get back to the Society, I am taking a long, long nap,” Archen announced as he and Mawile idly strolled through the streets of Baram Town. “And then I’m not in charge of any off-continent missions for the next week.”

The lapras Mawile had chartered was running late, and the next wailord liner to the Water Continent wasn’t for another six hours. That left Mawile and Archen with nothing to do until their lapras arrived for them, and while Mawile would have much preferred to prematurely record the day’s events in her explorer’s log, Archen had almost forcefully dragged her out to see the town’s sights while they were here. In hindsight, Mawile couldn’t really complain. Baram Town was a tourist location for a reason, after all, and it even made Mawile a little wistful that they wouldn’t be able to return for a while after this.

“Count your lucky mareep; that’s all we’ll hear about it politically.” Mawile held on tightly to the exploration bag as they passed through what looked like a disassembled bird pokemons’ choir. “We’ll be officially out of HAPPI’s snouts once we hand over those photos to Cloud Nine, and then it’ll be down to Dedenne and the Chief to handle Meowth and the local news outlets.”

“Wherever he is.” Archen added candidly.

Mawile simply chose not to respond to that.

“I wonder that caused the delay?” Archen wondered as they passed a stall of dungeon supplies. “This particular Lapras is almost never late.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much on it,” Mawile responded. “We all run a little late on occasion.” She sent a pointed glance towards Archen with that last comment. Archen ruffled his feathers and annoyedly shrugged the comment off.

A sudden commotion that erupted from the docks only seconds later turned both Mawile and Archen’s heads. Without another word between them, the two explorers rushed in the direction of the harbor, pushing past several other ‘mon who were fleeing in the opposite direction.

A panicking swirlix pointed a trembling limb towards the water as they and a mob of other pokemon arrived. “look…” She gasped out.

The source of all the commotion made both Archen and Mawile’s hearts skip a beat. For floating on the water was the stone statue of a lapras on a wooden barge; a note stuck to its chest: 
Mawile dug in her bag with haste. She pulled out an expedition gadget – it didn’t matter which one – and snapped a photo of the atrocity floating before them. Then two others. And a fourth, just to be safe. Then she quickly pulled Archen away by the wing; the avian pokemon scrambling to keep up as she walked away from the docks at a brisk pace.

“W-what’s this about??” Archen squawked, trying not to end up with his poor feathers pulled out.

“This is better discussed at the inn,” Mawile said; but even her steady tone couldn’t help but betray the slightest hint of unease. “We don’t want to be standing here when the police show up.”

Even stubborn Archen had to admit that was advice best taken. He made more of an effort to catch up with Mawile, and neither of them cast a single look back on their hurried path to the inn.

“I know this may be a bad time,” Kecleon asked hopefully as the pair of explorers walked by his stall. “But have you heard any word on when my supplier will-“

“Don’t count on it,” Mawile told him flatly. And then they were gone. 
“That’ll be the end of your detention for today.” Espurr, who had just finished emptying the contents of the wastebin into the compost out back, nodded in acknowledgement. She cast a glance at Audino to make sure she wasn’t looking, and then immediately ducked under the opposite straw bed in excitement. She removed the folded piece of paper she had slipped under the bed, holding it in both her hands. It was the moment of truth. She was finally going to see what had flown in on the breeze by chance. Unfolding the paper slowly, Espurr spread it out in front of her…

It was – or at least it looked like – a map. It wasn’t like she could read any of it, but the pictures of towns and small trails snaking every which way made it obvious what it was. Espurr wasn’t sure if that upheld her expectations, or let them down completely. What was such a thing doing flying around on the breeze? And who did it formerly belong to?

Never mind the fact that the largest town on the map was marked with a sigil that looked like a golden butterfree, and above it; more of those pesky Unown symbols that annoyed Espurr so. She could sound out a few of them, like ‘Live Town’, and of course ‘Serenity Village’, but the rest of them remained a mystery to her.

A route marked in red led all the way from Live Town, up into a mountain-surrounded basin and then down to what looked like (And Espurr assumed it was) Serenity Village. So that settled it. Whoever had previously been in ownership of this map had wanted to get from Live Town all the way here. And that somemon was either stuck wandering around the mountains without a clue as to where they were going, or they had turned back, or maybe; just maybe, they had already made it here…

…Ampharos. Of course. He seemed like exactly the kind of ‘mon who would need a map. Exactly the kind of ‘mon who had lost a map. This must have been his. Espurr sat back against the straw bed, folding her arms and feeling quite the clever conspiracy theorist for figuring all that out. And now that she had deduced the owner of the mysterious map… only the one burning question remained: What was she going to do with it?

“…Ms. Audino?”

Audino looked up from the book she was reading, which had some complicated title in Unown that Espurr couldn’t even hope to decipher. “Is something the matter?” she asked.

“Could I walk around town for a while?” Espurr asked, peeking up from behind the straw bed. “The sun won’t go down for another hour.”

“I don’t see why not…” Audino glanced out the window to check the sun. “Just make sure you’re back by sundown.”

And with that, Espurr suddenly was out the door so fast Audino couldn’t help but wonder if Tricky had been a bad influence on her. 
Tricky scooted the moving cart over to the last pokemon currently in the café she hadn’t taken the order of yet, trying to get a good look at the pokemon who was obscured behind the giant menu.

“Can I get your order?” she asked cheerily.

“A plate of the vegetable pasta, please.” Ampharos put down the menu, clearing his throat politely. “And a raspberry sorbet- those always have been my guilty pleasure; I’m afraid…”

Tricky’s eyes practically bugged out of her head. “No. Way!” she exclaimed, barely keeping her voice down to an excited hiss. “You’re Ampharos! We totally met in the square two days ago!!”

“That; we did.” Ampharos folded the menu and set it aside. “I must say; I was looking forward to meeting the two of you again. What kept your friend?”

“You mean Espurr?” Tricky tilted her head. “She got stuck with detention somewhere else…”

“How very unfortunate.” Ampharos had half a mind to ask what had gotten the two of them in detention, but decided to shelf the question in favor of more important things. “See,” he continued. “After our chance meeting, I got in touch with a close friend in the Expedition Society.” Tricky’s eyes widened and sparkled. “They pulled some strings with the top brass, and brought into my possession a pair of Junior Memberships.” Ampharos sighed. “I was going to gift them to the two of you, but presenting them with only one of you around… that just won’t do! It’ll have to wait until I can meet you both.”

Tricky almost yipped for joy with excitement! Her dream was finally coming true and she couldn’t believe it!!!!! She just stopped herself from throwing a joy tantrum in the middle of the restaurant, instead taking a deep breath and asking Ampharos the world’s most important question-

“Whencanwemeet?? I know this really good place and it’s quiet and there’s a nice view and-“

“Hmm…” Ampharos thought on it. “How about… in three days? I hear that’s when your schooldays end. I’ll be waiting for you at the hill with the tree at sundown.”

“Done!” Tricky excitedly shook Ampharos’ paw before the yellow pokemon could say another word, perching herself back on the metal cart immediately afterwards. “Now… what was that order again? I… kinda forgot.” 
It was getting close to sundown now. Espurr wandered the streets of Serenity Village, drawing the attention of no pokemon as they chattered amongst themselves and enjoyed the sunset breeze. The place wasn’t large, she concluded. The main plaza in the center of the village took up a good amount of space itself. There was the school to the north, the residential sectors to the south and west, and the village entrance lay to the east; all broken up by small rivers through the entire town. Simple; without a doubt. Espurr had taken the southern pathway, because that seemed like the most interesting place of the village but also because Carracosta’s was to the west and she had been there; seen that already.

The houses got sparser as she continued; within less than a minute, she had completely outstripped all buildings.

Except for the villa.

It stood all on its own out on the bay; on a small, swampy island that was only large enough to cover the house itself and the end of the dock leading to it. Espurr was sharp enough to figure out what it was: This was the Ancient Barrow.

She cast a furtive look both ways, just in case somemon caught her staring at the taboo location unawares. There was no way the old house was actually haunted; of course. And even if it was, the hauntees obviously preferred to keep to themselves. The entrance to the house; sealed off with several large wooden planks, made that much clear.

It wouldn’t hurt to peek; half of Espurr’s mind said.

The other half told her to pack up those idiotic thoughts and march right back to the school.

The first half countered with the logically sound argument that she was never going to sleep until she knew exactly what was up with this house.

The second half reluctantly allowed a single peek.

And so Espurr slowly crept along the creaky, moss-covered dock, testing each new board hesitantly with her foot before she stepped on it. Why did this dock have to be so long?

It didn’t get any better as she went. Some of the boards had literally rotted away, and Espurr was almost lost to the waters below when a board she stepped on snapped off and tumbled down into the river. And that was to say nothing of the desolate feeling that pervaded the entire island. It made Espurr feel like she was constantly being watched; and regardless of whether she was or not, it solidified one chief concept in her mind that she accepted as fact: There was something wrong with this house.

With this place. The entire island was evil; a blight upon the village and she was sure of it, and she just wanted to leave before something bad happened…

…And then she looked at the Ancient Barrow itself. It would be folly not to at least take a look while she was here. It would spare her the return trip, at least.

Espurr trudged through the mud towards the crooked house. It stuck to her fur as she walked, and she brushed off a grimace at the mess that must have been her feet.

It was only then that she noticed the door of the Ancient Barrow was open.

But it had been sealed. There were boards nailed to that door!

…And yet it was open.

Against all better judgement, Espurr slowly trudged up near the Barrow’s sagging porch. She gazed into the darkness that crawled out of the Barrow’s front door, and her eyes locked on the softly-flickering blue flame that danced in the middle of it.

There was a gurgling deep within the Barrow. And then a wet POP, and the sound of liquid being sprayed every which way met Espurr’s ears. But all she could focus on was that the light wasn’t illuminating anything around it but more blackness, and there were windows, and why wasn’t there more light in there??

And then the blue light was snuffed out, and an endless torrent of swamp water shot out the doors of the Ancient Barrow, engulfing Espurr completely and sending her skidding back across the dock covered in nasty-smelling water.

Espurr picked herself up, coughing from the mouthful of swamp she had accidentally inhaled – swamp tasted disgusting - , and tried to rub the water out of her eyes with her wet fur. She was back on the mainland, apparently, and the Barrow stared her down like the monolith pillar of evil she knew it was.

And the boards were back on the door. Like nothing had happened. That was the point where Espurr decided it was officially too weird for her. She had to get as far away from that house as possible.

But first she was getting cleaned up. 
“Freedom!!” Tricky gleefully announced to the world as she bounded out the doors of the Café Connection.

“Your tail is still mine for the next three days; you hear that??” Watchog grumbled after her; still half-drunken.

Goomy silently slimed around Watchog, keeping to himself as he headed west. He didn’t want to rack up any extra detentions.

Finally over her burst of energy, Tricky spun in a circle in the middle of the square, then fell on her haunches dizzily. Glancing offhandedly to the south side of the village, she thought she saw…

…No way… Was it…

“Espurr!” Tricky called out, immediately making a beeline for her classmate. “You’re never gonna believe this-“

For a second, it looked like Espurr was running to catch up with her too-

-But then she rushed right past the fennekin; her coat smelling of wet fur, and Tricky’s face fell as she watched her only friend catch up with none other than Vice Principal Watchog.

“Excuse me, Vice Principal,” Espurr said as she caught up to Watchog.

“So now you use my title,” Watchog snapped, and it became clear to Espurr that he was not fully himself right now. “After you colluded with the Troublemaker, ran off during detention yesterday – made me worried sick - and blew up the entire classroom.”

Espurr was left speechless. That… was a lot of trouble.

“So what do you want??” Watchog’s harsh tone slapped Espurr back to reality. “Did you just come here to gloat? Or was Audino too much of a bore for you.”

“Actually,” Espurr began. “I’m here to apologize.”

Watchog came to a halt; so suddenly Espurr outstripped him by a few steps before she realized he had stopped. His face twitched slightly; a look of disbelief covering it completely.

“You want… to apologize?” He asked slowly. Espurr nodded. Watchog sighed in disbelief.

“I’ve never had a student apologize to me before,” he said. Espurr wasn’t sure it was meant for her. “I-is that all you want?”

“That…” Espurr began. “…And maybe an oral session for the test tomorrow,” she finished quicker than she probably should have.

“I knew there was a catch.”

Watchog continued walking, but didn’t seem to object to Espurr following.

“So…” she began trepidaciously.

“Yeah; I’ll do it.” Watchog muttered. “Happy now? Cheater.”

Espurr wanted to say something, but she couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t spoil Watchog’s rare calm mood. Instead, she silently broke off at some point, running in the other direction and back towards the school.

In her haste, she forgot to acknowledge Tricky standing off to the side at all, even as the fox started to call out for her.

Tricky’s ears and tail drooped. Slowly, she began to trudge back towards Carracosta’s place. She knew what was happening. Deerling… Watchog… Espurr was making new friends, and then she wouldn’t want to spend time with the Village Troublemaker anymore. That was what happened to all the new pokemon who came to stay in the village. Why would Espurr be any different?

But the sun was beginning to set, and Tricky knew Carracosta’s strict curfew rules, so she set out for home a little quicker, and resolved to think about it more on a full belly. 
“I- I- I don’t get it,” Archen said as he paced the hotel room anxiously. “Of all the lapras in the sea- why our lapras? Why us?”

Mawile didn’t have an answer for him, and she told him as much. “The most important thing we can do right now is make copies of the pictures we took, and contact the Chief,” she told him, taking the connection orb out of her expedition gadget and slotting it back in again.

“Yeah- and has he picked up yet?” Archen half-squawked. “You’ve been doing that for almost an hour.”

“Give it time,” Mawile calmly said. “He’ll pick up sooner or later.”

“How long before it comes for us??” Archen wrung out his head feathers with his wings. “How long before whatever got to all those pokemon in Pokemon Plaza – whatever petrified that poor lapras – comes for us?”

“If you’re that concerned over it, then help me make copies of all these photos.” Mawile set the second expedition gadget on the table and scooted it towards the pacing Archen. “That’s what I’ve been doing all this time.”

“But…” Archen stammered. “I- …fine. I need to sit down anyway.”

“That; we agree on.” Mawile never even looked away from her expedition gadget as Archen reluctantly sat down at the table.

A sudden knocking at the room door roused both their attention. “I’ll get it,” Archen announced, standing up a little too readily.

Mawile spared a rare glance up from her gadget as Archen slowly opened the door a crack, and peeked out.

“M-Mr. Mayor!” He suddenly stammered out. That phrase caused Mawile to stuff both gadgets in her bag and stand up; posthaste.

The door was opened wide, and a pair of murkrow fluttered in, preceding Mayor Honchkrow himself. The mayor sighed.

“I thought I told you to leave,” he said, a weary tone cracking through his voice.

“Well,” Archen began, his voice beginning to rise into a squawk, “Maybe-“

“We experienced a hold-up at the docks, Mayor.” Mawile smoothly cut in, neutering whatever petty insult Archen might have had at hand. “One I have no doubt you’re aware of by now. Given that all transportation to or from the Air Continent was cut off… We didn’t have much choice but to stay.”

“Well, it’s too late to do anything about that right now.” The mayor walked towards the table, picking one of the complimentary berries off the plate in the middle and eating it. “Stay here the night. There’ll be a sharpedo waiting for the two of you in the early morning tomorrow. I want you to take it.”

“We’ll be out of your feathers first thing tomorrow,” Mawile replied cordially, setting the exploration bag on the opposite side of the room from the mayor. Satisfied; Mayor Honchkrow turned around and left, the murkrow closing the door after them.

“Another early morning,” Archen grumbled, falling back on the room’s cot and folding his wings. “Can this day get any better?”

Mawile held back a sigh, taking out her expedition gadget and formally beginning another attempt to contact Ampharos. This was going to be a long night.

A second rock whizzed by Tricky’s snout. She looked down at Pancham and Shelmet in horror. All tied up in this tree; she was a sitting ducklett! She was gonna get pelted!

“How do you feel about exploring now?!” Pancham yelled up at her. “Doesn’t feel so good; does it?!”

Tricky tried to respond, but Pancham’s next rock caught her in the nose, and she could only let out a strangled yelp. When she was finally able to open her eyes over the pain again, Pancham had another rock in his hand.

He nailed her in the ear. It felt like a white-hot blow against the side of Tricky’s head. At this point, she was desperately flailing, trying to nudge herself in a random direction and hoping she was moving out of the way of Pancham’s impeccable aim.

She wasn’t. The next rock hit her square in the side. Pancham ignored Tricky’s pained whimper, picking up a fifth rock and playing catch with it in his hand.

“Deerling was right,” Pancham said. “You really are dumb. What; you thought you’d just change your name and that’d be the end of it?! Huh?!”

Another rock whizzed by and painfully knocked Tricky’s tail flat. Tricky was helpless, but she wasn’t helpless. Using the momentum she had gained from being hit with Pancham’s rocks, Tricky began to swing herself steadily around in uneven circles. Sure, she was still a target, but now she was a moving target.

“What you did is unforgivable!” Pancham chucked another rock straight up into the air, and Shelmet batted it towards Tricky. It zoomed high above the fennekin’s head, but clipped the vine she was bound to and sent her flailing in midair. “You deserve this!”

And Tricky didn’t even try to dodge that one, because she knew she deserved it. What Pancham had said was true.

Pancham smirked as he gazed up towards Tricky, watching her grow still with her head hung downwards. That was enough punishment for today. She’d do the rest herself. They should probably get back to the village now; before it got dark… right?

…Nah. Pancham picked up another stone from the ground. One more throw.

Tricky didn’t try to dodge the next one either. Not even when it made contact with her forehead, and then she felt dizzy and woozy off and on for the next hour.



Tricky didn’t show up for class the next day. Espurr had considered going over to her house the morning of, but figured that she would show up for school anyway, and they could talk then. She instead spent her time reading everything she could get her hands on until Watchog arrived on campus.

After taking a second to inspect the newly cleaned-out classroom in appreciation for a ‘mon’s hard work, he entered the clinic and stumbled upon Espurr going over Ampharos’ borrowed map.

“Now where did you get that?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at Espurr suspiciously. “Did you swipe it from the storage room yesterday??”

“I’ve had it for almost a week,” Espurr replied. “It was on the ground in town.”

Technically half a lie, but half a lie meant half a truth, and it wasn’t like Watchog was going to see right through her or anything.

Just like she suspected, he didn’t. There was a brief ‘I’ll be checking the storage room later’ before he moved on, but he didn’t try to confiscate it, so Espurr counted it as a victory.

With Farfetch’d’s class out of the way for the summer, the first event of the day was Audino’s exam, which Audino had upturned most of the School Clinic to prepare for. The straw beds had been pushed aside to make way for spare tables brought in from the storage building, and twin baskets of Medicinal Berries had been set on each tabletop.

And now the test had been postponed almost ten minutes, because Tricky had never shown up. At some point, Watchog had said something about ‘starting without her’ and stepped out of the clinic, and Audino decided to start the test anyway.

“On the board are the final versions of three different mixtures you will need to create to pass the test,” Audino said, pointing to a portable blackboard that had been wheeled in for the purposes of this class. “You have all been provided with the right berries and equipment to make them. Outside of that; you will need to rely on the knowledge you’ve gained from this week’s classes, and make the decisions you believe are best for your mixtures. And remember the three rules of berry safety:”

“Smell, don’t taste; oran berries make the base; and always mash everything into a paste,” the class recited.

Audino nodded, flipping an hourglass from the storage room and setting it on the table.

“The test ends at noon. You have one hour. Best get mixing.”

And then the class was left to their own devices. Pancham and Shelmet took the table on the right (Which had the best-looking berries) before anymon else could even protest, and Goomy got an entire table’s worth of supplies all to himself. Espurr sat at the table to the left, eyeing the blackboard from her uncomfortable stool position. It seemed a skin lotion, a psychic-muffling paste, and a sour elixir were needed to pass the test.

Espurr decided to start with the skin lotion, since she still remembered the recipe from Tuesday’s class. She fished in the berry basket for an oran, but none were turning up.

“The oran berries are in this basket.”

Deerling, who had taken a seat next to Espurr, pushed the separate basket of oran berries towards Espurr. “Audino didn’t want them to get mixed up with the others, since the orans are special.”

Espurr took an oran from the basket, and put it into the bowl. “Thank you.”

She quickly snatched a bluk berry that was on the top of the other basket and put it aside for later.

“Deerling?” Espurr asked a moment later.

Deerling looked up from her work, staring at Espurr questioningly. Espurr mashed the oran berry to bits with the wooden masher, not really paying attention to what she was doing at all.

“Did… something happen between you and Tricky?”

Espurr never thought she would see Deerling blanch the way she did.

Deerling’s unnaturally cheerful response: “W-what makes you think that?” only served to reassure Espurr that something was indeed going on.

“It was something Tricky let slip,” Espurr decided to go with. “I thought I’d ask around. Especially since she didn’t show up to class today.”

“Well, did you guys fight or something?” Deerling asked. “You wouldn’t know, because you’ve only been here a week, but Tricky usually doesn’t show up to school the day after a fight.”

Something about that answer didn’t quite sit right with Espurr. She briefly paused to gauge her oran berry – which was now just a sorry pile of mush – then dropped the bluk berry into another bowl and started mashing that.

“Tricky asked me about you last night. She said that you try to discourage new pokemon from talking to her.”

At that point, Deerling lost it. She slammed her hooves into the desk, a seething expression on her face.

“Tricky is mad because I don’t want to see pokemon get hurt because of her, and I’m picking up the responsibility she doesn’t want to touch!”

“Deerling! Calm down; please.” Audino put her book down from the other side of the clinic.

Espurr silently mixed her two berry mixtures together, and covered the bowl.

“I’m sorry.” Deerling had her head hung in shame. “It’s… not a pretty thing. I… I can’t. I just can’t. Please don’t ask me.”

Deerling turned away from Espurr after that, and the rest of the test was spent in silence.


Espurr barely passed Medicinal Berries. And only because she had arguably performed the best out of anymon in the class; on account of having one perfect mixture.

Deerling had used the right berries, but had gotten a thousand tears in her mixtures, which caused them to come out wrong and left her without a replacement before the test ended. Goomy seemed to be entirely lost, and Pancham and Shelmet together had flubbed all three mixtures, then proceeded to create a custom mix so foul and pungent that Audino could barely stand the smell.

Tricky, who was absent, automatically failed.

The fifteen-minute recess period between Audino’s exam and Dungeon Class was spent in silence, as three of the present students reviewed their test scores from yesterday and the other two were in no mood to converse with each other. Then Watchog forced everymon in the stools for Dungeon Class. He prattled on loudly about pokemon types and how they matched up with and against each other, but Espurr found that for possibly the first time ever, she wasn’t interested in the class at hand. The events of the previous day hung over her head, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it all – cheating on the test, getting a perfect score anyway, her argument with Tricky… and now Tricky hadn’t shown up to school. Espurr wondered if she were responsible.

“..And that’s how type matchups work.” Watchog brought his lengthy speech to an end, stepping in front of the blackboard. “Any questions? Better ask now.”

No-mon cared enough to have questions.

Then class ended. Everymon went home, while Espurr was kept behind for detention. Tricky still hadn’t shown.

Espurr weighed her options carefully. There would no doubt be punishment if she just up and left, but detention would be unbearable without knowing what had happened to Tricky. To her partial shame, it came not only from a concern for Tricky’s well-being, but also from a general hunger to know things, and the subsequent annoyance that came from knowledge’s deprival.

Eventually, Espurr came to the conclusion that logically the safer bet was to stay in detention for the day. She could always jot down to Tricky’s house afterwards, anyway. Which was why she was still sitting in one of the straw beds, deep in thought by the time Watchog came out to herd her off to detention.


Watchog was uncharacteristically silent the entire way. Something about Tricky’s departure had seemed to affect him, too. Espurr didn’t try to provoke any conversation. She was already on thin ice with him, just for things she knew and he didn’t. And so the trip to Foreboding Forest was silent as well.

“Start picking up all the mess in the area,” Watchog said curtly, handing Espurr a rake and a potato sack. “Tell me when you’re done. I’ll be waiting outside.” And with that, he was gone.

Espurr didn’t know why it continued to bug her. She’d made the sound choice… hadn’t she? It made more sense to stay in detention, not leave on some random trip to Tricky’s house and score herself a weeks’ more in the process. But the way she was going about detention meant it would stretch far into night, anyway. If the small, illogical part of Espurr’s brain was right, and Tricky really was into some kind of danger, then sitting around here and shoveling up leaves was the worst thing she could possibly do.

That stray thought was the reason she quietly set down her rake and the potato sack, and took the long way back into the village. She’d only check. That couldn’t hurt, right?



Knock~Knock~Knock

Espurr knocked on Carracosta’s door. There was no answer, but Espurr figured it would take him a minute to get there.

A minute passed. There was still no answer.

Knock~Knock~Knock

Espurr tried again. She pressed her ear to the door, lest she catch a tidbit of what might be going on behind it. She heard nothing (Which only cemented her concerns).

She walked around the house to the window where Tricky’s room must have been (If she remembered the layout properly), and attempted to peek in. The window didn’t have any panes like the ones in the School Clinic, but Espurr couldn’t see very much through it at all. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that Tricky’s case of scarves lay out in the open – empty – and a tattered old book lay on Tricky’s messed-up bed.

Espurr looked left, then right. She was sure she wasn’t being watched… So no-mon would mind if she quickly broke in, right?

Slipping through the window bars was easy, and Espurr had no doubt Tricky had used that as a means of escape several times. The hard part was getting up there. The sill was high enough that Espurr could barely even peek over it, and there was nothing in sight for her to realistically stand on.

Eventually, she came up with the rather clever plan of using her newfound lifting abilities to levitate herself up there, but her mind began to spike with pain before she was even half a foot off the ground. Luckily, half a foot was all she needed. Catching the window bars with both her paws, Espurr gave herself one last boost with the rest of her mental energy-

-Which was enough to get her through the bars, and somewhat neatly into Tricky’s room.

Once inside, the first thing Espurr did was check the book on Tricky’s bed, which she thought she recognized. Those tatters around the corners only meant it could be one thing; after all…

“A Complete Guide to Mystery Dungeons”, the title read. Espurr reveled in silent triumph. She knew she had seen it before! She held it in her paws, looking at the page number:

Page 26: Nectar Meadows – Water Continent

Espurr read through the page, her eyes flicking over the text as fast as she was able to read it. Nectar Meadows was a Class A Mystery Dungeon, which meant that pokemon which became stranded or lived in it didn’t turn into rabid monsters like Gabite. Class A dungeons were usually the homes of pokemon who didn’t feel at home living in civilizations such as Serenity Village. However, Nectar Meadows was the home of a beedrill colony that had a reputation for being quite vicious in the nectar-gathering stage of the year, which was… summertime.

Espurr set the book down, taking a minute to clear her thoughts. If Tricky had gone to Nectar Meadows – assuming she even had gone to Nectar Meadows – she would have had to leave about four hours ago to skip school like she had. Which either meant that she was still in the dungeon heading back home, or… something had happened to her.

“We don’t need another disappearance on our hands.”

The last thought made Espurr a little queasy. She put the book back on Tricky’s bed just like she had found it, then shut the scarf case and moved it up to the window so she could climb out.

On her way down the hill, she noticed a note tacked to the door of the next house over that she hadn’t caught before:

Gone lemonberry picking with Carracosta. Won’t be back until sundown. ~ Nuzleaf


“And guess what? There’s a small dungeon right near Pop’s oran berry fields!”

Tricky’s words from Wednesday rang in Espurr’s head, and so to the oran berry fields she went. She still remembered the way there from her first detention- through the village gates and down the path until the forest gave way to fields of farmland and the hot summer sun. Nectar Meadows was somewhere around here, if Past Tricky was to be trusted.

The fields ended at the base of a large mountain, where a small alcove lead off into a dimly-lit cavern of flora that Espurr assumed must have been the dungeon. But there was only one way to find out, so she walked up to it and crept inside.



Espurr knew it was Nectar Meadows from the moment she walked in, simply because there was nothing else it could be. The entire cavern (Which was much more spacious and well-lit than the caverns of the Drilbur Mines) was filled from ground to roof with all sorts of plants, from moss to tall grass to various flowers that lined the walls and roof of the cavern. The sweetness of the flowers mingled with the foul after-scent of mystery dungeon, and as Espurr stepped under one of the holes in the dungeon’s sunlight-filtered canopy, she knew she had arrived.

There were no wild ‘mon in the dungeon; at least from what Espurr could see, and she was allowed to ascend to the next floor on that infuriatingly perfect stairway unhindered. On the second floor, she thought she caught the eyes of several other pokemon quietly observing her from the darkness. But if they were even there, they did nothing but watch. Espurr paid them little mind in her search.

At some point in her silent journey through the dungeon, it struck her that it had been a little too quiet. Where were all the beedrill the dungeon book had said would be here? And where was Tricky? Something didn’t add up.

Espurr cautiously pressed on, keeping a close eye on her surroundings as she went. If she was going to be found out, it wouldn’t be due to a lack of attention or foresight. That; she was sure of.

That is, until she was hit with the Pin Missile she had never seen coming. The sheer force of it sent her flying back until she hit the dungeon wall hard and tumbled to the ground. Espurr pulled herself back up as quickly as possible. Her assailant was a large, hovering, insect-like creature she assumed was a beedrill. Espurr stood her ground. She could fight one off; she thought.

She hoped.

She quickly abandoned such foolish thoughts when the first beedrill was joined by two others. The best idea was to run-

“Begone; foul beast!”

Both Espurr and the beedrill spun to look in the direction of the voice. For a split second, Espurr thought she saw an offended expression on one of the Beedrills’ faces; before it was swallowed up by anger.

An ember flew out of nowhere, sending the beedrill flying back in kind. Tricky bounded out of a side route in the mystery dungeon and dashed up to Espurr, and it was all she could do to keep up with Tricky as they ran as far away from the beedrill as they could get before it came properly came to its senses.

“What are you doing here??” Tricky yipped excitedly. She sounded hyper. Espurr shot her a rare look of incredulity. She had come here to make Tricky answer that very same question!

“I skipped detention to come here and look for you,” Espurr hissed back. “And what about you? You never even showed up for class today. I’m sure you worried almost half the teachers-” Espurr had the foresight to duck under another one of the beedrill’s Pin Missiles as it whistled past them –“And terrified the rest! What would they say if they found out you’d just been frolicking around in mystery dungeons all day?”

“Touché.” Tricky didn’t seem particularly bugged by any of it. “I just woke up with so much energy today I had to run it off somehow, so I went exploring!”

She was panting and looked run ragged. Suddenly, she made a detour into a right-hand dungeon path, and Espurr had choice but to follow or suffer the wrath of the several beedrill that were approaching from the direction they had been heading in.

After running down that path for a while and taking a couple more rights and a left, Espurr and Tricky hid in a dead end as the beedrill buzzed right past their hiding spot. Espurr waited until she could no longer hear the sound of buzzing to release her breath. She collapsed against the wall of the dungeon in relief. Tricky did no such thing.

“I was thinking we could go exploring in the Foreboding Forest next,” she said, chasing her tail in circles as a placeholder exercise. “And then we could run the School’s dungeon!”

Two thoughts came into Espurr’s mind: The school had its own mystery dungeon? And more importantly, had Tricky gone mad?

Espurr asked her as much. Tricky stared at her with a confused look, then burst into awkwardly fake laughter a seconds later.

“Of course I’m not mad!” She force-laughed out of herself. “What makes you think that?”

Espurr flicked her eyes over Tricky’s twig and dirt-ridden coat, then gave Tricky a stare so dry there was absolutely no confusing its meaning.

“I mean yeah, I probably need a bath,” Tricky went on. “-Oh wait. No I don’t. I don’t need a bath! I’m fine. I’m really fine! I’m totally fine! See?”

She pranced about in the nook of the dungeon she and Espurr were camped out in for five seconds just to show Espurr how fine she was. Then she gave up and collapsed in the middle of the ground.

“No I’m not,” she admitted quietly.

Espurr crawled forward, quickly checking when Tricky wasn’t looking to make sure they wouldn’t be surprised by any unwanted visitors.

“So say something,” she said, crawling to Tricky. “It’s not good to keep things like that bottled up.”

If only she was as good about following her own advice.

Tricky let out a sharp sigh, and then she was silent for a minute longer. Espurr took a seat on the dungeon floor, casting her attention towards a mildly pretty flower growing on the ground until Tricky was ready to speak up.

“Tricky’s just a nickname.”

Espurr looked back towards Tricky. Her ears drooped, and she had her face hidden behind her tail… but she was talking.

“My real name is Artemis Carracosta Duringham,” Tricky began. “That’s what my Pops named me when he adopted me. I… had another friend before you. He used to go exploring with me all the time. And…

She took a long shaky breath; as if to prepare for what she was about to say next:

“And I killed him.”



“Budew! Hurry up already!” Budew dashed through the underbrush, barely keeping up with the fennekin that was right ahead of him. “We’re supposed to go check out that mystery dungeon today!”

“Hah… Can’t you go a little slower?” Budew asked. “I’m dying back here.”

“Fiiine…” Artemis whined, falling back into a trot instead of a frolic.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to go into mystery dungeons,” Budew said once he had caught his breath. He adjusted the blueish-green scarf he wore around his neck, quickly fixing Artemis’ in kind before she recoiled on instinct.

“Yeah, but it’ll only be in and out, and the adults won’t know a thing!” Artemis chirped. “Besides, don’t you wanna see what it’s like?”

“I guess…” Budew admitted. “Where do we go, though? Is there even a name for it yet?”

“It’s called Poliwrath River,” Artemis said. “Look- I know the way! I snuck a look at Farfetch’d’s maps today in class.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Budew asked.

“I was just gonna ask you that,” Artemis said with an evil smirk on her face, and then she was off so fast that Budew had no hope of keeping up.


“I’m not so sure about this anymore…” Budew looked up at the entrance to Poliwrath River anxiously. “Can we go back now?”

“Nope! No take-backsies! You promised you’d go exploring with me today!” Before Budew could even protest, Artemis planted her head against his backside and began to push him up there herself.


“NOW can we go back?” Budew asked, glancing back forlornly at the entrance of the mystery dungeon that they had just walked into.

“You can’t go out of a mystery dungeon the way you got in, silly,” Artemis waved him off. “The only way out now is upupup!”

Besides…” Artemis added, countering Budew’s fearful face with a contagious grin. “This is a water-type dungeon! You have a type advantage here! Don’t you get how awesome that is??”

“I guess…” Budew said.

“Wait. You know type matchups?” He asked a second later.

“Yep.” Artemis trotted next to Budew, looking like the smuggest fennekin in the world.

“I can’t believe you actually paid attention in dungeon class!”

“I try.”

All the chatter was making Budew less and less anxious. That, and the fact that they had not encountered any enemy pokemon yet.

“So what kind of pokemon live around here anyway, ‘dungeon master?’”

“What’s ‘dungeon master?” Artemis shot Budew a quizzical look.

“Y’know, ‘dungeon master’? ‘Cause you know a lot about dungeons? Get it?”

Artemis got Budew’s joke, but she didn’t really ‘get’ it. Not even when she burst out into awkward fake laughter only a moment later.

“Oh; I get it now!” She fake-laughed. “That’s hilarious!”

Budew shook his head. “Never mind.”

They continued onward in silence for a little while, but Artemis could see that Budew had lightened up a lot.

Finally, Budew perked up again and turned towards Artemis. “I wonder where all the enemy pokemon are-“

That was when the enemy pokemon attacked. Artemis’ scream of surprise was drowned out by Budew’s cries as he was picked up and fought amongst by several feral Poliwrath. Artemis hit the ground rolling, falling in a patch of golden weeds and out of sight. She wanted to do something, anything; but she was frozen to the spot, and she could do nothing but watch as the Poliwrath all fought over and pummeled Budew. And then she stuck her paws over her eyes when it became too painful to watch, and she could only hear the sound of Budew’s cries and leaves tearing apart and bones cracking. She must have stayed in that position for hours, just huddling there, because a wall of mist was beginning to encroach upon the room by the time Artemis had stopped crying. Slowly, she lifted herself to her paws and climbed out of the foliage.

“Budew?” She called out.

There was no answer.

“Budew?!”

She bolted forwards, to the area where she knew he and the Poliwrath had been.

The Poliwrath were gone. Probably long gone, and they hadn’t even known she was there. And in their place lay what remained of Budew; a mangled pile of leaves and blood and bone all punched into a soup. It took everything Artemis had in her not to scream in horror; even though she had never been more horrified in her life. And next to his corpse lay the scarf Artemis had bestowed him as a sign of their friendship. There was only a single nick in it. He must have lost it early on.

That was the point where Artemis couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. She grabbed Budew’s scarf in her mouth, and ran like the wind in the direction that would take her the farthest away from Budew.

Somehow, she managed to blindly stumble her way out the dungeon by dark.



“Pops said it wasn’t my fault,” Tricky continued. “But I’m the one who asked him to go in there. If I hadn’t asked him to go exploring with me, he would have gone home! He’d still be alive! It’s my fault he’s dead! I killed him!!”

Too broken to go on anymore, Tricky collapsed in a cacophony of quiet sobs. Throughout the entire story, Espurr sat and listened quietly. She didn’t say anything- how could she? There was nothing to say. She couldn’t even imagine what such an experience was like; let alone try to comfort Tricky with words. Instead, she settled for just comforting Tricky.

Eventually, Tricky was able to stop crying. Or maybe she just didn’t have the energy to cry any longer. She dried her eyes, but couldn’t bring them to meet Espurr’s own.

“You probably don’t want to be friends with me anymore,” she said bitterly. “No-mon does.”

And with that, she spun around and bounded off down the dungeon tunnel before Espurr could so much as say a word in denial.

Espurr had to go after her. She was going to get herself caught in her current condition for sure. She hopped to her feet and started running after Tricky the best she could. There was still a little trip in her steps.

Tricky ran down the dungeon aimlessly; the two scarves bound to her neck rustling from her movements. Where she went; she didn’t care. She’d find her way out! …Somehow.

Bzz~Bzz

Tricky ignored it. She could outrun them! They were only stupid bees, after all. But they were right in front of her. But she could outrun them! She could do it! She was good at running! Really!

Not that good. They converged upon her as soon as she got close enough, and even though she fought and raged and tried to destroy them with an Ember like the Poliwrath had destroyed Budew, it was all for nothing; because she felt a sudden painful prick in her side from one of the beedrills’ stingers, and then she was suddenly too dizzy to stay awake anymore.


Espurr watched from a hastily-chosen hiding spot as the trio of beedrill made off with Tricky; who lay unconscious in the middle beedrill’s arms. As they buzzed off, she silently followed. They went up one floor, then the next, until on the fifth floor they reached an open room that didn’t seem mystery-dungeonish at all. In fact, it looked like the most stable patch of land she had seen in a while, and as she set foot on it while the beedrill’s backs were turned, she got the feeling it didn’t even belong in a mystery dungeon at all.

Then she quickly hid behind a bush, as the beedrill set Tricky’s unconscious body down with a loud ‘thud!’.

“So what do we do with it?” One beedrill asked.

“It’s a honey thief,” the second one buzzed back. “The townymons never set foot in here unless they’re trying to steal our honey.” It folded its arms defensively. “I say we kill it.”

“OR…” the third beedrill gave the other two repugnant looks. “We can take it back to the Hive. And maybe NOT get in trouble for defecting the third time in a week??”

Espurr cast her focus away from their meaningless chatter. She had to figure out a way to get both her and Tricky out of the dungeon, without alerting to the rest of the beedrill that they were ever there in the first place. That was definitely the priority. It seemed impossible, but Espurr held in her mind that there must be a way.

And she was beginning to see the inklings of one.

After analyzing every rock, nook, cranny, and groove of the situation thoroughly, Espurr came up with a relatively stable logic structure that was sure to produce a plan to her liking. The ground facts were simple. The dungeon was anywhere from six to nine floors; if A Complete Guide to Mystery Dungeons was to be trusted, and the Hive had to be located somewhere between Floor Five and the exit. Espurr could not let the beedrill reach the hive before she and Tricky had made it out of the dungeon. And perhaps most importantly, Floor Five was just one large room. The staircase even sat to the left invitingly. It was the perfect place to cut the beedrill off and split their groups up for long enough to escape. Espurr made that her base.

But how? It wasn’t like Floor Five was replete with obstacles to hide behind, and Espurr wasn’t nearly as proficient in her Move studies as Tricky was. That meant she’d either have to take them head-on, or use a more indirect method of attack. And since she wasn’t willing to try a risky method like attacking them unarmed and untrained, it would need to be the latter.

All the rocks and debris on the floor meant that she could misdirect them away from Tricky via levitation, then drag Tricky up the stairs and hope she was fast enough to lose the beedrill for good. It was a flimsy plan at best; especially if the beedrill didn’t react in the way Espurr had predicted they would, but it was the best option she had given the circumstances and the only one that was somewhat salvageable if she failed early enough.

That seemed good enough. Now it was time to put her strategy to the test.

“I’m sick of this.” One of the beedrill hovered above Tricky, pacing in midair with its arms folded behind itself. “I’m so sick of this. This always happens. Something derails our jobs as guards – which is the easiest job in the world – I propose the sensible solution, and the two of you come up with the dumbest ideas possible and out-rule me!” It directed its scathing gaze towards the other two beedrill, who were currently giving third one the silent treatment. “So what are we gonna do?” The third beedrill flapped its arms in frustration. “Are we just gonna wait for the honey thief to wake up? It has the Type Advantage-“

Clatter. All three beedrills’ heads spun to the other side of the room, where a rock had just skidded out into the open from behind a few bushes. A pair of sticks that danced at Espurr’s whim shook the bush and made it look like somemon was hiding in it.

“Come on.” Beedrill #3 slapped his left stinger into his forehead at the sight of the bush. “Another one?” With his head, he silently motioned for the other two beedrill to approach the bush from either side as he buzzed forwards.

And as they slowly approached the bush at the other end of the room, Espurr ever-so-quietly slunk out towards Tricky. There was no way she was going to lift the fennekin on her own, so she’d be making use of her one mental trick; of course. At Espurr’s command Tricky began to unsteadily rise off the ground. She was heavy. Espurr didn’t know how long she was going to make it like this, so she temporarily abandoned stealth for speed. Stealth wouldn’t matter as much at this point anyway.

The trio of beedrill approached the bush; stingers raised. They traded looks with each other silently. Then they dove in with their stingers out.

Espurr heard the sound of the bush’s destruction from behind her, and she knew she was running out of time.

“Nnghh…” Tricky slowly shifted in midair, as the effects of the sedative in the beedrill’s poison slowly began to wear off. Things were turning sour for Espurr; fast. She was nearly out of time! The best she could do now was make it to the stairs before the beedrill could.

“…What’s happening…” Tricky slowly blinked herself awake. All she could see was the sunlight-filtered canopy of Nectar Meadows. “…Espurr?” she tried in vain.

The beedrill finally finished wrecking the bush, then flew back out to make a proper observation of their handiwork. It was only then that they realized they had been well and truly duped. The bush was empty! Turning around on instinct, all three of them caught sight of Espurr running off with Tricky.

Espurr felt a sudden spike of pain flare up in her head, and she realized she could no longer hold Tricky up anymore-

“Hey!” Beedrill #3 yelled, and Espurr tripped over a rock and was sent to her knees, dropping Tricky unceremoniously to the ground.

Both Espurr and Tricky picked themselves up from the ground. Tricky, who was still feeling a little woozy from the poison, stood wobbly on all four legs. Then she noticed the beedrill that were heading straight for them.

“Espurr run!” Was the only thing she had time to say before turning back towards the stairs and bolting up the staircase, and Espurr was more inclined than anything in the world to follow that piece of insight.

The beedrill quickly picked up the chase, zooming after them at speeds that seemed impossible for creatures of their sizes, and as Espurr and Tricky ran up the stairs and set foot on the next floor, one of the beedrill was fast enough to make it through. The staircase warped and disappeared behind them; the warping of space sending out a wind through the mystery dungeon that threw the pair of beedrill off-point for a few seconds.

Espurr and Tricky wasted no time trying to get farther away from the beedrill, but even with their newfound head start they were no match for the beedrill’s speed, and soon they were run down by the oversized insect and sent tumbling into a dead-end to the left.

Beedrill #3 fell back into a hover as he watched Espurr and Tricky slowly try to pick themselves up from the dungeon floor. He looked left, then right just to make sure he wasn’t being watched, then began to prepare his stingers.

“Alright then. I’m just gonna get rid of you myself. No-mon need even know you were here…”

Tricky attempted to hurl an Ember at the beedrill, but found that she couldn’t summon one without coughing and rasping herself to pieces. She groaned incomprehensibly, and then both of them were barely able to duck out of the way of Beedrill #3’s stingers. Espurr picked up a rock off the ground and threw it at the beedrill. Her aim was spot on, and it clipped Beedrill #3 in the face. Espurr and Tricky used that confusion to get as much headway as they could.

“My throat hurts…” Tricky complained as they ran into the dungeon’s main hall and took a quick left turn.

And that was when Espurr decided to use her last resort strategy. As the beedrill zoomed out of the dead end and began to run them down once more, Espurr pulled Tricky’s ear close and whispered: “I know how to get rid of the beedrill. Can you get us both out of the dungeon?”

Tricky looked at her in horror.

“Why would you ask something like that?” She half-asked; half-yelled Espurr’s way. Espurr cast a look back at the Beedrill, who was only half the distance he had been and was closing fast.

“Just trust me,” she said, and that was the last say Tricky got in the equation. And with that, Espurr shut her eyes and began to concentrate upon building up power in her mind.

If what she had done to the classroom the day before was any indicator, Espurr wondered what she could do if she actively harnessed and directed such a blast- could it make an effective weapon? She was about to find out. The downsides were that she was likely incapacitated the moment she tried this, and if it failed to stop the beedrill she and Tricky were both dead. But it beat certain death, so Espurr was willing to try. She just needed to find the right mental snag once more…

Beedrill #3 was almost close enough now. The suckers were fast, but he was faster. Soon, they’d be dead.

It was funny to think that just ten minutes ago he’d have decried such a strategy. But it was better than letting them get away. He reached out with his stingers in the hopes that it could help him close the distance faster. So close…

Espurr could feel the power building in her mind. She opened her eyes, and just avoided tripping on a rock as she stumbled onwards. She ducked as Beedrill #3 jabbed at her with his stinger. He was too close for comfort! Espurr felt around in her mind for a snag, and once she found one – any one – she pulled at it with all her might-

-And nothing happened. Espurr’s foot caught on an upturned tree root, and she unwillingly faceplanted into the ground. Tricky spun around and stopped a few yards away, panting as she looked back.

Beedrill #3 hung frozen in the air. He fought and raged against the barrier that was all around him, but it held him in place firmly. He quietly seethed at Tricky from his prison.

Espurr picked herself up from the ground, wiping the dirt off her face. She had a bit of a headache. She glanced at Beedrill, then saw that he was trapped. It took her a few seconds to realize what had happened.

Once Espurr did, the barrier faltered a little. Espurr quickly focused on holding it together, walking towards Beedrill #3 curiously. This would hold him until they were able to escape to the next floor… but it wasn’t enough. Beedrill would just rat them out before they even left the dungeon.

So instead of focusing only on the prison, Espurr continued to batter her mind energy at Beedrill. She needed something; anything, to make sure he wouldn’t rat on them, and she imbued all her mental energy with that wish…

Still panting; Tricky tilted her head in confusion at… whatever seemed to be going on between Espurr and the beedrill. Neither of them had moved in almost a minute, and she could see Beedrill’s eyes kinda turning glowing purple-ish? Was this some kind of psychic-type thing?

And then Espurr suddenly fell to her knees, and the psychic prison vanished. Tricky let out a sharp gasp now that the beedrill was free, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything… it just floated there. So Tricky bounded over to the second most important thing in the room- Espurr. Espurr clutched her head like it was hurting, but the rest of her body stayed as still as stone.

“Espurr?” Tricky waved a paw in front of Espurr’s face. “You in there? Huh?”

When there was still no response from Espurr, Tricky began to get worried. She agitatedly paced between them for like five minutes, but nothing changed. Then she sat, after a sudden dizzy spell overtook her. Then she got bored and made googly faces at the beedrill.

It must have been about half an hour when something finally happened. Tricky, who had curled up in a ball somewhere off to the side due to feeling not-so-great, was suddenly roused to awakeness by the sound of the beedrill lifting off. It fluttered up into the air, silently heading back where it came from. And then Tricky saw no more of it.

“Espurr?” she hopefully asked, turning back to the psychic kitten- who had promptly collapsed the ground behind Tricky.

“Espurr!” Tricky quickly ran over to Espurr, nudging her the best she could with her nose. There was no response, but she could tell Espurr was still breathing. It looked like she had Fainted. Which meant it was left to Tricky to get them both out of here.

Tricky thought she could do that. Sitting on her haunches for a moment, she removed one of the scarves off her neck, and fitted it over Espurr’s instead. There. Now they were both fellow explorers.

And with that, Tricky began to tug Espurr along the best she could. There were only three more floors to go. They could make it!



Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily.

Unless she hadn’t. For she was, once again, surrounded by nothing but all-encompassing black. Another dream. Espurr brought herself to her feet, dismissing her weariness as the dream’s attempts to convince her it wasn’t one. As far as she knew, they were still in the mystery dungeon, so she just wanted to figure out the reasons she had been summoned here once more and get over with it.

Espurr looked around (For that was all she could really do), and came to the sudden realization that perhaps her mind was not in the best shape it could have been. Little shards of purple were floating around everywhere, and reflected within them she could see slivers of memories- one of attacking a smaller pokemon; one of… making honey (Espurr shuddered at that graphic display); one of eating honey… They must have belonged to the beedrill. And at the same time they didn’t seem genuine- these must have been copies.

Oh, right. That was what she had been doing. The last thing she properly remembered was tapping into the beedrill’s memories, and then everything sort of became a slurred-together mess. From it, she gathered that she had somehow erased herself and Tricky from the beedrill’s mind, but the memories of doing so were quite literally untappable to her. They just didn’t make sense.

And yet they played before Espurr anyway, like the television box she had seen in Deerling’s house. They mingled with the broken copies of Beedrill’s memories, and turned the entire display into a fragmented light show. Sometimes the memories popped with color, and other times they became a dull grey, and sometimes; somehow, they popped with color and didn’t have any all at once, until it made Espurr clutch her head and will them all away with all her might. But they didn’t leave.

Espurr could feel a low growl building in her throat. Then there was a particularly bright flash from the memory-screen, and she couldn’t take it anymore. She hissed viciously, and lashed out at the display with every bit of mental energy she had. Everything around her shattered with a brilliantly blinding – and also immensely satisfying – crash, and when Espurr opened her eyes once more, she was standing once again in the blackness. Her outburst had caused some damage to her surroundings- all around her, glowing white cracks wisped all throughout the air. Espurr was horrified- if this was a dream, then had she somehow broken her mind?

But she didn’t feel weird. She felt just fine. Espurr inspected her dream self, which was devoid of the cracks that lined her surroundings. Maybe she’d just broken her dream; the one that had been torturing her for the past week.

She could live with that.

Slowly, Espurr began to hear hushed voices slipping in and out in between the void. They swirled around her, mumbling and whispering phrases incessantly. Espurr quickly singled one out from all the others. The one that whispered a word she DID understand: ‘Human.’

As if it had noticed it was being watched; Espurr felt the wind descend and spin loops around her. It strongly ruffled her fur, but didn’t go back up to join the others that were spinning above her like a cyclone. Espurr made no sudden moves. She closed her eyes, and let her ears do the seeing for her.

“Human…”



This was it. The exit was just up ahead! Tricky was ready to celebrate.

But her previous experiences in Dungeon Exploring told her that celebrating before leaving the dungeon was always celebrating too soon. She just had to avoid the beedrill a little longer…

Tricky quickly hit the ground as another dizzy spell overtook her. She panted for a good five minutes; her tongue paper-dry. She was really not feeling her best today.

That was when Espurr’s eyes suddenly snapped open. She took several long breaths; a shocked expression upon her face, then sat up like nothing had happened. She looked dizzy. Tricky stared at her in shock.

“Is something wrong?” Espurr asked; quickly feigning ignorance to cover up the issue of what she had just learned- and was still trying to parse. But none of that mattered until they left the dungeon.

“N-no,” Tricky stammered out. “Just resting. Look- the exit’s just up ahead!”

Espurr got to her feet, wobbling a little before righting herself. Her vertigo left her after a few seconds, and she was able to help Tricky all the way to the entrance before it could disappear or re-arrange itself once more.



They came out the same way they had gotten in. Espurr didn’t understand it at all, but added it to her growing laundry list.

“Okay…” Tricky panted as she and Espurr both caught their breaths outside the entrance to Nectar Meadows. “Admit it. That was awesome.”

Espurr didn’t entirely agree, but just decided to let Tricky have that one.

“So…” fully rejuvenated, Tricky played with the ground uncomfortably. “Are we still friends?”

Espurr thought on that a minute. Sure; Tricky was reckless beyond belief… but that didn’t mean she had to be friendless.

“Of course,” she replied. “We’re still friends.”

Espurr had never seen a brighter look on Tricky’s face, even as she was suddenly pulled into a tight hug by the fennekin, which she returned. All seemed to be well in the world.

Until Tricky quickly backed up with a scared look on her face, and threw up on the ground in front of her.



“I have ta wonder,” Nuzleaf turned his head towards Carracosta as they both walked up the hill. “Lemonberry pickin’ is fun an’ all… but what’re we gonna do with so many lemonberries?”

“You don’t worry about that,” Carracosta replied. “I’m always in short supply of these. I’ll be sure to use them all up before they rot-“

The two neighbors were suddenly interrupted by Espurr running past with Tricky, who had her head down and her tail stiff. They continued down towards Carracosta’s house without even bidding Carracosta good evening.

“That’s… not good,” Carracosta admitted. He’d been her Pops long enough to know what Tricky’s tells were, and he could tell she wasn’t in a good state.

“Should I leave you two to it, then… ?” Nuzleaf offered his basket of lemonberries to Carracosta, who took them.

“…Yeah. You’d better.”



“You FOOLS!!”

Carracosta stood in his study, leaning over the desk that also doubled as a dining table. On the other side stood Tricky and Espurr, who both looked suitably cowed.

“Just what were you thinking; wandering off into a mystery dungeon like that?! You could have died! You could have been trapped in there! And you are both lucky I keep pecha berries around, because Tricky would not have made the night without them! Have I imposed upon you the seriousness of what you have done?”

Too scared to let out anything more than a terrified squeak, Tricky nodded her head as fast as it would nod. Espurr slowly nodded her head in kind, before she inadvertently set off Carracosta even more.

“Good!” Carracosta turned to Espurr. “Now the school tells me you’re under their custody until the start of summer, so I’ll leave your punishment to them. But you…” He glared at Tricky. “No sweets for a week! Vegetables and berries only!”

“But Pops-“ Tricky whined.

“AND an early bedtime! Go!”

Seeing that arguing back was futile, Tricky slunk off to her room dejectedly.

“And you!” Carracosta boomed at Espurr. “Out!”


The last rays of sunlight were disappearing over the mountains to the west when Espurr stepped out of Carracosta’s house. Nuzleaf’s place was unlit and idle; she suspected he was an early sleeper.

“Psst.”

Espurr heard the sound whistle out of the bushes just outside the door to Tricky’s house. For a split second, Espurr thought that the beedrill from Nectar Meadows had returned to hunt them down, but to her utter relief, Tricky stepped out of the bushes, shaking a stray leaf out of her fur.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Espurr asked without thinking first.

“Nah.” Tricky took a seat next to the porch. “Pops never thinks about the windows. I use them to get out all the time and he’s never guessed a thing!”

“I… see, then.” Espurr gave Tricky her full attention, as Tricky began to dig through the bush she had been hiding in.

“I just wanted to give you this,” Tricky said through her teeth, pulling an entire appleberry out of the bush by the stem. “Pops gave me two, but I’m not that hungry tonight, so I wanted you to have it!”

She handed it to Espurr the best she could with her mouth. Espurr took it in her hands. Now that Tricky mentioned it, she really was famished.

She also felt guilty. Guilty, that Tricky had placed enough trust in her earlier today to tell her one of her darkest secrets, and Espurr still held on to hers tightly. She decided it stopped. Today.

“Tricky?” Espurr called after the fennekin, who was padding back to her bedroom window. Tricky looked back, then walked back. “There’s something you should know about me,”

Tricky cocked her head. “What is it?”

Espurr took a deep breath, then blurted the phrase out:

“I’m human.”




“Let me ask this again, just to make sure.” Archen tried his best to keep the water out of his eyes as he squawked over the wind and held on for dear life. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?!?”

Like the other times Archen had asked, he got no response from the sharpedo they were struggling to hold on to. A nasty freak storm rolling in from Mist had delayed their progress over the ocean by a day’s margin, forcing them to camp out on one of the Water Continent’s more remote islands for the night. Now they were heading full-speed ahead for the Water Continent, but Archen was convinced that they were in fact going in circles. He hadn’t even seen a hint of land for ages, and already the weather was beginning to seem colder all over.

Mawile was much in the same spot that Archen was. Hanging on for dear life; she also had to make sure their bag of supplies wasn’t swept away in the winds. Already they had lost a few things before Mawile was able to properly zip the bag, but nothing of major importance was lost… yet.

Archen was nearly thrown to the side as the sharpedo made a sudden bank to the right.

“What gives?!” Archen cried, but his shouts were lost to the winds and forgotten when he saw what Sharpedo was heading away from: A boat. An actual, wooden boat.

He glanced towards Mawile the best he could over the splashing water. Mawile leaned in towards the sharpedo, and whispered something in its earhole. The sharpedo nodded the best it could, then made a left-hand bank for the ship. Archen stared at the earhole on his side in disbelief. That was all it took?!



“Welcome, members of the Expedition Society!” Ambassador Primarina spread his fins in a welcoming gesture, bowing his head dramatically as Mawile and Archen stepped aboard the lavish ship. Braixen, who had a far more neutral expression on his face, retracted his mechanical pen and stuck it back in his fur. Archen felt a sudden whoosh of dizziness upon stepping onto the ship. Looking at Mawile, he could see that she had suffered the same thing. Although she made a better attempt to hide it then he did.

“Thank you for hosting us aboard your ship, Ambassador,” Mawile politely said, shaking off the last remnants of dizziness.

“Oh, it’s no problem at all,” Primarina said. “I always bring aboard any struggling seafarers the Exeggutor may come across aboard.”

“And how many times has that worked out well for you?” Braixen folded his arms nonchalantly, leaning against the Exeggutor’s mast. “It’s best to dump them. That sharpedo is more than capable of taking them to land-“

He was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a sharpedo turning around and skidding back out to sea. Archen had always known it was a little shifty.

“…I stand corrected,” Braixen admitted reluctantly, although he seemed no less grumpy for it. “I don’t object, then.” And with that, he silently walked past Primarina and into the ship’s cabin. “We’ll dock at Lively Town at 1200 hours.”

“Please excuse Braixen,” Primarina said. He massaged his temples with one of his flippers. “He’s my… secretary. He can be a little foul-tempered when the whim strikes him.”

“It’s no bother at all,” Mawile responded politely, but Archen could almost see the gears whirring in her head through her eyes, which fixated on Primarina skeptically. She knew something.

And as Primarina led them into the Exeggutor’s main cabin, he thought he did as well.

“Five minutes until the ambassador gets here- Everymon hurry up! Where’s Nickit?!” Dedenne had received a fuzzy transmission from the Exeggutor at half-past-noon stating that the Ambassador of the Water Continent would be staying several nights at the Expedition Society – although the transmission itself had been sent hours earlier, from a completely mechanical transmission machine aboard the ship itself. (Dedenne cursed those machines with all her heart- Why couldn’t the snobs on Mist get their paws dirty and send transmissions via electrical pokemon like everymon else??)

But the real kicker was that the Ambassador was due in half an hour, which naturally turned the Society upside down the moment it finally came through. That was 25 minutes ago. Now, Dedenne was scampering down the hall at a brisk pace, rapidly assigning orders to whoever she came across.

Bunnelby, who had just stumbled out of the observatory and spotted Dedenne from across the hall, quickly hopped into pace with her.

“Where is everymon??” Dedenne hissed, pulling herself to two paws. “It’s gonna look bad on us if we can’t even organize ourselves properly!”

“Half of us just got done dealing with Jirachi,” Bunnelby panted – Dedenne was just noticing that he looked mighty beat up – “And Torracat’s team left on a mission. They aren’t gonna be here for the ceremony.”

Dedenne resisted the urge to slap her paw into her face. Of course they would do that. One; Two; Three… that was five members missing now. And the Chief. She was going zu-bat crazy trying to keep the Society in check, which wasn’t getting any easier when the engineer needed a remedy to keep himself on a nine-hour sleep schedule, the chef ate everything in sight, and the medic kept disappearing to probably play cards with Murkrow! Why; oh why, did the rest of the executive faculty decide to leave on a pair of farfetched missions??

“Find Nickit,” She told Bunnelby. “Try the vault first- she’s probably in there.” Bunnelby nodded and hopped off as fast in the direction of the vault as his legs would take him.

“Pokemon incoming!” Buizel yelled down from the observatory.

“Is it the Ambassador?!” Dedenne screamed back up.

“No! It’s… Mawile! And Archen!”

Dedenne perked up with new life. Oh, thank god. That made her day so much easier.

“Well, help me get them inside!” She promptly bossed up at Buizel.

Mawile slowly came to a stop, folding her arms behind her back as she looked up at the Expedition Society. She and Archen traded looks at the faint yells and crashes that were coming from inside the building. Not a good sign.

The double doors of the Society slowly opened one after the other, and then Dedenne and the rest of the Expedition Society slipped out through them and lined up on the pavement outside. Bunnelby stumbled out after them, followed by a murkrow wearing a tie and an unruly-looking Nickit.

Mawile quickly took her place next to Dedenne as Acting Chief of the Expedition Society, and together they welcomed Primarina to the Expedition Society.




“God; I just wanna sleep.” Archen dragged himself into his allotted bedroom in the Society – which, like all the other bedrooms, had a view of Lively Town at Ampharos’ request – and flopped down headfirst on one of the two straw beds in the room.

“That one’s mine.”

Archen pulled his beak out of the straw, gazing at the pokemon who had just stepped into the room irritably.

“Since when?”

Nickit strode over, maybe-on-purpose nudging a potted plant dangerously close to falling out the window with her tail.

“Since you left for nearly a week and I switched the beds around, birdbrain. Yours smells like bird dander, by the way. Might wanna look into getting it cleaned.”

Archen just rolled over and folded his wings. Seeing that she wasn’t going to be humored anymore, Nickit trodded over and flopped on the other bed.

“Can’t have the window forever, you know.”

Archen opened his eyes and stared at her annoyedly.

“What is it?” he asked. “What’s bugging you so much that you need to come here and ruin my nap for me?”

“Well firstly, it’s my room too,” Nickit ticked it off on her paw; a smirk on her snout. “I can come here if I want.”

Archen’s eyes narrowed.

“And… I don’t like the feeling I get off that Braixen guy,” Nicket said. “Something about him’s just not right to me.” 
“I don’t think he likes a lot of pokemon very much,” Archen grumbled. “What makes you special?”

“Don’t you ever just ‘know’ something?” Nickit asked. “Even though you can’t prove it- and then later, it turns out to be true?”

“Never had that feeling.”

“Huh,” Nickit trilled. “Must be a fox pokemon thing.”

“You’d better get used to it.” Archen rolled over the other way. “Because he’s staying with us for the next week.”

And then he left Nickit in silence.

“One more thing.”

Archen turned over one last time.

“What?”

“Come nightfall, that window bed is mine, sucker.”




Ampharos was lucky that the inn rates in Serenity Village were low. Well, at least compared to places like Pokemon Paradise (That Swanna drove a hard bargain). He had needed to leave the hill with the big tree before Espurr and Fennekin could to collect his supplies, but he had found that they were gone by the time he had gotten back.

And this time, he was leaving.

He had to admit, he would miss this cozy little village. It seemed to be the perfect little slice of everything- he hadn’t been entirely lying when he had said he’d come to see the sights. Maybe he’d make this his retirement spot when he decided to officially duck out of the mapping business.

But that was far off into the future, and Ampharos needed not think about it now. He adjusted his cloak and his bag, and officially set off for Lively Town.

So! I have to admit I'm only covering the prologue and first chapter with this review because copypastaing your story into a doc for easy reading yielded over 200 pages of content. D: However! I do want to cover the rest at some point because this was a fascinating read.

I'll be honest here: I've never read a PMD fic where the protag was so passive. Don't get me wrong—that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's an interesting thing. Because, like, from the get go, we're only half in Espurr's mind. Sure, we get the classic "wake up, figure out you're not human, freak out" bits, but we don't get the overwhelming waves of confusion. We don't experience the panic alongside Espurr. We're outside of her head and observing her as she navigates her situation and flees from the beheeyem. And then, as soon as secondary characters come in, the story becomes Nurse Audino's, Tricky's, Goomy's, even Watchog's. Espurr is in all of these stories, sure, but she's not front and center. In most cases, she's pretty much literally dragged from point to point (typically by Tricky).

And that's fascinating. Why? Because Espurr is an observer to this world, just like we're an observer to Espurr's overall story. In most PMD fics (the ones I've read, anyway), the protag tends to be the central point, one way or another, and if they're not the central point of the entire fic, then the fic itself is fractured into multiple plot threads, of which the protag is the focus of one. But the thing is with this is that we have no questions about who will eventually save the world from the inevitable world-threatening disaster. In fact, we have no questions about whether or not there will be a world-ending disaster at all. There is one, and the protag and/or their team will be the key to save the world/universe from it. But here? Here, we have questions. Sure, the first mystery is where did Espurr come from, but more importantly, we're left to wonder what her role here will be. Will she come through and emerge as a hero, or will she unite this town to face off against what's clearly a conspiracy going on in the background (with the beheeyem and all)? What role will she take in the team she'll inevitably be a part of? What is her destiny, and how successful will she be, if she's this passive now?

The point is that all of the rules of a traditional PMD are both obeyed and subverted here. We can see the classic elements—the wake-up confusion, the mysterious pokémon engaging in suspicious deeds that threaten the protag early on, the friendly and helpful small-town characters, etc, etc,—but we also see something new and fresh in something as simple as the way Espurr's story is told. I guess in short, I really want to learn more about Espurr and where her story will go from here, so I'll be back to tackle the rest of your content eventually.

I've always wondered why pokemon give away so much of their lives to others. Why they toil away and work themselves to the point of death for other pokemon, only to be stepped on and forgotten once those other pokemon move on to bigger things. Why pokemon whine and complain about being trampled upon when they should have seen it coming from a mile away.

Selflessness is rewarded with betrayal in this world. Kindness is met with hate. And if another pokemon tramples all over you, you have no-mon to blame but yourself because you didn't do it first. Because that's how you win. By gaming the system. Sucking up to the right pokemon. Stepping on the heads of others. Making sure the public never sees any of that and continues to believe you are as innocent as they are. Not because you're rotten to your core, but because you know the world is. And you have to stoop to its level if you wish to be successful.

As current director of the Helping Adventurous Pokemon Prosper Institute I've done everything in my power to help adventurous pokemon prosper. Ranked missions; regulations and standards imposed upon rescue establishments; rescue team auditions. But I cannot do everything. I know the system will go bad- it always does. And when it does, the old ways of the world will return; in which pokemon step all over one another with nary a regard for their partners and friends. And when that day comes it will only be one more reminder for the history books that there is no such thing as a fair system- there only exists the timeless wicked way of the world.

Hate.

It was nighttime.

Audino had always been a bit of a superstitious 'mon. She had depleted her store of herbs early this month, but dared not return to the School Forest to collect new ones before the full moon had come again lest she break her lucky streak and find herself awash without a paddle.

Luckily, she had a backup in place for this very occasion (Although such a situation had not occurred before now). The Open Pass; a dungeon that lay to the west of Serenity Village, had a few choice bushes of herbs that Audino could easily use as substitutes until the next full moon. And in a brilliant stroke of luck, the dungeon was only four floors long. She would be gone almost the whole day just getting there, but Simipour knew where she was going and she had never been much for noisy holiday celebrations anyway.

The bad news was that all the escape orbs in Serenity Village had been used by the school for the end-of-semester Dungeon Class test, which left Audino without an escape plan should trouble find her once more. Not that she couldn't defend herself if it came to it, but she preferred to avoid fights entirely whenever she could.

It was a long way out, and it had taken her nearly all day to reach the dungeon. And it seemed the dungeon was making her work for her herbs as well. She had searched the first and second floors thoroughly before moving on; nearly confident that the bushes weren't there. But at the same time; doubts plagued her head- she didn't know every nook and cranny of the Open Pass like she knew the School Forest. Perhaps she had missed them; or they simply weren't there and all her efforts had been a waste. And when she stepped up the stairs and ascended to the third floor of the dungeon, she shivered as she felt the air suddenly change. The dungeon was evil here. Even the ferals had taken note; for Audino was not accosted once as she walked through the semi-labyrinth that the forest twisted into.

Every so often she would hear a Swish in the distance; as if somemon was walking through the tall grass that dotted the dungeon here and there. But no other 'mon ever greeted Audino's eyes when she glanced in the sounds' direction, and so she made the hesitant assumption that it was simply a hiding dungeon 'mon, and continued on her way.

An hour later; when Audino had nearly finished exploring the third floor completely and was beginning to lose hope of there being any medicinal herbs within the dungeon's boundaries, her eyes caught sight of a bush that matched the ones in the School Forest- an herb bush. She quickly kneeled over it, rooting around in the dirt to make sure they were the right herbs. Upon finding that they were, she began to uproot them from the ground and stuff them in her bag as fast as possible. The sooner she could get out of here; the better.

Swish. Audino froze. She whipped her head around. There was nothing there. At least; it seemed like there was nothing there.

It was only thanks to Audino's stellar hearing that she managed to notice the pokemon sneaking up upon her from the other side. The only warning she had was the sudden change in the way the air sounded, and she only had the time to quickly duck as what looked like a large shadow ball flew over her head. From out of the shadows flew a beheeyem, hurtling towards her like a speeding haunter with its limbs held out in front of it. Audino rolled out of the beheeyem's way and watched as it uncontrollably flew past her, then picked herself and her bag up and ran in the opposite direction. The stairs were just down the hallway anyway. It was time to get out of here.

By the time the mid-air-beheeyem was able to turn itself around and come back for Audino, the pokemon was already quickly closing in upon the stairs. It didn't try to go after her just yet.

Audino didn't even spare the beheeyem a look as she ran for the stairs. She was too close to bother with that. Just a few seconds more-

-Audino suddenly dug her feet into the ground, trying to stop until it was too late. Where the stairs had been there was now nothing but the twisted barrier of tree roots that made up the absolute ends of the dungeon. Audino put her hands up against the roots in horror. Where had the stairs gone?!

The air shifted – once more, then twice – and she spun around to notice that she was being approached on all sides by the trio of beheeyem. They closed in; faster and faster, until they were so close it was practically impossible for Audino to escape at all. She would have fought them like any other dungeon 'mon, but something in the way they moved threw her off from it; back then in the School Forest and now.

"What do you want from me?" she asked them in the most level voice she could summon. They had to be intelligent- dungeon 'mon would have attacked her by now.

The beheeyem said nothing. Instead, all three of them slowly raised their limbs in her direction. The lights attached to the ends of their wrists flashed, and even though they had said nothing Audino somehow knew what they wanted: Espurr. The child that had woken up in her clinic a week ago. They wanted Espurr.

And she wasn't exactly in a place to refuse them.

"Alright," she breathed, carefully shouldering her exploration bag. "I'll take you to her."


"It's summertime!"

A well-placed Ember sent several ducks and geese flapping over the fences of their enclosure, honking and quacking loudly. Seconds later, Tricky sent the entire flock scattering in an even louder cacophony of noises.

"Vat?! Vat iz the meaning of zis? Tricky! You monster!"

"Sorry Hippopatas! I forgot about the- ack! Geese! Geeses!" A particularly largish goose had taken the opportunity to chomp down upon Tricky's tail, and began to run her down the moment she bolted back towards the pen.

Hippopotas glared daggers in Tricky's direction as the geese continued to exact their revenge upon her.

"Zerves 'er right."



Slowly coming to. Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily to the grating tune of somemon banging on the windowpanes of the school clinic.

Wearily, she glanced at the window. Her vision was too blurry to make out who was currently banging on the window, but… the sun shouldn't have been that high.

…

She'd slept in!

Espurr quickly sat up in her bed, brushing the straw out of her fur. She had wanted to visit the library today... How come Nurse Audino hadn't woken her? In fact, where was Nurse Audino? The clinic was completely deserted.

"Espurr!"

Almost completely deserted. Espurr blinked a couple of times to clear her vision, then looked at the window despite having a good idea who was banging on it.

Sure enough, Tricky was outside, waving frantically at Espurr from the other side of the window. Espurr spent a few seconds catching her balance, then got the door for her.

"What are you doing still sleeping?" Tricky quickly asked once Espurr had let her inside the school clinic. "It's summertime! We should be going exploring! We won't have time to later today!"

Espurr hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. She stared at Tricky with a sort of half-confused stupor that could only be managed by a 'mon who hadn't fully woken up yet.

"Aren't we gonna use the expedition gadget?" Tricky asked; oblivious. "We can do real missions now! You don't just get that kind of awesomeness and not use it all at once!"

"Tricky…" Espurr groaned, resisting the urge to sleepily bang her head into something- however tempting it was. "We can't use the exploration gadget if we don't know how it works yet…"


Espurr and Tricky had agreed beforehand that the expedition gadget Ampharos had granted them would stay at the school (Not least because Carracosta would ground Tricky for the entire summer if he were to ever find out they had it). Which meant that for the time being, Espurr was its caretaker. She had stashed it inside one of the three packed straw beds that lay inside the clinic (Which in hindsight was a terrible decision, but at the time it had seemed like the best option for a hiding spot).

Seeing that Tricky would not be dissuaded, Espurr wearily dug the gadget out of the straw, setting it on the ground and looking over its sleek – dead – surface with Tricky.

"Well…" Tricky was clearly digging for ideas at this point. "Um… wow. I guess we do need help... What- what did Ampharos say again? Something about a blue orb? And gastradon?"

"He said…" Espurr tried to remember exactly what Ampharos had said. Which was a bit hard when her mind was sleep addled as she was. "I think… 'just insert a blue orb and you're as good as a gastradon!'"

It wasn't a very good impression of Ampharos. Really kind of squeaky, and Espurr felt a little embarrassed immediately after she had said it. Tricky's ears perked up at the sound of 'blue orb'.

"You mean the one you left at my house two days ago?" she asked excitedly.

Espurr suddenly felt a lot less clever. It was all she could do to slip the gadget inside Gabite's old exploration bag in time to follow Tricky out the door.


The townspokemon of Serenity Village seemed extra jolly today. Everymon was out in the village square, chatting with each other and hanging decorations from the luminous moss streetposts and buying things from Kecleon's stall. Espurr had only been here a week, and yet she had never seen things so… lively. She shouldered Gabite's old exploration bag, which she had barely remembered to pack before they left.

Perhaps it was because it was just the start of summer and this was how the village looked in summertime, but Espurr wanted to ask about all the decorations that were being hung. Was this some kind of special event? Tricky seemed to be right at home, prancing through the square (And occasionally into other pokemon) without a care in the world. It was all Espurr could do to keep up and sightsee at the same time.

"Oh! Hi, Espurr." Deerling tried to greet Espurr the best she could, who had briefly stopped for a moment to catch her breath and untwist her legs (She was still getting used to her legs). Deerling was with her mother, who was currently waiting in the long, long line for Kecleon's. Tricky, who had backtracked her way over to Espurr after noticing that she was no longer keeping up, did not receive the same warmness. Deerling simply turned away and refused to acknowledge her at all.

"These are your friends from school?" Espurr looked up to see that Deerling's mother had turned away from the line to look at Espurr and Tricky. She looked at Espurr. "I think you came over once, right? To play chess?"

Espurr nodded. "I'm Espurr."

"She's new," Deerling added helpfully.

"I see. Are you excited for the festivities tonight?" Deerling's Mother asked.

Espurr was sorely inclined to ask what festivities were taking place tonight, but she didn't want to weird Deerling's family out, so she settled for a vague nod instead.

"Alright then. Go play, you three. You don't need to stick with me." The comment was directed towards Deerling, and she was gently nudged towards Espurr and Tricky. Deerling's Mother turned back towards the line, and then it was clear there would be no more talking with her. Deerling quickly shook herself off, then walked around Tricky gingerly.

"Mom thinks the shopping goes faster without me," Deerling explained as soon as they were on the other side of the square. "She's been trying to find an excuse to get me away from her ever since we started. She doesn't think that, y'know, maybe I actually like shopping…"

Deerling shook her head. "Anyways- where're you headed?" she asked Espurr.

"We're going exploring!" Tricky helpfully added from behind Deerling. Deerling waited for Espurr's answer.

"To Tricky's house. Then the library." Espurr's response was curt and simple. Tricky danced all around them, trying to find a good place to slot herself in. Eventually she just settled for walking on the other side of Espurr, which was as far she could get from Deerling's wrath while still remaining with the group.

Deerling tilted her head at Espurr. "You… don't know what's happening today, do you?"

Tricky's eyes practically bugged out of her head with disbelief.

"You don't know?" she couldn't help but blurt out. "It's Deerling Day!"

"What's Deerling Day?" Espurr had to ask. Finally; she was going to know why all the lampposts were being strung up with decorations!

"Deerling Day celebrates the start of summer," Deerling cut in before Tricky could respond. "Since Deerlings' coats change with the season, when Deerling Day is celebrated depends upon when a Deerling's coat changes. But nowadays mostly everymon just celebrates it at the start of Summer Vacation. It makes more sense that way."

Tricky was looking extremely peeved at Deerling's silent treatment.

The three of them walked past 'Hawlucha's Slam School', which (Unlike the Café Connection and Kecleon's) wasn't getting business at all. The sight of the tent turned Deerling's head for a moment.

"I wonder what's in there…" she muttered to herself, before looking back at Espurr.

"I think I'll go see the inside of that tent for a minute," Deerling said. "Mom never goes in there. Coming?" she asked Espurr.

"But Espurr…" Tricky whined. "We're supposed to go get the-" realizing what she was about to say at the last second, Tricky quickly covered her mouth and cleared her throat dramatically. "The thing…"

Deerling gave them both 'you're weird' glances. "Anyways… have fun 'exploring'," she said; making her disdain of the last word evident, and then she turned around and walked off towards Hawlucha's (still empty) Slam School.

"Are you hungry?" Tricky blurted out in Deerling's absence. "'Cause I… sorta skipped breakfast too. Summertime and all that. I'm sure Pops will make us some!"


"Good morning Mist, and welcome back to another episode of the Jellicent Show, where we pair a hotshot reporter with a couple of celebrities and let the sparks fly! Sometimes literally. Wink-wink."

"We're coming to you today from Cloud Nine, currently cruising over the tourist hotspot that is the Great Glacier. For anymon in the possession of a TV set, you can see for yourselves just how stunning the Great Glacier really is! For those of you tuning in on the radio… well, you'll just have to take our word for it."

"Oh, but what a word it is. On the reporting side of things, we have Meowth, the leader of an up-and-coming news outlet in Lively Town. Meowth; do you have anything to say to our viewers here?"

"Well, I'd like to say that it's a pleasure to be here, Jellicent. And I'd also like to urge our viewers to check out the Lively Town Times-"

"Alrighty; moving on~"

"And for our celebrity fix, we have… the famed magnagate researchers who've been in a tizzy ever since their field of research was banned, Espeon and Umbreon!"

"Thank you for the introduction, Jellicent; although 'tizzy' isn't the word I believe either of us would use to describe our current state of minds."

"Really? Tell us more, please."

"We'd use… 'cautiously optimistic.'"

"We're planning to appeal in favor of the ban's removal in less than a month. We're hopeful the council will see things from our point of view, and lift the ban."

"…I see. Am I correct in my assumption that the initial ban had somewhat of a negative effect on you two?"

"Oh don't even get me started."

"Well, I'm sure our viewers would love to hear the story behind that…"

"Breakfast time is over," Carracosta grunted in answer to Tricky's question (plea). He deftly moved the large cooking spoon he was using to stir whatever was in that big pot of his to his right flipper, using the left to turn down the dial of the radio on the kitchen counter (Also a commodity from Lively Town).

"But Pops…" Tricky whined, her tail flat against the kitchen floor. "I didn't eat breakfast yet!"

"You should have eaten when it was breakfast time," Carracosta replied.

Tricky made a show of pouting on the kitchen floor. Espurr stood beside her, taking in Tricky and her pseudo temper tantrum. She discreetly sniffed the air. Carracosta's place smelled good. There were all sorts of smells in the air – some she recognized, like berries and cakes and even a fish, and others she didn't, but all of them made her mouth water equally. There was one smell coming from the pot simmering on that stove that smelled absolutely divine, and Espurr was now sorely wistful that she hadn't grabbed something from the school clinic to eat on the way down to the village. Her stomach remembered it was hungry and grumbled. Tricky's ears twitched at the sound of it, and she abandoned her forlorn puppy act immediately.

"But Pops," Tricky began. "Espurr hasn't eaten yet. You can't let two children starve. That's kit abuse!"

Espurr could tell from the way Carracosta moved that he didn't buy that for one minute. He let out a throaty sigh of defeat anyway, like this was the only way he was going to get Tricky out of his face for the day. "Fine. Have some berries. Then you wait until dinner."

Tricky immediately leapt to life, scurrying over to the table where several large pans of un-iced cake layers sat.

"And no touching the cake!" Carracosta yelled after them. Tricky's ears drooped for a second. She grumbled. Then she snatched a couple of berries from the bowl on the counter and handed one to Espurr the best she could with her mouth.

The front door opened again; albeit less forcefully than when Tricky had practically kicked it in. Espurr's head turned towards the door- who else would be inside Carracosta's house?

"I got tha- tha things from tha pantry," a voice rang out from outside the doorway. Espurr's ears perked up. She knew that voice… (Or rather; process of elimination dictated there was only one 'mon that had an accent that thick and had any reason to be in Carracosta's home.) It was Nuzleaf!

And just like that, Espurr quickly took off for the hall. He couldn't see her!

Nuzleaf bumped the door closed behind him and set down the sacks of ingredients he was holding. He looked at the slowly settling kitchen.

"…Di' I miss somethin'?"


Tricky rolled upside down on her bed, staring at Espurr flatly.

"Are you gonna stay there forever, or what?"

Espurr slowly peeked out the doorway, where Nuzleaf had thankfully moved out of the doorways' view of the kitchen (For now). Setting the core of the appleberry she had just finished eating aside, she quickly darted to the other side of Tricky's room, unloading Gabite's tattered old exploration bag next to Tricky's bed and pulling out the expedition gadget.

"Where's the orb?" Espurr asked.

Tricky froze. "I… Wait just a sec."

Quickly, she rolled off her bed and half-dove under it in one fluid movement, rifling and rattling through junk until she finally emerged with a transparent blue orb clutched in her paws. "Here!"

"Ah- Fire! Fire!" Nuzleaf's voice suddenly emerged from the kitchen, accompanied by sudden scrambling movements, the clatters of a few pans, and then the sudden sizzling of water against a hot surface..

"It's out; it's out now. Calm down."

Espurr heard Nuzleaf pant in relief. "Ruin'd tha soup, though…"

"It's alright. We have ingredients for more. Let's just work on getting back on track."

Espurr quickly moved a bit closer to the wall.

"Ya gonna take this thing or not?" Tricky was still stretched out on the floor; the orb in her paws dramatically. Espurr quickly took it once she noticed. Tricky hopped back on the bed, trying to get a better look from above than she could from below.

There was a large, sphere-sized indent in the middle of the gadget that looked just about the right size for the orb Espurr held in her hands. Carefully, she stuck the orb in, hearing a resounding 'click' as it connected to the machine.

The gadget suddenly sprang to life, startling both Tricky and Espurr and causing both to jump back a bit. It whirred silently for a second, and then suddenly Tricky's room was filled with bright blue light.

It took Espurr a second to realize what it was, and where it came from. One minute; the room had been lit normally, and now the upper walls and the roof were covered in an ocean blue the same as the orb. Tricky rubbed her eyes, then gazed up at the roof along with Espurr.

"Wow… this is aMAZ-" Tricky lowered her voice at the last minute. "-I mean, wow… holy mystery dungeon…"

A few pots crashed from the kitchen, causing Espurr to glance hurriedly at the doorway for a second. It was still weird to believe that Tricky's room didn't have a door.

"Think we can set it up on the wall?" Tricky asked.

Half a minute later, the expedition gadget was projecting its display onto the wall instead of the roof. Espurr and Tricky sat on Tricky's bed, studying it from afar. It hadn't taken long for Espurr to guess that the overing portraits that now decorated the wall were missions of some kind.

"I wanna study it up-close…" Tricky grumbled.

"But we'll block out the light if we do that, Espurr pointed out. It wasn't like they hadn't tried already. More than once. With a broom, unexplainably.

"I know…" Tricky mumbled.

"Look at that one." Espurr pointed to the top-left portion of the wall, where just one of the many, many hovering portraits on the wall dwelled. Spread out all large on the wall like this; the text was just large enough for Espurr to read. "Retrieve bag of poke from Wooloo Plains. Client: Eevee. Mission Rank: A. Reward: Half the bag of poke."

Tricky's ears shot up straight, and then she sat up straight. Her face gleamed with both excitement and mischief. "Did you just say wooloo?"


"…That's the last of the soup vegetables."

Carracosta uncurled his flipper from around a large knife, removing the cutting board filled with neat piles of vegetables from one side of the counter and dumping them all into the large stock pan that currently sat beside the stove. Nuzleaf, who had just finished preparing one of Hippopatas' large geese, hesitantly tried to figure out how to set it over the fireplace without burning himself as well. Carracosta set the cutting board on the counter and quickly tromped over to the fireplace.

"I'll stick it in there. Why don't you go check if the cakes have risen yet? It's about high time we start icing them."

Nuzleaf gratefully handed the pan of goose to Carracosta, then haphazardly wiped his hands off on the apron he was wearing. "Y-yeah… I'll jus' go do tha' instead."

No sooner had Carracosta set the goose properly in the oven and Nuzleaf walked off to check on the cakes did Espurr carefully walk towards the door, apparently trying not to be noticed. Carracosta humored her.

"Epfur waiffor meeeee!"

Carracosta saw Espurr glance back towards the hallway; her cover blown. Tricky bounded into the kitchen; the scarves Carracosta hadn't seen for so long hanging from her mouth. He hadn't seen those scarves since… Carracosta continued to play dumb, sautéing the soup vegetables purely from muscle memory. One eye discreetly stayed trained on Espurr and Tricky the entire time.

"Take one!" Tricky spat out the scarves and pushed one towards Espurr. She worked the other one around her neck, shaking herself off to let it settle properly.

"What's it for?" Espurr asked cautiously.

"It's an explorer's scarf!" Tricky explained to Espurr excitedly. "Pops got them for me from Lively Town when I was five. Now I want you to have one!"

It took a minute, but eventually Carracosta saw Espurr pick up the scarf and fit it around her neck. "Thank you," he heard her say.

Carracosta didn't even make an attempt to move until Espurr was outside the door and Tricky was about to follow.

"Remember to be back before dark," he warbled before Tricky could exit the door.

"Uh…" Tricky stopped dead in her tracks. "…Yeah! We'll do that! Bye Pops!"

And with that, she was gone before Carracosta could blink. He shook his head in dismissal, then curled his flipper around the radio's volume dial once again and turned it up.

"…And now a final question from your hosts! Can you authenticate the claims from my source that things have been getting a little… 'steamy' between you two; shall we say?"

"Who told you that?!"

"W-who told you that?!"

"And that's the end of this episode of the Jellicent show! Tune in next week for more celebrity shenanigans~"

"Alright, listen up! You'd better 'authenticate' the name of your source to me right now so I can claw their eyes out!"



It was Dedenne's day off from the Expedition Society, and that meant Mawile was doing a lot more walking around the base than she was used to. The experience gave her a new appreciation for all the jobs that Dedenne performed throughout the day; when expedition gadget communications were temporarily down and there was no-mon to transport Mawile's dictations around the base for her. Not to mention that she had found several deficiencies in places Dedenne would not have thought to look (Like how one of the large vents near the food vault had become partially clogged, or the barrel of half-eaten leftovers in the kitchen that was tucked away in what had initially seemed like a dish cupboard).

And after the week-long trip she had just underwent to the Air Continent and back, Mawile was beginning to feel as if she should extend her one period of sleep a week into two periods (However far that would knock her off her schedule).

She and Jirachi had begun to convert the photos into physical versions of themselves in the observatory (Which was currently off-limits to all but the Executive Staff). Which, Jirachi being Jirachi, would take upwards of a day to complete once they had fed them all into Jirachi's outdated printer. Just about three days with copies. And that left Mawile to deal with bigger fish to fry:

Primarina.

Mawile was more than convinced at this point that Ambassador Primarina drove his servants insane daily. Every day at exactly 11:00, he required that a cold bath be drawn for him; lest he 'dry out' in the harsh summer heat. After marinating in the bath for almost half an hour, Primarina demanded breakfast, but would not have anything from the luxurious breakfast spread Swirlix had cooked just for him that day (Mawile dearly hoped she wasn't going to try something drastic like giving Primarina food poisoning). Buizel had ended up going down to the market to purchase a supply of fresh-caught oysters, which were what Primarina subsisted on for breakfast every morning.

At 12:30, Braixen had emerged from the guest room that had been set up for him (Primarina was using Ampharos' vacant office/bedroom) and eaten Swirlix' breakfast spread before Swirlix herself could, which led to one of Swirlix' food-related temper tantrums and the chef swearing revenge upon the food thief (Mawile was now worried enough for Braixen that she had his meals purchased separately from whatever Swirlix was serving that night).

Around 3:00, the majority of the Expedition Society was out doing activities of their own choice. That was around the time Primarina had declared that he was bored and needed entertainment. Mawile had directed him to the Expedition Society's library as well as the drying facilities, but Primarina had claimed he 'didn't read'. Mawile had politely informed him that he was out of luck, then, and returned to her work with Jirachi. Primarina had promptly taken a trip around Lively Town, and it later took the combined efforts of Buizel, Bunnelby, and Dedenne (Who happened to be with her family in the restaurant across the street and did not appreciate her day off being disturbed so rudely) to get him out of a bar fight he had caused during a drunken bar stupor he had also caused.

The bar tab Primarina had racked up was large enough to put a sizeable dent in the Expedition Society's funds.

It had apparently affected his health as well. He could barely balance himself when Buizel and Bunnelby hauled him in through the doors, and he was muttering all kinds of inane gibberish Mawile couldn't even hope to decipher. She inwardly sighed. It looked like he would need the medic. Instinctively Mawile reached for her expedition gadget to call Nickit, but then remembered that communications were down today and everything was being done manually. How silly of her.

(Jirachi really needed to fix that intercom.)




Cards were a game best played over the course of hours. At least, that was how Nickit liked to play them. It was a game where you kept your hand secret, stalking ever-closer to your unwitting prey like a midnight lycanroc; the winning card in your claw. But you had to be careful about how you did it, because if the other players were to figure out you had the winning claw, you got sniped. And Nickit hated being sniped. She did that to other pokemon, not the other way around!

Alternatively, you could play your claw all at once and steal the catch for yourself (Like Murkrow almost always tried to do), but Nickit preferred the long con. The trick was to draw it out until everymon else was high-strung and on their last strings, and you could be sure no-mon else could snipe you. Except that Murkrow had pitifully tried to play the long con once, and Nickit had still sniped him anyway.

"Prepare to suffer," Murkrow suddenly stated; somehow smirking with a beak. "Weep at the sight of my great orange wings!" he slammed a card down on the table; face-up. Nickit looked at what it was.

Moltres. Murkrow ruffled his feathers in smug satisfaction. Nickit almost snickered and let the jig up. He really thought that would save him.

"But if I cry, you'll die," she told him.

"Dying builds character."

Nickit sniped him. Silvally. She had gotten the card during a random redraw of claws, and had been holding on to it for a moment exactly like this. Silvally was the most powerful card in the deck, after all (And the only way Murkrow had ever won against her).

Murkrow breathed in deeply, then out again. Nickit could tell he was calming himself.

"This always happens," he grumbled. Like a mannequin, his body began to stiffly reach for the empty card box.

"You never try," Nickit drawled. "Always the same thing, every time. You're even beginning to bore me a little."

"But no-mon else will play cards with you, so I guess you're stuck with boring old me," Murkrow said as he put them back in the box.

"Ain't that a shame."

Murkrow set the card box back in its place behind the chests of poke. "I assume our plans for tonight are still on?"

"Duh. Spinda's?"

"I was actually thinking of the place where they only serve vegetarian noodles."

"You hate me."

"You do not like noodles?"

"…You know what? How does a bird even eat noodles?"

"How does a fox eat noodles?"

"From a plate. Your turn."

"…Not very cleanly."

"Alright. We'll go eat vegetarian noodles, and I will take embarrassing pictures of you eating on the expedition gadget."

"-Spinda's is fine."

A loud 'bang' from outside the door of the vault startled both Nickit and Murkrow. They quickly looked towards the door of the vault, as a series of clicks came from the outside and the large metal door slowly opened.

"Somehow I knew I would find the two of you in here," Mawile stated aloofly as she walked in. she turned to Nickit, her hands formally clasped behind her back. "Your presence is urgently required in the main hallway, Nickit. That'll be all."

And then she left.


"I had to tell him it was a poffin – and he was drunk enough to believe me – but I managed to knock him out with a sleep seed." Nickit, Mawile, Bunnelby, and Braixen all stood at the foot of the straw bed in Ampharos' vacant office, where Primarina currently lay. "He'll be like that until tomorrow," Nickit added. "Ooh, he's gonna feel bad tomorrow. But he'll sleep it off. Just don't give him any medicinal berries for the next couple of days and he'll be fine."

"That doesn't look 'fine'." Braixen glanced over Primarina's comatose body anxiously. Nickit felt woozy for a minute just looking at him.

"He'll be fine," Nickit snapped at him. "I'm the doctor."

Braixen looked like he wanted to argue on that, but glanced at the other two pokemon in the room and decided against it. He silently bared his fangs at Nickit, then abruptly left.

"…'Don't think I like him much," Bunnelby commented once Braixen was out of earshot.



Espurr didn't know how she had managed to let this happen.

Actually- scratch that, she did know. She was just in disbelief at the fact that it had happened in the first place.

By using the exploration bag to catch the gadget's display as they walked, Espurr had been able to find a brief description of the mystery dungeon on the gadget's logs- Wooloo Plains had originally been a field of grasslands before a mystery dungeon had formed over it and tragically ensnared an entire flock of wooloo (who were now the dungeon's inhabitants) within it. Its placement blocked off the straightest line to and from Serenity Village, and even the beaten path gave it a wide berth.

The dungeon itself was only about a fifteen-minute leisurely walk away from Serenity Village; however, and the two explorers had found Eevee waiting there for them outside the dungeon's entrance. She hastily explained to them that she was in a hurry and she wanted to have her money back by nightfall. Which didn't seem too hard, considering that it was still afternoon.

The vast plains that stood before them had been barely recognizable as a mystery dungeon from a distance, but now that Espurr had seen it up close she could see it reflected in all the little things. The little bits and pieces that added up to tell you that the place was just wrong. She could even taste the tiniest hint of the mystery dungeon's foul scent on her tongue.

However, Tricky was not disturbed by the dungeon's wrongness in the slightest, and Espurr was almost unwillingly pulled along into the dungeon before Eevee could even bid them good luck (Although it didn't seem like she was going to).

"Aww, come on…" Tricky groaned once they had entirely combed the dungeon's first floor (There were three and the anchorstone; according to the expedition gadget). "Where are all the wooloo?!"

Espurr said she'd rather they didn't run into the wooloo before they ran into the bag of poke. Which was fair.

"Are they all sleeping?" Tricky whined; her cries reverberating through the dungeon's deserted second floor. "It's not even dark yet…"

By the third floor she was just grumbling to herself. Espurr was overjoyed to find the bag of poke hanging from a low tree branch shaped like a hook. Perhaps they wouldn't even need to deal with the wooloo!

"Tricky I can see the stairs from here," Espurr said, having stopped in front of an offhand dungeon corridor that Tricky had rocketed past without a second thought. The fennekin backtracked, glancing down the same corridor Espurr was.

"Oh. There they are. Hah…"

The anchorstone looked almost nothing like the rest of the dungeon. True to its name, it really was a large, rolling plain, with scattered trees all throughout. It looked from the inside just how Wooloo Plains had looked from the outside – breathtaking. Barren. Dead. Despite all appearances it was clear to Espurr that they were still in the mystery dungeon. And they still had no idea where all those wooloo were.

Espurr glanced up at the sky. She looked at the position of the sun. It was… almost evening. Had they really spent that long in there? Even if they had combed all that ground… now that she thought about it, the journey had been longish and tiring. She even felt a bit fatigued all over.

The same couldn't be said for Tricky.

"How big is this place?" Tricky asked excitedly. "Ooooh- do you think the wooloo are here, Espurr?" she couldn't help but let her tail wag furiously in excitement. Espurr, however, had her sights set on a dead tree in the distance.

"We can find out," she said, pointing straight at it.

Tricky climbed the tree first. It took Espurr (who was carrying all the supplies and was a mite bit slower than Tricky) a minute, but eventually she managed to pull herself up into the barren canopy along with Tricky, who was glancing ahead astutely.

"I don't see any…" Tricky murmured with disappointment. Espurr quickly crawled beside her and began to study the distance from the branch they were both current perched behind. If she squinted, it seemed like she could almost see the ethereal barriers of the anchorstone in the distance… but all those smaller branches were in the way. She could barely see over them all. She needed to get a little closer.

Looking left and then right to make sure that nothing would take her by surprise, Espurr carefully began to crawl out onto the branch. The exploration bag she was wearing threw her off her balance a little, but she was quickly able to regain it. If only there weren't so many in the way… maybe she could break a few off.

And then Tricky gasped.

"Look!" she screeched, pointing with a paw in the direction opposite Espurr. "Wooloo!"

Espurr could already feel the faint vibrations reverberating through the tree branch. She turned her head to look in the direction that Tricky was pointing, and then she saw it: An entire massive flock of wooloo, all charging as one directly in their direction.

Berry crackers.

Before Espurr knew it the stampede was upon them, and once they reached the tree the vibrations were so bad it was all Espurr could do to hang on for dear life. And then the exploration bag began to slip. No- no no no no-

Espurr barely caught it just as it slipped off her arm. The bag hang from the tree unsteadily, suspended in midair only by Espurr's grip. Espurr glanced down at the stampeding wooloo below her, trying to pull the bag back up onto the branch. But it was so heavy now that it had both the expedition gadget and the sack of poke and all Gabite odd and ends inside it, and Espurr suddenly realized with horror that she was sliding off the branch instead-

"Tricky- help!" Espurr called out, unwilling to sacrifice the bag but not wanting to fall either. Tricky snapped out of her amazed stupor to snap her head in Espurr's direction, but she was too slow- before Tricky could reach the tree branch, Espurr fell.

She landed on the back of a wooloo in the middle of the herd. The exploration bag landed a second after her and smacked the wooloo in the face. It brayed loudly, losing control for a second and bumping into the wooloo to its left before steadying itself. Espurr quickly grabbed the straps of the exploration bag before it could fall off and dug her fingers into the wooloo's wool so she wouldn't slip off completely.

The herd continued on without another care in the world at the same fur-rippling speeds they had been going at beforehand. Espurr used both the exploration bag and her grip on the wooloo's fluff to pull herself properly onto its back. She looked behind the wooloo, taking in all the others flocking in the same direction exactly behind it. There was no way out. She would just have to wait until the herd calmed down.

And that was how Espurr ended up riding on the back of a stampeding herd of wooloo for all of half a minute. She had barely begun to catch her breath when she realized something was happening at the front of the flock- it looked like the wooloo at the very head of the herd was now… rolling. And then two. And then three. And then too many to count, all travelling through the herd… and down to her. Espurr's eyes widened. Could she just not catch a break?

The expedition bag jostled a bit, and Espurr remembered it was still sort of lodged on the wooloo's head.

That gave her an idea.

Steadying herself on the wooloo's back, Espurr carefully nudged the bag over the wooloo's eyes. It brayed loudly again at the loss of its vision, but Espurr kept it steady. If the wooloo couldn't see what was happening in the flock ahead of it then it wouldn't roll itself up into a ball and crush her. That was what she was gambling on. It spread further and further down through the flock, until Espurr could see exactly what was happening in up-close detail. The wooloo's ears twitched. Espurr's eyes darted over to those, and then she grabbed them. The wooloo brayed perhaps the loudest Espurr had heard it yet, and then began to shake its head around wildly in an attempt to throw Espurr off.

Espurr barely held on. And even then, it was by letting go of the creature's ears and hoping that its wool was a good enough cushion to catch her (It was). And then the wooloo shook off the expedition bag. It hit Espurr smack in the face, but she had more important things to worry about- it could see now! It was going to-

And then Espurr's face suddenly ate dirt. It took her a moment to figure out what had happened, and in that time she was trampled by so many rolling wooloo she couldn't even hope to have counted them all.

And for some reason, she wasn't dead. Espurr then realized- wooloo felt like the softest thing in the world! It was like being trampled by a herd of blankets, and she didn't feel crushed in the slightest. By the time Espurr had regained enough of her bearings and energy to even try moving again, the herd was past. She turned herself over in the soggy dirt, gasping for air. That had been the most… exhilarating moment of her life! (At least; as much as she could live in about a week, but still.)

She was disturbed from her thoughts by a sudden chill that ran through the air. To her right, a massive wall of mist slowly encroached. It would have been breathtaking if it were only anywhere outside of a mystery dungeon, but Espurr wasn't going to fall for that. They were done here.

The lengthy trudge back to the tree they had been both perched on took a full five minutes, and it was more than enough to fully calm Espurr down. Her breath no longer came back in shaky, ragged gasps, and her limbs weren't trembling from excitement anymore. She exhaled one final time as she glanced up at the tree, which was empty-

"Espurr!"

Tricky pounced on Espurr out of nowhere, knocking her to her side unceremoniously.

"What happened to you?" Tricky asked. She looked like she was trying to keep up appearances for appearances' sake, but Espurr could tell she was shaken. "I was gonna go look, but I thought- I…"

She shook her head. "…Nothing. Can we go now? I think I've seen enough wooloo for today…"

"Agreed." Espurr nodded, then got to her feet. They both looked at the ominous wall of fog that currently loomed over them. "I think I saw the stairs in that direction."


Eevee had definitely parted with a little less than half the bag of poke. However, Espurr didn't think it was worth haggling out and Tricky just plain hadn't noticed, so no other words were exchanged over it, and the mission was considered a success. Eevee had accompanied them back to Serenity Village (as she had been on her way there in the first place before losing her bag of money), but she was silent the entire way and wouldn't speak a word even though Tricky kept bugging her.

The sky was already beginning to get dark by the time that they could see the wooden archway that stood above the village's entrance, but the village was already in full celebration mode. Colorful decorations hang from the houses, the streetlamps had been pre-emptively uncovered, and a large bonfire burned in the center of the plaza. The square was replete with pokemon who were talking with each other in groups, warming up by the bonfire, or eating something they had taken from one of the food tables. Some were even dancing. Espurr didn't think she had seen so many pokemon out and about in the village in… ever. She tried her best to shoulder the exploration bag (Which wasn't very easy when it was half as large as you were), feeling both the weight of the expedition gadget and the half-sack of poke rattling around in it.

Kecleon's stall had been rolled back, and so had Hawlucha's Slam School. A trio of long, tree-carved tables had been set up all along the borders of the square, all filled to the brim with eateries of every kind. Espurr and Tricky both glanced longingly at all the food- they hadn't eaten since breakfast! Eevee just gave them a weird look, walked over to the bench, discreetly snagged a bread roll, and trotted off somewhere.

The mud from Wooloo Plains had begun to clump up and stick to Espurr's coat, and it bugged her. She didn't want to be walking around town with unkempt fur in general, especially not like this! She'd have to wash it off in the river. Preferably before she ate anything. Espurr carefully removed the exploration bag from her shoulders, and handed it to Tricky.

"Want to carry this for a while?" she asked.

Like she suspected, Tricky was ecstatic at the prospect of carrying Gabite's old tattered bag for a while. But then she tilted her head in suspicion. "Where're you going?" she asked.

"Elsewhere," Espurr quickly answered. "I want to go get cleaned up."


The luminous lights and the spiderweb of decorations that hang above extended all the way along the beaches to the shore, but there were few if any pokemon loitering about there at all. Fine by Espurr. She didn't want anymon gawking at her as she washed all this nasty mud off anyway.

Tricky's scarf rustled against her neck, and then Espurr remembered it was there- she didn't want to ruin that. Undoing the tie and pulling it off, Espurr saw to her dismay that it had gotten dirtied just like the rest of her. She tried to brush the clumps of mud and dirt off, but to little avail. There were still small brown stains and clumps on the scarf by the time that she had accomplished all she could with her paws.

Oh, well. Assuming Tricky didn't ask for it back, Espurr could deal with that later. There was probably a way to wash them. There had to be.

The water of the shores was ice-cold to the touch, and it even made Espurr recoil the second she touched it. But it couldn't be helped. She needed to get cleaned up. She took a deep breath, made sure the scarf wouldn't blow off when she wasn't looking at it, and then she jumped into the water.

The mud came off easily underwater, even if it left Espurr's coat of fur soaked. Espurr almost forgot about the need to breathe for a minute, but she was reminded once the instinct to breathe began to kick in and she quickly resurfaced without hesitation, pulling herself back onto the beach and shaking her body off the best she could.

Maybe this had been a bad idea in hindsight. She felt freezing.

"I didn't know cat pokemon liked water."

Espurr gasped – actually gasped. Her head snapped in the direction the voice had come from. Deerling sat next to a few wooden crates that had been hastily lopped just out of the reach of the tides. Espurr straightened up immediately.

"W-what are you doing here?" she asked, trying to recover from the shock of being startled.

"Stargazing," Deerling replied. After Espurr's glance made it clear that she wasn't satisfied, Deerling continued: "Really I just wanted to get away from the party for a bit. You can only get hit on by Pancham so many times before you want to bash his head in with your own hooves… he didn't follow you here, right?"

Espurr quickly checked to make sure that Pancham indeed hadn't followed her, then shook her head no.

Deerling relaxed. "That's good, then. What about you? I don't see Tricky anywhere."

"Tricky's off eating," Espurr said.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." Deerling toyed with a large splinter in the box she was leaning forward on. She looked Espurr's soggy coat up and down uneasily. "Did you go exploring again?"

Espurr didn't see the point in lying. She causally nodded yes. Deerling's face sunk.

"You're… not being careful, are you?" she asked. "Tricky's rubbing off on you."

Espurr realized she didn't have a counter for that. Mostly because she had realized she couldn't deny it. And she didn't like the direction this conversation was going. "Perhaps… mystery dungeons are just dangerous," she improvised. "You come out of one squeaky clean and then talk to me."

Deerling sighed. "You're new. You probably don't know what hap-"

"Tricky told me already," Espurr interrupted. Deerling was silent for a moment; trying to process it all.

"I just…" Deerling paused, taking a deep breath. "I just don't want to see another Budew. I don't want to see another pokemon get hurt. You might think Tricky learns from her mistakes, but she doesn't. She always falls back into them. You're just going to get hurt. Please sto-"

"I'll do what I want, thank you," Espurr said, and then she snatched Tricky's scarf from off the sand and briskly walked off. Away from the beach. Away from Deerling. Back into the light. Back into the noise. She still felt cold. Maybe she could sit by the bonfire and warm up as she ate something. Espurr carefully retied the scarf around her neck so that she wouldn't lose it somewhere.

The pot of that soup that had smelled oh-so-heavenly earlier that morning sat on the middle table, and there was a makeshift set of stairs made out of a few boxes for pokemon too small to see over the top of the pot. Espurr carefully climbed to the top of the staircase and ladled herself some into one of the remaining wooden bowls that sat idly by the wayside.

"No! You will NOT eat like a dungeon feral in front of all these pokemon!"

"Buff Popff…"

"No buts! We practice manners here! You can eat like a civilized pokemon, or not at all!"

Espurr looked to her right, where Tricky and Carracosta were in the middle of a heated argument with each other (that was quickly turning into a lecture from Carracosta). By the time Espurr had managed to successfully transport herself and the bowl of soup off the makeshift crate staircase, Tricky looked like she had had enough of Carracosta's lecturing for the time being. Espurr didn't hear exactly what went on between them (Carracosta had made sure to lower his voice after the initial outburst), but she saw Tricky trot off in the opposite direction, and then Carracosta began to trudge in Espurr's.

"Espurr," he grunted in brief greeting as he passed her. Espurr watched him as he went. Yet another draft of summer evening breeze blowing through the square reminded her that her coat was still a bit damp. She needed to warm up. Taking a sip from the bowl (It tasted just as good as it had smelled), she began to walk towards the bonfire, looking for an unoccupied place she could sit. In the distance, Carracosta was talking to Nuzleaf, who seemed to be as far away from the fire as he could get, and Espurr couldn't see Tricky.

There was a spot on that currently empty log by the fire. Espurr quickly made a beeline for it, making sure to edge far in enough so that she couldn't see Nuzleaf or Carracosta anymore. And then, for the first time that day, Espurr relaxed. She took another sip of the soup. Somehow she had forgotten how pleasant it was to just 'sit' every once in a while, instead of trying to keep up with the world constantly. She could already feel the effects of the fire warming away the moisture on her coat. It was even a bit too toasty, now that she thought about it. Maybe there was a way to move this log out-

"Epferr there you are!" Tricky quickly trotted up to the log, an entire piece of a goose hanging from her mouth. She passed the log, curling up nearer to the fire than Espurr thought was safe for anymon and letting the goose piece fall to the ground in front of her. "I feel like I haven't eaten all day…" she proclaimed to no-mon in particular. Espurr felt the same way (And in a way it was true), but she was too busy drinking soup from the bowl to answer her. Tricky quickly did a perimeter check to make sure that Carracosta couldn't see her, then proceeded to tear into the piece of goose with a ferocity that would have scared off a dungeon 'mon.


The sky got darker, and the lights of Serenity Village shined brighter; long into the night. The bonfire was continuously fed and controlled so that it wouldn't burn out or burn down the town, and Espurr and Tricky were able to eat their fills from the various foods and drinks that had been laid out by both Carracosta, Nuzleaf, and Kangaskan's crew (Who were the only pokemon in the village with a lick of cooking sense; Espurr found out from a random liepard on an off-chance).

Sometime after the sky had fallen, four or five pokemon walked out into the square and began to play lively music for the inhabitants of the village. Some pokemon danced. Others ate. Still others loitered. A good few were holding conversations that quickly turned into yelling conversations against the music (And the music was beginning to win).

Eventually more and more pokemon began to dance, and even though Tricky thought it looked fun and wanted Espurr as a partner to join, Espurr could barely stand straight at that point. As fun as this had been, she wanted to rest now. She told Tricky as much, and went to grab the exploration bag that had been ignored next to the table where Tricky had left it.

On her way out of the square Espurr and Tricky managed to cross paths with Deerling once more. Deerling said nothing, simply taking in the two of them condescendingly, and then she walked off.


"I mean, what's her deal?!" Tricky spat as she followed Espurr up through towards the school. "Why does she hate us so much?"

The school looked just as deserted as it had this morning. Not even the lights in the School Clinic had been uncovered, and under the shade of night the entire school looked almost as creepy as the Ancient Barrow. Not that Espurr cared much. She just wanted to make it indoors at this point.

"So anyways," Tricky continued, as oblivious as ever. "Where d'you wanna go tomorrow? We can "

"Tricky…" Espurr wearily attempted to interrupt. She was ignored.

"Ooh- I've got this place- You're gonna love it-"

"Tricky!" Espurr half-yelled.

"What?" Tricky came to a stop, genuinely confused.

"I just want to go to sleep," Espurr mumbled, trying not to make it sound like she was on the verge of collapse. "Please."

"Oh," Tricky muttered, backing off a bit. "You could've just said."

Behind them, a light went out. Both Espurr and Tricky looked back at the sudden loss of light. The bonfire in the middle of the square had been extinguished, and the sounds of lively dancing music no longer drifted out from the square. The party was over.

"…I better go," Tricky said after a minute. "Pops probably wants me to help with the food pack-up. Night Espurr!"

And with that, she scurried off down the pathway, heading down the square with enough energy packed away that one would almost believe she hadn't been doing cartwheels in mystery dungeons the entire day. Espurr tried to return the favor by waving back, but Tricky didn't see it.



The celebrations in Lively Town were quieter this year. There hadn't been a parade or festivities of any sort, and for the most part Lively Town was looking particularly unlively tonight. Normally, the Expedition Society would have had fireworks imported from the Grass Continent to fire, but there had been a shipping delay and they hadn't arrived in time. The great big double doors of the Expedition Society's lobby closed after Murkrow and Nickit, and then Mawile had the base to herself.

Mostly to herself. She caught a glimpse of Braixen uneasily pacing outside Ampharos' office as she passed the hallway leading to it. She rubbed her forehead for a second to clear the sudden head rush, then left him alone. It looked like he needed some time to calm down, after all. Mawile walked over to the stairs that led to the third-floor observatory, and swiftly climbed them.


A gong crashed, unceremoniously rousing Jirachi from his sleep.

"Wha- wha…" he sleepily asked. "…Wha?"

"I assume you haven't talked to Nickit about replenishing that remedy yet?" Mawile asked, carefully setting the large gong-stick under the gong.

"…Yeah," Jirachi answered once he had assembled enough of his brain to do so. "I'll go talk to her later…" He yawned and stretched. "…Was gonna do it yesterday, but I fell asleep."

The observatory was currently a tangled mess of clotheslines that were empty and looked like a spiderweb. "Don't touch anything!" Jirachi called down to Mawile as he zipped up through the observatory to places only he could reach. "I know it looks like a mess, but I have a system!"

Any efficient system didn't entail covering the entire observatory in a mess so tangled even Jirachi had to jump hoops to navigate it, but Mawile wisely kept that to herself. Less than a moment later, Jirachi emerged once again from behind the brass telescope, descending to the ground with a few photos in his hands.

"See?" he asked. Newest photos up where no-mon'll see 'em, oldest ones near the bottom. And this is what I got. For now," he quickly added on at the last second. "Printer's still scanning the rest."

Mawile took the photos in her hands, and leafed through them. There were only twenty so far; out of the combined fifty that she and Archen had took together. Some general shots of the devastation, a few shots of petrified pokemon up-close; but the last one was what caught Mawile's attention: A picture of the entity that had attacked them that day. It wasn't the main focus, but a good portion of its body was in the photo. Mawile held the photo up in front of her, and studied it closely. She clutched that one in her right hand, handing the others back to Jirachi.

"I'll be keeping this one," she told him. Jirachi looked slightly hesitant, but what was he going to say? He just nodded and flew off to re-hang the photos before they could be lost.

Mawile entered her office (library), the photo still in her hands. Outside, she could hear Braixen endlessly pacing, but if that was how he wanted to spend his holiday then so be it. Mawile reached in her drawer and pulled out a chesto berry. She could subsist on one period of sleep a week after all. Tonight, she had research to do.



Audino was aware of the fact that for all intents and purposes, she was a prisoner.

She had been left the exploration bag once the beheeyem had gone through it and realized it was filled with nothing but harmless plants, but that was the only illusion of freedom that she got. She was made to walk ahead of the beheeyem as they made their way through the dungeon, with her hands clasped behind her back so that she wouldn't try to attack them out of nowhere. It just so happened that the beheeyem had already found the dungeon's third floor staircase – the real third floor staircase – which had crunched the time she had to come up with an escape plan of some sort by half. By now she was leading them around in circles and hoping they wouldn't notice as she looked for a chance to break away and run to where she knew the stairs out of the dungeon were.

The beheeyem's lights flickered behind her as she walked. Audino focused on them discreetly. The beheeyem had forgotten to close the psychic link to her brain. Which left her just as open to attack as it left them open to her spying efforts, but they didn't seem to realize it existed so Audino made no effort to clue them in on it. Instead, she focused on what they were saying; her mind unconsciously translating it into a mental imprint upon her brain whenever the lights on the end of their arms began to flicker again.

And what they were saying didn't put her any more at ease. They were getting tired of her leading. They were beginning to catch on to the fact that she was leading them around in circles. They were beginning to consider the idea of disposing of her. Audino very much didn't like the sound of those thoughts. She would have quickened her pace towards the stairs or possibly tried to make a run for it in any other situation, but with the mental link open it was too risky. From what she knew of psychic-types, a powerful-enough one coupled to your mind would be able to lock up your body in seconds. She'd never make it far, once they realized.

And then, a plan began to form. She'd have to break the mental link before they came around to the stairs again. Otherwise, she was done for.

Audino didn't expect the beheeyem to do it for her- even if she was crafty enough with words to convince them, she got the feeling they weren't open to talking. But she had read in a book she'd picked out from the library several months ago about a technique that helped the mind repel psychic-type pokemon. Calm Mind; it was called. And so; taking the utmost care to keep her pace across the dungeon floor steady, Audino closed her eyes, and tried her best to clear her head.

Psychic-type meddling reveled in a cluttered head, because the mental probes of a psychic-type could easily slip in unnoticed amongst the thoughts and noise. Calm Mind trained a pokemon to clear their head; to make the brain silent enough so that those psychic probes had nowhere to hide. And then the pokemon could snuff them out.

Unluckily, Audino had never been good at clearing her head. And she was on a time limit. She didn't think that the beheeyem would tolerate another round of the dungeon. She tried and tried; but to no avail- the thoughts of all the danger she was in weighed over her mind like an immovable wall, and she just couldn't make it disappear. Audino began to breath faster in fear despite herself. How was she going to get out of this?

No. She had to calm down if she wanted to maintain any hope of escaping. Surely there must be something else she could try. Audino adjusted the bag strap on her shoulder, and she suddenly felt the mental link in her head spike as one of the beheeyem snapped its head towards the movement. It faded almost as quickly as it came, but it gave Audino an idea. Slowly, Audino rustled the bag on her shoulder again. It was meant to look like she was uncomfortable with the strap on her shoulders, but if she could just locate that mind link again…

The mental spike came again, and this time Audino jumped on the opportunity. She couldn't clear her mind well enough to locate the psychic link on her own, but now that it had been brought to the forefront of her mind Audino quickly focused on that, and that alone, like it was her one chance at survival (Because it was). Within seconds, she had it in her mental grasp. But now what?

Audino kept her eyes closed, focusing on the link alone. How did she get rid of it? Could she cast it out with her mind alone? Audino doubted that was possible. Her feet stepped on a familiar twig, and without opening her eyes Audino knew that the stairs were coming up just ahead. How was she going to get rid of the mental link in time? She needed to get it out somehow. She wished she could just get rid of it-

-And then suddenly, it was gone. Audino opened her eyes once again. The lights of the beheeyem flashed, but she didn't understand them. The link was gone. She had done it. But there was no time nor cause to celebrate yet. She was still in danger. Audino cast her eyes towards the hallway in which she knew the staircase lay. It was a long corridor, and she needed to be ready to move at a seconds' notice.

A minute of walking passed, in which Audino felt like her heart might explode. She was sure that any second, the beheeyem might catch on to her and then she'd be done for. But it was just a little further. Just a little further, and then she'd be ready. Just a few more seconds…

Audino stopped at the corridor she had seen the stairs in. It was now or never. She just had to hope that the staircase wasn't another illusion, and take a leap of faith. Audino made to turn towards the right-hand corridor, then in one fluid motion pulled the exploration bag off her shoulder and whacked the beheeyem nearest to her with it straight in the grills. Caught purely off-guard, the beheeyem stumbled backwards into its companions, and Audino immediately began to run for it.

The wind whistled against her sensitive ears. Leaves rustled and sticks snapped under her feet. The exploration bag was carried less by Audino's arm and more by the air. Audino heard the attack the beheeyem fired, and there was no way to dodge it. She just had to reach the staircase first-

-Audino didn't know which had happened first. Perhaps they had both happened at the same time. But somehow, Audino had found herself deposited on her back outside the Open Pass, completely untouched. And if she remembered mystery dungeons, that staircase had moved, so the beheeyem weren't following her anytime soon. She took a moment to calm down, then grabbed her bag and began to exhaust the rest of her energy generating a Quick Attack back to Serenity Village. There was no need to waste her head start on them.



By the time that Audino finally staggered into the clinic, Espurr was already fast asleep in one of the straw beds. Not even bothering to close the door behind her, she let the exploration bag she had been carrying for the entire trip fall to her feet haphazardly. It hit the floor with a muffled 'thwip', but Audino barely cared anymore. She still couldn't believe that she had made it out of that dungeon safely.

As she trudged off to her room Audino's ears suddenly picked up on the sound of somemon rushing towards the clinic. She spun around just as Watchog slid to a stop in front of the entrance.

"Hey, what's the-" Watchog stopped short at the sight of Audino. "W- what happened to you?!" he sputtered.

Audino didn't have the energy left to answer him.



The torches in the Principal's Office were never lit after dark except in the case of an emergency; because the Principal's Office was never occupied after dark except in the case of an emergency.

The torches were lit. All three of the on-campus teachers had gathered in the room after Audino had been given a chance to clean herself up. She sat in the stoll in front of the teacher's desk, looking over a short pile of Water Continent outlaw posters.

"And you're absolutely sure these are the same beheeyem?" Simipour asked. "Are you certain we aren't dealing with different outlaws of the same species?"

"They wanted Espurr," Audino stressed. "They said it to my face. Why wouldn't they be the same beheeyem?"

Simipour sighed thoughtfully. He rose from his seat and walked up to the window. A moment later, he spoke:

"I understand you have a house near the center of the village?" he asked.

"Yes, for emergencies," Audino responded.

"Consider this an emergency." Simipour walked back to the desk. He grabbed a sharpened stick, dabbled it in the inkwell for a moment, then drew a straight line from the Open Pass all the way to the School Forest. "The school grounds are no longer safe for either of you. It is my opinion the beheeyem latched onto you because they saw you with Espurr. That puts you in as much danger as Espurr currently is."

"And I'm just fine in this?" Watchog asked, his voice beginning to squeak a little. "I'm guarding the bloody school- I don't want these things coming after me!"

"I'm afraid they don't want you," Simipour told him. He rolled up the map, and stashed it with two others next to his desk.

"I'll have to ask you that you pack up and move first thing in the morning," he said to Audino on the way out. "As I'm sure you've figured out by now; time is of the essence."


Music of the week! : D

The Dance - Bear McCreary

Travel Delays - Alan Silvestri