Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates of Horn and Ivory

[LKWayvern]

Prologue

The human girl did not feel very well at all.
It had been summer, and so the pajamas she was wearing at the moment were thin, and could not keep out the chill. She distinctly remembered falling asleep in her bed. However, without any memory of moving or waking, she had arrived here, wherever here was. She was in a large field. The sky was overcast, and the dewdrops clinging to the grass soaked into her legs and chilled her to the bone. A wind blew, seeming to go right through her.
She looked slowly up, quickly brushing hair away from her eyes, and then clutching her arms around her chest, trying to trap what little warmth she had. Nearby was a large, old, rickety gate. It was made of weathered and cracked horn from some great and ancient beast. It was simply carved. You could walk by it and not give it a second thought.
Within the gate swirled colors, they seemed dull. And yet they were somehow comforting, calming.
There was a sudden sound that the girl could not describe, and a creature was there. The girl could only see its black and tan hooves.
She did not look at the rest. She did not want to see more.
“...I did not wish to scare you.”
There was rustling like the changing of clothes, and the creature shifted. It was now human. Or rather, he.
He had long black hair kept out of his face with braids, interwoven with multicolored leaves carved of gemstone. They had to be gemstone because real leaves don’t shine like that. He wore a dark grey tunic, black leggings, and an elegant blue cloak. He has back and tan boots, and blue, black, and tan elbow-length gloves. His eyes were blue, with oddly shaped pupils.
He sat down and held out a hand. “Hello. I did not mean to scare you. Perhaps you will find this form less intimidating?”
The human girl took the hand and shook it.
He smiled. “...You’re actually reacting better than I thought you would. My name is Xerneas. What is your name?”
“Jeana,” the girl responded in a soft but neutral voice.
“Well, Jeana. I have some things to tell you,” Xerneas sighed. “You live in a region where humans and Pokemon coexist. But there’s a region where solely Pokemon live. There’s a Pokemon in that region that needs help, badly. I think that you could give her the help that she needs.”
Jeana thought for a few moments, then nodded. “...Okay, sir.”
“You seemed to agree rather easily,” Xerneas noted.
“Well,” Jeana started. “I don’t remember walking or waking here. I have never heard of a Pokemon named Xerneas capable of using the move Transform, and I have never heard of the move Transform allowing a Pokemon to become a human, or speak English. Therefore, there is only one explanation: this is a dream.”
Xerneas threw back his head and laughed. Then he looked back at Jeana and gave her a wry grin. “Well, you’re not wrong about that, Jeana. This is a dream. However, no one ever said that just because it’s a dream doesn’t mean it’s not also really happening.” He sobered up. “Now. Give this some thought. Where you’ll have to go to help her, you cannot remain a human. In order to remain inconspicuous, you will have to be transformed into a Pokemon. Also, this will not be a simple journey. You will have enemies, who will most likely try all sorts of methods to impede you. Most of those methods will probably be on the underhanded side. Your life may even be at stake. And the one who needs help… she isn’t going to be in the best state of mind if you do find her, and may mistake you for a foe. Are you absolutely sure you with to help? Even if you believe it to be a dream, please answer the question as though it would have irreversible effects on your reality.”
Jeana closed her eyes and frowned, deep in thought. Her eyelashes moistened slightly, and she nodded her head, hard.
“Okay, good…” Xerneas said. “Now, that gate over there. I think you saw it earlier. It’s called the Gate of Horn. Dreams of truth come through it, but you can also use it for other things. I need you to answer some questions, so the Gate will know what Pokemon will make the transition easiest for you. Please answer them honestly?”
Jeana nodded again, not opening her eyes.
“First. A fight has broken out in your school hallways. What do you do?”
Jeana was silent for a few moments, then opened her eyes. “It’s not my problem. I’m not involved. I walk away.”
Xerneas continued asking Jeana questions, and she answered in a measured tone. When finally Xerneas asked, with a smug looking grin: “A human hand extends out of a toilet, how do you react?”
Jeana stared at Xerneas. He let out a slight snort and grinned a little. “...No reaction to that question? Fine. I think I’m figuring out your character... Last question. How do you think you would react in a life or death situation?”
“Calmly and logically.”
“Without regard to your own safety?”
“You said that that would be the last question,” Jeana pointed out.
“That’s true,” Xerneas agreed. He laid down on the dewey grass. “...I think I know. You’re… docile. You dislike confrontations, and so simply comply and agree. You try not to show opinions or emotions, because those could potentially clash with others around you. You observe the mistakes of others, and so learn what not to do, but every person is offended or hurt by different things so… You don’t do anything. You hide all your emotions deep inside yourself. People think you’re icy and robotic, or just plain creepy, don’t they? You really don’t have a lot of friends. You don’t care what the other people think, you’re even a bit prideful. You don’t believe you need the help of others, even if you do accept it.”
Jeana didn’t respond to that.
“Fighting isn’t something you should do on a daily basis,” Xerneas continued. “But you really need to learn to stand up for your own beliefs, they really do matter. After all, those who yield to all have nothing left to yield, right? ...I read that a long time ago, and thought it applied here. I wouldn’t recommend bottling up your emotions, either. They tend to leak out and cause massive problems later on.”
He smiled at Jeana. “I think a docile type like you should be an espurr. And don’t worry about your partner Pokemon, I have some really good ones picked out already. They should help you quite a bit along the way, in a lot of ways.”
The field started fading to black as Jeana’s ears began ringing.
“Bye, Jeana. Good luck. And remember, sweet dreams…”

Welcome to…
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon:
Gates of Horn and Ivory

~~~~~

A very long ago, I discovered that PMD fanfics were a thing, and immediately decided to make my own. That resulted in a story called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Dusk Storm.
It really wasn't all that good, but I always had a soft spot for it.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates of Horn and Ivory is a revamp of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Dusk Storm. However a lot of stuff has changed.
A LOT of the characters from PMDDS were fakemon. I changed that. The antagonist and the protagonist are also now both completely different. Also, the story was created before Gen 6 was announced, so that's different.
Now, the things that stayed the same.
The partners stayed the same. My favorite thing about PMDDS was always the two partners, but they were just one dimensional to me. Over the years I've given a lot of thought to them both, and now they're a lot more fleshed out.
And the region. The region is called Leginda. It was originally conceived as a place where you could find lots of Legendaries, and it still is. But now it's expanded from that.

Now, about the prologue.
In the prologue, we are introduced to Jeana, the soon-to-be Espurr. She's not your typical PMD hero. She really isn't. I personally wouldn't want to be her. But I enjoy her character arc, and certain characteristics about her that I don't think very many people would like to have are what end up helping her out the most in this adventure.

I really hope you enjoy reading Gates of Horn and Ivory as much as I enjoy writing it. ^^

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

This looks like a story that is already off to an interesting start. I have not read many Mystery Dungeon fanfictions, VictoryFire aside, but from the games there is a common thread of the human being thrown into a world without a choice and without a clue and having to discover that the reason behind being thrust into this strange new land over the course of the story. You have casually upended that big mystery and done so in a way that I really am enjoying. The mystery is going to be the situation that Jeana is being thrust into, along with the more niggling questions of why, instead of the situation being laid out and the reason for the hero's journey coming out of the woodwork over time as has been my Mystery Dungeon experience thus far. Rather than the blank slate of a character given to us by Nintendo in which we are free to project our own selves into, Jeana is given a personality to begin with, evident not only from her responses to Xerneas's questions but also to her general demeanor and language used when talking to the legendary Pokemon. I also thought that it was a good idea for Xerneas to appear as a human before telling Jeana that she must be transformed as well, because it helps to establish the idea that the rules for Pokemon and human transformation are not as limited as our protagonist, and us readers, would think at first.

If I had one complaint, it would be that I think that the story would look better and be easier on the eyes if you double-spaced in-between paragraphs. I ended up copying your chapter to Microsoft Word so I could give my eyes a bit of a break from reading the scrunched together text. Guess I am getting old, but anyways, looking forward to see more of this tale.

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 1: Unusual Wake-Up

When everything faded to black, the first thing Jeana felt was rather strange. Her body felt leaden and hot, like molten liquid. She was aware that bone and muscle were shifting in ways that they were not meant to, however, she was in an almost euphoric daze. She couldn’t work up the energy to mind. There was a loud ringing in her ears, and her stomach turned unpleasantly.
The ringing slowly faded, and the shifting sensations ceased. Her muscles and bones all felt sore, and unfamiliar.
She hadn’t previously been aware of there being a floor under her. But a few moments later she was suddenly very aware of the lack of one, as she suddenly began to plummet downwards…

“And what do you have to report?”
The dark figure wrapped his arms uncomfortably around his body. “It… It seems there has been an unexpected development…” he spoke in a soft voice. “A new player has been placed on the board…”
He closed his eyes, expecting to be rebuked.
Instead he heard a crazed and maniacal laughter.
“Ahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaaaaa! That’s… that’s a surprise, but I guess in retrospect we should’ve expected it. Who brought the new player into our fun little game?” The voice was female, loud, and bold, completely juxtaposing the male’s, low whisper.
“Xerneas, I believe,” he responded.
“Yeah, really should’ve seen that coming. Tell me about them?”
“I don’t know much, but they seem to be a human?”
“Oooooh, it’s been a while since that happened!” the female voice chirped. “You know what? I just got a really good idea! Right, listen, we’re going to have a lot of fun with that human…”

The young snivy was what some might consider a ‘morning bird’, however even she believed that several hours before dawn was a bit too early to be up.
Nevertheless, a loud crunching sound roused her from sleep ridiculously early.
The first thing that the snivy registered was that she could see stars through the ceiling.
It was true that the ceiling was mostly made of simple wood beams, old dried vines that had grown and died on the beams, and currently alive vines and creepers. However the vines were so thick they she shouldn’t have been able to see the stars.
Something was rather wrong.
The snivy stumbled through the halls of the viney building, until she entered its lobby.
“Shiver? Are you okay?”
The snivy looked over to the night sentry, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. A lampent frowned back at her, concern lighting his eyes.
Shiver swallowed a yawn and smiled at the ghost. “No, Rit. I’m fine, just something landed on my roof. Wanted to check it out.”
“I could wake up Palmer for you,” Rit offered.
“...That’s probably not the smartest idea,” Shiver said. “Wasn’t he the entire reason Lina learned Teleport?”
“He kept randomly attacking her whenever she tried waking him up, yes. Well, I could at least go up with you to shed some light on the situation.”
Shiver was unamused. “Rit. Seriously.”
Rit pouted at her.
“Shedding light would be useful. But don’t quit your day job,” Shiver sighed. “Come on.”
“I don’t have a day job. I guard the Guild all night and then I sleep in the day,” Rit pointed out, confused.
“You know what I mean. Let’s go.”
Stepping outside, the light from Rit’s inner flame cast the ground with an otherworldly, ethereal color, like the surface of an alien planet.
The pair walked around the old building.
The building was called the Meadow Guild. It was near the center of the town, Meadowville. A small town, with many gardens, temperate weather, and a large market. Meadowville was a town very popular with merchants and traders, because of just how good the Escort Teams living and working in the Meadow Guild were supposed to be.
The snivy, Shiver, was one of the Pokemon on one of those Escort Teams. She had only recently been granted the privilege of forming her own team, Team Reverie.
Shiver and Rit stopped when they came to a tree near where Shiver’s dorm room was, inside the building. “This spot should be good…” Shiver muttered.
She pressed a hand to the bark of the tree. There was a feeling of her ears popping for a moment, and a warm buzzing sound filled her body. Vines and creepers began crawling up the trunk, and draped about the branches. Shiver hooked her fingers around the newly grown vines, and began climbing up the tree.
Rit started shimmying up the vines after her, as the two climbed.
“The others are right,” Rit remarked. “It is kind of creepy to watch you do that.”
Shiver huffed. When they reached the branches of the tree, Shiver repeated what she had done earlier. Ears popping, warm buzzing. Only this time, it wasn’t the vines that changed. The branches of the tree shuddered, and several of them began growing towards the roof of Shiver’s room until the branches made a somewhat sturdy looking bridge across.
Both being lightweight Pokemon Shiver and Rit managed to cross quickly and easily. The roof being more treacherous to cross, Rit elected to stay at the edge of the branch bridge. Upon realizing that, Shiver called him a coward, which made Rit just shrug.
Shiver peered at the roof and saw what looked like a body cradled in the creepers. “...Rit, does that look like a Pokemon to you?”
“Yes, it does. Uh… Hard to tell what species, though. Maybe a purrloin or mincinno?” Rit commented.
Shiver crawled carefully across the roof, and to the body.
“...It’s an espurr,” Shiver called.
“Do you think you could lower it into your room or something with the creepy plant-grow thing you have?” Rit asked.
Shiver didn’t respond to that statement. However, she did use Rit’s idea, as vines started growing and lowering the espurr’s body slowly, safely onto the floor of Shiver’s room.
“Can you wake someone up to help out?” Shiver asked Rit. The lampent nodded.
Shiver used the newly-grown vines to scramble down into her room. It was much darker, but she did her best to try and check over the espurr. It was a female, and she seemed perfectly healthy, for having just fallen from Legends-know-where and fallen onto Shiver’s roof. No serious injuries that Shiver could see. Then again, Shiver was not a trained medic. She was unsure of how best to deal with this situation, although she believed ‘get the espurr off the roof and onto the ground safely’ had to be a good start.
Sighing, Shiver leaned back against her bed, crossing her arms. No point going back to sleep now, she was wide awake.

The Guild medic, a grotle, did look over the espurr, and confirmed that there was really nothing physically wrong with the espurr. This was surprising, but fortunate. Just to be on the safe side, however, the grotle moved the espurr to the infirmary wing, and asked Shiver to watch her, since Shiver had no intention to return to sleep, and nothing better to do until the rest of the Guild woke up.
An hour or so later, Shiver noticed that the espurr had woken up, and was currently staring at the ceiling. The espurr looked mostly unremarkable, except for the fact that she had platinum yellow eyes. She leaned over to the feline. “...You okay?”
The espurr turned her head to look at Shiver, and stared.
“...Can you speak?” Shiver asked, wondering if the espurr was actually mute.
“Yes,” the espurr responded.
“That’s good. Uh… Do you know what happened to you?” Shiver asked.
“I believe I do.”
Shiver waited for the espurr to continue. When she did, she decide to prompt the espurr. “So what happened…?”
“I’m dreaming,” the espurr said.
Shiver frowned. “...Why do you think that…?”
The espurr sat up. “Well. I appear to be an espurr. And I’m speaking English with a snivy. Snivies are serpentine Pokemon, and so do not have the proper placement of teeth to make noises that will let them speak English. It’s also doubtful that a snivy would have the level of intelligence to let them speak English. There is only one place where something like this is even plausible, and that’s in a dream.”
Shiver blinked at the espurr. “...What are you going on about.”
“You asked for me to explain why I thought this was a dream. I did,” the espurr said, shrugging.
“I’d like to point out some things wrong with your logic,” Shiver said. “First of all, we aren’t speaking ‘English’. We’re speaking Poketongue, which, as all young Pokemon in Leginda are taught, was made so any Pokemon capable of making noises can speak it to some degree. Second, that remark about my intelligence was extremely insulting. Third, I will prove to you that we’re not in a dream.”
The espurr frowned. “...How?”
“I could pinch you,” Shiver offered.
“No, thanks.”
“Well, people often say pinching proves that you’re not in dream,” Shiver stated.
“I don’t really want to get pinched,” the espurr said. “I’ll take your word for it.”
Shiver sighed. This espurr was really very strange. Or possibly insane. She hadn’t met any espurr before, but they were supposedly an incredibly odd species, in terms of personality.
“...So what’s your name?” Shiver asked. “I’m Shiver.”
“Jeana,” the espurr responded.
“Jeana? That’s not a very common name,” Shiver said.
Jeana did not respond.
Shiver groaned inwardly. “So, do you have a place to live or something?”
“I don’t believe so, no,” Jeana replied.
“Okay,” Shiver said. She looked over to the window. The sun seemed to be about to rise. Finally. Jeana was really starting to annoy and creep Shiver out. Dawn meant that soon Lina would be waking up the rest of the Guild members, and Shiver would go off to join them at breakfast.
Shiver turned back to Jeana, and tried not to sound eager to leave. “Sorry, Jeana. It’s been… interesting talking to you. But I’ve got to get to breakfast.”
Jeana nodded.
“Bye,” Shiver said, heading out the door.

As usual, there was a large breakfast with a very diverse amount of berries. Shiver ate hers quickly, and waited calmly for the Guildmaster to come out and roll call to begin.
Guildmaster Solaris was late today by roughly fifteen minutes. He was known for oversleeping occasionally, but it wasn’t a frequent occurrence.
When the various teams began dispersing, Shiver made her to the exit at a brisk pace. She already had her jobs lined up, and didn’t want to be late.

After eating breakfast, a large reptile with a small tropical tree blooming on its back had approached her.
“You are the, ahem, newcomer, then? Jeana, they said your name was?”
Jeana nodded.
The reptile smiled warmly at her. “Good, good. I’m Guildmaster Solaris. Follow me, please.”
Guildmaster Solaris ambled through the halls of the Guild slowly, taking his time to look about, even if he had seen the same hall many times before. Jeana followed, not saying a word.
They finally reached Solaris’ chambers, which were actually quite comfortable. It seemed to be the insides of a hollowed out tree, with a skylight in the ceiling. Thick moss covered the interior, similar to cushions.
“Now, Jeana…” the venusaur spoke. “...I know Shiver has already asked you about this, but do you know why you fell from the sky?”
Jeana shook her head. “No.”
Solaris frowned. “...Do you have a place to stay?”
“I don’t believe so.”
He nodded. “Well. If you so desire it… You could always stay with us. Join an escort team, and the like. I can promise we’d provide you a very comfortable stay.”
Jeana leaned backwards, crossing her arms. “...What does an escort team do?”
“Well. The building we are in right now is known as the Meadow Guild,” the guildmaster began. “There are many similar guilds, all across our region, most housing escort teams. And all the guilds are located in a particular city. The cities contain many Pokemon. Many Pokemon have wishes to go to other cities, or bring items from one city to another, for whatever reason. An escort team ensures that the client or their items reaches their destination safely. An escort team usually has to go through a mystery dungeon in order to do this, which guilds usually deem too difficult for the average Pokemon.”
“And what is a mystery dungeon?” Jeana asked.
“No one is quite sure,” Solaris replied. “Time and space within mystery dungeons is warped to a great degree. They save a lot of time when traveling them, that is for sure. However they are also very dangerous. Pokemon that aren’t real Pokemon, but instead some sort of… hostile apparition, will ruthlessly attack any real Pokemon which wanders inside.”
Jeana nodded. “...And how does one join a guild?”
“You take on a mock job request inside a mystery dungeon. You escort one of our guild members through a mystery dungeon to a designated floor, to find an item placed in there by myself. Then you leave the dungeon with an Escape Orb given to you before you entered the dungeon. If you wish to quit the mock job request, then you simply use the Escape Orb to leave, without the item,” Solaris explained.
“...If I take the mock job request to see what being on an escort team is like, pass the test, and decide it isn’t a job I would like to continue doing, can I simply not join a team, or do I absolutely have to join an escort team?” Jeana asked.
“At least five Pokemon a year do that at various guilds. However if you change your mind, you must do another mock job request,” Solaris spoke.
Jeana nodded. “...Can I take the mock request, and then decide if I would like to join?”
“Of course.” Solaris smiled. “If you feel up to it, we can have a mock job set up by this afternoon.
“I think I’ll be able to go…” Jeana said.
“Excellent. We will be waiting outside the main entrance to the guild when we have set it up. Until then, feel free to explore Meadowville.”

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 2: Preparations

Meadowville was pleasant.

The stores all had writing on them, however Jeana was incapable of reading most of the writing. While the market was not crowded, there were still many Pokemon bustling about in it. While Jeana did not recognize most of their species, most seemed to be Grass types. She could identify at least that.

Despite living in a world with Pokemon, Jeana did not actually know very much about them, and could only identify a few species.

The market was actually rather uncomfortable for her. Her senses had sharpened quite a bit upon becoming an espurr, allowing her to hear and smell more clearly. While most of the Grass types smelled rather nice, a few smelled rather rotten. Especially one blue-skinned Pokemon with a massive red bloom on its head, like some kind of perfumed sombrero. That one smelled putrid. In addition, Jeana was unsure if this was simply her going crazy or not, but she could hear voices in her head that didn’t sound like her own thoughts.

She didn’t know very much about espurrs, but weren’t they Psychic types? Was she hearing the thoughts of other Pokemon? Weird.

Jeana felt something welling up in her chest. No, no no no. She needed to find somewhere much quieter. She shoved her nose in her arm fur, pressed her ears harder onto her head, and started quickly walking out of the marketplace. She shut her eyes, trying to block out the thoughts of strange Pokemon, and so didn’t notice when she ran into someone else.

She let out a small groan, as she fell backwards.

“Oh my Mew, I’m sorry!” the other Pokemon quickly apologized. “I got distracted, I really should’ve looked where I was walking.”

Jeana opened her eyes, removed her paws from her ears, and stood up. The Pokemon she had run into she could recognize. It was an eevee, with large blue eyes. The eevee was wearing a brown cloak covering most of her back, and had a pouch of some kind dangling around her neck. The eevee herself smelled like leaves and dirt, but the pouch smelled very nice, mostly masking the eevee’s unpleasant scent.

“...It’s okay,” Jeana told the eevee. “So was I.”

“Heh, I guess we’re both kind of scatterbrained, then!” the eevee chirped.

Jeana decided not to respond to that.

“You look really lost. And I don’t recognize you. Are you new to Meadowville?”

“Yes,” Jeana responded.

“Oh, that’s really cool! I hope you’re enjoying your visit, then!” the eevee continued. “It’s really a nice place. I like it.”

Jeana nodded.

“Oh, right! My name’s Eona. It’s nice to meet you! What’s your name?”

“Jeana.”

“Huh. I don’t think that’s a name I’ve heard before, but I like it.” Eona smiled warmly. “Hey, if you want, I could show me around. You look kind of lost.”

“Okay,” Jeana responded.

Eona nodded. “Okay! So, right now we’re in the Marketplace. That store over there is Kecleon’s Market, Kecleon sells berries, orbs, seeds, Wands, and the like. If you steal from him he will invite his extended family to help him hunt you down. He has a store in almost every town or city in Leginda…” Eona gave a wry grin. “But to be honest, everyone knows the berries and seeds grown in Meadowville are the best ever, so Pokemon just buy berries and seeds from the smaller local shops, and all Kecleon sells here are his Wands, Orbs, and Elixirs! By the way, my mum sells the absolute best healing berries, she’s a leafeon and her shop is Verdant’s Apothecary Shop, it’s cheaper than Kecleon’s stuff too!” Eona hummed, looking about the marketplace before pointing with her tail at another shop. “That over there is Klefki! Klefki is a workaholic, so she does like three jobs at once! Klefki runs the Deposeit Box, where you can store items and money, and Klefki also does a locksmith business so if you need a lock opened Klefki can do that for you! Klefki loves money almost as much as Kecleon, so Klefki makes you pay interest for storing stuff, though! Oh, and over there is Pelipper Post Office, but it’s not all pelippers that work there. I don’t think any pelippers work in the Meadowville branch at all. So their name is pretty deceiving if you ask me. And… the Rose Cafe is over there. Roserade runs it. Roserade is a family friend of mine, Mum gets her lots of ingredients that she uses. Errrr… Over there, that’s Chesnaught’s Dojo. The rookie guild members hang out there a lot, to train themselves without risking losing their gear in a mystery dungeon. And that’s the Guild over there, Meadow Guild! The explorers over there are… Well, most are good at what they do. But I think it’s a requirement for a lot of the guild members to be wacky.”

Jeana frowned, and nodded along as the young eevee spoke at a rapid pace. “If I were to need to go into a mystery dungeon,” she asked, carefully. “Where would I go, and what would I need to buy?”

Eona blinked. “Uh, well healing berries like my mum sells would be really useful. And I’d also recommend checking out Kecleon’s Market.”

Jeana nodded. “Alright…”

“I can introduce you to my mum! C’mon, follow me!” Eona exclaimed, before trotting towards a medium sized hut, looking like it was mostly made out of tall grasses. Jeana squinted, following Eona. There seemed to be briars and flower buds growing out of it.

Inside the hut, it smelled pleasantly of lavender. A leafeon with brown eyes, and green leaves that seemed to have turned orange at the tips turned her attention to Jeana and Eona. Some faint silver streaks were visible in the leafeon’s fur.

“Eona, did you give Raider the berries like I asked you to?” the leafeon asked.

Eona nodded. “Yeah! She gave me the usual amount of poke for your berries… And she gave me some extra, and said to ‘keep the change’!”

Eona’s mother smiled, then looked at Jeana. Jeana stared back, with a neutral expression.

“Good job, dear,” the grass fox said. “And who is your friend…?”

“Oh, mum, this is Jeana! Jeana, this is my mum. Jeana’s going to take the mock job and join the Meadow Guild,” Eona spoke.

“It is nice to meet you… Mrs. Leafeon,” the newly made espurr spoke. Jeana wanted to frown, but maintained her neutral expression. I didn’t tell her that…

“Call me Verdant,” the leafeon corrected. “And really? Hm… I suppose you’ll want some basic healing berries, then. Give me a few moments.”

Verdant padded into a back room. Eona turned to Jeana.

“Hey, Jeana,” the eevee said. “You don’t have any poke, do you? That’s okay, I can pay for you!”

“...Why?” Jeana asked. “Are you going to use it to call in a favor, later on?”

“Eheheh…” Eona giggled slightly. “It’s always nice to have a favor you can call in, it’s true… But no. That’s not the main reason. I’ve got a good feeling about you.”

Jeana gave Eona a rather confused look. “...That’s completely illogical? What if I intended to use your money to… buy illicit goods?”

Eona let out a loud laugh. “Haha! Well, first of all, I know you won’t spend my money on illicit goods, because it’s me buying healing berries for you, in the same room as you, from someone who I know doesn’t sell ‘illicit goods’!” When she stopped laughing, she gave Jeana a little smile. “Also, my gut instinct is pretty good at this stuff. I trust it!”

Jeana gave Eona a concerned look, making the eevee laugh again.

“Here we go!”

Verdant walked back into the main room of the hut, depositing multiple berries bound in a leaf at Jeana’s feet. “I’ve packed you an oran, a pecha, a cheri, and for good measure a rawst and a leppa. I thought about adding an aspear, but Ice types are usually only seen around Icicle City, up in North Leginda, nowhere near here… So you should be set. Let’s see… I think a haxocoin should cover it.”

“...” Jeana stared blankly at Verdant.

“500 poke. A haxocoin is 500 poke,” Verdant clarified.

“Jeana doesn’t have any poke, mum. So I’ll pay!” Eona spoke up. She turned around, moving the cloak off her back and revealing a small brown satchel. She gently bit the flap on the satchel, opening it.

“Eona, are you sure you have enough money?” Verdant asked.

“Mm-hm!” Eona said, before rooting about with a paw in the satchel, causing some coins engraved with various Pokemon species to fall out. “Uh… Here I’ve got two bulbacoins, that’s two hundred… Three pikacoins, that’s one-fifty, and two poochcoins makes a hundred, so so far that’s uh… four hundred! And here’s a venucoin, so that’s actually six hundred! I’ve got more than enough!”

Verdant sighed, and moved some of the coins over to herself. “Well. Good luck with that job, Jeana. Goodbye.”

“Bye, Jeana!” Eona said.

Jeana nodded. “Thank you very much and goodbye, Eona, Mrs. Verdant.”

The espurr picked up the berries wrapped in the leaves, and made her way back towards the main entrance of the Mead Guild, to wait for the test to begin.

---

At midday, Guildmaster Solaris had met Jeana with a small yellow sphere-like creature, which had stubby limbs and white and red braids. The creature had introduced itself as Lina the chingling, and Teleported both Jeana and the Guildmaster to outside a so-called ‘mystery dungeon’, called Gracedia Fields.

“This is the mission,” Solaris told Jeana. “You will escort Lina to floor four of the Gracedia Fields mystery dungeon, where there is located a treasure chest. You’ll have to protect Lina from attacks by feral Pokemon. If you faint, Lina is too heavily damaged, or you wish to give up on the test, Lina will Teleport you out of the dungeon.”

“The Meadow Guild’s got a strict reputation, so I’m not going to make things easy for you!” Lina said, sticking her tongue out. “Besides, I’ve been looking forwards to playing the part of ‘helpless weakling overdramatic civilian’!”

“If Jeana scrapes her knee and you count that as ‘fainting’,” Solaris informed Lina, “You’re going to be on the midnight shift at the reception desk. I think Rit would appreciate being allowed to oversleep.”

Lina huffed and pouted, crossing her braids like arms. “...I can still be overdramatic and stuff though, right?”

“Of course,” Solaris told her.

Lina bounced a bit, letting out a peal like a bell when she did so. “Okay! I’m good with that!”

Jeana had a feeling she wasn’t going to enjoy this mission very much…

“You may enter the dungeon when ready,” Solaris told the two. Jeana nodded, before stepping over and crossing into Gracedia Fields mystery dungeon. Lina followed her in.

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 3: The Test

Gracedia Fields Floor One

The moment Jeana and Lina entered the dungeon, everything immediately shifted. Hills rose up on all sides, making it impossible to go back the way they had come. The sun, though it beat down hotly and provided plenty of light, was not visible in the sky, and there was an absence of clouds in the sky as well. The air was very still, without any trace of a breeze.

Jeana squinted her eyes. A haze of pollen was visible drifting all around the two Psychic types, and the sickly scent of flowers choked the air. Flowers of all varieties grew in clumps that dotted the bright green grass. Bird Pokemon chirped in the distance, and the hum of insect wings was audible as well.

It was the epitome of the perfect summer day. But something in Jeana’s stomach twisted, telling her there was something about all this which was fundamentally wrong.

Jeana rarely trusted her gut instincts, and considered logic and reason to be the only good things to make decisions based off of. She found her thoughts drifting back to Eona.

Lina turned to Jeana with her braids on where her hips would be. “So! Have you ever been in a mystery dungeon before?”

Jeana blinked, Lina’s voice drawing her out of her thoughts. Jeana shook her head.

“Guess I’ve gotta go through the tutorial lecture thing, then,” the chingling sighed. “Right then, so first thing to know: mystery dungeons are fricking weird. We’re still researching them. But we know that mystery dungeons are places where significant events involving Legendaries happened. Like, their Legendary-energy started leaking all over the place and seriously messed up time and space and reality itself, basically. Or something. I don’t do the research.”

Jeana nodded. “...That’s interesting background information, but how does it help me with the mock job request?” she asked.

“I’m getting to that,” Lina huffed. “Anyways! Time is warped. So time passes by way faster in here. You heal faster, you tire and grow hungrier faster. Space is warped, every time you enter a mystery dungeon it looks different. And reality is kind of… broken. Mystery dungeons get in your head if you stay in them too long. These illusionary Pokemon that don’t really exist, we call them a dungeon’s ‘Puppets’, will go after you and try to attack and kill you. If you attack a puppet long enough, though, it’ll vanish. Then there’s feral and civil Pokemon that wander in here. If you stay in a dungeon for too long, it gets in your head and makes you attack other Pokemon who wander in. The Puppets’ll ignore you, though. If there’s a Pokemon that’s spent a particularly long amount of time in the dungeon, that Pokemon might become the ‘Mouth’ of a dungeon. Basically they’re the big boss of the dungeon, they’re the strongest dungeon inhabitant, sentient and they can create and control the Puppets. Basically they’re that dungeon as a single Pokemon.”

Jeana nodded. “How long until the dungeon starts getting into someone’s head?”

“It takes a few weeks,” Lina said. “And in some cases a Pokemon is strong enough to resist that, in that case if the puppets, civils, and ferals can’t beat that Pokemon then this weird wind called the ‘Breath of the Dungeon’ kicks them out.”

Jeana nodded. “And… Solaris mentioned floors?”

“The dungeon changes in appearance subtly from area to area. We call those areas ‘floors’,” Lina said. “And you get from floor to floor through the stairs.”

Jeana blinked. “Um… Thank you for the information.”

“If you are going to get into the Guild, and you know nothing about dungeons, then you’re going to be really useless,” Lina said.

Jeana frowned slightly.

“...So you should probably start moving. If that’s going to be a thing that you want to happen,” Lina prompted.

Jeana nodded, and started padding forwards, down a stretch of the floor where two hills rose on either side of her, like the walls of a corridor. Soon the hills opened up into a more spacious area. There was one other exit to this part, a corridor similar in appearance to the one she and Lina had just left. In front of the corridor, however, was a problem.

There was a Pokemon sleeping directly in front of the second corridor. A small off-white creature with a red and white poke ball colored cap on its head was using the cap as a sort of pillow. It leaned against one of the walls of the corridor, but most of it was in the room Jeana and Lina had entered. The little Pokemon’s chest rose and fell, and it made a ‘foo… foo…’ kind of sound as it exhaled.

“It’s an enemy Pokemon! Oh nooooooo!” Lina gasped, clutching her stubby little limbs at her face.

Jeana chose not to react to the chingling. Instead she frowned slightly, focusing on the Pokemon.

She recognized this species. It was called a foongus, and was both Grass and Poison types. It was unevolved, and fairly weak.

In theory, it should have been no problem for Jeana to defeat the foongus. She had the superior typing, and all advantages sentient thought granted her.

In practice… She was unsure of how to use moves. She had been a human for most of her life, and only very recently become an espurr, after all. Jeana sighed, looking down at her paws in the stirrings of frustration. How could she fight like a Pokemon if she…

...Wait…

Jeana silently crept up to the snoozing foongus, Lina shuffling behind her. The feline then raised her right arm, flexing her wrist slightly, before swiftly swiping downwards, across the foongus’ face.

The foongus jolted awake with a squeaky “FWOO!”, before it narrowed its eyes at at Jeana. A cut was prominent on its pudgy face now, dripping green sap of some kind. The foongus inhaled sharply, “FWOOF!”, and suddenly increased in size by several inches.

Jeana did not flinch when the foongus used Growth. It was slightly bigger than her now, but it was still completely incapable of looking frightening. Jeana simply slashed the foongus with another Scratch attack, causing another dripping green cut to appear on the mushroom, this time on its forehead.

“Foo-eeee!” the foongus whined as the green sap dripped into its eyes. It squeezed its eyes shut, and furiously rubbed at them with its stubby little arms.

Taking advantage of how her foe was distracted, Jeana used Scratch one last time.

“Feep!” the foongus yelped, before breaking apart into red and off-white dust, and crumbling before Jeana’s eyes.

Jeana stared incredulously at the pile of dust lying atop the bright green grass.

“That one was a puppet,” Lina told her. “Wait a couple hours, the dust will reform it into another Pokemon. Maybe a different species next time, maybe a hoppip or a sentret or starly.”

Jeana nodded, before she started padding through the dust, and down the corridor. After she got through the pile she stopped for a moment, shaking the dust off her hindlegs and paws.

Once the Psychic types got through the corridor into the other room, Jeana rubbed her eyes and stared at the room again in confusion. There was a literal set of stair, just three grey slate steps leading up into nowhere, dusted with pollen and cheerful flowers growing out of the cracks in them.

“...I said there were stairs, didn’t I?” Lina said, upon seeing the source of Jeana’s confusion.

“But… I didn’t think there’d be literal…” Jeana shut her eyes and shook her head, before making her way to the stairs.

Lina had said reality was messed up and broken in mystery dungeons. Reason and logic, while they still had some dominion, would not help her out as much as she would like them to.

She began climbing up the stairs, Lina bounce up right behind her. Every time Lina hit the stone step, the bell Pokemon made a pleasant chiming sound.

One. Chime. Two. Chime. Three. Chime

Gracedia Fields Floor Two

Jeana believed she was getting slowly more adept at navigating mystery dungeons.

Corridor. Walk. Room, one apple inside, two corridors branching off. Pick up apple, right turn, corridor.

Jeana saw the caterpie a few moments before Lina dead, and so had time to place her paws over her ears.

“Oh sweet Mew it has a type advantage!” Lina shrieked.

She had not been kidding about loving being overdramatic when the opportunity arose.

Jeana stopped, glaring at the caterpie. The small bug’s sectioned body wripped as it inched forwards, stopping a few feet in front of Jeana, just out of the feline’s reach. It fired a line of sticky white silk, which immediately stuck to the fur on Jeana’s arms and hindlegs, with seemingly no intention of coming off.

“A String Shot! My escort’s been slowed Whatever shall she do next?” Lina asked, clasping her braids together like hands.

Jeana ignored Lina’s antics, instead taking a step closer to finally be within striking distance of the caterpie. She drew back her right arm, preparing to use Scratch, but before she had a chance to strike the caterpie nibbled on her left hindleg.

The caterpie’s bite, while not especially painful, simply put felt very, very wrong. Jeana instinctively jerked away from the caterpillar, which caused her to lose balance and fall over onto her side. The caterpie inched closer, nibbling her left arm this time with another Bug Bite.

The distinct feeling of wrongness returned, and all sensation in her left arm an leg was swallowed entirely by pins and needles. The was a ringing in Jeana’s ears. She wanted to get away from the wrongness, from the caterpie. It, it didn’t hurt. But she hated it, and that confused her. She should have a reason to hate it, beyond just ‘it feels wrong and weird’. That didn’t make sense.

She lashed out against the caterpie, finally managing to land a Scratch attack.

“Ee!” The caterpie reared up, and landed, its first few pairs of legs on Jeana’s chest. It leaned forwards, nibbling on her ear with another Bug Bite.

Panic flooded through Jeana’s chest, unexplainable and uncontrollable. The ringing in her ears intensified.

nononononoNONONONONO get away you stupid bug get away get away GET AWAY drop dead i hate you i hate this NO GET AWAY

And the next thing she knew the bug was off of her, disintegrating into green dust.

The ringing in Jeana’s ears was fading, and the panic had subsided. But it left behind a dull ache in her head, and an uneasy feeling.

“Uh… Jeana--”

“What,” she responded too quickly.

Lina seemed… Impressed? Unnerved? “Just wanted to say, that was a… really impressive Psychic attack. And… are you okay?”

Jeana scowled. “Yes. Do not mention that… episode again.”

Lina looked like she wanted to say something, however before she could Jeana swiftly moved down the corridor, into another room.

They traveled in silence, barring the occasional chimes which emanated from Lina’s body, until they found the stairs.

Gracedia Fields Floor Three

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…

The thrum of insect wings was louder on the third floor of Gracedia Fields than it had been on the previous two. Jeana was unsure of what Pokemon was making the sound, but it was fairly easy to guess it was a Bug type, possibly fully evolved as few unevolved Bug types had wings.

It would almost definitely be best, Jeana decided, to not fight whatever was making that noise. The only move she could use at will was Scratch, and she didn’t want a repeat of the incident with the caterpie.

Picking a corridor in the opposite direction from the humming sound, Jeana began stalking down it. Her sensitive ears picked up Lina’s occasional chimes following her at a distance of a few feet.

The emotion Lina had been feeling about Jeana’s outburst had… probably been fear.

That was okay. Maybe Lina would stop being overdramatic and annoying if she feared the espurr.

...No.

Jeana stopped. Lina nearly bumped into the feline.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” Jean said, quickly and breathlessly. She did not turn around to face the small bell Pokemon, simply continued staring straight down the corridor.

There was silence from Lina. Then, she spoke “It’s okay. Just… wasn’t expecting you to be that strong. Honestly, you look kind of weak. And you fight like a newborn, all physical.”

“I have not had very much training in Psychic attacks,” Jeana admitted.

There was a chime from Lina, sounding similar to a human tsking. “What? That’s not right. If you want, I can take you to Chesnaught’s place. He can’t tutor Psychic moves very well, since he isn’t Psychic, but one of his assistants and I can help you work on some moves.”

“...I’ll think about it,” Jeana responded.

If she did want to join a team, having full access to the moves an espurr was supposed to learn would certainly prove useful.

They continued walking in silence. But the silence was less heavy and awkward, now.

In another room, Jeana found and picked up a small seed.

“Hey-- that’s a blast!” Lina said, catching a glimpse of it. “Don’t drop it.”

“What does it do?” Jeana asked, turning the seed over in her paws.

“If you crack the shell, it reacts with the air and makes an explosion. Really useful against Pokemon you have a type disadvantage against,” Lina said.

The corridor that they then chose to venture down, unfortunately, brought them closer to the humming sound. The two Psychic types peeked into the room, and their eyes were immediately drawn to the small, glinting stash of glass orbs and metallic thorns that caught the light. Again, Jeana instinctively felt that there was something very wrong in this room.

“It’s a Monster House,” Lina spoke. “It’s an area where the messed up-ness of the dungeon is even stronger than usual. It’s… it’s like gravity, it pulls puppets, items, and the civils and ferals caught up in the dungeon towards it, like a black hole almost. It’s a bad idea to go into one, you’re bound to get swamped by enemies the moment you set foot in there.”

Jeana silently pointed at something else in the room, and then flinched at Lina’s curse.

The stairs were also located in the Monster House.

“...Rotten luck,” Lina muttered. “Hey. Maybe I can Teleport us both out, and then we can do some training tomorrow, and try again--”

“...No,” Jeana said.

“No!?” Lina asked, incredulously. “It’s a monster house, and you can hear the thrumming coming from inside, can’t you? Powerful Bug types in there! And I’m not really built for battling, and you fight like a freaking one-week old kit!”

“I may be unfamiliar with fighting, but I do have an idea to get us to that stairway…” Jeana said. “Lina. Can you Teleport inside the room, and then again still inside it, then run for the door?”

“...I can try,” Lina huffed, crossing her braids like arms. “But I’m Teleporting both of us out if there are too many of them.”

The chingling closed her eyes, and leaped up. With a chime she vanished, only to reappear with a second chime and land in a corner of the room visible to Jeana. There were multiple loud banging sounds, and the humming intensified. About three yanmas zipped in, two dozen caterpies, weedles, wurmples, and scatterbug crawled towards Lina in a rippling wriggly mass, several spinaraks descended on silky threads from seemingly nowhere, and even two scythers were seen leaping over the other bugs, fangs bared and scythes at the read.

As the horde of Bugs converged on her, but before they could reach her, Lina bounced up in the air again and vanished with a chime. Immediately after she Teleported away, over half a dozen String Shots blasted where she had been standing, completely coating the grass in icky white silk.

Before most of the Bugs realized what was happening, Jeana hurled the blast seed in their direction. It thudded into the ground near them, and immediately combusted with a satisfying spakk-THOOM sort of sound. The sparks and embers caused the Bug types some pain, and caused those closest to the blast the go into a panic, crawling over each other in a state of blind fear.

Jeana, however, did not stay to watch this unfold. The moment she heard the explosion, she began running as quickly as possible towards the stairs. It was a bit awkward to run as a digitigrade, which meant she had to go a bit slower than she really would’ve liked, however she managed to keep up a decent pace.

Her eyes were fixed on the stairs. Lina had arrived at them before her, and was perched on the second step, anxiously bouncing on her toes and making worried ‘chiming’ noises,

Roughly fifteen feet from the stairs, something hit Jeana’s legs. String Shot, going from ankle to floor, tripping her and making her fall on her face. She pushed herself up intending to continue running, when there was a bright green shimmering light in the corner of her vision--

Seeing the danger before Jeana could, Lina opened her mouth wide, revealing the small orb in the back of her throat which produced the chiming sounds she made whenever she used a move, or sometimes when she touched the ground. The orb chimed loudly and eerily this time, glowing a dark violet, and shot out a similarly colored orb, no bigger than one of Jeana’s paws, which trailed shadows.

Jeana managed to push herself off the ground and flip herself onto her back in time to see one of the scyther in the air above her, wings thrumming at full speed causing powerful vibrations which made the air tremble, one scythe raised high and shining brilliant green as the mantis prepared a Fury Cutter attack. The attack would surely finish the young feline.

Before the scyther could bring its arm down on Jeana, though, Lina’s Shadow Ball attack collided with the scyther’s Fury Cutter. While the Shadow Ball was nowhere near as powerful as the Fury Cutter, it was just enough to cause both attacks to fizzle out with a violent snap!! The scyther was blown backwards slightly, which in turn made it lose balance and fall back to earth.

Jeana used the time bought for her by Lina’s Shadow Ball to quickly stand up and get the String Shot off her paw. She turned to face the oncoming attackers, and was promptly tackled by a yanma using Quick Attack, which hit her square in the chest. She skidded along the grassy ground, the breath knocked out of her.

More Bug types were getting closer to Jeana. Three yanmas were now hovering about her, with a swarm of caterpillars on the way. She wildly began Scratching and randomly lashing out at the dragonflies.

An idea formed in her mind. Maybe if she used Psychic again, she could blast the Bugs away and make a break for the stairs? Unfortunately, she still was incapable of consciously using Psychic, and desperately did not want a repeat of the circumstances that had brought about its last usage.

In a matter of time, Jeana was quite literally crawling in Bug types-- the caterpillars again nibbling with Bug Bite and drowning her with String Shot, and the yanma and scyther making the air sing in a most horrendous way with their Bug Buzz. It was overwhelming for Jeana, the sheer feeling of wrongness and this time in addition to the wrongness there was certainly pain to accompany it, pain in her body and in her ears.

Her ears rang like church bells. Pure panic rose again in her mind, swamping all logical thought and leaving just pure emotion.

She was screaming, even if she wasn’t consciously aware of it. Her ears curled upwards and blasted a Psychic attack, leaving the Bugs reeling from the sheer force of it. Before they could recover, Lina leaped towards Jeana, grabbed the espurr, and Teleported the two out of the mystery dungeon.

Jeana’s mind faded from the pure emotion to blissful darkness.

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 4: Some Needed Assistance

The voices in her head slowly brought Jeana back to being aware.

“This one’s so weeeeeeeeird. I don’t like her.”

“You’re just saying that because you hate it when people tell you to do things!”

“...That’s not untrue…”

“Stop using double negatives, it’s so confusing! Say what you mean already!”

“...You two do realize that we’re inside her dream, and so she is capable of hearing us, correct?”

“Nope!”

“She can!?”

“Yes. Now silence.”

Jeana opened her eyes to find herself in a somewhat familiar, but very different, location. The sun was out and shining, in a pale blue sky. The grass was dark green, lush, and damp with dewdrops that caught the light and sparkled in a way that made the grass blades look like a rainbow, almost. Nearby there was a gate, similar to the Gate of Horn. This one, however, was off-white, polished, and gleaming. It was covered in elaborate and elegant carvings, and looked like it belonged in front of an expensive mansion, not in the center of a field. Within the gate danced alluring, hypnotic colors far brighter than those in the Gate of Horn. The colors in this new gate captured her imagination, made her heart race, and made Jeana feel as though she could fly…

Something unpleasant churned in Jeana’s stomach, and she tightly shut her eyes. After a few moments passed and her stomach settled down, Jeana opened her eyes and looked down.

...Paws. She was still an espurr.

She looked up, and identified the sources of the voices she had been hearing.

They were easily distinguishable, and yet similar enough to easily be triplets. Each had two tails, pure white skin or fur, it was hard to tell, and bright red gemstones set between their eyes, and on each fan-like tail. Two of them had platinum-gold irises, the third it was difficult to tell as their eyes were shut. Despite these similarities, one could easily tell them apart by looking to their heads. One had a yellow head, similar to a turban. One had a triangular blue head. And the third had a pink head, with appendages on it similar to a lucario’s aura-sensors.

The pink one immediately floated over to Jeana, getting into very close proximity with the espurr. “...You’re the human-turned-Pokemon one?” it asked. It sounded feminine.

“...Yes?” Jeana replied, backing away. “...I’ve come up with an alternate way to explain this whole experience…”

“Elaborate?” the yellow one asked. It was hard to determine that one’s gender by voice.

“I have gone insane,” Jeana said, rather complicated.

“You mean you weren’t already?” the pink one asked.

“This is not a delusion,” the yellow one assured.

“But she is crazy, I mean her emotions are so wacky!”

“Mesprit, you’re wacky,” the blue one huffed. “And you need to learn about personal space!”

The pink one, Mesprit, back up, hovering several feet off the ground and away from Jeana.

“Sorry about Mesprit,” the blue one said. That one sounded like a male. “She’s… well. You saw. Anyways, I’m Azelf! And the yellow one is Uxie! We’re Legendaries, maybe you’ve heard of us?”

Jeana shook her head, and Azelf visibly deflated. “Oh. Well…”

Azelf perked up again. “Now you know about us, though! And I can tell you in person and see your face as you find out how awesome we are, and that’s even better!”

Uxie sighed at Azelf’s enthusiasm. “Xerneas summoned you,” the yellow Legendary said. “You’ve met him.”

“I have,” Jeana confirmed.

“He sent us to assist you,” Uxie continued. “He thought you would have a difficult time adjusting to your new form, and so believed that, since we were your fellow Psychic types, we would be capable in helping make the transition from human to Pokemon easier for you.”

“...That is thoughtful of him, sir,” Jeana spoke.

“Don’t say sir. Formalities get in the way of things,” Azelf said. “We’re all Psychic types, and about the same height. And we’re here to help you.”

“We can explain to you why, exactly, you were called here,” Uxie said. “And we can assist you in learning moves. Battling is an essential part of Pokemon life, and moves are an equally essential part of that.”

“Both would be extremely helpful, thank you,” Jeana replied.

“I’ve got a really good move I could show you,” Mesprit hummed.

Jeana turned her attention to Mesprit.

“But you have to apologize to me before I teach it to you.” Mesprit grinned wickedly.

“But she didn’t even do anything?” Azelf asked.

“Why?” Jeana asked at the same time Azelf spoke.

“Because,” Mesprit said in response to both. The pink Legendary crossed her arms and leaned backwars, letting her tails hang limply. The smirk stayed on her face.

“...I’m very sorry?” Jeana asked.

“Close enough,” Mesprit hummed. “Now, you wanna learn that move?”

“Yes. Please,” Jeana said.

“It’s called Frustration,” Mesprit said. “I think you’re going to be very good at it!”

“Oh. That move,” Azelf sighed. “That move’s dumb.”

“You’re dumb.”

“Just because I’m not as smart as Uxie--!!”

“Mesprit, Azelf,” Uxie sighed. “Frustration?”

“Right, right,” Mesprit said.

Jeana sat, staring silently at them.

When she had met Xerneas, she had felt multiple emotions. She had been intimidated when she first saw him, and his imposing height in his deerlike form. She had been in awe once he had transformed into human form. She had be impressed, and a bit afraid when he gave her that probing and accurate summarization of her personality after a little over a dozen seemingly random questions. And she had felt slightly touched when he asked her to reconsider.

Overall, she had been given a rather good first impression of Legendary Pokemon. She had thought they were powerful, mature, and caring.

The triplets were not giving her any of these impressions.

Uxie seemed to be the most mature out of the three. They settled the disputes of their brother and sister in an efficient way, and was by far the most rational and calm. They were the closest by far to giving off that aura of something unspeakably ancient, powerful, and intelligent.

Azelf was very different from Uxie and Xerneas. Azelf didn’t feel like an entity of power, a force of nature to be feared and worshipped. Azelf seemed like a normal Pokemon, a bit full of himself, yes. But also genuinely and sincerely helpful. Someone you would be lucky to have as a friend. While he did come off as the most normal of the three, it led to Jeana having a hard time respecting him.

And then there was Mesprit. There was something about the female that Jeana disliked. From what she had seen, the other Psychic was immature, bratty, and generally illogical. She did not know what Mesprit’s dominion as a Legendary was over, but it was really only the fact that Mesprit may have the power to seal Jeana in the bowels of the earth, drown her in the deepest depths of the sea, or tear her brain apart molecule by molecule into sludge that kept Jeana speaking respectfully toward her. In fact, Jeana’s efforts to try to remain respectful and polite to the triplets caused her to say as little as possible, to minimize the chance of something that could be considered ‘rude’ slipping out.

“Hello? Helloooooooo, Mesprit to Jeana!” Mesprit asked, loudly getting Jeana’s attention.

Jeana blinked, turning her attention back to the triplets, and nodding to show she was listening.

“So! Frustration,” Mesprit began. “It’s basically weaponizing your hateful emotions. You’ve got a lot of those bottled up in that little head of yours, I can tell.”

Jeana gave Mesprit a blank look.


“...You’re really creepy, you know?” Mesprit stated, not like a question but as a fact.

Jeana chose not to respond to that.

“...You don’t actually want to teach Jeana the move, is that it?” Azelf asked Mesprit.

“Eh,” Mesprit responded.

Azelf crossed his arms and gave Mesprit a pouting face. Suddenly Mesprit’s posture shifted, mimicking Azelf’s exactly.

“Stop that! Fine, I’ll do it already,” Mesprit growled.

This was rather confusing to Jeana. It still did not improve her opinions about the triplets.

“You take a negative emotion. Hatred works best. Anger, envy, and the like okay too. Annoyance works, but is kind of wimpy honestly. And sadness and depression make the attack just sort of fizz pathetically,” Mesprit instructed Jeana, speaking in what sounded like a low growl.

Jeana shut her eyes. Mesprit had said that it would grant unimpressive results, but quite a bit of annoyance was accessible to the espurr simply from being near Mesprit. She concentrated on the annoyance, coaxing it out into the center of her mind. Then she fanned it, nourished it, building it up.

“You focus on that emotion. You intensify it. And then… imagine you’re hurling it at your enemy!” Mesprit coached.

The annoyance buzzed and bounced around Jeana’s chest, and her breathing hitched. She was choking on something sour-tasting. She started loudly wheezing and hacking, trying to cough something up. It was just when Jeana thought she was going to start hacked up blood she was coughing so hard, that instead she hacked up something completely different. It was a black gooey blob, and it tasted like the most sour lime one would ever taste. It landed on the grass in front of Jeana, fizzling and spitting with spite. It gave off a harsh scent like accrid smoke.

Physically and mentally drained by this effort, Jeana fell back onto the ground. She felt dizzy and light-headed, and her lungs and throat both burned.

“Hey, you did it!” Azelf exclaimed. “You used Frustration, on your first try, too!”

Mesprit nodded. “That’s really sucky aiming, and it’s way too small to do anything more than sting a bit. But I was expecting it to be like ten tries before you got anything out at all. So good job.”

Mesprit said ‘good job’ like she was congratulating a recently potty-trained toddler on using a toilet correctly.

All Jeana could really do was lay on the dewey grass and catch her breath. The dew soaked into the fur on her back, causing her pelt to become damp and cold. Once the dizziness faded from her head, Jeana sat up again. “Uxie,” she panted. “N… now that I have managed a usage of Frustration… Could you please tell me about the situation in Leginda, and why, exactly, I was called here?”

“Certainly,” Uxie said. “Next time. I believe you’ve had an exciting enough 36 or so hours. You should probably do some proper sleeping now. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Jeana!” Azelf chirped. Mesprit said nothing.

The fogginess of sleep crept into Jeana’s head. Her eyelids grew heavy and she found herself falling backwards onto the soft but cold grass again.

---

When Jeana next opened her eyes, she was back in the Infirmary of the Meadow Guild. She had a pounding headache, and much of her body felt sore. Her fur was dried, and stuck together uncomfortably, probably making her look bizarre. She shifted in the bed, and winced at the pain, before swinging her legs to the side of the bed and letting her paws touch the ground. Her joints ached in protest.

She looked down. Bandages were wrapped around her legs, back, stomach, and arms. It felt like there were some around her ears, too. But they did not impede her movement, and she could easily ignore the pain in her body. That was simple.

The hard part would be convincing others that she was perfectly fine.

Slowly and unsteadily, she managed to rise until she was in an unstable standing position. She then took a shaky step forwards. She managed to get a fair distance away from the bed before the Guild’s medic entered the room Jeana was in and saw her.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?” the grotle snapped. “You should be resting! You were hit by a bunch of super effective moves just yesterday, you should not be rushing about now!”

Jeana frowned. “I’m capable of moving unimpeded,” she said, in a slow and forceful tone. “Therefore, I am fine.”

“No, you are not. You look like you could fall over at any moment,” the grotle corrected. “Trust me, I trained under the best medic in Pixie City for years. I can tell just by looking at you that you need more time to recover.”

Jeana stubbornly remained standing, as if trying to convince him through the act alone that she could handle more difficult things. It did not work. The turtle could quite plainly see that the feline was trembling, and would probably be unable to do anything more physical than a brisk walk. And even that would probably be risky.

“This you last warning, get back in the bed, or I will carry you there myself and ask a guild member to tie you up to keep you in there,” the grotle warned. “We have some very Pokemon who are very skilled with Vine Whip. It’s because of all the practice they get, since half the rookie guild members are exactly like you, insisting they can still do their missions when they have a big bloody gash in their arm. Absolutely ridiculous.”

Jeana let out a heavy but short sigh, moving back towards the bed and getting on it.

“Thank you. I was really hoping you’d do that. I hate the taste of tanga-oran salve, and it doesn’t leave your mouth for hours,” the grotle sighed as well, but him in relief.

“Tanga-oran… That’s what’s all over my fur?” Jeana asked.

The grotle nodded. “Yes. Tanga to neutralize the effect of the Bug type moves on you, and oran to speed up the healing process. As a Psychic type, Bug attacks are bound to hurt more and for longer than on other kinds of Pokemon. Tanga takes the super effective quality away,” the grotle explained. “And don’t go licking your fur to get it off like I know you feline species sometimes do. It’s kind of creepy to watch, and the salve needs to stay on the wounds and out of your stomach to work.”

Jeana obediently nodded.

“Good, good,” the grotle said, nodding. “I was just coming in to check on you before I get dinner. Now that you’re awake, I’ll ask one of the other guild members to bring something up for you.”

“I slept that late?” Jeana asked, incredulous.

“I’m not surprised. You’re new to battling and therefore don’t handle pain or super effective attacks very well yet, and you’re a species not renowned for incredible regenerative or defensive abilities,” the grotle said. “Now, bye. Get plenty of rest, and stay in that bed.”

Jeana let out a lungful of air the moment that the grotle medic exited the room. She sat, simply staring at the opposite wall of the room for several minutes, before there was a voice in her head. Lina’s voice.

‘Jeana, can I come in?'

Jeana blinked, somewhat surprised by this. “...Yes?” she answered, loudly but hesitantly.

The door swung open again. This time, the small chingling waddled into the room, her braids occupied by a tray of food. Lina set the food down on Jeana’s bed.

“...Thank you,” Jeana said. Only upon seeing and smelling the food did she become aware of the dull ache in her stomach.

“Not a problem,” Lina said. Then she paused. “Uh… You know, that plan of yours… It was clever. You were doing the best you could with what you had. If you’d been faster, or there hadn’t been scyther there, or we’d found a Petrify or Totter or Slumber orb instead of a blast seed, we could’ve completed the mission… And you could’ve gotten into the Guild, and--”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jeana cut Lina off mid-sentence. “It’s in the past. Unchangeable now.”

Lina nodded. “...You know,” she said. “You really look like you’re having trouble with using your Psychic moves. If other Guild members find out… Well, the ones here would probably be helpful, but teams from other Guilds might get snippy or something about it. I could help you out a bit with learning to use your Psychic powers?”

“Yes. Please,” Jeana said, quickly.

“Great, awesome!” Using her braids to launch herself upwards, Lina leaped and landed neatly on the bed, ending up near Jeana. “Right! So first of all, all Pokemon have a large amount of power locked inside themself when they’re hatched, and using moves is them releasing that power in a controlled burst. More powerful moves use more of that power, but you can use less of them. Less powerful moves use less of that power, but you can use more of them. And we call that power energy.”

Jeana nodded.

“Your energy is affiliated with a certain type,” Lina continued. “We’re both affiliated with Psychic type. We can use that energy to use moves of a different type, but it’s far easier to use energy for moves of the same type, and so we can make those moves more powerful with less energy. We also have a second source of energy, called life. The more sick or injured you are, the less life energy you have. At some point if your life energy gets too low, it causes you to become too sluggish to use moves or really energetic movements, or you could even fall unconscious. If you run out of energy, you can start converting life into energy to continue fighting, but it’s really dangerous.”

Jeana nodded again.

“When a move of a type hits you, it hurts both your energy and your life. You’re going to get a distinct feeling of wrongness from that, that’s your life and energy telling you you’re up against a really dangerous enemy, and to get away. It’s kind of like your paw hurting when you stick it in a fire, the pain is your paw telling you not to do that. It’s the same thing.”

Jeana thought back to when she had attended classes in school about basic Pokemon biology. She remembered the teacher talking about things like HP, PP, and levels… Terms that technology used when tracking the health of a battling Pokemon. She had been distracted by immature students giggling over some of the terminology(it had been about middle or elementary school), but she thought ‘HP’ translated to life, and ‘PP’ translated to energy.

“It’s usually a lot easier to focus energy when you’re using a certain action while drawing on it,” Lina said. “Like, when a hitmonchan channels energy, they usually do it in the form of a punch.”

Jeana nodded again. She recalled her usage of Scratch the previous day. While she doubted she had been much, if any, channeling energy then, the action was rather basic and easily identified. She also thought about when she used Psychic and Frustration on the respective times she had successfully attacked with them.

Frustration’s motion was also relatively easy to identify. The hacking up of… whatever that was. It was probably going to be painful, but Mesprit was right, she did need to work on that move. Perhaps with practice it would become less painful, and easier to aim.

Psychic… Jeana could easily guess what had triggered it. But she would prefer a simpler and less stressful action she could perform, rather than having a meltdown.

“Anyways, let’s try something simple. Not a move, so it’ll be easier to perform. Try some plain old telekinesis,” Lina said. “Usually, I do this.” The chingling stood up, using her braids like feet, and then swept her stubby arms upwards. A bit of food from Jeana’s dinner leaped from the tray towards Jeana’s mouth. The espurr opened her jaws, and then snapped them shut around the tasty tidbit. She chewed for a moment before swallowing it.

“Right. How about a game, you can eat as much as you can! But you can only eat food brought to your paws or mouth with telekinesis,” Lina proposed, grinning wickedly.

Jeana gave Lina a look. “Any living being needs food in order to perform actions. How am I to use telekinesis to eat food, if I need energy to perform telekinesis, and I need food to regain energy?”

“You also regain energy from sleeping, and you just slept for about eighteen hours,” Lina pointed out.

Jeana sighed. She tried sweeping her hand upwards, however nothing happened. She looked to Lina as if to say ‘see?’

Lina shrugged. “So what. You didn’t get it first try. It took me like five tries.”

Jeana let out a huff of air throught her nostrils, and tried again. About five minutes of the espurr waving her paw while the chingling eagerly watched passed, before Jeana crossed her arms. “This is ridiculous.”

“No, no. Just be patient!” Lina encouraged. “Are you just doing the motion?”

“I don’t know how to channel energy,” Jeana sighed.

Lina crossed her braids, some of the frayed bits at the end rubbing her chin like fingers. “Hrmm… Okay, try it like this. Imagine that there’s a really long magic lasso in your paw, and that when you move your paw so does the lasso! If you move your paw just right, the lasso grabs the food, and the brings it to you. And that lasso is your telekinesis.”

Jeana closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind of annoyance and irritance. Ever since she had woken up after learning Frustration from Mesprit, the emotion had been rather eager to creep in around the corners of her mind whenever possible.

Jeana then opened her eyes, and tentatively stretched out her arm, clenched her paw into a fist, and drew the fist back towards herself.

A cup trembled, rose a centimeter into the air, tilted sideways, and then fell, spilling cooled liquid all across Jeana’s bed.

Jeana groaned in irritance.

“No, no! That was really good! You did spill the cup, but you managed to move it with your mind! That’s progress!” Lina reassured her.

Jeana buried her muzzle in her paws as her stomach growled to highlight her frustration.

“Hey, don’t be like that…” Lina sounded disappointed at Jeana’s reaction. “Wait, you know what I find makes it easier to move something? If it’s already in motion! You know that they say, about objects moving like to stay moving, and still objects like to stay still. Just… please please try just one more time?”

Jeana rubbed her cheeks and forehead with the heels of her paws rather roughly, before looking up.

Lina ripped a chunk off a slice of break, squished it into a ball, and tossed it up in the air. Jeana squinted, and repeated her motion. Stretch, clench, back.

Miraculously, the ball of bread zipped back towards her. She opened her mouth, and clamped her fangs onto the bread, taking an extra long time to chew it, relishing it before she swallowed.

Lina used the ends of her braids to applaud her, before raising her small arms up again, bringing more of the meal under her telekinetic control. She moved the food towards Jeana.

Jeana frowned at Lina. Lina shrugged, and grinned sheepishly. “I said you could only eat what was brought to you through telekinesis. So you can eat these too.”

Jeana managed to enjoy the the rest of her meal. While Jeana was eating, Lina used a rag the grotle medic(Lina claimed his name was Grub) had stored away to mop of the spilled drink.

When Jeana had finished, Lina grabbed the tray once more with her braids. As the chingling hopped off the bed and moved towards the door, Jeana voiced a question that had been weighing on her mind.

“Lina,” Jeana asked, “what happened to the medicinal berries I had purchased? I brought them into the dungeon, but I haven’t seen them since I woke up…”

“...Oh.” Lina turned to face Jeana. “The wild Pokemon must’ve eaten them. A lot of them were using Bug Bite, and when a Pokemon uses that move there’s a chance that they could eat any seeds or fruit you’re carrying.”

“Ah.” Jeana was disappointed that Eona had spent her own money to purchase berries to help Jeana with her mock job request, only for them to be devoured by Pokemon that probably did not even truly exist.

“Goodnight!” Lila chimed as she exited the room.

Jeana said nothing, staring at the wall for a few moments, before snuggling into her bed and closing her eyes. Being humiliated on her mock job request yesterday had only made her more determined to pass. Before she had been unsure about whether or not she truly wanted to join the guild. But now that she had tasted bitter defeat she knew she absolutely had to get in. There was no other option. And with a new move and useful skills learned, even if they were not yet mastered, she felt sure she had a far better chance of succeeding this time.

As Jeana drifted off to sleep, she hoped fervently that she would not have to deal with the triplets again so soon. She felt drained, both physically and mentally, from the past two days, and wanted some true rest.

--------------------

This was a rather fun chapter to write... How's everyone been enjoying the fic so far?

[LKWayvern]

There's a scene in this chapter that's probably pg-13 ish?
Also I did not realize until today I was misspelling Gracidea...

Chapter 5: A Second Attempt

Jeana got what she hoped for. The triplet Legendaries did not bother her that night, and she managed to have a full night’s worth of dreamless sleep. That is, until dawn broke. At that time her ears and mind were bombarded with the sounded of clanging bells.

Jeana woke up, slightly annoyed from the intensity of the wake-up call which left her with a dull headache. She was pleased, however, to find that her body overall felt much better compared to yesterday. She stepped out of the bed, placing all four paws on the ground, and began stretching to work out the kinks in her spine from staying in bed all day.

It was then that the grotle medic, Grub, walked in on her stretching like a cat. Jeana did not actually see or hear him per se, but she still detected his entrance, somehow. It crossed her mind that it could be her new Psychic powers waking up a bit more, after unlocking her telekinesis to some extent.

She quickly stood up on her hind paws and turned to face Grub. She felt slightly dizzy after standing up that rapidly, but it faded after a few seconds.

Grub looked Jeana up and down. The espurr certainly looked much better than she had yesterday. She was standing without visibly shaking, and before she had woken up Grub had changed her bandages and reapplied the tanga-oran salve, and saw the injuries she had sustained from the Bug Bites were scabbed over.

“If you’re really that eager,” Grub decided, “Then you can go. Just don’t go charging head-first into a monster house full of Bugs anytime soon.”

Jeana nodded. “Thank you,” she said, before padding swiftly out of the room. Before she headed to breakfast with all the other Guild Pokemon, she stripped the bandages off of her fur. Her injuries were mostly healed, bandages probably wouldn’t help much now. Jeana was unsure if showers existed or not in Leginda, but if they did she would eagerly take one to wash the salve out of her fur as well.

After she had disposed of the bandages, Jeana made her way down to the Meadow Guild’s Mess Hall, taking a tray of breakfast, and moving to an unnocupied corner of the hall. She didn’t particularly enjoy talking with others while eating, and so tried eating as quickly as possible and exiting the room before it got too loud.

She did manage to eat her meal without getting interrupted, but before she could leave the Mess Hall, she caught the attention of someone.

A familiar voice cried out “Jeana!” before chimes were heard behind the espurr. Jeana turned around, and saw Lina bouncing towards her.

“Jeana,” Lina repeated when she was in front of the feline. “I had an idea! You know how you were having trouble with using moves, well I thought of a way to help you with that! Meet me down at Chesnaught’s Dojo as soon as you can!”

Before Jeana even had a chance to reply, Lina hopped excitedly away, her chimes pleasantly sounding every time she hit the ground.

Jeana muttered something, before finally leaving the Mess Hall and striding down the mossy hallways of the Meadow Guild, before finally arriving the the entrance to the Guildmaster’s chamber.

It was not very long before a voice spoke “Come in.” Jeana entered.

“Guildmaster Solaris,” she spoke. “I would like to take the test to enter the Meadow Guild once more, please.”

Solaris looked thoughtful. “You are allowed to take it up to three times, before you have to take a three month break,” he said. “So of course you can take it again. Meet me at the same place and time, Lina and I will then escort you to Gracidea Fields again.”

Jeana nodded, before exiting the room.

---

Meadowville’s main plaza was about as crowded as it had been yesterday. Jeana could detect many of the same scents and sounds as before. She recalled the roundish, spiky green building Eona had previously pointed out as being Chesnaught’s Dojo, and made her way towards it.

Inside the building was a surprisingly spacious area. There was what appeared to be a track looping around the perimeter complete with hurdles, multiple targets lined up along the far wall, a jungle gym, a square of space set up like an arena with some training dummies, and even a small pool nearby. The pool looked slightly green with algae and small lily pads, however, so Jeana did not think that going for a swim in it would be a particularly pleasant experience. Sitting in various areas of the doho were a small steel grey color Pokemon with sharp green barbs, a bipedal blue duck with a gem set in its forehead, a white and brown muscular mammalian Pokemon with a durable and spiky looking light brown and green shell, and what appeared to be a twin tailed purple monkey. The two spiky Pokemon were simply conversing, while the monkey climbed on the jungle gym, and the duck swam laps in the small pool. Jeana was fairly certain that the monkey was called either aipom or ambipom. She could never remember which was the one with two tails. The duck, she knew, was called golduck. And she guessed that the spiky mammal was Chesnaught.

Also in the dojo was a Pokemon that Jeana did recognize. Lina bounded over to her, carrying a small satchel of some kind.

“Jeana!” Lina exclaimed. “Alright, so you were getting the hang of telekinesis last night, but you having trouble with moves, right? But you were doing really well with aiming an already moving object! So I thought maybe, until you master more moves, you can fight with these instead!”

Lina pushed the satchel into Jeana’s hands. The espurr lifted the flap on it and peered inside. In the satchel sat multiple small rocks, each capable of easily fitting in Jeana’s paw.


“They’re called graveler rocks,” Lina explained. “Pokemon on escort teams use them to damage far-off foes, or foes with typings that are hard for them to usually damage. I was thinking that if you threw these, then you could use your telekinesis to aim them and make them go faster!”

“Really,” Jeana said, picking up a graveler rock and turning it over in her paw. It was craggy, and had a good weight to it. She hesitantly made as if to throw it, but did not release the rock.

“Yeah! Teams use graveler rocks and blast seeds and the like on missions to places where there are lots of Pokemon with a type advantage against them,” Lina said. “Do you think you could try throwing the rock at one of the targets?”

“...From here?” Jeana asked, incredulously.

“Yeah. Just try! With the lasso thing again!” Lina encouraged.

Jeana squinted her eyes, staring at one of the paper targets on the other end of the room. It was at least thirty to forty feet away, possibly more. And as a human she had never been particularly good at sports. It was true that she had had an excellent grade in her gym class, but that was by virtue of always showing up on time, changing into her gym clothes, and attempting whatever sport they were doing that day.

However… as a human she did not have powers of telekinesis.

Jeana threw the graveler rock into the air. It was not a particularly impressive throw, and soon the stone was arcing back down to earth. However, Jeana splayed the stubby fingers on her paw open, and the graveler rock seemed to gain an extra burst in speed and height. It thudded into the paper target, and fell to the ground. Jeana frowned. Ever from this distance, she could see that the stone had only just barely hit the target, on one of the outer rings.

“Well. You hit the target,” Lina said, optimistically.

“So I did,” Jeana said, flatly.

The two Psychic types spent some time working on Jeana’s telekinetic aim. Eventually they got it so Jeana consistently hit the target, usually where the rocks hit being clustered in the lower right area of the target. Even if it wasn’t a bullseye, the fact that it hit the target meant Jeana could probably hit an enemy Pokemon.

Once midday arrived, Jeana and Lina went off to meet Guildmaster Solaris again, at which point Lina teleported all of them to Gracidea Fields once more. Guildmaster Solaris reminded Jeana of the objective of the mock job request, and the two Psychic types re-entered the dungeon.

Gracidea Field Floor One

Jeana wasted no time in immediately making her way towards the nearest corridor at a brisk pace. Lina bounced along behind her to keep up, making her signature chiming noise each time she did so.

From several yards away, Jeana spotted a sentret patrolling the corridor up ahead. The young feline paused, extracted a graveler rock from her satchel, and threw it forwards. Her telekinesis immediately picked up the stone, sending it hurtling towards the raccoonlike Pokemon. It smacked into the sentret’s shoulder. Disturbed by this, the sentret dashed away from Jeana’s direction in a blind panic.

Jeana hurled another graveler rock at the sentret. This one hit the rodent’s back as it fled. A third graveler rock finally managed to dispatch the sentret.

Jeana dashed to where her projectiles had fallen, placing them in her bag again. Although the sentret was really rather weak, she still felt a slight swell of pride for having managed to use the graveler rocks to fell a dungeon’s puppet.

Jeana and Lina went through multiple corridors and rooms on the first floor, managing to defeat a caterpie and find an oran before they finally located the stairs. Neither of them hesitated as they made their way up the steps.

Gracidea Fields Floor Two

The moment that Jeana and Lina reached the second floor of the dungeon, Jeana realized they were not alone. It took a few moments to find it, but she eventually located the enemy Pokemon. It was in a shaded corner of the room, in a clump of grass and flowers, rather well hidden. It looked kind of like a cocoon of some kind, spikes attached to the nearby flower stalks, off white silk, and a single red eye glaring balefully out from a gap in the silk.

“That’s a cascoon,” Lina identified the cocoon. “Don’t worry. It can’t move.”

Jeana padded closer to the cascoon, until she was a few feet away from it. Sure enough, it did not run away from her at her approach, nor did it belligerently charge towards her to strike first. It simply continued glowering at her.

The cascoon was, in effect, a sitting duck.

Jeana could not ask for a better live target.

She decided to, instead of using the graveler rocks again, try something different. She dredged up her negative emotions, the humiliation of failing the first test, the frustration of being unable to adequately use her psychic abilities, and a newfound spite reserved just for Bug typed Pokemon.

Sure enough, she felt it, gnawing in her lungs. First a small cough, quickly escalating into a full-on coughing fit. She felt it crawling up through her throat, until finally she managed to hack it out.

The little glob of spite and irritance splatted near the cascoon. The majority of it missed, but several droplets managed to land on the Bug. It hissed in obvious displeasure.

Let’s try that again…, Jeana did not stop coughing and hacking and wheezing this time. She channeled her frustration and anger at being unable to properly aim her Frustration attack. A slightly larger glob was spat out from her mouth, hitting one of the cascoon’s spike.

“Kasssssssssk!” The cascoon let out a shriek as the viscous Frustration dripped down the spike, and onto the main body of the metamorphosing insect. Some drops even dripped into its eye. The attack fizzled and spat venemously.

Jeana finally stopped her coughing and hacking. She figured that twice in a row was enough practice with Frustration, and her throat and lungs had both become rather sore. She walked over to the pained cascoon, and with a swipe of her paw put it out of its misery. She quickly brush the purple-ish dust off her paw and out of her fur.

Lina was staring at Jeana after that. “When did you learn Frustration…?”

“...Just now,” Jeana lied. “I had an idea in a dream two nights ago, I’ve been meaning to try it out…” Well. Close enough to the truth.

Like the chingling would believe that three bickering siblings claiming to be gods of the Pokemon world had come to her in a dream and taught her to encapsulate her negativity in an attack.

Lina nodded. From the expression on her face she didn’t really believe Jeana but also didn’t want to argue.

“...Let’s just go,” Jeana sighed.

They managed to get through the second floor of the dungeon with little trouble, as well. Jeana got more practice with her graveler rocks from a hoppip that would not quit bouncing about the grassy corridors and rooms with its Splash attacks, and from a ratatta that, like the sentret on the previous floor, turned tail and ran in a blind panic after being hit twice.

They found the stairs soon enough.

Gracidea Fields Floor Three

It was on this floor that Jeana and Lina once more encountered a scyther.

They were walking through one of the corridors of the dungeon. Jeana had managed to find a pecha, and an apple, and was once again looking for a target to practice either her Frustration of graveler rocks on. She found it in the form of an aggressive green mantis about four feet taller than herself.

Not the most ideal target.

Needless to say, not wanting a repeat of her last encounter with the massive insect, Jeana immediately took out and threw a graveler rock, using her telekinesis to make the thrown projectile fly faster. She managed to score a hit on the scyther’s abdomen.

Unimpressed by this, the scyther raised an arm, and a gleam of light traveled up the blade as it used Swords Dance.

Jeana threw another graveler rock at the scyther, this one glancing off its shoulder. Still, the Bug was unfazed.

The scyther stretched its wings and legs before using Agility, and then launching itself at Jeana, the vibrations of its wings making the air throb. Jeana winced at the sound, firing one more graveler rock at the scyther. She thought at first that it had missed, as it sailed over the scyther’s thorny head. However, there was a crack as the stone connected with one of the scyther’s wings. It was thrown off balance, hitting the ground and skidding for a few inches.

Dazed, the scyther took a few precious moments to stand up. Jeana took advantage of that time to summon her anger, hatred, and fear once more, and direct it at the scyther. The burning sensation in her lungs, the black glob flying out of her mouth. The scyther stood up, and the Frustration hit it in the neck. It hissed in pain, and Jeana let fly another graveler rock. It connected again.

The scyther leaped out Jeana again. It was at such a close range Jeana had no time to react, and it scored a Slash across her body. The intense pain and the close proximity to the Bug brought her mind back to the monster house, and made something well up in her chest. Her ears were ringing again.

No. No matter how powerful the Psychic attack was, no matter how it would probably get her out of this situation, she hated it. She didn’t want to rely on it. She couldn’t. She needed to use other moves, and she despised the feelings that brought it about. What if a Dark type attacked her someday? She couldn’t rely on her Psychic to bail her out then, Dark types were immune to those kinds of moves.

Instead she turned the fear and panic into something more volatile.

Rage. Anger. Wrath.

And she spat her largest Frustration yet directly into the scyther’s eyes.

She was surprised by this. There was no hacking or coughing, no burning sensation and no sore throat. It was suddenly just there.

Screaming in pain, the scyther threw itself away from her. She thought she could see dust coming off of it.

Jeana grabbed Lina by the braid, and ran as fast as her unfamiliar legs could take her.

By the time they were out of the corridor and into the next room, Jeana could no longer hear the screams of the scyther. She did not stop to think about what this meant.

She had seen the dust. It was just a puppet of the dungeon. Never truly alive. She shouldn’t let it bother her.

Jeana and Lina found the stairs to the next floor soon after that.

Gracidea Fields Floor Four

After heading through a corridor, Jeana finally found the treasure chest. It was dark green, with a black lock on it keeping it shut tight. She held it. It was smaller and lighter than she had expected when she had heard the words ‘treasure chest’. Although she knew it was ridiculous, the words had brought to her mind the cartoonish image of a brown chest heaping with gold doubloons.

Lina touched her shoulder with a braid, and finally Teleported them both outside the dungeon.

---

Guildmaster Solaris was slightly surprised, but also greatly pleased, to see that Jeana had succeeded this time around. Lina Teleported the three back to the Meadow Guild once more, before eating dinner at the Mess Hall and retiring to her room for the rest of the day.

Jeana and Guildmaster Solaris went into the Guildmaster’s chambers.

“Well, you have completed the mock job request,” the venusaur told her. “Congratulations. If you would like to join the Guild, you may now do so.”

“I would like that very much, please,” Jeana said. After a moment’s thought, she added “...Guildmaster.”

Solaris smiled at her. “Good, good. Now, if you would please open that treasure chest you recovered…”

Jeana’s paws fumbled slightly with the lock, but it did open without need for a key. Inside were a variety of objects. One was a small, round, metal object. It seemed to be a bronze-ish color. When Jeana picked it up she saw that it was designed to resemble a poke ball, attached to a necklace, and could open up like a locket. Upon opening it up she saw what looked like a keyboard and screen, similar to a primitive cell-phone. She could not read the most of symbols on the keyboard, the only things she could identify being what was probably the power button and the buttons to make the device louder and quieter.

Also inside the chest was a larger satchel, similar in design to the one Lina had given to Jeana. Peering inside this satchel revealed there to be a few glass orbs tinted blue, a few fruits, and a couple sticks of some kind.

Jeana looked up at Guildmaster Solaris.

“Welcome to the Meadow Guild,” he told her. “Since you did not come with a partner to our Guild, I have assigned you to another team. You are, from this day forwards, a member of Team Reverie. After a month, if you wish you may join another team, or form one of your own if you have a partner at that point. Good luck in doing good.”

The name ‘Team Reverie’ seemed familiar to Jeana, and then she remembered why. The snivy she had first met when she arrived in this strange new land had said she was a part of Team Reverie. Jeana believed that the snivy’s name had been… Shiver, she thought?

“Thank you,” Jeana repeated, trying to remember all she could about Shiver. Jeana had been a bit tired at the time, but the thing that seemed to stand out about Shiver was she seemed rather confused and annoyed from speaking with Jeana. Hopefully that had been due to a lack of sleep, or else being on a team together for a month would be unpleasant for both parties.

“Guildmaster Solaris?”

Jeana turned around. Speak of the renegade, Shiver the snivy was standing in the doorway to the Guildmaster’s chambers right then.

“You called me here? What did you need, Guildmaster?” Shiver asked. Contrary to her words, she seemed to have figured out exactly what her Guildmaster had planned.

“Yes, Shiver. Thank you for coming on short notice.” Guildmaster Solaris beamed at the young snake. “This is the latest addition to your team. Jeana the espurr. She just passed the guild’s examination today, and will assist your team on missions starting tomorrow.”

Shiver looked at Jeana, sizing the espurr up. Jeana saw recognition light in Shiver’s seafoam-green eyes.

“I’ll let Jazz know, then,” Shiver said, in a neutral tone. “What was your name again?”

“Jeana,” she responded.

Shiver nodded. “Then, if you have nothing more to tell me, I’ll take my leave now Guildmaster?” After a nod from Solaris, Shiver turned to go. “Come along, Jeana. I’ll show you your room, and introduce you to the other member of Team Reverie.”

Shiver led Jeana out of the Guildmaster’s chambers before turning around.

“Okay, can we just clear some things up?” Shiver asked. “First of all, I’m still a little annoyed by you leaving a gaping hole in my roof. I’m not sure what you did to end up falling from the sky and leaving a hole in my roof… But please don’t do it again. Patching up that hole was easier for me to do than other guild members, but it took a massive amount of energy out from me.”

Jeana nodded. She doubted she was going to have to change species and be sent to a foreign region again anytime soon, and so would probably be easily able to avoid doing that again.

“Last time we spoke, I found you kind of annoying… Then again I was pretty tired and you were probably disoriented from falling from the sky like that.” Shiver rubbed the back of her head. “So sorry if I sounded rude to you. You were just acting… pretty weird, and I wasn’t really in the mood for that.”

“Neither of those things will happen again,” Jeana assured Shiver.

“That’s good,” Shiver smiled. “Right. A few things you have to know… We of Team Reverie have a reputation for two things: being a bit odd, but also being rather good battlers due to that oddness. We don’t care how you get the job of battling done, but we expect you to pull your weight on this team.”

“In that case, would it bother you if we went to the dojo at some point soon?” Jeana asked.

“Hm? Oh, no. Also… my teammate, Jazz, can get a bit annoying. Just don’t upset him, and you should be fine,” Shiver assured Jeana. “He should be asleep by now, and he’s a pretty heavy sleeper, so you won’t really meet him until the morning. But don’t let anything he says or does bother you.”

Jeana nodded. “I won’t.”

“Good. Great. We should get along.” Shiver sighed. “Now come on. I think it’s been a long day for all of us. I’ll take you to the Mess Hall, then I’ll show you to your new room.”

[Scytherwolf]

Just finished reading the current chapters, and I like what you have of this so far. I thought it was interesting that Jeana doesn't know much about pokemon and can't identify most of the species. I imagine that'll get confusing with the sheer amount of pokemon she's going to see everywhere. I also like details such as how the other pokemons' thoughts getting into her head was distracting. That was kind of amusing to imagine. xD Hopefully she'll learn to shut it out.

The way mystery dungeons work in this story is interesting too. The 'puppet' pokemon are pretty creepy, but at least that means that for the most part, real pokemon aren't being harmed (I felt sorry for that scyther getting frustration in its eyes until it was revealed to be a puppet). I'm glad that there are still recruit-able ferals, though.

One more thing is that I liked how it takes practice to use things like psychic abilities. Even though pokemon are naturally able to use them, I imagine it would take a bit of time to figure out. xD

Good job with this!

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 6: Team Reverie

Jeana knew what to expect when she felt the icy dew soaking into the fur on her back again.

She sat up, to see Uxie and Azelf staring at her. Their sister was nowhere to be seen.

“Greetings Uxie, Azelf. It is good to see you again. Where is Mesprit?” Jeana asked. She was secretly relieved that the pink Legendary was gone. Something about her simply perturbed Jeana.

Azelf grinned, and waved at Jeana. “Hey, it’s good to see you too!”

“Mesprit went to check on Xerneas,” Uxie explained. “Speaking of Xerneas. I assume that you would like to know why, exactly, he dragged you into this situation, and what this situation is?”

“Yes. Please,” Jeana asked.

Uxie nodded. “Well. It started rather recently. First, I’d like to apologize for your being brought here on such short notice. There is a long history of humans being brought to save a world of Pokemon. Most of them face overwhelming odds. So first, know that you are not the only one to have experienced something like this before. Each time before, the human has prevailed. The odds are on your side.”

Azelf smiled at Jeana encouragingly.

“Second, the situation.” Uxie sighed. “Occasionally, a Legendary will decide that they can do a much better job of being leader than the others. This has happened multiple times, so it’s usually the same or similar Pokemon revolting. However, something different has happened this time. Yveltal, who was always one of those to talk the upriser out of the revolution before now, and Darkrai, who has always been too withdrawn to concern himself with revolutions, have teamed up with Giratina, extremely notorious for being a catalyst for most rebellions.”

“Yveltal seems to be the one in charge of the rebellion,” Azelf picked up where Uxie left off. “Darkrai and Giratina are acting as her henchmen, doing most of the things she actually wants done. However, Darkrai has a sister, Cresselia. And Yveltal has a brother, who you’ve met, Xerneas. Cresselia and Xerneas must’ve discovered their plans beforehand, because the first thing Yveltal had Darkrai and Giratina do was to capture and imprison Cresselia so she couldn’t warn anyone. Cresselia’s really… odd and a bit crazy, but she didn’t deserve that…”

“At any rate, Yveltal, Darkrai, and Giratina were momentarily distracted by capturing Cresselia. Putting question of her mental stability aside, Cresselia is quite good at fighting,” Uxie continued. “She bought time for Xerneas to summon a human, you, to the Pokemon world in order to either defeat the three rebelling Legendaries, or talk them out of it. And he asked us to assist you.”

“A lot of the time, it’s only one or two Legendaries rebelling. Or if there are more, they’re all minor ones with a smaller goal. Like all the times Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres tried overthrowing Lugia,” Azelf mused. “I don’t think three Legendaries of Darkrai’s level and higher have ever tried rebelling! So that’s why Xerneas went to us for help, he thought you’d need it since this is a slightly unique case…”

Jeana nodded. “If you don’t mind,” she asked, “I have a question.”

“Yes?” Uxie asked.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why is Yveltal doing this?” Jeana asked. “What is her motive? Or her overall goal? Do you have any idea?”

“We don’t, sadly,” Azelf said. “We’re trying to avoid her and her henchmen.”

“I see,” Jeana said. “And would it be possible for me to return to the human world before this is over if I find this all to be too much?”

“No,” Azelf responded. “Xerneas brought you here, so he has to send you back.”

Jeana sighed. “I suspected…” she muttered. “Thank you for the information.”

Azelf smiled. “You’re welcome!”

There was something about all this that seemed slightly suspicious to Jeana. Some detail niggling at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t quite get a grasp on it.

“I was wondering,” she asked, “if we could please end this session now. I found the information rather useful, but I am rather tired right now.”

“No problem!” Azelf spoke. “‘Night!”

---

The next day, Jeana met her other new team member.

Jazz the haunter seemed to mean well. However he spoke his opinions in ways that came across as being blunt, rude, or just plain creepy. It was therefore difficult to tell his compliments apart from his insults. In addition, despite being blunt Jazz still managed to be rather confusing while speaking, and take a frustratingly long time to say what he needed to say due to having a bit of a stutter.

It did creep Jeana out somewhat that Jazz had two hands, both seemingly not attached to his body by any visible means whatsoever, and both capable of hovering with no obvious means of propulsion.

When the trio arrived at Chesnaught’s Dojo to train, Chesnaught requested that they train in the yard behind the dojo, instead of inside. Jeana soon found out why. Shiver was very talented with creating and controlling far more plant life than the average Grass type of her size and age. However, while most plant life conjured by a Grass type faded a few minutes around creation, Shiver’s stubbornly clung to existence. A Fire type who apparently worked at the dojo sent her creations up in flames when she was finished with using them.

Jazz tended to be exceedingly brutal in his fighting. He prevented his foe from fleeing or healing with Mean Look and Embargo, and then sent a merciless barrage of status effects at them before finishing them off with a powerful Hex attack. He was so fast and relentless with his attacks, it was difficult to avoid any of them.

Jeana was starting to see why Shiver had claimed Team Reverie was famed for being rather good battlers.

In comparison to them, she knew she looked like a rather poor fighter. It was true, her Frustration attack was slowly becoming larger and easier to aim, and her telekinesis nearly always allowed her to score a hit on her target with graveler rocks, however her move repertoire was admittedly limited compared to Shiver and Jazz.

Shiver immediately noticed this problem, and offered a solution. “Jeana, if you would like a new move, I believe that we each have one we could possibly teach you, which most Pokemon are capable of easily learning,” the snivy offered.

“I would find more moves to be useful,” Jeana affirmed. “Which would these be?”

“Toxic and Protect,” Shiver stated.

Jazz decided to go ahead first and start with teaching Jeana Toxic. “This is the one move that any P-pokemon c-can learn, so it should b-be easy f-for you. Then again you b-barely know anything, so it’s f-fine if it t-takes some t-time. You op-pen your mouth large, like this!” Jazz opened his mouth impossibly huge, his tongue lolling out and making it even harder to understand him. “An’ ‘en, you aim wi’ your ‘angs! ‘An you ‘oot-t ‘e ‘enuh out! Like ‘is!”

Jazz followed that up by shooting two small streams of Toxic out from his needle-sharp canines. The liquid neatly hit a leaf on the ground, before eating away two holes in the leaf with a hiss.

“...Excuse me, but can you please repeat that?” Jeana asked.

Jazz huffed, but did so. “You shoot and aim the T-toxic with your c-canines,” he rephrased.

“How?” Jeana asked.

Jazz flung his hands up in the air, quite literally. “I d-dunno! It’s inst-tinct f-for me now! I d-don’t even think ab-bout it and it-t happens!”

Jeana was rather disappointed by that unhelpful explanation. Jazz probably would not be much more help now. She decided to try the advice she had received from Lina and Mesprit concerning Frustration and telekinesis. Namely, to visualize the move.

Jeana opened her mouth as wide as she could, and felt a tingle in her fangs. She focused on that tingle, locking her eyes to a spot on the ground and envisioning a stream of Toxic shooting from her fangs to that spot on the ground.

A drop of Toxic squeezed its way from one of her fangs and fell onto the inside of her mouth.

Jeana’s eyes immediately teared up as she tried spitting out the drop of venom. It tasted disgusting, and just a small bit of it was already making her feel lightheaded and slightly nauseated. It was a very potent poison.

Jazz seemed oddly delighted by this. “You d-did it! First t-try! It was a suck-ky small one, but you d-did it!”

Jeana, after some wretching and rubbing at the inside of her mouth with her paws, finally managed to get the disgusting taste out of her mouth. She had no intention to use that move on a foe until she had much more training with it, for fear that she accidentally poison herself next time she used it. She understood for the first time that just because a Pokemon was capable of using a move did not mean they were capable of using it offensively.

Fortunately, despite the adverse effects of coming into contact with a drop of her own Toxic, Jeana did not actually become poisoned or badly poisoned. Once Shiver had become certain of this, both the snivy and espurr were rather relieved.

“Protect is another move that most Pokemon are capable of using, although less than Toxic,” Shiver began to explain. “You in particular should be able to make rather powerful Protects, certain moves don’t necessarily rely on latent Psychic powers, but grow more powerful with them, and espurrs are notorious for having extremely powerful latent Psychic powers.”

Jeana nodded.

“This move is usually used defensively, but some Pokemon can get extremely creative with it,” Shiver continued. “Outlaw hunting Pokemon teams use it to keep dangerous Pokemon contained. Medics can use it to transfer Pokemon too injured to walk on their own. Once I heard of a Pokemon so skilled at Protect, they could use it to fly short distances.”

“That’s… interesting,” Jeana muttered.

Shiver nodded. “Yes, very. I don’t use Protect very often, overall I feel more confident with my Grass moves, but… You need to very clearly and purely imagine exactly what you want the Protect to do. If you let it up for a single second, it could falter. If you get distracted, it will vanish. If you forget to imagine the Protect in a certain area, then there will be a gaping hole there. You need to be very specific about the Protect, or it could fail catastrophically.”

Jeana nodded, and decided to try using Protect now. She imagined a curved shield in front of her, translucent but strong as steel. She reached out, and managed to touch it. She moved her paw up and down, feeling the smooth concave substance.

Shiver reached out and touched the Protect shield as well. “Good. That’s good.” The snivy smiled.

And then Jeana finally noticed it. The ringing in her ears. It was there, not as loudly as she was used to it being, which was why she hadn’t noticed it at first.

Her breath hitched. What set it off? Is-- is it going to happen again?

No. I don’t want to. I DON’T WANT--

The Protect vanished and the ringing faded.

Shiver’s face fell. “Oh. Well, you got the basics down. You managed to make a Protect manifest. And that’s great!”

Jeana nodded.

Shiver looked at the sky. “It’s too late to go to a dungeon now. I wasn’t planning to today, though. I’ve got a longer mission lined up for us, so we can use the rest of today to prepare for it. We’re escorting a young Pokemon from Meadowville to Mind City.”

Team Reverie spent the afternoon first having a nice lunch at Rose Cafe, and then purchasing supplies from various shops. They bought a large amount of healing berries, seeds, and apples from Verdant, some orbs and wands from Kecleon, and even managed to get a few graveler rocks for Jeana. Shiver gave Jeana the idea to carry a few seeds in her bag as well, in case she was up against a more powerful enemy, and wanted an extra effect, such as paralysis, or a soporific effect.

The team had a filling dinner and went to bed. That night in dreams, Jeana managed to get in some practice with both Frustration and Toxic with Mesprit. Jeana was mildly pleased that she very nearly managed to poison the immature Legendary.

The next morning, Shiver woke her team up rather early. They got a breakfast of a chesto each from the kitchens to wake themselves up, and headed out to the lobby, where the client would be waiting.

In the lobby, there were exactly two Pokemon. A drowsy looking lampent behind a desk, illuminating the entire room with his blue-violet flames, and a familiar looking eevee in a cloak.

“Hi, Jeana! Congratulations on getting into the Meadow Guild!” Eona greeted Jeana with an enthusiastic smile.

“You know the client?” Shiver asked Jeana.

Jeana shrugged. “We met once before.”

“You’re the one who wanted to be escorted to Mind City, correct?” Shiver asked. Eona nodded in confirmation, and Shiver smiled.

“Hello, c-client! You’re v-very small. And you smell… d-different from other eev-vees,” Jazz hummed. “What’s your name?”

“Eona,” she said.

“Well, that’s excellent. I’m Shiver, the haunter is Jazz, and that, as you know, is our newest member, Jeana,” Shiver introduced them. “We’re Team Reverie.”

[LKWayvern]

I'd like to say something here.
This chapter mentions made up religions in the Pokemon World, centering around the Legendaries.
I don't mean to offend anyone who is or isn't religious. I'm not trying to make any comments about religion. I'm merely trying to add some worldbuilding to this fanfiction. I'm not trying to make fun of anyone's religion, I'm certainly not trying to say that any one religion is better than another. I personally believe that people should be able to worship whatever they wish, so long as they don't force me, or someone else, to do something without our consent.
If I did offend someone, I'm extremely sorry and it was completely unintentional!

Chapter 7: Escorting Eona

Before they left Meadowville, all sorts of thoughts flashed through Jeana’s mind.

The eevee had appeared rather talkative and cheerful in their last encounter. For this reason, Jeana did not know how they would get along.

Jeana had always been a loner. She accepted help when it was offered, it was true. But ultimately, she appreciated solitude more than crowds. Speaking with certain kinds of people exhausted her. Complying with their wishes and repressing her own opinions was natural to her, and usually worth it in the end, but she did need time on her own to recharge.

With her first client as a member of Team Reverie, and with Team Reverie as well, however, Jeana had really lucked out. While Eona was friendly with Jeana, she quickly noticed when Jeana tired of speaking to her, despite Jeana’s best efforts to mask it with politeness. Eona respected Jeana’s boundaries, and Jeana was relieved by this. Shiver, Jeana’s new leader, was a loner herself and so only spoke to her client and teammates if it was necessary. She wasn’t one for needless chatter, which Jeana appreciated.

Jazz, on the other hand, was both annoyingly brutal in his comments, and loved discussion more than he hated the sound of his stutter. He tried talking to Jeana, but when she refused to provide him an interesting conversation, by way of only agreeing with him to prevent an argument of accidental offense, he left her, and Jeana was really very relieved. Jazz and Eona managed to have an enthusiastic discussion on conspiracy theories, most involving the Guilds. Eona and Jazz passed the time spent traveling from Meadowville through the Echo Forest Mystery Dungeon to get to Dread City this way, by discussing the conspiracy theories, and Jeana could not help but overhear their excited chatter.

Jeana wrinkled her nose upon hearing some of the theories that Jazz and Eona debated about. Even stranger, Jazz seemed to be mostly advocating for all the conspiracies, claiming for them all to be absolutely true. Jeana was fairly certain that Eona and Jazz were making up theories by now. Especially once she heard the theory Jazz proposed that the Guildmasters were secretly cultists in employ of the Legendary Pokemon Arceus, intending to find the Plates and gift them to Arceus so he may return to his true, original form and usher in an age of ritual and sacrifice to Legendaries, and in return Arceus would reward the Guildmasters by designating them his high priests and commanding Xerneas to gift them with eternal life.

Wait. That name sounded familiar.

“Xerneas?” Jeana asked. “Who is that?”

She remembered Xerneas from her dream. Her first dream, that is. Just before she transformed into an espurr and was transported to Leginda. He had made a lasting impression on her, between his apparent ability to shift into human form, and his overall personality and presence.

“You don’t know who Lord Xerneas is?” Shiver asked, sounding surprised. “He’s a Legendary Pokemon. The King of Fae, and the Giver of Life. His twin sister is Lady Yveltal, Queen of Night and Usher of Fallen.”

“...What is a Legendary Pokemon?” Jeana asked. She knew that they were heavily involved in mythology, and supposedly had created and ruled the world. As a human, she had not believed in this, writing it off as pure fiction. Some of her classmates had been in various religions worshipping the Legendary Pokemon. Most of them seemed to be in religions praising Arceus, Zygarde, or Dialga and Palkia as a pair. One or two were devoted to Mew.

“Legendary Pokemon are the gods of the world,” Shiver explained. “The Pantheon of Legends created everything that exists on this planet, and continue to preside over it to this day. At the top of their hierarchy are King Arceus and Queen Mew, who reign over inanimate and animate matter respectively. All Pokemon give homage to them, but they also praise the Legendaries who guard their type. I’ve never been very religious, but I still give thanks to Lady Celebi and Lady Shaymin.”

“My mom only gave thanks to Lady Shaymin,” Eona said. “But she took me to masses for King Arceus.”

“My p-parents raised me to b-believe in Lad-dy Girat-t-tina of Chaos!” Jazz said.

“The Renegade?” Shiver asked, mildly surprised.

“Hey. G-ghosts don’t-t have many Legend-daries to c-call our own, and P-p-poisons have none,” Jazz huffed. “P-poison types just end up b-being lump-ped in with the Normal t-types, worshipping K-king Arceus and his P-plates!”

“As a Psychic, I thought you would worship one of the Psychic Legendaries,” Shiver said. “Personally I thought you’d be one to go for Lord Mewtwo or Lairde Deoxys. You just strike me as the type to go for the more scientific Legendaries.”

Jeana nodded.

They traveled in silence for several more minutes, before Jazz spoke up again. “You know, they say that-t Lord D-darkrai lives here in Ech-ch-cho Forest!”

“And they say that Lady Shaymin and Lady Virizion live in Gracedia Fields, and yet I’ve never seen them…” Shiver replied.

“No, no, it’s t-true!” Jazz affirmed. “My bro found-d a t-temple d-d-dedicated-d to Lord-d Darkrai right-t here!”

“Can you show us?” Eona asked.

“No,” Jazz replied. “He wouldn’t-t show me no matt-ter how much I ask-ked.”

“Then how do you know it exists?” Shiver asked.

Jazz somehow shrugged without shoulders. Jeana was rather confused by this.

“What does… Lord Darkrai preside over?” Jeana asked, curioisly.

“Night-tmares,” Jazz responded, cooly. “My b-bro did-dn’t sleep-p for weeks out of f-fear that-t he might-t’ve accident-tally gott-ten one from Lord D-darkrai. I d-didn’t t-take after him, obv-viously.” The haunter winked.

---

Jeana wasn’t quite sure what it was, but something about Dread City put her on edge.

She could tell whatever it was affected Jazz, too. The Ghost hadn’t spoken a single word since Team Reverie set foot in the city.

Maybe it was the deathly quiet. Not outside, no. But in Jeana’s own mind.

She had been totally unaware of it, but she had grown somewhat used to the low hum of other’s thoughts in the back of her own mind. And in this city, it did not exist. It was unsettling.

Shiver must have noticed her unease at some point. Shiver explained that there were a lot of Dark type Pokemon living in Dread City, and so it was Jeana’s survival instinct kicking in, telling her to flee before she was attacked. Dark types had a type advantage over Psychic types.

Curiously enough, Jeana noticed that the feeling instensified the more Dark types were close by her. She had not felt the feeling when swarmed by a herd of Bugs, perhaps because they were Dungeon puppets…

Interesting. This could be a way to identify when a foe was a puppet and when it wasn’t. But only if it was super-effective against her, of course.

Dread City overall was radically different from Meadowville. While Meadowville was sprawling and filled with greenery, Dread City’s imposing obsidian buildings spiraled upwards, intent on obscuring the sky as much as possible. The streets were swept spotless, and she detected an air of pride from every denizen of the Dark city she met. And she met a great many of them, scampering and lumbering and strutting through the streets.

There was a wolf with a gleaming scythe and a lustrous coat as white as snow. There was a weasel with sleeked back fur and a crown of feathers sticking up as if they had used hair gel somehow. There was a horned hound watching very carefully over two pups, glaring angrily at anyone who stepped within five feet of the puppies and hissing smoke out of her nostrils in an evil eye that Jeana envied. An imposingly tall and dark frog wearing its own tongue as a scarf creeped Jeana out to some extent, as it strode down allowing its oversized webbed feet to slap against the pavement nonchalantly. And there was even some unholy mix between a cactus and a barb-studded scarecrow that Jeana spotted stepping jerkily through the streets, as if it had just walked straight off the set of a stop-motion picture.

When the three had spotted a fox with beautiful black fur and softly glowing topaz rings, Eona had bounded excitedly up to them. The fox acted bashful, but seemed to adore Eona’s attention. Jeana needed only the expression on the Dark type’s face to figure that out.

Jeana was quite sure that it was really a rather nice city. However the presence of so many Dark types prevented her from fully appreciating it.

Jeana, Shiver, Jazz, and Eona left the city soon, this time in a zebstrika-drawn carriage instead of on foot. The carriage was surprisingly fast, but rather bumpy and altogether unpleasant. Jeana was sure if she was the type to become motion sick her stomach would be heaving by now.

About ten minutes into the ride, Shiver moved over to the small window inside the wooden carriage and opened it. A spatter of dirty water sprayed into her eyes for her trouble. Shiver immediately started rubbing it out with her stubby fingers, wandering back over to sit near Jeana and Eona again.

Water continued dripping in through the carriage window. It was apparently drizzling outside. It became steadily heavier until it was truly raining, at which point Jazz’s hands flew to shut the window again.

Roughly half an hour later, Team Reverie and their client arrived at their next stop, Splash Port. Splash Port was a city built around water. Specifically it was built on a delta formed where the Northwind River met Central Bay, the body of water that Leginda Mainland and North Leginda encircled, and which multiple islands were scattered across.

Eona’s, and therefore Team Reverie’s, final destination was located on one of those islands. Mind Isle, to be specific.

Splash Port, overall, was much more comfortable for Jeana than Dread City. The annoying, yet somehow comforting, hum of half-grasped foreign thoughts had returned. And Shiver too seemed more comfortable here. She looked… changed.

The snivy now walked with her spine straight, head held high, and tail off the ground and leaf splayed. A strange glint and a cocky smirk were on Shiver’s features, rather uncharacteristically for her.

When Jeana asked, Shiver explained it was the reverse of what had happened to Jeana and Jazz in Dread City: here in Splash Port, Shiver had a type advantage of most of the Water typed denizens. It filled her with a confidence Jeana rarely saw in the young Grass snake.

Shiver strode ahead at the front of their four-mon party, and Pokemon parted around her like a ship’s bow parted foam-capped waves. Scuttling crustaceans nervously and obviously ignored her, blue-feathered penguins stole glances out of the corners of their eyes while they pridefully pretended she did not exist.

Not that parting the crowds was a particularly impressive feat, however.

There were far fewer Pokemon on the streets of Splash Port than there were on the streets of Dread City. Alongside and independent of the roads wound canals, which teemed with far more Water types than were walking the roads. While some Pokemon stopped to stare at Shiver, the majority of those travelling in the canals genuinely did not even notice her.

The markets at Splash Port were large, larger than those at Meadowville. And if Jeana was honest, they reminded her a bit of Meadowville. She had not seen any similar markets in Dread City, which filled her with an odd tang of pride and superiority. Something inside her that wanted to laugh in the face of a Dark type.

Some foolish and suicidal part of her which she was determined not to listen to.

Shiver led Team Reverie along the roads of Splash Port, up to an impressive looking building decorated by seashells. Jeana managed to see the name of the building before they entered. Leginda Ferry.

Jeana considered the ferries she remembered from her human world. The first time she had encountered the word she had thought people had been saying ‘Fairy’, leading to her conjuring the ridiculous mental image of countless passengers riding a massive sylveon as it paddled through the oceans. She had since learned, obviously, that the word was spelled differently and meant a boat. In the harbor of Splash Port, Jeana had mostly seen boats which used the wind as their means of propulsion. She had seen exactly one steamboat in the harbor, but it was strictly for the delivery of goods and items, not passengers.

So she was curious. What kind of boat would she and her cohorts be riding?

It turned out that they would not be riding a boat at all, but instead a somewhat excitable seahorse-like Pokemon with branching antlers, called a ‘kingdra’.

Eona, being the client, got the most secure and comfortable seat, the young fox perched on the kingdra’s head between its antlers. Jeana clung tightly to the kingdra’s neck, not entirely trusting it to stay above water for the entire trip. Shiver lay down upon the kingdra’s back, obviously trusting it far more than Jeana did. Jazz, meanwhile, comfortable nestled amongst its branching antlers.

As the kingdra traveled across the ocean, to Jeana’s surprise it managed to keep them all above water the entire time. Although she was still thoroughly soaked after about a half hour’s travel. She was not entirely enjoying this leg of the journey. Every so often, the kingdra would say something that sounded like it came straight from an obscure poem, like “They used to call the sound of the endless breakers against the shore the ‘Breath of Lady Kyogre’!”

As they traveled, the blue sky slowly shifted to orange, and then to purple. It was true that Team Reverie had set out rather early, but they had also covered a significant amount of land. Afternoon was fading to night. Now that she was resting in a relatively comfortable position, the most comfortable she had been all day what with the gentle up and down rocking motions of the waves, Jeana felt tiredness set it. It did not knock her over the head and send her reeling into sleep like a club. Instead it slowly set in, in her joints as a dull ache and in her mind as a slowly expanding blanket of exhaustion and numbness.

By the time that they arrived and Mind Isle, Shiver was the only member of Team Reverie still awake and alert. She managed to usher her dazed and tired teammates into the nearest hotel, and they all took a well earned rest.

~~~

Now that that's out of the way, there was something else I wanted to mention in this chapter. Conspiracy theories!
I'm not quite sure where that one in particular came from, just seemed like a good way for Jeana to get more information about Legendaries, and Xerneas in particular. Personally I really like writing about Legendaries, and writing as them, trying to subvert people's preconceived notions about them as much as possible. Or just their preconceived notions in general. It's fun, you should try it.
Also on the subject of conspiracy theories, I have had a summer that involves them quite a bit... My favorite show is The X-Files, which is rather deeply involved in them. Also I just read Foucault's Pendulum. The moral of that is basically 'if you believe conspiracy theories they will either drive you insane, kill you, or drive you insane shortly before killing you'.