I slapped at my arm, cursing under my breath as the remarkably durable mosquito buzzed away unharmed after getting its meal.

“This doesn’t make any sense at all.” I complained to the group. “How is there a forest down here?”

“How was there snow?” Ted asked, his voice thick with exhaustion. “How was there a lava cave? At a certain point, does it even really matter?”

We must have been getting close to Oreburgh City by now, judging by the amount of time we’d spent in the Grand Underground, but the lack of open skies and real sunlight was making everybody testy.

The caverns had somehow managed to support life with massive Sun Stones growing out of the ceiling, providing enough fake sunlight for plants to survive. Underground springs provided water, and those two factors were enough to let entire biomes flourish.

Long ago when I had first arrived at this world- it was only a couple months but it felt like years- I had noted that regular bugs that I was familiar with from Earth still existed here.

Bug-Types were simply too big to help pollinate flowers, eat dead plants, and all the other things bugs do to keep the world going. They were more like lions and tigers among their respective food chains - apex predators for the bug kingdom, even if they were often small in comparison to other Pokémon.

Unfortunately for me, that meant that at some point in the cavern’s history mosquitos and other aforementioned bugs had managed to make their way down to nest in the more stagnant water sources.

Where there were mosquitos, all manner of other life followed. Spiders to eat the mosquitos, birds and lizards to eat the spiders, and then Pokémon to eat those birds and lizards, and even a couple larger Pokémon to eat them.

The glorious cycle of life, and I was thoroughly sick of it.

I hadn’t showered in weeks. Our trail rations were running low, and though we kept ourselves fed with the fruit from cavern trees, I craved a real meal. I missed clean clothes, the chance to do laundry, and—more than anything—the comforts of civilization.

Even when I had spent weeks in the wilderness hunting for Gible, at least I had the opportunity to return to Oreburgh every now and again and enjoy the privileges of the city. That wasn’t the case here.

I could see Ted was starting to feel the same way I did, but, annoyingly, Lucas still seemed as chipper as ever.

Happier than most of the time I had known him, actually, considering the new friend perched on his shoulder.

The Dartrix had been an unexpected discovery, to say the least. We had been tromping through the largest cavern we’d found yet- the massive forest which was even larger than the one with the Tentacruel- when a winged form had darted down in front of us. Against all conventional understanding of Pokémon habitats, a Dartrix was somehow living down here and decided to confront us for walking on a game trail.

Whenever we tried to walk by it, it would reposition on the rough path and block us from going any further.

What followed was something out of a comedy. Lucas stepped forward and tried to reason with the Dartrix. The Dartrix did not want to let us pass without giving it something, and it didn’t want anything we offered it. One thing led to another, and things had snowballed until we found ourselves running around the cavern, collecting ancient stone arrowheads.

I hadn’t realized we’d been given a side-quest until we were already scrabbling through the underbrush, searching for the arrowheads; and by then it was too late.

As for where the arrowheads had come from in the first place, that was a question I wasn’t even going to try to answer.

When all was said and done, the Dartrix had decided that it had taken a shine to Lucas, and ended up as the fourth member of his party. He was now feeding it some berries while brainstorming a decent name for it.

Lucas didn’t seem to be particularly concerned that a Dartix shouldn’t have been here at all- it was native to Alola, which was over four thousand miles from where we stood. Ted, however, seemed to be losing his mind over it.

As for me, I was remarkably okay with the discrepancy. Maybe it was because I already knew the Rowlett line had been present in Hisui in the games, or maybe I was just too tired to really care.

I missed an actual bed.

But what I was focusing on, besides the annoying mosquitos, was that I was probably right.

The Hisuian Pokémon had to have retreated into the Grand Underground sometime between the events of Pokémon: Legends Arceus and the modern day. There was just no other explanation to why we were seeing Pokémon who hadn’t been native to Sinnoh in centuries, reappearing only in these caves and caverns.

Hisuian Sneasel in the ice biome. Dartrix, and presumably Hisuian Decidueye, in the forest. It was a safe bet that Kōjin had come from one of the fiery biomes, but we hadn’t seen any Hisuian Growlithe yet.

If we spent more time down here, with actual supplies and more support, I had a strong hunch that we would be able to find more of the ancient Pokémon variants.

How they’d ended up in the Grand Underground, why it had been sealed off for so long, and countless other logistical questions remained unknown.

I swatted at another mosquito, and bit back another curse as it buzzed away, unharmed.

Questions that could be answered as soon as I could get out of this goddamn cave.

/^\

The tiniest, smallest hint of a breeze caressed my face, and I immediately froze in place. My companions didn’t notice me stopping at first, and continued to walk down the tunnel as I glanced around, trying to find the source of the breeze.

“What is it?” Lucas asked gruffly.

Even his seemingly endless energy had been sapped after so long in the caves, leaving him a sullen teenager.

“I felt something.” I said, still looking around.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Like what?” Ted asked, taking the opportunity to stretch his calves against the tunnel wall.

“A breeze.”

That got their attention, and immediately both of them began to crane their necks around as well.

“Oh, holy Arceus.” Ted said, his eyes going wide. “I feel it too.”

“What? What??” Lucas asked, frantic as he tried to feel what Ted and I were. “I’m not getting anything at all!”

I narrowed my eyes, pointing off to the side. It wasn’t quite a split into another tunnel, but there was a wall that seemed somewhat out of place. “There?”

Ted nodded. “There.”

We all scurried over to the wall, and spent a long minute intensely staring at the stone.

“Here it is!” Lucas said, eagerly pointing at…

A crack. And not a particularly big one at that, just a thin, dark line that was barely noticeable against the gray and brown rock.

I slumped, resting my forehead against the cool stone.

“Dammit. I thought we really had something here.”

There wasn’t even a hint of light peeking through the slit in the wall, it must’ve been just wide enough for a little bit of air to get through.

“This isn’t all bad though.” Ted said, stroking his chin and the short beard that had been growing there after several weeks without a shave.

“Now we know that we’re close to the surface!” Some of Lucas’ cheer returned as he carefully felt the rock.

“What he said,” Ted continued. “If we keep going down this path, making sure to keep an eye on the right-hand side, we should hopefully be able to find a more promising location than this. Worst case scenario, we come back here and try to dig out.”

I raised an unbelieving eyebrow. “And how do you propose we dig through several feet of solid rock?”

He grinned weakly. “It’s not entirely solid, there’s a crack in it.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes, pushing off from the wall.

“Okay then. Let’s keep going and hopefully find an actual exit.”

It was another two hours before we felt the hint of a breeze again. It was long enough that we were getting antsy about whether the previous fresh air had been a fluke or worse - a group hallucination.

Thankfully, for the sake of our sanity, it hadn’t been. Sure enough, the tunnel forked: the left-hand side sloping downward slightly, and the right rose up.

The wind–and it was a real breeze, not just a tiny wisp of air–was coming from the right.

“So,” Lucas said. “We’re going left, right?”

Ted smacked the younger man on the back of his head, and headed towards the right.

“Ow! Hey that hurt!”

“Good.” Ted said.

I patted Lucas on the shoulder. “It was a funny joke.”

“I thought so.”

He got another smack on the back of his head.

“Don’t do it again. I’m this close to an actual shower and a good meal.”

Lucas grumbled, rubbing his neck, but didn’t joke around any more as we followed Ted up the tunnel.

The path continued for what felt like an eternity- though, according to my watch, was only an hour-and-a-half- until we finally found the source of the breeze.

It wasn’t just a crack in the wall. Ted let out a whoop of joy as we saw the opening to the outside world.

We all rushed to the exit, piling out onto a small outcropping of rock that served as a plateau.

I felt tears spring to my eyes as I processed the situation we had found ourselves in.

“Well,” I said, voice thick. “I guess the finger curled on the mon- Mankey’s paw.”

“I can’t say I’m familiar with that one.” Ted said distractedly.

“Old story I read. Basically there’s this Mankey’s paw that grants wishes, but it does so in the worst possible way.”

“That’s awful! Who would do such a thing to a Mankey?” Lucas asked.

“Hey, I didn’t write it.”

Lucas grumbled something about Pokémon abuse, but continued staring out at the landscape before us.

The cool night breeze was a welcome change from the oppressive stillness of the tunnels, and for a moment I closed my eyes, feeling the wind pass over me.

The smell of nature–of trees and distant water–was a salve to my soul. I could hear the sounds of Pokémon cries and insects chirping. It was a magnificent experience after weeks in a tunnel.

We were also several hundred feet in the air.

With no horizon to serve as a reference point, none of us had noticed that while we had been walking, the path had been sloping upwards. The incline was so gradual that the tunnel seemed level, but over its entire length, we’d gained a couple hundred feet in elevation.

The worst part was that we could see the lights of Oreburgh City from where we were, it was a bit off in the distance, yes, but it was visible nonetheless.

Our problem was that the side of the mountain we were on was so steep that a Gogoat would have had difficulty scaling it. We would have called the Rangers, but after a couple of weeks in the caves, everybody’s phone was dead - the Rotoms were asleep without any electricity to feed them, and my old phone’s battery had died a couple of days ago.

We were so close to civilization, yet so far.

“So,” Lucas said. “Back into the caves?”

The combined wattage of the glares that Ted and I gave Lucas could have powered Sunnyshore City for an entire week.

“Hey!” He said defensively. “Do you have any better ideas? It’s not like we have enough rope to get all the way down there. With no phones to call for help, what are we supposed to do? Send up smoke signals or somethi- Oh.”

“Sometimes, Lucas,” I said with a sigh. “I’m not sure if you’re the smartest of us all or not.”

“I’ve thought that too.” Ted said.

“What a coincidence! I’ve wondered the same thing myself!”

/^\

The flapping of wings announced the arrival of our salvation.

A familiar looking Ranger on the back of a Staraptor flew down to the small plateau we were on.

“Okay Kōjin,” I said. “You can stop now.”

The little Growlithe sighed in relief as he stopped blowing fire into the sky, tail dragging on the ground as he walked back over to me before slumping into my lap.

“Good boy.” I reached over and started scratching at his ears, causing his tail to pick up and wag despite his obvious exhaustion.

Between Lucas’ Pokémon and Kōjin, we had been blowing fire into the sky for the past several hours, hoping that the sight and smoke would catch somebody’s attention.

Kōjin had been excited at first, but after a while the tedium of just shooting fire into the sky had worn on the poor dog-like Pokémon.

“You’ll get a treat after this.” I said, continuing to scratch at his fur. “And a nice grooming, and a nice long rest. You deserve it.”

He looked up at me with a doggy smile, and licked my hand before I returned him to his Poké Ball.

“Alina?” The Ranger asked as his Staraptor finally found a place to land.

“Ranger Kimura.” I waved weakly. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“How come every time we meet, something has happened to you?”

I shrugged. “Honestly? I wish I knew.”

“You know there’s an alert out for all of you, right? The Rangers in Eterna City have been freaking out for weeks. You all disappeared with only a note to tell them what had happened.”

“That’s a long, long story.”

His gaze took us all in: our ragged, dirty clothes, the rough beard on Ted’s face, the three lonely hairs on Lucas’ chin, and the obvious fact that we hadn’t showered in weeks.

“It sure seems like it. Well, now that I know a Pokémon isn’t threatening to burn down the forest, I’m going to call for some more help, and get you all off of this mountain and back to civilization.”

“That,” I said, slumping down with my back against the wall. “Would be very much appreciated.”

“And then you are all going to tell us what happened. How are you here anyways? You were last seen outside of Eterna.”

Ted and I both looked to the most enthusiastic member of our party.

“Well!” Lucas said, re-energized now that salvation was at hand. “It all started when we went to go check out this cave…”