The morning breeze filled Halfhenge with the breath of autumn air, the exposed guts of the castle catching the chill within itself. Beneath the altar, Von shivered himself awake. Gray light of pre-dawn illuminated the oratory, and as he blinked the tiredness from his eyes as Rockruff's curious face poked up from her bedding.

"You awake?" she growled quietly so as not to wake Ren.

"Mhm," Von barely vocalized. He felt stiffness in his limbs. "It's cold."

"It is. How are you feeling?"

Von groped for his bandana left on the floor beside his bed and drew it close, burying his face in the soft fabric. "They have coffee here?"

"I've never met a Coffee."

Von muffled a groan into his bandana before he went about tying it around his neck. "Guess not."

He clambered up the altar to where he left his journal and peered over the courtyard. Smoke rose from Wyn's hut. He and Rockruff weren't the only early risers.

He puffed out his breath, visible in the cold air, and imagined himself bigger than he was, a Charizard able to burn away the cold that seeped into him. He smiled at the thought of soaring through the skies, of being larger and stronger than he ever was in the human world. I can get behind being a fire breathing lizard, just not… this.

He swept aside his flight of fancy and opened his journal. After gently shaking the vial to make sure his ink hadn't frozen overnight, he resumed his practice of penmanship.

Just as it was with relearning how to walk on four legs, he focused on remapping his movements with the quill carefully clutched in his claw, making measured movements over the page. His early attempts from the night before resembled chicken scratch, but as he built confidence, his lettering began to resemble something intelligible. It came easier as the sky outside brightened, until-

“The sun rises, comrades! Share its warmth!” Corviknight called in a birdsong that scraped the air. Its large frame circled the keep in a downward spiral, the sudden clamor and movement outside the window causing Von’s quill to jump across the page.

“Time to rise, Ren!” Rockruff nibbled on her companion’s ear until Ren rolled over and away, to a warmer corner of his bed.

“Is sleeping in not allowed?” Von asked as he grappled with capping his vial of ink.

“Sooner teams set out, the better,” Rockruff growled, her nibbling growing more insistent until she was tugging on an ear.

Finally, Ren’s pretend sleep slipped away with a yelp. “I’m awake! I yield!”

Once the two furred Pokemon had shaken loose bed straw from their fur coats, Von followed Night Vision downstairs, scuttling along the wall as the fox and dog bounded down the steps. On the ground floor, inhabitants gathered in the split hall of the castle exchanging sleepy murmurations.

Von scanned them for a familiar face and found Wyn waving a paw beckoning them to join her. As the small crowd filed into assembly, Night Vision ducked beneath swaying tails and sweeping branches from Pokemon larger than themselves to convene with her.

“Good morning,” she yawned as they drew close. Her fur was untidy and smelled of smoke, and she clutched the shoulder strap of the hempen bag she wore.

“You always been a morning person?” Von teased.

“Goodness no. I’m more of a night owl than Fei, who is a literal owl .” She appraised the moderately less groggy trio beside her. “Work dictated I wake early today, but we’ll get into that later. You ready to go on your first adventure?”

Von half-listened, as most thoughts were on Wyn’s hut and how it had heating. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The Research Guild faced the lake as the sun's rays grew on the horizon behind Slowking, who set the sky behind him to address the crowd. He raised an arm and the soft chatter ceased. “My friends, as no doubt you have heard, we welcome a new arrival into our ranks. From today on, Salandit will join us in our efforts of understanding.” He gestured to the row where Night Vision lurked, and Von wished once more to melt into the floor as the crowd turned their heads to him and surrounded him with curious eyes.

“He has been recruited by Night Vision, whom we welcome back to our commune.”

While most seemed nonplussed, some Pokemon bristled at the news, yet any qualms the crowd held went unvocalized. As gazes were pulled from him to his friends that flanked him, new seeds of worry took root. While Rockruff obliviously weathered their scrutiny, Ren looked sullen.

“Star Calling has agreed to work alongside Night Vision for their first task. Objections?”

Mutterings arose, but no words came higher than a whisper. “Who is Star Calling?” Rockruff wondered.

“Joined up after you two troublemakers took off,” Wyn hushed.

"Additionally, Free Aim's efforts have shed light on the brigands in Green Mills. I ask for Stealth Mission to convene with me before they set out," Slowking resumed. “No more announcements. We stay on course.” Behind the speaker, the rising sun peeked over the waters of the lake. “New requests have been posted. Continue on your projects.” He raised a fist into the air. "Tomorrow,"

"Together!" the assembly finished as one as the light of dawn flooded the hall.

Pokemon broke away from the crowd in pairs or trios, and Von let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Wyn cocked her head, motioning for Night Vision to follow, and they did, falling back to watch the gathering converge around a bulletin board against the far wall. Von kept an eye on Slowking as he conversed with a blue froglike creature and a Haunter that drifted beside it.

Von’s attention was pulled to a pair of Pokemon that drew close to their small group. He didn’t recognize the Linoone at first, who sported striking black and white stripes far more striking than the sandy fur he remembered. The patch of fur around its eye resembled a star. A small bag was strapped around its hindquarters.

Above Linoone flit a bat with wings that looked too small to support its oversized purple ears. Its flight path was erratic, and once close enough it dropped quickly to the floor. “Star Calling reporting for duty,” it chittered tremulously. Its bright yellow eyes looked between the trio. “I am Noibat, this is my partner Linoone.”

“Zorua of Night Vision,” Ren replied, tapping a paw to his chest. “My partner Rockruff, and our new best friend Salandit.”

“Night Vision, huh?” Linoone churred. “Heard of you before.”

“All good things, I’m sure,” Rockruff beamed.

Braixen cleared her throat. “Naturally. Alright folks, seeing as how two-thirds of Vision hasn’t been in the field for some time and the other third is brand-new, we’re taking it easy today.” She smiled to Star Calling. “Would you two mind leading the charge on a resupply mission? Herbs and emera from Bramble Hill?”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Forage, forage, always,” Linoone sniffed. “Simple job, yes.”

"Emera?" Von looked up at Wyn. "Also, you're not coming?"

"I've got my own work to do, mate, involving said emera I need you to find. Think of it as magic pixie dust." Wyn glanced at the earth-stained bag Rockruff wore. "Take stock for us, would you?"

Ren nosed open the satchel and poked his muzzle inside. "Food! Rations, two orans, and two vials, one full one empty." He pulled his nose out of the bag just in time to sneeze. "And dirt!"

Puzzled, Wyn came forward and reached into the bag and withdrew the glass vial full of blue substance. “You held onto these all this time?” She rubbed dirt from the glass and squinted inside. “I figured it would’ve gone bad by now. Or did you trade for more?”

“Nope! Same oran vials we left here with,” Rockruff wagged.

Von narrowed his eyes at Ren. “... Did you two give me expired medicine?”

“If it’s chilled in the earth it won’t go bad, will it?” he asked earnestly.

“Here, I’ll trade you. This and those orans you have for these.” Wyn kept the reclaimed vial and tucked it in one pouch of her bag, offering up three other vials of a darker blue hue.

“Deal!” Ren poked his head into the bag and brought out the blue fruits in his mouth one after the other, dropping them at Wyn’s feet.

Unsure what to make of Pokemon commerce, Von looked out over the hall instead. He couldn’t find True Path in the small crowd, or perhaps they had already departed for their destination. Free Aim readied themselves for departure by the dock, Fei helping secure a bag around Flygon.

“This is a wand that will put Pokemon to sleep,” he heard Wyn say, and his attention snapped back to her. “Pretty straightforward, point and shoot. I’d demonstrate, but it’d waste charges. Your teammates will show you if needed, yeh?” She held a short rod out, the wood glazed over with a strange sheen left over from an oil treatment.

Von looked for a trigger to pull while Wyn slipped the stick into Rockruff’s satchel. “Do I need to know a magic word?”

“Cute, but no." Wyn pawed around in her bag. “Last up we have an escape orb. In an emergency, smash it on the ground, and you’ll be whisked away to safety.” She pulled out a sphere of blue glass the size of a golf ball.

“You were never this generous to us before,” Ren noted.

“Consider it an investment. You all need to keep Salandit safe until he can defend himself.”

Linoone sniffed the air. “He?”

"What, can't a guy wear perfume?" Von grumbled.

"But do males sweat it?"

“I thought only Salazzle smelled,” Noibat wondered.

"Kyrryk, do you sweat perfume?"

“If I could, I would.”

“Can we focus on the mission?" Wyn snapped. She stashed the orb inside one of Rockruff's satchel’s pockets and shot Von a look of concern.

He shrugged it off. “Picking flowers in a place called Bramble Hill. How far away?”

"A few spans to the West. Not far, not far," said Linoone. "What plants do you hunger for, Braixen?"

"I've written it all down." She withdrew and unfolded a piece of parchment from her bag and offered it to any teammate that'd take it. “Prioritize the vivichokes if you can.”

Linoone plucked the paper from her paw. “As many as our bags can carry.”

Sounds like a shopping list, Von thought. "Anything else?"

"That's it. A little reward if you find everything I need." Wyn rubbed her cheek as she locked eyes with Von. “Questions, concerns?”

“You have any hand warmers?”

Von earned a tired chuckle from Wyn. “Seriously, you’ll be fine with four friends to learn from, and you’ll be back before long.”

“I was serious about the hand warmers.”

“Sorry mate, but the walk there will get your blood pumping, yeh?”

Von looked to his friends, then to Star Calling. “Let’s head out, then.”

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

A stride is nearly a foot. A bound is ten strides. A span is 300 bounds.

They passed the gardens that rimmed the walls of Halfhenge, through vegetable plots that stretched away from the lake and into the emptiness of the surrounding fields. Beyond Halfhenge, the only landmarks were the woods and the mountains on either side of the plains of yellow grass.

This world has at least three different scripts. Their most common alphabet consists of footprints.

They followed a well-treaded path worn through the plains, where the long grass stalks gave way to packed earth. Rockruff led the way, having overtaken Star Calling. Noibat rode astride Linoone, the smaller bat clinging to his partner’s fur.

A season is a year. A moon is a month. Ten moons in a season.

After what felt like an hour, Von began lagging behind. Ren was quick to notice and yipped a warning up to the frontrunners, and Rockruff and Linoone slowed their pace. Von loved going for hikes on Earth, but with the new length of his strides and his doubling of legs had him feeling like an amateur. The grass being taller than he was made for no horizons to look forward to, the flat landscape meant no hills to crest. He didn’t think he would miss riding on Lapras so soon.

Magic is real. Souls are real and edible. Ghosts are real and scary.

At times, Rockruff’s tail would bolt straight up, and the party would pause as she and Noibat’s ears pivoted for sounds. The wind sweeping through the tall grass surrounded them with gentle whispers, but if Von strained, he could sometimes hear movement, elsewhere. Nothing ever came for them.

Mystery Dungeons warp the physical space they occupy. They join together in Labyrinth if you go deep enough.

The ground beneath them gently rolled into the foothills at the base of the mountain range, and Bramble Hill swelled upwards from the soil. The pale grass gave way to greener shrubs, though much of the slope had been swallowed by kudzu whose leaves obscured all but the long-dead trees that speckled the hilltop.

Where the grass yielded to the kudzu, there remained an opening in the dense growth. The path disappeared beneath the shaded canopy of leaves into a tunnel five strides tall. Entangled at the base of the shrubbery, thorny vines sporting white flowers weaved together into the natural wall.

“It’s pointier than I remember,” remarked Rockruff.

“A sharp observation, my dear,” Ren chimed.

“So how does this work? Do we just… go in?”

Noibat fluttered from Linoone’s back to the ground. “Formations. Who leads?”

Ren nudged Von. “You should lead.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I’ll lead!” Rockruff proudly barked.

“We keep Salandit safe. He walks center,” said Linoone.

Von squinted into the darkness of the Dungeon. Nothing looked amiss outside of the spined walls. The spacing would be tight, and thorns warranted single-file. “Are we expecting company in there?”

Noibat fluttered to his side. “An amalgam if we’re unlucky. Nothing otherwise. Most know to stay clear.”

“Which is why we’re foraging in there, I guess.” Von glanced to the bat beside him. “How easy is it to fly inside?”

“I can in the larger spaces.” Noibat turned from Von to peer at Ren and Rockruff. “Night Vision should lead. We will guard the rear.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Rockruff strode forward with a wag in her tail.

Von read the rumble in Linoone’s throat as a chuckle. “This one has energy. Good, good.”

Noibat clicked his tongue. “Eyes forward, Conti."

"They certainly will be."

Oblivious, Rockruff took point outside of the Dungeon entrance. Ren followed but gave Linoone the side-eye. Von shook off his confusion and scurried after his friends, and Noibat flapped after him.

"Want to see something interesting?" Ren grinned. "Watch the entrance once we go inside."

He followed, and let the vegetation surround him in gentle shade. Von craned his neck to watch the entrance of the tunnel. Noibat's curious eyes looked at him as he tried to walk straight while not letting the natural archway out of his sight. In one moment, he could see Linoone in the sunlight as she bounced in her zigzag route to catch up with the rest of them. In the next moment, the verdant kudzu wall melted into reality, cutting them off from the outside world.

“Whoah, whoah! Linoone is still-”

Before Von could finish voicing his surprise, she pounced into the new reality, fading into his vision in all her striped glory.

While Ren snickered, Von stared at the wall that shut them in. “... So how do we get out when we’re done?”

“If we can’t root out the exit, we have our badges to guide us home,” Ren reassured him, then promptly bumped into Rockruff who halted before him. “Ah- what is it?”

Rockruff held her head low to the ground, sniffing intently. She kept quiet as she took a few cautious steps forward to where the tunnel split at a crossroads, and looked to the right and left. “Something else is in here. Too natural to be an amalgam.”

Noibat flexed his wings and softened his chittering. “Perhaps someone did get lost within?”

“Fortunate for them they have two teams on their tail.”

Von spared another glance at the sealed exit behind them. If Bramble Hill was a known place of danger, why would any Pokemon willingly enter? He imagined a Rattata ducking into the brush to avoid a circling Fearow, perhaps.

“Keep an eye out, eye out,” Linoone repeated as their line formation crept forward through the maze.

Von looked at the end of the wand that poked out of Rockruff’s bag- it’d be easy to ready in an emergency. The unknown entity changed the equation. If they were lucky, it’d be like herding a bird out of a house, he imagined. If not, he hoped they outnumbered whatever might threaten them.

Rockruff walked with her nose to the dirt, opting to follow the scent of the stranger’s presence at every intersection. Burrs gathered on her fur. “It’s not a bird, and it doesn’t smell like the prairie. There’s a metallic tang,” she reported. “It, or they, aren’t from here.”

“Didn’t we come here to pick mushrooms or something?” Von hissed.

“Best to meet the unknown head-on, than let it make the first move,” chided Noibat.

Von could see the truth in that. Sandwiched between Night Vision and Star Calling, he was unable to hang back and keep a distance- something he wasn’t happy about. Yet he could lie to himself, and pretend that they were the ones on the hunt. It would have to do.