image [https://file.garden/ZgQ_WQ_U3BIqPcfY/ZtH%20Chapter%20Specific/Chapter%2013.png]

Half an hour later, Blitzer and George stumbled upon an opening at the base of a large hill. They hadn’t encountered anything on the way there besides a handful of wild Pidove, which were easy to dispatch. Strong from the encouragement of the others, they gazed into the opening.

“So, this is it?” George asked Blitzer, who nodded back.

“Should be. We did as we were told, didn’t we? North from the village, hidden from the sun. That’s what ‘eye of the Leo’ should mean. There’s the sign, right there. ‘Little Rock MD - keep out!’ Has to be it.”

George stared further down the bright descent. “Are you sure this is the place meant with ‘hidden from the eye of the Leo’? It sure looks bright for a cave.”

Blitzer shrugged. “Well, it’s worth a try, right? And if it’s not, we’ll try again some other time. Because heroes never give up. Right?”

“Right.” George nodded.

“Awesome!” Blitzer said with a tough smile. “It does look oddly bright in there. But you want to know what that means? We won’t have to rely on my flame just to see!” He held up his tail with one claw. George chuckled back, drumming his belly in anticipation for what they’d find down there.

“You’re right. I’ve never told you, but that fire of yours doesn’t light anything up particularly well. Sorry if that comes off as rude, but-”

“Why would it be?” Blitzer asked with a shrug.

“Oh, well…” George scratched the top of his head. “Can’t be nice to say that to a fire type and all. Might be like calling someone weak, saying that they don’t have powerful fire.”

Blitzer reassured George with a nod. “You’re right, actually. But it’s not in the way you think. My fire is weak right now because I’m still young. It gets stronger as I get older. You’ll see.“

“Oh, okay.” George swallowed. ‘That almost went really badly.’

“Alright then…” Blitzer stretched his arms out in front of him, the sound of his bones cracking as he prepared his claws powerful enough to make George step back. “...let’s do this!”

George breathed in deep. “Here goes nothing.”

And so, with their hearts full of courage and their steps heavy, the two began their exploration of Little Rock. It was time to see whether the message’s promises of treasure held any water, or whether it was all hot air from someone out to prank them. Whatever intentions the sender had, the joke was on them; Blitzer and George were happy enough to have explored at all. Another step up that ladder towards the life of their dreams; that was all the motivation they needed to enter worlds unknown.

The tunnel started on a downwards slope, before widening into a tunnel that two fully grown Pokemon could traverse side by side. Light emanated from torches attached to the wall, bright enough for the smallest pebbles to be seen. Despite their crackling, the torches bearing the flames never showed any signs of burning up. They emitted no smell, smoke, or much in the way of heat for that matter. They burned in perpetuity, casting their light over the walls of the cave in a lonely glory.

Sometime into the tunnel, George's feet began to ache from the pebbles and the cold stones underneath. While Blitzer happily marched on without worry, George found the stress of walking pressing deeper into his skin. If his feet were taste buds, the stone below would be that morning’s soup.

“Blegh.”

“Something wrong, George?”

“It’s just my feet being cold. And lumpy. Maybe going in here barefoot wasn’t the best idea.” ‘They don’t have shoes here, do they?’

“Huh? I’m feeling fine.” Blitzer lifted his feet off the ground to study them for a few seconds. Upon putting them back down, his teeth stuck out of his mouth in a smile. “Actually, I’m feeling great! You have to admit this is better than the dewy grass from Azure Hills, George. And why does it matter that you’re walking barefoot? What Pokemon doesn’t?”

George sighed. “I don’t know. That wasn’t nearly as bad on my feet.”

“Well no, of course not. You’re of water, remember?” said Blitzer, pointing at the scalchop on George’s chest. “Of course you wouldn’t mind wet grass. That’s another way in which we’re different. Different kinds feel at home in other places. That’s why you enjoy bathing so much, while I hate it. Or why I like walking on stone, while you find it clumsy. Deep down, you want to feel water course through your fur, while I’d love to go hiking in the mountains!”

George stared towards the Charmander with a raised eyebrow. “Thought I could handle stone. And grass is still grass, isn’t it?”

Blitzer bit his lip, slowly dragging his pupils across his eyes as if he were tracking something on the ceiling of the cave. “Well, it’s complicated. Very complicated, ha. I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you.”

“Sure thing,” George said. Even after his halfhearted explanation, Blitzer was still preoccupied with the ceiling. Any and all attempts to try and handwave it away were betrayed outright by his body language, which didn’t do anything to bolster George’s confidence. Between his pupils, the odd way he held his arms, and him now falling silent, George had an inkling that Blitzer was seeing something he’d rather not be looking at.

‘Something doesn’t feel right. It was only a stupid question, why is he looking at the ceiling…? Wait, what is that smell?’

A musk of mushrooms and dusty fur emanated from above. George dreaded having to look up to see it for himself. The growing frown on Blitzer’s face told him to shirk back, to move on and forget the matter. But the smell marched further up his twitching nose, and down his throat, leaving a taint on everything it touched. It was alluring, irresistible to anyone who couldn’t look danger dead in the eye. And so, he looked.

“George, no-”

“SKREE!”

As if thunder had struck, a flock of bats awakened from their slumber and swarmed over the tunnel. One flew past George’s face with a piercing screech; George’s ears went flat as he fell backwards, the cold stone pressing into his fur with blunt force.

“Aaaah!”

“Geeeorge! Quic-, br- b-e!” Blitzer’s yells were buried under the screeching of the dozen Zubats and Woobats that swarmed around them like wasps.

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“What?! I can’t hear you!” George yelled back. The bats screeching and beating their wings drowned them out. Like a little flame having an ocean dumped over it. The shrieking echoed off the walls. George reached for his ears, only to suffer a stinging pain on his arm. He cried out, when the tides suddenly turned; the shrieking faltered to the sound of flames bursting from Blitzer’s mouth.

‘That’s it!’

George pulled on the energy inside him. Water surged to his mouth and shot out in the blink of an eye, just as one Zubat flew past. The Pokemon was blasted backwards, straight into another. George closed his mouth from fatigue. A wing slid past the top of his head; his eyes snapped shut, but George forced them back open in time to see a Woobat fly past. George pulled on his energy and doused the attacker with half a second of water.

‘Argh, there are so many of them!’

The volleys of water and fire kept up, and the swarm gradually thinned out. George spat in short bursts with varying degrees of accuracy. For every hit there was a miss, and there’d be another attempted strike on his body. Over time, his head started spinning, and his stomach began to ache. Water breathing was taking its toll on his body. And all the while the bats continued buzzing around, waiting for the moment where they could all converge upon George.

But George wasn’t alone, as a gust of flame whizzing past showed. Blitzer fought back with strong control over his fire. Many Zubats and Woobats lay spread over the ground, singed with twitchy wings. If any tried attacking still, Blitzer had his claws ready. It was thanks to him that the bats eventually fled. They were smart enough to not stick around on the losing side.

Once the last of the bats had disappeared, George sighed, as he rubbed at the ache in his head. The energy had been sucked out of his body from all the water spitting, and that lack of energy now left its mark. A sore throat, a pain in his belly, the headache, they had all flared up as the fight came to an end. George gasped, his feet asking for a reprieve which he was all too willing to give. The aquatic energy flowing through him demanded someone far stronger than George.

“Phew… that has got to be the last of ‘em. Sorry for not warning you,” Blitzer said, sidestepping the knocked out bats like ordinary rocks. Aside from slightly faster breathing, he looked no different than before the attack. Not a scale out of place. “That’s something to remember for the next cave: Don’t forget to watch the ceiling! Zubats and Woobats left right and center, eh? No Noibats though. Maybe they live deeper? Or not here at all? I wonder.”

George crawled up to a cave wall to rest his back. The aching had simmered down enough to not leave him vulnerable should another bat show up, but still it stung hard. The scratches on his arms were barely noticeable over the exhaustion and soreness, something not helped by the cold hanging in the tunnel.

”I’m just glad we got out of that alive… thank god.”

“Uh, are you alright over there?” Blitzer asked.

‘Does it look like I’m alright?!’ George shook his head. “I’m tired.”

Blitzer tilted his head. “Oh, how come?”

George’s head rolled in one direction, then back in the other. ‘Like he needs me to answer that for him.’ “I breathed too much water.”

“Too much?” A flicker from Blitzer’s tail could be felt throughout the room. “What do you mean, too much? You should be able to breathe water to your hearts content, that’s in you!”

George shook his head. “Apparently not… I spat as much as I could,” he said, pointing at the puddles scattered over the ground. “And I must’ve gone too far, because it really began to hurt after a while. If we hadn’t chased ‘em off right then, I don’t think I would’ve lasted for much longer.”

Blitzer licked his lips while looking at the ceiling again. “Huh. That’s odd… I haven’t felt like that in a long time. I’m not kidding, I could probably breathe fire for an hour before feeling that exhausted.”

“Are you sure?” George asked. ‘I’d like to not be defenceless against anything that can take a little water.’

“Maybe you just need some more time with it,“ said Blitzer with a nod. “You’ve only just started, after all… hold on a second.”

“Well I-”

Before George could finish, Blitzer shot a glob of fire from his mouth, which crashed into the ceiling not far from where the Oshawott sat. A Paras fell from that spot with a weak screech. George watched it fall, then jumped as he felt a tap on his head. A mushroom rolled on the ground beside him. Frowning, George rose back to his feet.

“Sorry about that, heh.”

“...like I was saying, hope it happens soon.” George pressed his lips shut. ‘Great. Sure hope the end of this place isn’t far off..’

* * *

Venturing deeper into the cave, the two found themselves at odds with other feral Pokemon. Nothing on the scale of the swarm from earlier, fortunately - the two encountered the occasional bats or Geodudes, some Roggenrola and a lost Drilbur as well. The encounters were short lived, as George and Blitzer now anticipated foes around every corner; the echoes of rocks being smashed in the distance had put them on edge. In addition, George was healing from the struggle earlier; the receding pain made him unafraid to use his energy again.

“Boy, am I glad to have you here with me, George,” Blitzer remarked, smiling.

“Tell me about it. Whole bunch of rocks and groundlings in this cave,” George replied, keeping his eyes peeled for threats in the distance.

“Earthlings scare me,” Blitzer said, arms crossed over his chest. “Rocks, ground, mud, it’s everywhere and they use it to attack. If I’m not careful, one could just sneak up on me, just like that!” He snapped his fingers and pointed at his face. George had but a shrug to give.

“It can’t be that bad, can it?”

Blitzer shook his head back and forth, letting his breath sizzle in between his teeth. “Oh yes it is. You’re water, you wouldn’t know, but I’ve had moments before. There’s some Drilburs that live near Greenfield, and they hurt me pretty bad a few times.”

George turned his head. “Why did they attack you? Were you on your own, did they see you as an easy target? Do wild Pokeon tend to be out for blood? …Were they even wild?“

Blitzer began twiddling his fingers around. “Well, ehrm,” he blurted out through his puffed cheeks, “Feral Pokemon are generally dangerous. Depends on the Pokemon of course, but still. Six year old me did not believe my parents when they told me that, and well, I thought it would be fun to stomp on Drilbur hills, haha…” His voice fizzled out. If not for his scales, his orange face would’ve been redder than a cherry. The tone of his voice revealed enough. George rolled his eyes as the corners of his mouth pulled upwards.

‘Yeah, that’s something you would do alright, Blitzer. Then again, I can’t say I blame him. Some dangerous fun, that’s what all kids want to experience at some point, right?’

“Aah, that wasn’t one of my proudest moments,” said Blitzer, eyes drawn back to the path ahead. “But it’s one to remember. Although, it’s not entirely a fun memory. I’ve had an, uh, an aversion to Drilbur since then.”

“Aversion? How so?” asked George, one hand over his scalchop. Blitzer swallowed before responding. George could sense the fear in the air and frowned. ‘This isn’t going to be good news, is it?’

“Well, have you ever had nightmares in which you were attacked?” Blitzer asked. George nodded back. “Okay. Now imagine being in the middle of a dark place, when suddenly a bunch of things jump out of the ground to attack you.”

George pictured the scene in front of him: Total darkness on all sides, as if the room had been smothered in tar. Suddenly, shrieks filled the air as the earth split open on all sides. A sharp claw flew at his face; a chill shot up through his back. George smacked himself in the face. “Okay, I’ve heard enough.”

“Yeah…” Blitzer hung his head. “It’s not fun. Not at all. You’re shivering now, but it’s worse when you’re dreaming.”

With a deep breath, George sped up his strides. “Let’s keep going. We should be pretty deep by now.”

“Do you think the treasure is nearby?” asked Blitzer. George shrugged at him, his tail falling flat onto the ground.

“I’m not sure, but I haven’t seen any other paths through here. Have you?”

Blitzer shrugged. “I might have, but it was too dark to see anything.”

“Too dark? What do you mean, too dark? There’s plenty of torchlight everywhere, right?” George said, looking behind him as the path took a turn.

“Yeah,” Blitzer replied with a nod. His tail bounced around the back of his head, getting close enough to the head to make George cringe. “But didn’t you notice the gaps in the torches? I could’ve sworn this cave branches off in multiple directions. What Mystery Dungeon just goes straight?”

George raised his shoulders. “This one? I don’t know.”.

“That makes no sense,” said Blitzer as he seized his tail in one hand and pulled it out in front of him. “No dungeon does that. There’s always more to it. What I’m going to say might be a bunch of nonsense, but… don’t you get the idea that we’re being led somewhere?”

“...What do you mean?” George replied. As much as he wished it wasn’t the case, something about the concept did not sit right with him. He took his scalchop off his chest, fidgeting it around between his fingers. The cave walls nearby rumbled.

“Isn’t it strange that there’s torches conveniently placed on the walls, and that they don’t burn out? It’s like they have the energy to keep the fire for as long as possible, like I do. Only Pokemon have that energy.”

George licked his lips. “But couldn’t it be something from the Mystery Dungeon? They shift around and change constantly, isn’t there some kind of energy flowing through here as well?” he asked, hoping for some reassurance. The walls next to them both rumbled once again, this time a little louder than before. Blitzer’s attention briefly shifted to the wall, before he sighed.

“Maybe there is. But it’s too strange for me.” The Charmander breathed in, then out. “What’s happening with the walls?”

Another rumble sped past them as Blitzer finished speaking. Startled, the Charmander ran over to George’s side, anxiously eyeing at the walls. Aside from the sound of their feet shifting, the caves were silent. Not an echo or crunch to be heard. George’s eyes dashed over the area, looking for threats that were nowhere to be seen. His fur heated up from the nerves and the flaring from Blitzer’s tail, forcing his breaths out of his body rapidly. This was not imaginations running wild.

“What is that…?”

“I wish I knew, George…”

Blitzer’s teeth chattered. The two crept their way deeper into the cave, unable to keep their eyes off the walls for long. Something had to have been close. Something out of a nightmare. The two kept a hand on each other’s back, out of fear that they’d lose each other in an explosion of chaos. Not a word had to be spoken for them to understand the other; instinct thrived where primal fear ruled.

Slowly, the rumbling seemed to cease, although neither believed it. George was at least willing to take his hand off Blitzer’s back, but the same did not happen in reverse. Blitzer’s pupils were dilated out to the edges of his irises, and the claw on George’s back shook. It kept George uncomfortable, looking for a way to relieve the tension. And perhaps there might have been a way up ahead.

“Blitzer, look! Right there! I think that’s it!”