Chapter 8 – Day 4, Part 2: Vindication

Chapter 8 – Day 4, Part 2: Vindication

Mago Canyon: 1st Floor

The sky above Mago Canyon was blood red.

I stared up at the imposing sight as I rose to my feet. Somehow, Fenn and I landed on the canyon’s dusty, crimson rock floor safely. Kecleon ended up being trustworthy after all; I didn’t have any nicks or scratches on me.

The atmosphere of Mago Canyon was considerably different now that we were within the dungeon. The fog was gone, and in its place was an ominous cascade of heavy shadows, the entire environment surrounding Fenn and I being coated in the same color as the sky. Everything was red.

There was no wind. It was so eerily quiet that I could hear my own heart beating in my ear. The sheer cliffs we were just on couldn’t be farther away.

And then there were the walls.

The walls of Mago Canyon weren’t the walls of Mago Canyon. The canyon was gone. Instead, we were enclosed in a cage of…cubes. Hundreds and hundreds of cubes, each big enough to fit ten of me and Fenn, were stacked on top of each other reaching miles above us.

Every cube was different. Some were designed with the same swirls and shapes I had seen back in Figy Forest and others were designed in such a way that made no practical sense. The most noteworthy designs to me, though, were the cubes that stared back at me.

Cubes with faces; faces that were angry; faces that were sad. Faces that looked as though they knew my best held secrets, their malicious grins quickly being burned into my mind. They reminded me of humans, which only served to worsen my current mental state.

None of it made sense. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. How is this possible? Am I going insane?

My sensory deprived ears picked up a faint noise to my side. I turned to the sound to see Fenn lifting himself off of the ground, his head low and his ears planted against his head. He began to take in his surroundings much like how I just did, his eyes wide and his lips parted.

Eventually, his eyes caught mine, and that was enough to make him seem relieved. “O-Oswald,” he croaked. “A-are…are you real? Is any of this real?”

I approached him slowly and scratched the back of his left ear. “I’m real,” I told him with a weak, reassuring smile. “We’re in Mago Canyon, I think.”

Fenn sighed and let his shoulders relax. “O-okay. I j-just…wanted to make sure.” He rubbed his arm. “Just give me a minute t-to compose myself. Th-this is a lot to take in all at once.”

I nodded in understanding. If it weren’t for how hard I was gripping the straps of my shoulder bag, I might’ve assumed I was dreaming. This place was unreal.

“Why are mystery dungeons like this?” I asked no one in particular. “Are they made by someone? Why are they here?”

“I-I don’t know, Oswald,” Fenn said quietly. “They’ve been around since before I was born.” He looked around at the towering walls of cubes. “I never understood why they’re like this…”

So mystery dungeons are a mystery for a reason. Every pokemon in Pamtre just accepts these places as a fact of life. I frowned. I’m not going to get any concrete answers when it comes to mystery dungeons, am I?

Fenn looked at me. “Are you…feeling okay?” he asked, perturbed.

I wasn’t quite sure why he was asking me since he seemed to be fairing worse than me in some ways, but I nodded anyway. “Yeah. Not as bad the second time.”

Or maybe it’s not the same? I wondered. This dungeon definitely feels odd, but not in the same way as Figy Forest, strangely enough.

“W-we should get moving,” Fenn said. “I’m ready.” He pointed a paw at an opening in the wall of cubes. “Same rules apply when it comes to going up floors here. F-find the staircase, look for stones as we go.”

Oh yeah, the staircases. I grimaced. If I see the same marble staircases here, I’m losing it.

“I’m ready too,” I added.

We advanced through the first corridor of the dungeon, side by side. I attempted to keep my eyes off of the walls, but each time I would steal a glance, I would catch sight of something unsightly on the cubes and I’d have to look away. Fenn didn’t seem to be doing much better. The flames on his back were almost constantly ablaze while we were here. Whether it was because he was as scared as I was or because of something else, I didn’t know.

The tunnel we were going down turned abruptly to the right at a 90 degree angle. We turned with it, but not before being visually assaulted by a quartet of frightening faces on the wall ahead of us. If it weren’t for the fact that I was in actual pain with a really bad headache, I might’ve stuck out my tongue at it…or something. At this point, the lack of any natural noise was starting to drive me nuts. The only solution I could think of was to strike up a conversation with Fenn.

“How are you holding up, Fenn?” I asked, trying to stay composed.

“F-fine,” Fenn murmured. “I f-feel like I’m being crushed, but I can deal with it.”

Nailed it right on the head there. Figy Forest made me feel like I was constantly being watched; I could get through that fine because Fenn was with me. But here? The pressure in Mago Canyon was intense. I wasn’t being watched as much as I was being compressed. The sky was constantly in sight, but we may as well have been in a closed off cave miles underground.

I kept my paws firmly on my scalchops as I walked. The sooner we get out of here, the better.

The corridor ended. Now, we were in another large square chamber devoid of any obstacles aside from a single rock near the center. There was an opening in the cubes behind it.

Fenn’s fire crackled beside me as he stepped forward into the room. “That’s a Geodude.” He whispered, pointing at the rock. “See it?”

I squinted at the cracked stone. It seemed out of place, it’s surface a slightly different color than the surrounding ground, but I couldn’t tell if Fenn was right or not. “How can you tell?” I wondered quietly.

“You can’t?”

I looked again—still a rock. “No, not really.”

Fenn stood up on his hindlegs. “Well, it is one. I-I think this is a good opportunity for you to show me your new moves against an actual opponent.” He smiled. “I’ll stay back and watch.”

“…Alright,” I muttered. I tip-toed further into the chamber. Approaching it from the side, I tried to get a better look at the rock. It still didn’t move or even appear as anything other than a part of the scenery. Even if it is Geodude, I thought, we could just walk around it. Nothing is stopping us.

“Psst!” Fenn whispered to me from across the room. “Get it’s attention! Make it a fair fight!”

I frowned. I’d rather just blast it and be done with this, but Fenn is expecting me to show him that I’m not completely useless. Building up the courage to fight, I cupped my paws around my mouth and yelled, “hey!”

Immediately, the rock moved. The cracks on its surface split and two rocky limbs extended outward. It shifted slowly, small motes of dust falling off of it’s jagged frame. It used its arms to spin itself and turned to face me. Two unsightly and savage eyes stared into mine.

It grumbled something, now very aware of my presence. I only stared back, unsure of what to do. Neither of us moved.

Suddenly, it sprung to life, using its muscular arms to propel itself across the room. It sailed through the air in my direction. I would’ve inevitably taken the strike had Fenn not screamed something at me and pulled me out of my daze.

I dived forward. Just barely, the Geodude shot over my head, landing on the ground behind me. I swiftly stood back up, staring at the Geodude again, now panting heavily.

“OSWALD!” Fenn wailed. “FIGHT BACK! YOU KNOW YOU CAN!”

I flinched, and Fenn’s words registered with me. I can fight back now, I suddenly remembered. I had almost forgotten. I really need to get my head in the game. I shook my head. Ok…how do I do this…?

I thought back on my training session with Allium. “Think of yourself as the mightiest predator,” he had told me. “You need to eat. You must survive. Kill your prey as though you will perish if you do not.”

And so I did. I was now a mighty Samurott swimming deep in the ocean, seeking out my next meal. I saw a lone Remoraid, an easy catch.

“You are one with the ocean. Kyogre recognizes you as one of its own. Control your instincts and engross yourself with your surroundings.”

I envisioned myself as an even greater predator. I was not just the strongest pokemon in the sea, I was Kyogre. The very waves I rode were mine to control. That Remoraid was nothing but a snack to feed on.

“Unleash your inner tide.”

The Geodude attacked again, but this time, I was ready.

I shot out a hefty stream of water. This ocean is mine! The feral was hit midair, liquid spilling off of it’s rocky form. The Water Gun I fired assaulted the Geodude even as it fell to the ground in a soggy heap. Chips of its body flew off, painting the rocks around it in spats of black sludge.

It attempted to get up even with its injuries, but I wasn’t done yet. At this point, I was above even Kyogre; nothing could stop me. I unleashed another torrent of liquid, causing the Geodude to slide across the ground, its fractured form cracking and falling apart from the onslaught.

After the second Water Gun, it didn’t move again. Now all that remained was a haphazard collection of damaged stones coated in a black liquid.

I stared down at the sight, panting from exertion. I was about to unleash another attack on the now dead feral when Fenn called me from nearby, causing me to wince.

“Oswald! You did it!” He padded up to me. “I knew you could!”

I blinked. “W-what? Huh?” I looked back down at the dead Geodude with wide eyes. “Did…did I do that?”

Fenn nodded, a wide grin on his face. “Y-you sure did!” he praised. “Pretty easy, huh?”

I blinked again. That…was easy. Almost…too easy. Is this really all it takes? Why was I so scared, again?

“Let’s keep going,” Fenn beamed. “Won’t be the last we see of the ferals here.”

I was so enraptured by my handiwork that I didn’t notice Fenn heading for the next corridor without me. I quickly caught up, following behind Fenn further into the dungeon. Maybe Fenn was right, I thought. If the rest of the pokemon here are as weak as that Geodude, then we had nothing to worry about.

Of course, I was wrong. The Graveler in the next chamber would prove to me that we were way in over our heads.

I didn’t really understand what the Graveler was doing when we came across it after beating that Geodude. Mystery dungeons hardly seemed like liveable places—especially this one. And yet, here was a lone Graveler, standing in the center of a room in a dungeon, rolling around pebbles at its feet.

Fenn didn’t give me much time to think about it either. He advanced towards the feral before either me or the Graveler had noticed what he was doing.

“My turn,” Fenn said confidently. “I’ll beat this one.”

Before it had the time to react, Fenn blasted the Graveler with an extreme amount of concentrated flame. The feral let out a low roar as it swatted at the incoming blaze. Fenn didn’t let up for a few agonizing seconds.

I mused on how Fenn’s sudden Flamethrower barrage ‘wasn’t much of a fair fight,’ but it seemed as though it didn’t matter much. Fenn only stopped when the Graveler blindly tossed a rock directly at the Quilava’s head.

He reeled back, coughing up smoke and falling onto his back. Other than the feral being a darker shade of grey, the Graveler was uninjured.

I rushed to Fenn’s side, though he was already sitting himself upright when I got to him. Before I had the chance to ask him if he was alright, he batted my paws away and stood up fully. “I-I can still do this,” Fenn breathed. “Just got a lucky shot on me, that’s all.”

I was concerned, not only because his attack had barely phased the feral, but because the rock had left a nasty gash on his head. Blood dripped down his face right under where his forehead flames were. But Fenn marched back into battle, ignoring the pain.

Instead of hitting the Graveler with fire attacks outright, Fenn opted to whittle it down through repeated and constant pressure. Flame Burst after Flame Burst burned the rocky pokemon. It didn’t have many ways to fight back aside from tossing more rocks. Fenn was on his feet now, so few managed to hit him.

But despite Fenn’s best efforts, the Graveler was still mostly unfazed. I could tell Fenn was getting frustrated because he kept trying to get closer and hit it with more sustained fire attacks. Nothing seemed to be working and Fenn’s recklessness was landing him more rock based injuries.

Eventually, the Graveler got sick of chucking rocks and took advantage of Fenn trying to get in close. The feral wildly swung its arms as Fenn went in for the close range Flamethrower and was promptly smacked in the side.

Fenn screamed in pain and I couldn’t stay still any longer. I was aware that he might get mad at me for interfering, but I was too furious to care. I could already feel water gurgling in my throat so all it took to unleash a particularly nasty Water Gun was for me to imagine the Graveler as a rival predator of the deep. I’ll make you regret choosing to fight back!

The Graveler recoiled and stumbled back as I hit it with a Water Gun. Just like the Geodude, shards of stone chipped off of the rock type’s exterior and the ground was splashed with oily black goo. It staggered but didn’t fall. Now, its attention was on me.

I didn’t give it a second to breathe. Another Water Gun splashed its face and one of its eyes was gone, lying about in pieces somewhere nearby. It was having trouble standing and seemed at its wits end. As a final resort, however, the Gravelor punched the ground.

Everything began to shake.

I stumbled and my vision began to blur. Loud sounds of impact struck the earth as cubes from high above were falling and landing onto the dungeon floor. I could do nothing except keep my balance on my hands and knees.

The shaking soon stopped and I was left stunned. Cracked and broken cubes littered the arena and a familiar looking Graveler was barely alive in the middle of it all.

I wasn’t having it. Something snapped in me and I did the only thing I could think of.

I limped over to the Graveler and loosed a high powered stream of water directly into the creature’s fractured skull. A combination of water and the feral’s black blood flowed out of its corpse. It was dead.

I panted heavily, relieved to see the damn thing dead as it should be. My relief remained until I remembered Fenn.

I frantically looked around looking for his body amongst the wreckage until my eyes caught a sign of a prone Quilava. I didn’t hesitate to sprint to him, a horrible pit in my stomach. None of the fallen cubes came close to crushing him, thankfully.

“Fenn!” I yelled. “Fenn, get up! Speak to me! Fenn!”

Fenn blinked his eyes open and slowly lifted his head off of the ground. He coughed. “I’m…I’m alive…don’t worry.”

I sighed in relief, my heart still pounding. “Fenn, you almost gave me a heart attack,” I laughed nervously.

Fenn stood up slowly, sucking in air through his teeth due to the pain he must’ve felt. “The…bag…”

“Oh, right!” I took my shoulder bag off and handed it to Fenn. He took it into his paws and started searching through it.

“L-let me dress my wounds and we’ll get going,” he mumbled. “Can’t stop yet. We’re just getting started.”

I frowned. “Fenn, this is just the first floor and you almost lost to the second enemy. We should find a way out of here before we get more hurt.”

Fenn shook his head as he wrapped a bandage around his forehead. “Th-that Graveler just got lucky,” Fenn argued. “I would’ve gotten it eventually.”

Is he serious? He wants to keep going after losing that bad? Maybe I could do the rest of the fighting but I hardly think that Fenn is fit for seven more floors. That is implying that he lets me take the lead anyways.

The fire type pulled out a blue berry out of the bag and took a bite. “I-it’s fine, Oswald,” he said. I p-promise you the next fights won’t go nearly as bad as that last one.”

I should’ve said no. I really, really should’ve said no. Unfortunately, I knew that Fenn would find a way to convince me. I was just going to have to make sure that he didn’t get himself killed during this mission. Not very reassuring considering that I just learned how to fight yesterday.

“…Okay, Fenn,” I murmured. “Let’s…just take a break first.”

At the very least he agreed to rest for a bit. I needed to take some time to get myself out of the battling mindset. I had a similar issue when I was training with Allium in that I would start seeing the world around me differently even after I stopped thinking about it. My mind had started playing tricks on me and it took everything in me to stop myself from blasting the other training duos there.

Now in the dungeon, I felt as though I was still underwater. The cubes around me fluctuated and wavered in and out of my vision. Allium’s advice involved grounding myself through repeated physical contact. So, I caressed one of my scalchops and ran my fingers over its sharp edge. I tried hitting the side of my head until my surroundings faded back to normal. It worked, but then my head started to hurt again.

After a few more moments, Fenn was ready to move on. “We’ll need to search each floor completely so we don’t miss any fire stones,” he said. “E-even if we find the stairs we have to keep going.”

Fenn and I continued through the next tunnel. Another empty room was what we found—two paths on both sides. I chose the left path first and we ended up in the room with the stairs. The very same marble stairs topped by a swirling black portal I had seen in Figy Forest.

I give up.

“Let’s head back and check the other path,” Fenn stated. “Don’t wanna miss any.” I didn’t argue, though I was a little worried that we would come across another feral and Fenn would get himself hurt again.

We went back to the previous room and headed down the right path. Yet another empty chamber. Not even a fire stone for our troubles. Fenn and I retraced our steps for a third time and prepared to move on. I strained my ears to listen for sounds coming from the darkness and I could hear a crackling fire as well as a low hum, though I wasn’t sure if that was really the portal or Fenn on fire next to me.

Holding paws, we ascended into the portal. Seven more to go.

Mago Canyon: 3rd Floor

The next two floors went more or less the same. No fire stones, but every other room we ended up in had a rock type feral we ended up fighting. Fenn insisted on dealing with each one, even if we didn’t have to. Fenn would try his damndest to beat whatever we were fighting on his own, hardly do much of anything to them, get horribly battered, get frustrated, then I would have to come in and finish it off.

In all honesty, it wasn’t a horrible strategy. Fenn would routinely weaken and distract the ferals enough for me to come in with the easy kill, but I wasn’t too keen on using Fenn as bait. Of course, Fenn didn’t see it like that. He was convinced that he was just being unlucky or something like that.

“This is stupid!” he fumed. “I shouldn’t be having this much trouble! What am I doing wrong!?”

I ascertained that Fenn was being too hard on himself and trying too hard. We didn’t have to come to Mago Canyon and struggle so much; we could’ve picked an easier job. Everytime I attempted to communicate this to Fenn he would shoot me down.

“No! I can do this!” he hissed. “It’ll be worth it, I promise!”

I didn’t have the patience or energy to bicker with him. Later on, I would make an effort to get to the fight first, but that would only make him angrier and cause me to back down.

We searched the entirety of the third floor and found no fire stones. Fenn was positively enraged at this point and insisted on enduring the punishment. I merely followed along and aimed to guarantee his safety.

Mago Canyon: 4th Floor

Our luck was a bit better on floor four.

Fenn and I traversed the floor with our eyes peeled. Nothing noteworthy happened for the first two chambers aside from us coming across a lone apple on the side of one of the rooms. At this point, I was so done that I happily cut it in half and shared it between Fenn and I, completely disregarding the fact that we had found a perfectly ripe apple at the bottom of a canyon outside of our normal reality and just ate the damn thing. I was hungry so…whatever.

Soon enough, we found ourselves in another open pocket of the mystery dungeon. It was also empty, but I caught sight of a sparkle in front of one of the paths. “You see that?” Fenn asked excitedly, his anger waning a small moment. “It’s gotta be one of the stones!”

Fenn dashed across the earth before I had the chance to stop him. He must’ve gotten so excited that he failed to notice a light down the tunnel rapidly getting closer. Fenn picked up the sparkling rock and held it in the air for me to see.

But I wasn’t focused on that. I was focused on the figure getting closer and closer to my friend. Out of desperation, I yelled out, “Fenn!”

Suddenly, the Quilava was tackled from behind and sent spiraling to the ground. The fire stone fell into the encompassing rock, remaining mostly intact. Where he stood before was now an aggressive looking Ponyta, it’s fiery mane blazing harshly and its horn sharp and slanted. It began to drag its hoof in the dirt as if preparing to charge.

“YOU SCUM!” shouted Fenn. He hastily rose to his paws and tossed a volley of flame at the fire type feral. The Ponyta zoomed around his attack, dodging the fire and rushing Fenn horn down. Fenn spun his torso and rolled to the side to evade the skewering he would’ve been dealt. The Ponyta skidded and halted before it could hit the wall, turning back to face Fenn and reading itself for another charge.

I decided to step in at this point. Envisioning myself as a majestic Mantine surfing waves the size of buildings, I darted across the chamber. I unleashed a Water Gun in the direction of the feral, but it sprung into action at the last moment, causing my move to narrowly miss.

“Crap…!” I cursed under my breath.

Most likely viewing me as the bigger threat, it changed its course for Fenn mid charge and came straight for me. I dived to my right and slid away from the strike, wincing as the stone scratched at my skin. The Ponyta drifted on its hooves and hit the cube wall behind me with its side.

I stood back up and readied another Water Gun, internally viewing the feral as responsible for all of our troubles so far as to increase my rage. However, the Ponyta recovered quickly and ran beside the ends of the room. The stream of liquid I discharged missed.

Fenn released multiple bursts of fire at the Ponyta in an attempt to hit it as well, but his assault only served to scorch the faces of some of the cubes around us. The Ponyta came back around again, this time rushing for Fenn.

I assumed at that moment that trying to hit the feral with ranged attacks wouldn’t work so I devised a new strategy. The only other move I had learned from Allium was Tackle, a physical move that I needed to use sparingly or else I would become too predictable. I had almost forgotten I had even known it since rock types crumble under the might of water, not my skinny, wiggly arms.

But now that I could see this feral evading our every move, I realized that I was going to have to try something different.

I followed Allium’s teachings and ran as fast as my pitiful little legs would allow me. I lowered my body closer to the ground, setting my eyes on my mobile target. I planned to hit it from the side, intercepting it before it would hit Fenn.

It didn’t see me coming. Wham! I tackled the Ponyta with my shoulder, causing it to drop onto the floor. It wailed a discordant sound and flailed on it’s side, trying to catch its bearings. Now thoroughly at an advantage, I leaped on top of the beast and prepared to pelt it with water.

“Ha- OOF!” The wild creature’s incessant thrashing threw me off and its hooves striked me in the chest, knocking the wind out of me. Without anyone holding it down, It would’ve risen back onto its feet…but then a blast of flame struck its eyes. It wasn’t very effective, but the attack caused the Ponyta to fall back onto its side and gave me enough time to try again.

Now that the waves were under my control at last, I let out my strongest Water Gun yet. Steam coated the area as the feral shrieked loudly. I didn’t stop until I couldn’t hear its horrid screeching anymore.

Eventually, the steam lifted and the once fearsome beast was now a maneless pokemon, unconscious and out of commission. I would’ve kept going, but those hoof strikes I suffered were starting to get to me. The room spun as I fell back onto the rocks in a sitting position, exhausted and weezing.

“Oswald!” called Fenn. “A-are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah…yeah I…got it…ah…” I fell onto my back, completely out of breath.

Fenn rushed to my side. “H-hold on! Let me get you an oran berry!” I barely heard him as I laid there staring up at the sky, my vision already starting to fade. “Here!” he yelled. “Eat this!” Fenn lifted something to my lips and coaxed me to bite down. I did and the pain immediately started to subside.

After a few more moments, I was back to my normal self. I blinked and sat up, confused. Wait…how am I already better?

“F-Fenn?” I whispered hoarsely. “What…what did you give me?”

Fenn held up one of those blue berries I would eat in the cafeteria. “Oran berry. They have healing properties.”

“Is that what those are called?” I asked. I stared at my paws, my eyes wide. “And you said they can heal me?”

“Y-yeah,” he smiled. “How else are we supposed to keep going?”

“That’s…that’s amazing!” I grinned wide. “We had those this whole time? What else did we buy at Kecleon’s?”

Fenn rummaged through the main pocket of my shoulder bag. “Let’s see…some rawst berries in case you get burned…some left over orans…a few apples in case we get hungry…some elixirs…a luminous orb…a trawl orb-“

“A trawl orb?”

He pulled out a spherical, green orb. Spirals were etched into its surface. “I-if we break it, it supposedly pulls every stray item on the floor directly to us,” Fenn explained. “Just in case we don’t feel like exploring the last floor or…something like that.”

I was amazed. Who knew we could have so much control over the dungeon like this? “That’s incredible!”

Fenn smiled and searched through the bag some more. “Yeah, it sure…hang on.” His smile disappeared and I looked at him with curiosity. He pulled another orb out of the bag, this one shiny and black. A bright light shined from inside of it. “How did this get here?”

“What is it?”

“An escape orb. Lets us escape whenever if we break it. Cycla…must have slipped it in here when he gave me the bag.” He frowned. “If I had known we had it with us, I would’ve left it behind.” He placed it back into the bag.

Something about that comment troubled me. “Fenn, don’t you think that you’re being a bit reckless? What if we get into a bad situation and that orb was our only way out?”

He handed the bag to me. “I told you we’ll be fine,” he said. “We won’t need it. Trust me.”

There he goes again, ignoring my concerns. If anything we should leave right now and use the gear we have on a different, easier mission tomorrow.

My Quilava partner stood up and shook his hide. “Halfway there. Hopefully find at least four- oh!” His ears perked up as he padded over to the stone he had dropped before the battle and picked it up.

“That’s one.”

Mago Canyon: 6th Floor

Two more floors passed and we only found one more fire stone; the dungeon wasn’t treating us well. Alongside not getting the materials we needed to finish the mission, we were also getting swamped with more difficult opponents on each subsequent floor.

Floor five was filled with near constant battles with ferals. More agile fire types and bulky rock types which meant I had to start putting in twice the effort. Fenn still wasn’t willing to slow down, but he was more willing to work with me and take them down together even if that entailed me having to do the majority of the work.

By the time we got to floor six, we were running out of items to keep us from collapsing. No more orans, elixirs, or apples. I didn’t know what it was about dungeon crawling, but I would get really hungry all of a sudden every few floors or so.

We managed to acquire our second fire stone after beating one particularly annoying Carkol. It had achieved what it had set out to do and almost burned me alive. The burns I was left with caused us to use the last of our bandages and three of our rawst berries. They weren’t my favorite, but at least the pain was gone after. I nearly used our escape orb right then and there due to how unbearable it was.

We took a break after beating the Carkol. As we rested, I couldn’t help but notice that Fenn looked…worried. His flames were withering with each floor and they wouldn’t reach the heights they would rise to on the earlier floors either. More so than just being worried, Fenn was also frustrated.

“H-how are we supposed to make our money back at this point?” he fretted quietly. “There’s n-no way we’ll get the last few stones on the final two floors. There’s just no way…”

I hated seeing Fenn like this. More so than I admittedly disliked how reckless he could be. But we couldn’t give up! If we gave up now then we were just a bunch of failures! Even if we didn’t find three more stones, we could at least say we made it to the end. If we wanted to we could just get to floor eight, use the trawl orb, then get out. Essentially the same thing, right?

I decided I needed to tell Fenn this. “Fenn,” I started. He looked up at me, downtrodden. “We’ll make it out of this with a profit, I promise. We can use the trawl orb on the last floor and get out of here. Our luck can’t be so bad that we won’t find at least two more stones, right?”

A smile slowly curved onto his face. “Y-yeah…yeah you’re right.” He stood himself up onto his four paws with some difficulty. “One…one more floor…o-okay…”

Our break ended and we soldiered on. Just one more, I said to myself. One more and we’ll be home free…

Mago Canyon: 7th Floor

The seventh floor of Mago Canyon felt different. I had stopped noticing how oppressive the atmosphere of this place was pretty early on, but something immediately felt wrong when we got to the seventh floor.

For one thing, every cube had a face on this floor. Not a single one was abstractedly designed. Their eyes seemed to follow me as we made our way through the first few chambers. Not only that, but the intolerable silence came back in full force. I was half expecting the cubes to start talking at this point.

Another thing was the pressure I felt. Weighing me down just as the dungeon always had, but now it was like I was trapped in an invisible box wherever I went. Spending too much time focusing on anything other than my own breathing caused me to think that I was suffocating out of nowhere. I could tell Fenn was suffering with this worse than I was, his flames barely alight.

It didn’t take long for us to encounter a sight that frightened me to my very core.

There was nothing unique about the room we stepped into aside from the fact that this one had a roof. The room was dark and claustrophobic despite its large size. Fenn told me to pull out our luminous orb and lead the way, sounding genuinely scared as he did so.

I cracked the golden orb like an egg on the stone floor and a ball of ethereal light floated in the air above us. The room lit up somewhat, and I could just make out three paths on every wall around us. On the edge of the light, Fenn and I both saw a faint sparkle.

Fenn didn’t hesitate to rush over to it, his fear suddenly forgotten in place of excitement at the thought of being one step closer to leaving. I followed him, the light of the orb gradually brightening the other side of the room. I stopped when a face too distinct to belong to one of the cubes appeared just beyond the stone.

“H-huh?” Fenn slid to a stop right before he could grab the rock.

An enormous creature padded out of the darkness, it’s wide, snarling face staring Fenn down. Sharp teeth protruded from its muzzle. Its golden mane caught the rays of the luminous orb and served to make the feral look huge in comparison to Fenn and I.

It let out a low growl as it stomped on the fire stone, crushing it to bits. The Arcanine towered over us.

Fenn coughed out smoke in fear, gasping as he stumbled back. The Arcanine moved in on him, taking advantage of his hesitation. The giant beast swatted Fenn aside as if he were a fly, sending Fenn sailing into the darkness, landing with a loud thud.

“AAAHHH!”

“FENN!” I advanced towards the feral to get my revenge. I imagined the Arcanine as a stray fire type in my water, drowning and-

The Arcanine intercepted me and bit down on the air in front of me. I was barely able to leap backward in time as I barfed water onto myself, landing roughly on my back. I need some shorter metaphors.

The Arcanine didn’t give me much time to recuperate, slashing the ground with a claw right after I narrowly rolled out of the way. I needed to catch my bearings so I got on my feet and started running. The feral was fast—faster than I was, that’s for sure. It leaped in the air and landed in front of me, causing me to stumble back. It opened its jaw to attack, but stopped when a flame burst hit its side.

It barely flinched, but Fenn’s assault got the Arcanine’s attention. It spun on its heels and countered Fenn’s fire attacks with its own. A blinding stream of flame lit up the chamber and was spewed in Fenn’s direction. Fenn dodged and fired back.

Again, the Arcanine didn’t flinch. In fact, the stream of flame only seemed to get brighter each time Fenn would strike. The flamethrower got so strong that I could see the faces of the cubes around me melting when they would be struck.

I found enough time to charge up my Water Gun, capitalizing on the Arcanine focusing on Fenn and not me, I unleashed the strongest stream of water I could. This time, the feral did flinch and swiftly turned on me, the look in its eye striking fear into my very soul.

Fenn launched another attack at the Arcanine and failed in fazing it. Its mane appeared to burn as brightly as its flames.

“Ghk!” It slashed at my chest, raking three shallow gashes into my fur and drawing blood. The impact sent me flying. I hit one of the walls hard and collapsed onto the rocks, my head spinning. I could hear Fenn screaming. What he was screaming, though, I didn’t know.

I shakily looked up from the earth, barely conscious. Fenn was clashing with the Arcanine and failing to make a dent. He had stopped trying to hit it with his flames and was now hopelessly bobbing and weaving around the monster’s slashs and bites. They continued like this for a few more seconds before Fenn’s exhaustion caught up to him.

“NO- AAAHHH!” Fenn tripped. The Arcanine had managed to bite into his back.

The beast shaked Fenn’s limp body in the air before tossing him in my direction. Fenn smashed into the wall just as I had, sliding down onto the ground, bruised and bloodied.

I looked at him in horror. No…this can’t be happening…

To my surprise, Fenn was not only alive, but still conscious. He looked back at me, body covered in cuts and bandages, with tears in his eyes. “O-Oswald,” he barely audibly whispered. “The…trawl orb…please…”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Even on the brink of certain death, Fenn still thought about the mission first. Being the lackey that I was, I did what he said using the last of my strength. But then my paw caught something smooth and round. The item I pulled out of the bag wasn’t the green orb that Fenn was asking for.

It was the escape orb.

“Oswald…p-please…”

I looked up to see the Arcanine making its way slowly towards us, its eyes crazed and bloodshot. I had to act now or else we were doomed.

When I looked back at Fenn, my heart nearly stopped as I saw that he was pleading with me with his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks.

I closed my eyes to block it out. Tears were streaming down my cheeks now as well. “I’m sorry…Fenn,” I whispered.

I smashed the escape orb on the ground with every ounce of strength I had left. A bright light, brighter than the luminous orb and the fully powered Flamethrower of the Arcanine combined, engulfed us. I could feel my skin being dragged and pulled in every direction.

The loudest screech I had ever heard rang out from somewhere. Ghastly tendrils of pure black energy grasped my limbs, trying to pull me away.

Whatever was grabbing me was suddenly forcibly peeled off of my fur, however. The light reached a point of pure white and my senses were all lost in a fit of all encompassing agony.

We had escaped. Team Lavender’s first mission was a failure.

---

I opened my eyes to the sight of a cloudy blue sky and the sound of gentle wind.

My body ached everywhere; I could hardly move. I tried to sit myself up, wincing at the pain my chest was feeling at that moment. With some trouble, I was able to stand on my feet. Wobbling in place, I clutched my chest. I nearly fell back down when I saw that my paw was coated in blood. That…hadn’t been a dream.

I looked around at my surroundings. It didn’t take long for me to ascertain that we were back on the real cliffs of Mago Canyon. Somehow the escape orb booted us back to the very same cliffs we jumped off from.

I heard a shuffling to my right and turned to see Fenn struggling to stand. “F…Fenn!” I hobbled over to him and collapsed onto my knees at his side. “Fenn,” I breathed. “Say s-something. Let me know you’re okay…”

After a few seconds, the Quilava shifted. “…Stupid,” he hissed quietly. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

“Wha…Fenn?”

He shakily lifted his head, his red and puffy eyes meeting mine. “I…I’m so stupid. So stupid…of…course an Arcanine would have F-Flash Fire. I’m…such an i-idiot.”

I shook my head. “No…Fenn, you’re not an idiot,” I whispered. “This wasn’t your fault.”

Fenn looked away. “I’m such a…failure. Anemone was right…I can’t do this…”

“Fenn, stop,” I pleaded. “You’re not a failure! We just had some bad luck, that’s all! Don’t let this get you down!”

He dropped his head onto his paws. “I just wanna go home…”

I frowned, a harsh cold feeling clinging to my heart. This sucks, I thought. We tried so hard and nearly got killed…but our reward won’t even amount to much. I’m so sorry, Fenn. I should’ve…done better. If only…if only I wasn’t such a loser. This is all my fault…

I rested my body for a bit. The path back to Kebia was long and we weren’t exactly in the best position to take that journey. Fenn didn’t say anything else; he curled up in a ball and presumably would’ve waited for the end had I not been there.

---

We stopped by Spelon Town on our way back. Even if it meant we had to crawl (which in Fenn’s case, I guess he did) I wasn’t stopping until we got some adequate medical attention. The pokemon there were more than happy to patch us up and suggested that we stay there to heal for the night.

But Fenn, being Fenn, declined their offer. We left Spelon as quick as we entered with new bandages and oran berries to spare.

We made it back to Kebia with a couple of hours left until sunset. We must’ve looked quite unsightly since almost every pokemon stared at us with concern in their eyes. Some asked if we were alright, and others ignored us like this was supposed to be a normal occurrence.

Lace greeted us at the front desk. “Hello, how are y- oh my gosh!” She brought her leaf appendages up to her face in shock. “You two look absolutely horrible! What happened?”

Ipo next to her wasn’t as surprised. “Rough day, huh?”

I only groaned in response and placed the two fire stones on the counter. Lace read the piece of paper that was attached to them. “Oh my,” she said. “You two took a job way out of your league. What were you thinking?”

It was Fenn’s turn to groan in response.

Ipo tallied our reward and handed a small sack of poké to me. “600 poké for two stones,” he said. “Plus the guild tax so your reward is 420 poké.”

I stared down at the bag. It was pitifully small.

I noticed Fenn limping away from the counter. “Wait, where are you going, Fenn?”

He turned his head slightly. “I’m going to bed,” he said quietly. Fenn then walked away, his head down in shame.

I watched him leave, an upset look on my face. “I do hope you two take this as a lesson to take jobs within your skill level,” Lace said behind me. “I always hate how often a team either never returns or returns much like how you just did.”

I didn’t have anything to respond to that with. I just stood there watching Fenn leave me behind.

This sucks.

---

I needed to take my mind off of what had just happened. The only other avenue for keeping myself busy was training with Allium. Even if it was only for a couple of hours, I figured that doing literally anything else was more beneficial than ruminating over my recent failure as an explorer.

I found Allium soon after I made it to the training grounds. He greeted me.

“You look as though you fought ten Zangooses’ (Zangeese?) and barely lived to tell the tale,” he said to me.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I replied.

The two of us spent an hour honing my only two skills. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up, and I wasn’t even interested in learning more about using my scalchop. Allium commented that my Water Gun hit even weaker than the day before and I couldn’t touch him when he asked to see my Tackle.

“You are distracted.”

I sighed. “Yeah…I’m sorry. I had a rough day.”

He frowned. “I can tell. You are exhausted both physically and mentally.”

I hated how right he was.

“Go rest for today,” he said. “Return to me when you have recovered.”

Being as tired as I was, I didn’t argue.

As I turned to leave, Allium called out to me, “Oswald.” I turned back. “If you would like to talk,” he smiled, “simply ask.

I grimaced, slightly annoyed that he would even ask. “I’m…sorry Allium. I’d really rather not.”

He nodded. “I understand. I will see you another day, my student.”

---

I dropped by the cafeteria to get Fenn some dinner as an attempt to maybe cheer him up some. He rejected it and told me he wasn’t hungry.

That’s what bothers me the most about this, I thought in bed later. I still don’t understand why Fenn was so adamant about being the lynchpin of the team. I know it has something to do with his family, but that’s clearly a sour subject. I stared up at the ceiling wide awake, limply swiping at the air with a scalchop. I could’ve done more to make him feel better…I think. I should’ve done more to make him feel better.

Why do I have to be so passive? I should’ve been more assertive and made him choose an easier mission. He would’ve been before off for it! But…I hate making him upset.

Ugh. I’m such a failure. All of this is my fault. I’m so sorry that you’re stuck with such a loser, Fenn. I promise I’ll make it up to you. I just hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me.

I rested a paw on my chest and winced. The aching from the Arcanine wound was still there, not yet fully healed. I realized then and there that I found my answer to the question I asked the night before.

I am…unlucky. Very much so. A luckier human or pokemon would’ve made it through Mago Canyon with five fire stones to spare.

I sighed. Tomorrow will be a better day. I promise, Fenn.