Wibbles Wobble, But They Don’t Fall Down

The first day of school was surprisingly productive.

Sure, it felt like a lot of things they went over in class were things she’d already learned as a human, but it never hurts to go over a few things every now and again, yeah?

Class has been dismissed, all of the students are saying their goodbyes to Mr. Farfetch’d, and Neesha is on her way back, eager to get home and rest-

“Hey! Neesha!” Nevermind then. She spoke too soon. She sees River rushing up behind her, the Chespin having to stop to catch her breath. “Mr. Farfetch’d just let me go, haaahhh… Reeeeeeaaally hope he doesn’t tell my Pops about this, he gives the longest lectures, like, seriously!”

“As I can imagine…”

It seems River has invited herself along for the walk home. Though not explicitly, she hasn’t exactly rushed away from Neesha or anything. Well, some company is better than no company at all, she supposes. “Oh, yeah! Sorry I never got to finish showing ya around, I kinda got caught up in something, heheh.~”

Well that’s an understatement. Neesha thinks back to the village, how everyone aside from a few Pokemon seemed to be chasing after River. The ground shook so much it was practically an earthquake, just without the structural damage.

Okay, maybe some structural damage. Pity what River must have done to Lombre’s lotus pond. “Maybe if you have time, I could show you around the place proper? Give you a proper introduction to the village and all?”

“I appreciate the offer, River, but I’ve already kinda showed myself around.” Neesha gives an awkward shrug. “Not that there’s really much to see in the village anyway, not without barging into most people’s homes.”

“Oh.” River blinks, a hint of disappointment in her eyes as she glances away from Neesha for a moment. “…Ah well, can’t win ’em all, heh.” A brief pause, River’s eyes lighting back up as if a little exclamation mark had just appeared over her head. “Wait, I know! There’s something else I can show you! A neat little place just outside the village!”

Neesha’s ears do flick at this, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little curious now. “A neat little place?”

“Yeah!” River nods enthusiastically, body practically bouncing a little from the velocity of which. “It’s a special place and I really wanna share it with you!”

Well, there’s nothing saying she has to go home right away. Nuzleaf did give her permission to venture off around the village, after all. Neesha smiles at River and nods. “You know what? Sure. As long as we don’t end up angering the entire village.”

“Sweet!” River immediately grabs Neesha’s paw, holding onto her tightly. Neesha immediately knows she should brace herself. “Come on! It’s just over the-“

“You two stop where you are, right now.” In any other case, she’d be a bit more thankful that she’d just got saved from another dragging around, but it’s the voice that causes her ears to droop and for her to sigh. That bratty voice. Neesha and River turn around, seeing Shiloh and Shelmet walking down the path towards them, the Pancham smirking for some reason. Can’t be a good reason.

“Ooohhhh, it’s you guys!” River says, seemingly not all that bothered by their presence, unlike Neesha. “You think this could maybe wait till later? Neesha and I are kinda in the middle of something so if you wouldn’t mind-“

“We weren’t talking to you, pipsqueak!” Shelmet shouts back, his and Shiloh’s attention turning to Neesha. “It’s her we need to have a little talk with.” Oh joy, how wonderful. Neesha’s sure this will go perfectly fine.

Neesha’s gaze narrows as Shiloh and Shelmet walk up to them, letting out an annoyed sigh. “First off, don’t talk to her like that. Second, what do you want with me?”

“Weeeeeeellll…” Shiloh crosses his arms over his chest, smirk only growing wider. “You did a pretty good job of making it through the Foreboding Forest yesterday.”

River’s eyes go wide with surprise, head turning to Neesha quickly. “You went through the Foreboding Forest?!”

“Just barely.” Neesha responds flatly, head turning back to Shiloh. “I’m not sure if you knew this, but on my way to find Goomy, I wandered into an Anomaly. So before you suggest that I don’t have guts, or that I’m wimpy or whatever you two are gonna to try and claim of me, don’t bother. Now, can you please leave us alone?”

Silence befalls them, River staring at Neesha with an incredulous expression while Shiloh and Shelmet stare at her skeptically, glancing at each other, minds seemingly in sync with one another as they nod at the same time, Shiloh turning back to Neesha. “We don’t believe you.”

Neesha blinks, eyebrows furrowing a bit. “Excuse me?”

“Just what I said! We don’t believe you. You don’t have any proof you went into one. How’re we supposed to know you didn’t just make that up to try and impress us, huh? We just learned about it in school today. For all we know, you could just be trying to impress us.” Shiloh crosses his arms, glaring at Neesha harshly.

Neesha groans quietly, huffing out. Of course they’re not gonna make this easy, are they?

“You think you’re so tough, huh?” Shelmet speaks up, eyes sneering at her. “Well, we wantcha to know that it ain’t the only scary place around. Oooohohooo no, there’s plenty!”

“Really? Where?!” River speaks up excitedly, Neesha flabbergasted and baffled as to why River keeps encouraging them. Does she really not know or care about how big of jerks these guys are?

“We said can it, you expedition society wannabe!” Shiloh snaps back, Neesha having to restrain herself from lashing out. Whatever she did, she felt they’d use it against her. Better to not risk it. The most she can do is bar her teeth. River, strangely, still doesn’t really seem all that bothered by it, though… “Maybe, just maybe, if you can make it through somewhere even scarier, we’ll believe you and let you off, okay?”

Neesha’s gaze narrows even further as she goes as far as to take a step closer towards Shiloh, even pressing her muzzle against his face, which makes him back up in surprise. “Only if you promise to leave Goomy alone after this.” She then takes a step back towards River, staring them down hard. “Deal?”

Shiloh and Shelmet stay silent, letting the silence linger as they think on Neesha’s offer. “Pretty big stakes, if you ask me.” The Pancham chuckles. “Alright, miss smarty pants. You got yourself a deal.”

“Can I come?” River speaks back up, Neesha groaning quietly as her head and ears droop to the ground. “I’m up for the challenge too!”

“I told you we weren’t-!” Shiloh snaps back, but interrupts himself, letting out a frustrated groan as he walks past the two, with Shelmet following behind. “Okay, fine! Whatever! If it’ll get you to shut up already!”

She can’t believe she’s letting herself get dragged into these two goobers’ shenanigans again, but it’s for Goomy’s sake. Ah well, whatever it is, it can’t be as bad as last time.

---

It’s bad.

The place is a giant coal mine, dozens of Drilbur workers manning it together. The whole place isn’t exactly lit the best, lots of lanterns scattered around the mine, whether it be on the ground or hanging from the walls. The repeated, hard thuds of Drillbur claws can be heard as they dig into the mines all around them.

“Oooohhh, I’ve heard of this place before.” River says as all four of them take cover behind a wall, where a majority of Drillbur are working on the other side. “This place doubles as a Mystery Dungeon, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Shelmet nods his head, back pressed against the wall. “The mine splits into two paths about halfway in, too. One path goes into the mine like usual, and the other heads into the Mystery Dungeon. Now, the Drillbur don’t dare go into the Mystery Dungeon, they’re scared of it! In fact, they’re so scared, they even barred that part of the mine off!”

Oh, so a workplace and a restricted area? Well this just gets better and better, doesn’t it?

“Yep!” Shiloh continues. “Now, this may all seem complicated, but it’s really simple! We just need you two to get in there, bring back some red stones as proof, and then you’re off the hook. Okay?”

River glances back after having peeked around behind the wall. “I sorta zoned out there, but I think I got the picture. Get in, red stones, bing bang boom?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Shiloh nods with a smirk. “Do that, we’ll believe Neesha, and we’ll leave Goomy alone for good. Shouldn’t be too hard, even for dweebs like you. I cleared that dungeon in no time flat, multiple times.~”

Now hang on just a gosh dang minute here. Neesha squints skeptically at Shiloh, arching an eyebrow. “Wait. Back at the Foreboding Forest, both of you were too scared to step inside, and you even stopped Saline from going into the forest too. Yet, this place is somehow scarier and you’ve gone through it more than once?”

“Uh-” Shiloh stops in his tracks, eyes widening as Neesha calls him out on his bluff. His eyes darting to Shelmet for a brief second before back to Neesha, backing up awkwardly. Someone’s a liar. “I-I mean, the Foreboding Forest is the Foreboding Forest, you know? Nobody wants to step in there! This place is waaaaay easier to get through!”

“Uh-huh.” Neesha says flatly, gaze narrowing. Not having this, at all. “But then wouldn’t that imply that the Foreboding Forest is still scarier? Even though this hyped this place up to be even worse than the forest?”

“…You ask too many questions, just shut up and go get the dang stones.” Shiloh grumbles as he and Shelmet stomp off. Yeah, just as Neesha thought. No spines, either of them. It’s almost embarrassing.

Neesha sighs, shaking her head. “I can’t believe these two. Let’s get this over with as soon as we can. You ready, River?” She glances behind her, but River is gone. Great. “River?”

“W-What are you doing here? This is no place for a child!” One of the Drillbur workers can be heard speaking from behind the wall, panic in his voice. “A-And you’re that little rascal from the village, aren’t you?!”

“Ooohh, you recognize me! But I don’t recognize you, though. Have we met before?” Great.

“Hey, River! Hold up!” Neesha dashes out from behind the wall to try and catch up, the Drillbur doing… Surprisingly very little to actually try and stop River. Not even guiding her out, just sorta, standing awkwardly at their posts as they all stare at them.

The Drillbur stammers, eyes wide. “Another one?! N-No! Absolutely not! This isn’t some sort of playground, you know! You can’t come in here!”

River sighs, head leaning back a bit. “Awwww, okaaaayyy. Guess we’ll have to find a way to sneak around you guys, then!~”

“S-Sneak around?! _{B-But it’s not exactly sneaky if you just say it right in front of us…}“

“That’s okay! We’ll be so sneaky, you won’t even know we’re here! Now come on, Neesha! Let’s go!” River bolts right off, her idea of ‘sneaky’ apparently seeming to be just rushing straight through the main entrance to the mines.

Neesha groans again, shaking her head as she rushes off after her. “River, come on! Stop running ahead of me!”

…Did the Drillbur really make no attempt to stop them?

---

The mines seem to stretch onward. One long corridor. The Mystery Dungeon must not be till much, much further in. There finally seems to be a light at the end of this long, long stretch of tunnel, lit by a single lantern at the top of the ceiling.

About time, too. Maybe they can take a break. Neesha’s legs are starting to get sore from how long they’ve been walking. How does River manage it?

“Hey, Neesha, look!” River exclaims as the two fiiiinally approach the exit, Neesha still panting as she catches up to River, having to sit down on her haunches to catch her breath. The opening is fairly medium sized, not overly huge, but not exactly spacious either. There’s enough room to fit maybe, she doesn’t know, ten to twenty Drillburs in here.

Oh, right, River is pointing at something, she’s so tired she almost didn’t notice.

Big opening in the wall, barred off by warning signs, black and yellow tape, red and yellow tape, barriers to prevent anyone from entering. Yeah, that would likely be the entrance to the Mystery Dungeon. Of course, like Shiloh and Shelmet had mentioned, there’s another opening on the opposite side of the room that led into the mines themselves, but they don’t need to worry about that.

“That must be the place, right? Well come on! Let’s go!” River takes off, Neesha groaning behind her.

“Rivveeeeeerrrr, slow down! I’m still trying to catch my breath!” She whines as she gets up, but the two are quickly stopped when a voice calls out to them.

“W-Wait! You two!” A Drillbur, looking just as worried and scared as the others back at the entrance. “Y-You, uhhh… You two can’t go in there?”

“Ooooohhh, so this is the forbidden area? Sweet! But,” River tilts her head to the side, her little leaflet stems on her head drooping over with her. “Why not?”

“B-Because it’s restricted! That’s why!”

River turns her head to look at the opening in the wall, staring at it for a few moments, as if to carefully examine it and get a good judgement of it, before she redirects her attention back to the Drillbur. “It’s open, though.”

The Drillbur just stammers in surprise, quite possibly unable to comprehend such a wildly strong rebuttal. “T-That’s!… Not what I meant! This isn’t a place for children! N-Nobody is permitted to go down that path, n-not now, not ever!”

“Okay, cool, thanks for telling us. Later!” And just like that, River is heading off down into the dark abyss, the Drillbur just staring in awe as she bolts off.

“River, would you slow down for just two minutes?!” Neesha shouts after her, forcing herself back up onto her fours and rushing down the opening towards her. “I can barely keep up with you!”

These Drillburs are surprisingly bad at security.

Neesha pants heavily as she struggles to keep up with River, her little legs only able to carry her so far. “R-River, g-give me a second to, haaaaahh, catch up!”

“Whuh? Oh- Oops! Sorry Neesha!” River skids to a stop, the surrounding area bathed in a dim, blue light. Much different from the flickering yellow glows of the lanterns they’ve been accustomed to up to this point. “This isn’t really as bad as those two were making it out to be, this place is fine!”

…Why is this place bathed in a blue light anyway? In fact, the ground feels different too. Not as rough and rocky as, well, rocks and dirt, feels more smooth, like stone.

She hasn’t gotten a proper look at her surroundings, she’s been too exhausted chasing after River, she’s barely paid attention to where they’ve been going. Her head lifts up, finally granting her a proper view of where she and River are.

Signs hanging from the ceiling. Words have all been scratched out, but the numbers are still visible. They look like times, reading 5:30 PM, 8:20 AM, so on and so forth. Benches, lots of them. Some overturned, a good majority of them still resting against the walls. Railroad tracks, metro trains-

Oh.

Oh no.

Now, Neesha might not exactly be a professional.

But she’s at the very least 99.99% certain that mineshafts aren’t supposed to connect to public subway stations.

“River?”

“Yeah, Neesha?”

“We gotta get out of here. Now.” Neesha quickly turns around, scrambling backwards so she can g̶̽̕ͅẹ̴̳͛̊t̸͙͔̗͐ ̶̛̛̮͑̏ͅb̴̤́̽͂͝ḁ̸̲̮̜̄c̷̢̿̚k̷̼̟̒͌̀̍ ̷̜̭̱̌͋́͜ẗ̷͉̫́͌͂͘͜o̷̻̤̭̒ͅ ̷̧͙̬͛t̷̮͎̞͝h̸͙̙͐̊͂̀e̶̳̐̔y̵̡̭͖͊̒ ̷͇͕̉͂͂͝ç̵̀̉̈́ạ̷̃͊̽m̸̨̬̳̙̐̋̓ę̸̬̆́̌̚

The entrance is gone.

The mineshaft has vanished.

Not good, very, VERY not good.

“U-Uuuhhh…” Her ears droop in a panic, eyes darting around the place. “Okay, okay, everything’s fine, eeeeeeverything’s fine.” They learned everything they needed to know about Anomalies in class, right? Just follow those tips and everything will be perfectly fine.

“Soooooooo, we’re stuck here?” River blinks a few times, eyebrows furrowing as she places a hand on her hip, eyes glancing around the place. “Well, that kinda stinks. How’re we gonna find those red stones now?”

“River, we’ll worry about the stones when we get out of here.” Neesha sloooowly draws in a deep breath. Okay, girl, calm yourself down. You got this, you and River got this. “We just need to focus on finding an exit, any exit we can.”

So this trip just got a whole lot more complicated.

But they’ll be fine.

Perfectly fine…

---

21, 14, 4