Chapter Nine – The Monster of The Mines

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9.

The Monster of the Mines

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The other side of the mine shaft led to a steep hill that made Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy trip and tumble, sending them falling further down, down—

Espurr shut her eyes tight, refusing to scream loudly like Tricky was. She tried her best to roll herself into a ball, protecting her face and limbs so they weren’t damaged on the way down.

The whoosh of the wind by her ears suddenly disappeared, leaving behind something damp and musty in the air as the three students tumbled to a stop at the bottom of the slope. Once everything had gone still, Espurr dared to take a shaky breath and uncurl herself. The air smelled dusty, stale, and faintly like death – the telltale scent of a mystery dungeon. She was beginning to realise they all smelled like that.

“Is everyone alright?” she asked, looking around. There was a shake in her voice she couldn’t quite kick.

“I’m alright…” groaned Tricky, splayed out into a pile of yellow fur and limbs on the ground. Goomy, pulling his slime together and rising out of a pink, gloopy puddle on the ground, nodded shakily, trembling a bit.

“Y-yeah. M-me too.”

Espurr pulled herself to her feet and shook the dust out of her fur, looking around them. Her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the caverns quickly.

There was no natural light down here. But that didn’t mean the dungeon was pitch-black. It glowed with the light of all the crystals anymon could ever wish for. Green and blue and soft orange gemstones shone along the walls and roofs, glowing dimly and giving the corridors a soft, ethereal glow. Tricky hopped to her feet quickly, the sparkles of all the jewels reflecting in her amazed eyes.

“Wow wow wow!” she exclaimed. “Look at all these gems! And in a mystery dungeon, too! Who would be stupid enough to board this off?”

Immediately, thoughts swarmed to Espurr’s mind: the outlaw from that book…

“Maybe something happened here,” she said, trading looks with Goomy.

“Y-yeah,” said Goomy, still shaken. “W-we read in a book—”

“But they wouldn’t close it off forever just because something happened!” said Tricky, cutting them off. “I bet those drilbur were just silly cowards who were too scared to mine in a dungeon.”

With that, the fennekin began to trot off cheerfully with her tail high. Espurr wished she could feel that optimism right about now.

She studied the crystals on the wall as they went. From what she had seen of the drilbur, Tricky’s explanation mostly checked out. They definitely were cowardly. But she noticed the unnatural, jagged gaps on the walls as they walked too, like there had been a crystal there once and then somemon had torn it out. Maybe it was thieves… but nothing had been stolen in the village, and the drilbur probably would have toughened up by now if they were being stolen from all the time—

“Espurr, Goomy, watch out!”

Tricky’s voice shot over from Espurr’s left, and she barely had time to react before a brilliant orange ember flashed through the crystals, blinding her and a geodude.

The geodude wasted no time getting back to its feet… hands, and skittered straight for Espurr like a spider. Just the movement was spine-chilling, and it was fast. Espurr gasped, green fear grasping her eyesight. She pushed Goomy away and quickly backed herself up against the crystal wall as the geodude scurried towards her. She had to think quickly. She had to do something. She had to—

The pokemon let out a snarl as it closed the distance. Espurr ducked at the last second, then kicked the geodude’s hand out from under it and scampered a good distance away before it could grab her. The geodude slammed face-first into one of the crystals on the wall, landing in a daze. One of Tricky’s embers a second later missed but dealt a finishing blow to the blue rock. It shattered into tiny pieces, expelling shimmering white dust everywhere. The geodude hissed, starting to skitter the rest of the distance towards Espurr, until it was blasted from behind by a bunch of purple sparks. The geodude collapsed to the ground, leaving an unstable, frightened Goomy behind it, his slime shivering and his slimy paws still flitting with purple energy.

The whole thing happened in seconds. Espurr watched in silent, wide-eyed terror as the geodude’s body degraded before her eyes, collapsing into a pile of reddish dust on the dungeon floor. What had just happened? Had they… killed it? Was this what happened to pokemon when they died?

Tricky scampered over to them. She looked excited, her mouth hanging wide open, her tongue out, and her eyes bugging out of her head.

“Holy mystery dungeon…” the fennekin breathed as Espurr and Goomy picked themselves up and made their way back to her. “…we fought a dungeon ‘mon! And WON! This is amazing!”

“Did… did we kill it?” was all a frazzled Espurr managed to ask. “It just… crumbled.”

“That’s ’cause it’s not real,” Tricky said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“It looked real to me…” Espurr protested. She was pleading with life at this point – if anything would start making sense right about now, she’d gladly take it.

“Well, it’s not! The dungeon just makes those, no-mon knows why. But we beat one!”

That was good enough.

Tricky suddenly gasped and scampered ahead, leaving Espurr and Goomy in the dust.

“Come on! I found the stairs!” she yelled, bounding into the distance. Espurr, still shaken from the encounter, looked over to make sure Goomy was fine, then they both took each others’ paws and tried to catch up.

Only then, as they walked ahead, keeping an eye out for any more surprise monsters, did the implications of Tricky’s statement fully hit her: Mystery dungeons had stairs?

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Mystery dungeons had stairs.

Perfect, smooth, pristine stairs, and Espurr couldn’t even begin to try explaining that. Shouldn’t they at least get dusty? What about damage, or age? Even as she walked down the steps, which just happened to be the perfect size for Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy, the smoothness of the stone compared to the rough floor of the dungeon baffled her. Did all dungeons have these?

“All dungeons have those,” Tricky said dismissively. “Dunno why, don’t really care. It’s helpful.” She shrugged, glancing around the cavern. “Hey, is it darker on this floor?”

It was. The cavern was just a little darker than the last one, and the crystals here glowed just a bit dimmer in the encroaching darkness than before. But hadn’t they gone up? And here there were red ones. They glittered in secluded spots amongst the many other colours, like a missing colour added to a painting.

Espurr was about to say that it was, but then they both heard the distant skittering echoing through the dark cavern walls, the sound of approaching dungeon wildings.

“I hear more enemies coming,” she said instead, urgently.

“W-we sh-should hide,” said Goomy, antennae flopped over as the chittering and howls grew. “It s-sounds like a lot.”

Before Tricky could even open her mouth in response, several geodude skittered around the corner, rushing right past and around the two students like they weren’t there. The three of them shared puzzled looks. Then the sandshrew rolled past. And the roggenrola clopped on by.

Tricky couldn’t contain her snickers at the goofy way the retreating herd of dungeon wildlings was running off, but Espurr cast a look to the cavern up ahead. That apparition before hadn’t ignored them… but maybe these ones were running from something else. Something like… a larger dungeon pokemon?

And then she heard the distant stomping. And Espurr put it all together.

“Hide!” she suddenly yelped, pulling Tricky by her ear-fluff behind a large, teal-coloured crystal jutting up out of the ground. Goomy hurriedly slimed after them.

“Oww… Watch the ear-fluff!” Tricky complained in a harsh whisper once they were all safely hidden behind the crystal. “How would you like it if I pulled your ear?”

Espurr’s ears briefly tingled, and something told her that would be a very bad idea. Goomy snuggled further into the crystal – he could hear what she did now, too.

The stomping slowly became louder. All three of them could hear it clearly now, the sound of a heavy stomp and then the screech of claws being dragged across the floor.

Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.

Louder and louder. Espurr realised she was holding her breath. Her vision was tinting green with fear and she didn’t know which of them it came from.

Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.

Only when the creature was several paces away from their hiding spot was Espurr brave enough to peek out at it. What she saw only made the streaks of green clouding her mind stronger: A monstrous gabite lumbered through, dragging its feet through the cavern like a zombie. Its head hung low, drooping down in front of its body, and the blades attached to its thin, spindly arms screeeeched as they dragged against the stone ground with each step. It was at least three times their heights, if not more.

Espurr recognised that ‘mon from the book immediately.

“Gabite…” she whispered to Goomy.

As the gabite stomped off the way that they had come, Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy slowly emerged from behind the crystal, stepping on the sea of sparkling gemstone-dust that now littered the floor. Some of the fragile crystals along the walls had exploded in its wake from the footsteps’ vibrations. They could still hear the echoing thuds of the gabite’s lumbering in the distance.

“What was that?” Tricky whimpered, much of her bravado suddenly lost.

“A-an apparition,” said Goomy. “H-he was an outlaw.”

“Or, he used to be,” said Espurr grimly, staring at the dungeon corridor ahead.

“No-mon told me something like that was down here!” cried Tricky, breathing heavily. “Why didn’t anymon say something?”

And that was the last straw for Espurr.

“You know, I bet that’s why they shut this place down,” she started pointedly, folding her arms and glaring at Tricky. “Me and Goomy could have guessed that. Maybe you should have listened when we tried to tell you.”

Tricky just huddled up near the ground, her paws over her head. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she was breathing heavily.

“Y-you were the one who wanted to come in here…” she deflected, whimpering in response. “It’s not my fault!”

“Bu-but Wh-what do we do?” asked Goomy. He was ignored, as usual.

“And—” Espurr trailed off, her eyes narrowing. Scarlet anger streaked across her vision. That was it! “And you wanted to come along!” she fumed. “You would have gone anyway, whether we went or not, because you can’t resist getting yourself into danger. You were just waiting to slip off the moment Watchog wasn’t looking, weren’t you? And then you would have been in here all by yourself. Or tell me I’m wrong.”

Tricky didn’t have an answer. She just curled up tighter into a ball, covering her face with her tail. Espurr scoffed.

“Fine,” she spat. “If you want to charge off and bury your head in the sand, then go ahead. Me and Goomy are going to go find an actual solution. Like the way out. Let’s go.”

And with that, she briskly walked off to assess the situation. The sound of Goomy’s slime against the cavern floor told her he was following.

“Ther are stairs just on the other side of the hallway, right?” she asked Goomy. “Maybe the way out is somewhere on the first floor.

She looked back towards the dark corridor, where to her dismay she could see nothing. The crystal’s light didn’t carry far enough for them to see the end of the hallway. But if it was their best shot, then…

“W-wait,” said Tricky from behind them. Espurr and Goomy looked back to see the fennekin standing in the middle of the corridor, her legs still quaking a bit. She sniffled.

“Dungeons rearrange themselves behind you,” the fox explained. Espurr could still hear the quake in her voice, but she was slowly calming down. “And they reset themselves every couple days. So the only way out is… down to the next floor. Until we find the exit.”

Espurr and Goomy looked at each other. Then they turned around, and made their way back to her.

“How do we know where to find the staircase?” Espurr asked.

“We just…” Tricky trailed off, pawing the ground. “We just have to find it! I’ll start.”

She perked up immediately. The harsh blue tones Espurr was getting from her disappeared in an instant, replaced by dissonant lemon shades. Tricky scampered off into the hallway, looking for a staircase.

A distant roar from behind them and the agitated chitters of several apparitions sent Espurr and Goomy scurrying after her seconds later.

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The stress of their earlier argument left a mark on the walk afterwards. It was quiet, slow, sombre. None of them talked much unless it was to fight off an apparition or over if they’d been in this hallway before. Espurr felt the sea blue moodiness from Goomy, and the deep, dark blue Tricky was desperately trying to pretend didn’t exist, and a third, ocean blue she realised was herself. She felt bad about lashing out at Tricky like that – even though it was justified.

No-mon knew how long this dungeon went on for. They were on the third floor now if she was counting right. There could be just one more left, or another six. The time after that was spent in silence, walking through the maze-like caverns in search of the next floor down.

Until Espurr tripped.

Catching herself on the ground with a yelp, she scrambled around to look at what she’d tripped on. It was a dusty, ancient leather bag, which was so dull and aged it blended in with the floor almost perfectly.

“You okay?” asked Tricky, bounding over.

“W-what is that?” said Goomy..

Espurr got to her knees, picking the object’s strap up.

“It looks like a bag,” she said. But who would leave a bag sitting around in the middle of the dungeon?

The inside wasn’t any more exciting than the outside was. There were a few berries that might as well have been dust by now, some paper and a pen that had no ink, and a couple of ageing sticks with weird lines on them. There was also a lot of built-up dust that exploded out into their faces, making them all cough and turn away.

Then, Tricky’s eyes fixated on something in the distance ahead.

“Woah,” she said, suddenly taking off ahead. “Look at that!”

Espurr and Goomy looked up ahead in Tricky’s direction, where the fox was busy gawking at the massive silhouette of…

Bones.

Lots and lots of bones. The bag forgotten, the two of them dashed closer to look at it. They formed what had once been a large dragonlike being three times their height, ribs and legs and claws scattered around the floor. Whatever was here seemed to have decomposed rapidly. A large, sharklike skull lay at the crown of the skeleton.

“I think we found Gabite,” said Espurr, looking at the massive skeleton that towered over them.

“O-or what’s l-left of him,” added Goomy.

Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.

In the distance. All of them looked to the cavern behind, eyes widening.

“It found us,” said Tricky.

She sprung to her feet, bounding further into the dungeon, then thought twice and came back to make sure they were following. “C’mon!” she yelled, dancing on her paws.

Espurr thought quickly, then decided to take the bag and dragged it along as she and Goomy caught up with Tricky. But as usual, she just wasn’t as fast as them. She couldn’t keep up.

Then Gabite broke out into a run. She could see it now! Stomp stomp stomp. Espurr yelped and quickened her pace, for what little good it did her. She wasn’t fast enough!

Gabite charged forward, and in her panic, Espurr tripped over her tail. The bag fell in front of her. She hit the ground hard. It was all over, she couldn’t get up or even move fast enough! Turning around on the ground, all she could see was the gabite sliding to a stop, raising a single, blade-like arm, and preparing to bring it down—

A single ember flew through the air, reflecting off the gemstones and blinding both Espurr and the gabite. It struck Gabite in the snout. With a squeal it staggered backwards, and Espurr felt Tricky chomp down on her arm, physically dragging her away. She grabbed the strap of the bag just in time, dragging it along.

“Why diph phou phop?” Tricky asked frantically through her mouthful of Espurr’s arm. “I can phee the phtairs from here!”

And as a dragged-along Espurr staggered to her feet, she saw it was true – at the end of the corridor lay the perfect, out of place stairs that would lead them to the next floor. They were paces from escape!

Gabite snarled, nearly recovered. The sound sent both Espurr and Tricky running faster, and by the time Gabite was able to open its eyes again, they were already out of sight.

The roars of the zombie pokemon raged through the cavern as Espurr and Tricky rushed down the dungeon stairs. Espurr glanced back at the stairway as she ran. It was going to close up, right?

“What are you doing?!” Tricky cried out in terror.

“The stairs—” Espurr began.

“—They don’t move if somemon’s watching them, you ignoramus!” Tricky screeched, rushing back and practically bulldozing the poor feline down the cavern hall.

Faster than anything she’d done in this dungeon, Espurr turned her head away. She heard Gabite’s terrible roar, and a single thud against stone, but then the light suddenly cut out. Gabite’s roars became muffled, then disappeared altogether. Only silence remained.

Tricky stopped when she realized they could no longer hear Gabite’s enraged roars.

“Is everyone here? Did… Did we make it?” she asked, catching her breath and giving Espurr a chance to break free from the fennekin’s grasp. Espurr looked back to the cavern they’d come from, now shrouded in darkness.

“I-I made it,” said Goomy, the trembling wavering through his voice.

“I can’t tell…” Espurr responded, nearly too jittery to talk. “It’s too dark.”

“Well, I can’t hear him.” Tricky’s voice also had some jitter. She shook herself off, the sparkling dust in her coat sending glimmers of light that reflected off the crystals and cast a dim glow around the cavern. Espurr noticed the red hue a few of the gems took. Could it be?

Quickly, she went ahead, shuffling her fur as she went to illuminate the gemstones around her. They weren’t in a narrow hall shrouded by rock and crystal anymore. The cavern was wide and unfettered by obstacles. It was almost as large as the entire school classroom, and in the middle of the cave sat the largest mountain of treasure Espurr had ever seen – thousands and thousands of gold coins, dotted with the occasional gemstone from within the dungeon. This must have been Gabite’s loot!

As she stood there, wide-eyed, Tricky trotted up, looking around the cavern with amazement.

“Wow…” she began, the stars invading her eyes again. “Remind me why I wanted to leave again? This is amazing!”

“Let’s just grab something and go home.” Espurr didn’t fancy the idea of staying in the cavern any longer than necessary. As enthralled by the place as Tricky seemed to be, even she didn’t contest the idea, and the three of them set out to work picking a few of the better gems from among the pile.

Espurr opened the bag she had slung over her shoulder the best she could with her working arm, allowing Tricky to dump the stones into it. The bag felt heavier now, digging into her shoulder, and adjusting it was painful on her bad arm.

Thud. Screeech. Thud. Screeech. Thud.

Faint, in the distance. Espurr glanced at the shadows from behind, writing it off as her imagination. The stairs to this floor were sealed. There was no way for the gabite to get back here before they left the dungeon… Right?

“I see some light!” Tricky announced, looking ahead. Walking around the massive pile of gems, Espurr did indeed see a source of light in the distance. It wasn’t daylight, but it wasn’t crystal light either. Maybe it was the way out!

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Faster. This time, Tricky and Goomy heard it too. It echoed around the cavern, making it impossible to tell where the sound had come from. Both Espurr and Tricky hurriedly turned towards the underground hallway they had come from.

But when the gabite attacked, it wasn’t from the front. The only warning the three students had was the sudden sound of footsteps from the left—

—Stomp-Stomp-Stomp—

“No fair!” Tricky whined, just before they both jumped out of the way of the charging gabite. The monstrous pokemon spun around, digging a blade into the ground as it slid to bank the turn, then bellowed loudly at all three of them.

That was it. Without thinking, Espurr grabbed a big fat gemstone, and with narrowed eyes hurled it straight in Gabite’s face. It exploded into shards of sparkling dust, knocking Gabite’s head back with a grunt.

Gabite stopped for a few seconds, trying to process what had just happened. Silence settled in the room. Neither Espurr nor Tricky or Goomy dared to move, staring up at it with wide eyes. It remained still for a few seconds more. Then, slowly, its face pulled back into a snarl, and as that snarl became sound, it brought its sharp fin down upon Espurr’s head—

—A flaming ember whooshed past Espurr’s ears. It hit Gabite square between the eyes, and its blade slashed into some nearby crystals instead of Espurr’s skull. Having destroyed some of its treasure enraged Gabite even more, and it began to unleash all fury upon where it thought Espurr and Tricky were. Espurr suddenly felt Tricky chomp down upon her right arm and one of Goomy’s antennae, pulling her out of the way of an attack.

Espurr and Goomy, thrown back, stumbled back out of harm’s way. In front of them stood Tricky, her mouth flaming with fire.

“No-mon touches my friends,” she growled. Gabite roared and began to charge forward. Tricky released a massive stream of fire from her throat, slamming Gabite in the face and sending it reeling away with a screech. The fire seemed to blind it, causing it to fly into its treasure pile. It let out a piercing screech of rage.,

Tricky bounded over to them, looking them over.

“You guys are okay, right?” she asked hurriedly and frantic.

Gabite hadn’t noticed them yet. It was still busy destroying its treasure. Every new coin sent flying, every gemstone exploding into dust, was met with another thunderous roar, and eventually it gave up with the slashing and swiping and just charged headfirst into the pile. Espurr watched the mountain of treasure sway dangerously. And then she put two and two together. Maybe she could…

“I have an idea,” hissed Espurr, trying to get them closer. “Stay close to me!”

She focused on a single gemstone, located on the bottom of the pile. She concentrated on it, trying to pull it with her mind. Nuzleaf had said she’d be able to…

Her heart skipped a beat as she suddenly saw the gemstone move a little. But it wasn’t coming out any further. It was too heavy. Espurr couldn’t free it on her own.

Gabite sniffed the air, its sight finally returning once more. Its eyes fixed on Goomy, Tricky, and Espurr, and seconds later, so did its body. It let out a mighty roar once more, loping towards them with reckless abandon. Espurr poured all her concentration into one final psychic pull—

The gemstone soared free at the last second, whizzing through the air and knocking Gabite’s right foot off its mark. Suddenly sent tumbling to its side, Gabite could only brace for impact as its body slammed against its massive pile of treasure. The three of them watched in horror as the mountain of gold clinked, clattered…

And then began to topple with a thunderous sound, burying Gabite under an avalanche of shiny, gleaming coins.

The ear-piercing sound of crashing and screeching gold filled the air for at least a minute, and their sight exploded with gleaming metal and sparkling dust. But then the sounds slowly died away, and only silence was left. A few gold coins clinked as the pile of treasure settled, and the air was thick with sparkling dust.

As the thunderous impact rattled away, the massive hulking beast that was Gabite lay on the ground before them, slain. Slowly, its body crumbled away into more of that reddish dust, which seemed to dissolve before Espurr’s eyes.

The three of them looked at each other, struggling not to laugh, or collapse, and giddy with something between distress and excitement. They’d done it!

It was Espurr who broke the silence first.

“We… we should leave.”

“Y-yeah.” That was Goomy.

“Yes, let’s.” Tricky hurriedly agreed.

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Music of the Week!

Pirates vs Natives vs Heroes vs Chickens – John Powell