Chapter Twelve – Night Light Cove

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~\({O})/~

12.

Night Light Cove

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Espurr awoke within a black void.

At first, she wondered if the windows were covered. It must have still been nighttime, but there weren’t shutters or curtains in the room when she went to bed… her heart skipped a beat as she realised it was too dark. This wasn’t the hotel at all!

With new energy surging through her, she rolled over and pulled herself to her feet. The floor was water, but somehow her paws and legs stayed dry. The darkness around her seemed almost too dark, like it was boring holes into her eyes. The water glistened with the reflection of unseen light, but hers was absent from its ripples.

Okay. So thoroughly creepy. Espurr gave the environment one last glance to make sure she was alone, and then began to walk forward into the darkness. It brought her to more of the same, silent, unnatural ripples glistening on the water as far out as she could see.

“Hello?” she called out unsurely into the void after a bit. If this was like the last time, then maybe that strange dragon she’d seen in her dream was back. Did he want to see her again? “Hydreigon?”

Her voice skipped distantly across the endless expanse of water, echoing off into the darkness and petering out somewhere many miles away. But no-mon answered.

As the echo faded away into the distance, the unnerving sound of silence crept upon the clearing from above. Espurr shivered. Her breath came out in puffs in front of her. It was like something was sucking the heat out of the air. Her ears popped. The air changed, announcing the arrival of something.

And then, the voices came.

They swirled around her, pushed by a gust of rancid wind. Espurr couldn’t tell any one of them apart, the voices overlapping so much that the words blurred into each other. They were male, they were female, they were children, they were adults, and some of them were something else entirely. But eventually one became distinct from the others, whispering a language she couldn’t understand but beckoned to her – she didn’t know why, she just knew that she needed to hear it better, needed to follow it.

Suddenly, they dispersed. With something that sounded a bit like laughter over the howling of the wind, the gust took off, taking the whispering voice off into the distance faster than she could run after it. Espurr suddenly felt herself lose all her breath, like she’d been running forever. She collapsed to the ground, panting as she kneeled over the water. But as she panted, one rancid gust was replaced by another. It blew against her from behind, not letting up even after ten seconds. If anything, it was only getting more powerful.

Espurr hadn’t believed that anything could be darker than the black that was already around her, but somehow it was. She couldn’t make out the outlines, but something massive out there behind her was as dark as things could go and then darker, and it was getting closer by the second—

Just as she found her breath again, the last of her courage was blown away. Dream or not, she wasn’t sticking around for when the Black Thing arrived. With a terrified squeak, she turned and ran for it. The wind was getting stronger against her fur as the crashing void came closer, and the wind nearly knocked her down from how mercilessly powerful it was.

She tripped again, her own feet tangling around themselves, falling face-first into the ground. The blow to her face hurt. Just like back in the mystery dungeon, the howling wind seemed to laugh. Dreams weren’t supposed to laugh! Dreams weren’t supposed to hurt! She rolled around as quickly as possible, trying to edge back as the massive void came closer and closer. It hovered over her like a colossal storm, winds howling loudly and battering her harder than anything she’d ever felt. She whimpered, terrified, cowering before it. Surrounded by rotten wind, she could smell that terrible stench of decay again, so strong she felt like passing out.

The massive black void reached out, a swirling, cyclonic tentacle erupting from its being. As it grew closer to Espurr, she saw that it was made up of millions of frenetic black particles, whirling around like they were caught in a storm. Her heart nearly stopped out of fear. She had to get away, somehow! She needed help! She needed to keep moving!

But suddenly something shook her violently, and then light flooded the darkness—

“Espurr! Get up!”

~\({O})/~

The roof of the inn suddenly met Espurr’s eyes. It was daytime – from how light it was, probably close to noon. Tricky and Goomy were over her, looking quite concerned.

“W.. ugh…?” groaned Espurr, barely awake. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, clearing away the bleariness. Her body felt tense and unrested, her fur tousled and her curls messy.

“You were t-tossing and turning around,” explained Goomy as Espurr groggily sat up. “W-we thought you were h-having a bad dream.”

“More importantly, it’s breakfast time!” Tricky yelled frantically over them both, popping up in between them. “Everymon’s already downstairs! Audino said we had to wake you.”

All of this only half-registered with Espurr, who was still reeling from her bad dream. But time and place came back to her, just in time for Tricky to almost push her off the bed and towards the door. She made sure to grab her bag before they all went down – who knew if she’d be able to get it later?

Just like there’d been a dinner in the hotel, there was a breakfast too. Rows and rows and rows of chopped fruits and swirly cinnamon cone-shaped pastries and a pancake that was, as Espurr found out, lemon flavoured, lay spread out on a fancy table in the lobby. Children and guardians and teachers from other schools placed food on their plates, taking them to small, wooden tables with round benches.

Espurr had never had a lemon-flavoured pancake before, so she grabbed a couple of those and a small tin of berries and sat down at a nearby table. Not too far from her, her ears picked up the sound of Farfetch’d instructing Tricky not to eat herself into a food coma, as the entire class would be going on a field trip today.

A minute later, Tricky happily trotted over with a plate in her mouth, and sat down with seven lemoncakes and three cone pastries and a peach in front of her.

“Isn’t that a lot?” asked Espurr, looking at the stack of food that went up to Tricky’s snout.

“Yeah but my Pops only makes these on special occasions,” Tricky chirped happily, with her mouth full of lemon pancake. “haf’ tph saphour i’!”

She was practically inhaling them. Espurr, who had been nibbling on hers, moved over on the bench to make space as Goomy slimed up.

“S-so what was that dream about?” he asked, setting his plate on the table. It was filled mainly with fruit. “Yo-you looked r-really distressed.”

Espurr instinctively hid behind her lemoncake a little more at the thought of recounting it.

“It didn’t feel normal,” she said. “It felt like there was something there.”

“Somethinth d’ere lithe a niph’mare?” asked Tricky through another full mouth, this time with cinnamon swirl pastries. Only the peach was untouched now.

Espurr shook her head.

“No,” she said. “Something actually there. In there with me.”

Even though she hadn’t eaten in over half a day, she suddenly felt a lot less hungry thinking about it. She thought briefly: was it worth telling them about Hydreigon? Were the two dreams connected?

“Hey, wanna see something cool?” said Tricky. Then she practically inhaled the peach, chewed with her mouth open, and spat the charred, smoking pit back onto the plate before belching loudly. She looked very proud of herself.

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“Alright, troublemakers! Finish getting ready! Let’s go!”

Vice Principal Watchog rang a bell on a stick in the middle of the inn room. No-mon paid attention to it, too preoccupied with their own packing. Audino and Farfetch’d were busy making sure everything inside the bags they’d brought along was there, while Watchog’s was fully packed and practically half his size, sagging at the straps around his shoulders. He brushed aside his green cloak, lugging the straps over his shoulder.

Espurr was taking the time to spruce herself up and make her fur look extra nice, while Tricky was furtively dangling her pretty white bow out the window by a paw, debating if she could burn it and hide the remains. In the corner of the room, Deerling was telling Goomy not to veer too far away from her. Goomy didn’t look happy about that, but he didn’t have the guts to stand up to Deerling and her friends. Shelmet was looking over Pancham, who was clutching his stomach with a queasy look on his face.

“I feel sick…” he moaned, looking up from his spot on the straw beds.

Audino, who had left the bags to Farfetch’d, was looking over him.

“You ate too much?” she asked, inspecting him.

“Blugh… think so…” Pancham nodded.

Watchog stomped over, his bag clanging noisily after him.

“Well, you can’t go on the trip if you’re gonna be like that,” he said harshly, folding his arms. “How will you keep up?”

Audino gave him a ‘lay off’ look.

“Why don’t you just rest for now,” she told Pancham. “We’ll see how you’re doing after the trip, okay?”

Pancham, lying flat on the straw bed, just nodded groggily.

“He’s faking, isn’t he?” whispered Tricky suspiciously, padding over to Espurr. The smell of singed fabric wafted over with her.

“Definitely,” said Espurr, her eyes narrowed as she watched. She looked at Tricky. “I barely saw him eat anything at breakfast.”

“Who’s going to stay behind with him?” asked Farfetch’d.

Audino looked like she was about to offer, but Nuzleaf stood up first.

‘Ah’ll do it,” he said.

Audino sent him a questioning look.

“Well, I’m the nu—”

“You should be with the group,” Nuzleaf said. “Jus’ in case somemon gets hurt. Better to have an experienced nurse where one’s needed, right? If this gets worse, we’ll just go ta the town doctor.”

Audino couldn’t argue with that. She nodded, sitting back down on the other straw bed.

“I’ll bet he ate too much on purpose just so he wouldn’t have to go,” Deerling remarked to Blitzle, Ponyta, and Goomy in a hush as they all walked out the lobby door. Goomy looked pleadingly at Espurr and Tricky as they left, but he was shoved outside with the three of them.

Ate too much… as the rest of the teachers were leaving, suddenly all the pieces clicked in Espurr’s head.

“Of course!” she said, hushed.

“What?” asked Tricky, tilting her head.

“Ampharos came along too, didn’t he?” whispered Espurr as they rushed along, hanging behind the other teachers and out of earshot. “This field trip is the perfect time to slip away unsupervised and meet up with him. No wonder he wanted to be left behind. Why didn’t I see it sooner?”

“Well…” Tricky trailed off. “It’ll be fine, won’t it? Nuzleaf’s watching him and all…”

“If Nuzleaf can catch him,” Espurr said.

But then, Nuzleaf had an uncanny way of catching everything. A few weeks ago, Pancham and Shelmet decided to purchase a stick of pyrogum, which exploded into fireworks once blown and popped, in order to disrupt class. Nuzleaf waved a single finger, and the half-chewed gum flew out of Pancham’s mouth and exploded right over his desk. Pancham’s fur didn’t stick down for the rest of the day.

Even so… it just didn’t feel right in Espurr’s gut. What were the two of them planning?

~\({O})/~

“As Vice Principal and dungeon class teacher, I’m going to be the field supervisor for this trip,” Watchog proudly stated as they left the lobby, marching them down to the pier. ”

They departed from the hotel into the big, noisy city, and met up with the pokemon from the other schools to form one big, noisy crowd at the docks. The ramp that led aboard the shiny white ferry quickly became cramped and crowded, as the students and teachers of five different towns all flooded aboard one large ship.

“Don’t they have snacks aboard?” whined Tricky as they tried to stay together in the crowd flooding onto the ship.

“D-didn’t you just eat twenty pancakes?” asked Goomy, somehow without a stutter. In all the chaos, he’d managed to sneak away from Deerling and her friends.

“And seven of those cone things?” added Espurr, keeping a tight hold of her dusty brown bag. “And you hate boats!”

“Yeah, but that’s like, nothing!”

“Can we not worry about food right now?” grunted Audino, trying not to lose her bag or floral hat as she shoved past a flock of kids and towards the rest of them. “We’ll find some after the trip.”

The ferry, full up with ‘mon of every colour and variety, departed from Crossings Harbour and sailed north of the city, out of the sun and into the cover of craggy swamp trees. As the light was enveloped by the shade of the dense, tangled canopy, Espurr leaned over the boat’s railing and studied the water. The vast river they were drifting along seemed to turn from dark blue to a muddy green, then slowly became a lovely warm lavender, illuminated from below and casting light onto the side of the ship and her face. The glow caught the attention of most of the ‘mon on the dock, and soon everymon was looking over the railing and chattering to each other excitedly.

“What’s in the water?” Espurr asked to one of the nearby crew members, a ghostly, greenish wyrm-looking ‘mon.

“We call it Night Light Cove,” said the ‘mon disinterestedly. Espurr could read his unenthusiasm, dancing around him a deep violet-indigo. Wow, he must hate it here… “It’s always been like that.”

“How does it work?” asked Espurr curiously. “Does anymon know why?”

“Well, somemon knows why,” shrugged the ‘mon. “Just not me.”

Muffled groaning caught her ear. Espurr turned to see Tricky curled up on the dock, stuffing her snout into one of the cabin pillows, which she’d dragged out onto the deck. Goomy was patting her back.

“Lost your appetite?” asked Espurr, flopping down next to them, the bag following. “You don’t look so good…”

“I shouldn’t have eaten all those pancakes…” Tricky groaned, her ears and tail flat on the ground.

“Now if you all direct your eyes right above,” sang a shrill voice that Espurr recognised as another one of the boat’s employees, a large, red-and-grey bird whose nametag read “Talonflame Lightwing”. The voice caught the attention of many of the children, who were busy staring into the dazzling glow of the waters. “you’ll see the true beauty of Night Light Cove. Look!”

They all looked above, where the once dark canopy was suddenly alight with thousands and thousands of tiny lights. Espurr recognised them immediately – fireflies!

The rest of the students were in awe. Espurr heard “oohs’ and ‘aahs’ go up all around her. One of them alighted on her paw, buzzing and blinking its tail.

But just as quickly as they were here, the fireflies suddenly flew away, leaving in waves like the ship had run into an invisible wall the bugs couldn’t pass. They left everymon in darkness – even the water wasn’t glowing as much here anymore. Espurr wondered why…

“Look…” said Tricky, who had shaken off her queasiness, jumping in place and nudging Espurr with her tail in excitement.

Then Espurr smelled it. The faintest hint of a rancid stench dancing around the tip of her nose – that rotting scent on the breeze. It reminded her of her dream. She only had to look ahead to see what Tricky was so excited over – and it struck fear into her heart.

Ahead of the ship, where the glow of the lake faded away into darkness and the trees were overgrown and mottled with decay, lay the entrance to a massive grove of tangled swamp oaks. Bad energy, the scent of decaying flesh, flowed out from it like a waterfall, overwhelming Espurr’s senses. She clutched her nose and groaned, trying to ward away the horrible smell.

As the ship got closer, Watchog gathered all the students and teachers together in one group.

“What can you tell me about this passage?” he asked them.

“It’s… shimmering?” Deerling asked, tilting an ear.

“Exactly,” said Watchog. “You identify a dungeon by seeing if your surroundings shimmer. If they do, it’s a dungeon.”

“What about the smell?” Espurr asked, raising one paw. She was still clutching her nose with the other one.

“What smell,” said Watchog.

“The smell from the… dungeon,” Espurr said, her tail lowering in confused embarrassment. It was so strong! Why wasn’t everymon else holding their noses too?

“What are you talking about?” said Watchog crabbily. “I don’t smell anything.”

Espurr looked around at the others, but no-mon, not even Tricky, seemed to notice. Some of them were giving her strange looks. Was she crazy?

“This dungeon is called Night Light Cove,” said Watchog. “It’s class A, which means it’s one of the weakest. We shouldn’t see anything we can’t deal with in here. Now everymon hold paws! It’s important we enter while we’re all touching each other.”

Everymon put their paws on each other, as the boat sailed closer, closer, until Espurr realised – they were going in! The bow of the ship passed through the entrance, disturbing a shimmering wall that came closer and closer to them. Espurr braced herself and shut her eyes, feeling the whoosh as her ears popped and a breeze fluttered over her, and then the air changed and everything felt musty and damp.

She opened her eyes again, noticing her paw on Tricky’s front leg had turned into almost hugging her for comfort.

The rumble of the ferry’s engines came to a stop as the sleek white ship docked at the beginnings of a marshy bay. The wooden boarding plank rolled out and hit the ground with a muddy splash.

Tricky hopped down onto the plank with Goomy and Espurr, who was clutching the straps of the bag and holding it close. The environment of the dungeon was dark and overbearing, looming over her like they’d just entered the lion’s den.

Once they’d all converged into a messy crowd and hit the mud surrounding the shallow, swampy harbour, the sounds of teachers calling for their students rang up around the clearing.

“Riverton, here!”

“Balton!”

“Lorrylight students over here, please!”

“Alright, Serenity Village with me!” The harsh, familiar barking of Watchog flew over the crowd, Espurr’s ears homing in on the direction instantly.

“Listen up, please!”

All heads turned to look at the large talonflame from before, along with the rest of the boat employees. Joining them were ‘mon from Crossings, which Espurr could see by the white government scarves they wore.

“The last preliminary elimination round of the Regional Cup begins now,” said the talonflame loudly. “Five flags have been placed within the dungeon at secret, separate locations, one for each school. The first two parties to return with their flags before time is up will the two chosen schools for the final round. Is all that understood?”

There were several murmurs, nods, and shouts of confirmation from all around the clearing.

“With that out of the way, please choose any of the pathways you see before you.” The talonflame spread her wing out, gesturing to several different branching corridors that led deeper into the dungeon. As the groups of other schools began to choose theirs, Watchog led them along to the nearest one.

The sky seemed to turn to abstract colours of darkness as they stepped further into the dungeon, replaced by a scraggly roof of vines and tree roots. The light faded away, only a dim lavender glow throughout the lakes and streams illuminating its steep, gloomy caverns. After checking to make sure everymon was there, Watchog pulled a luminous orb out of his backpack. It shone brightly, lighting up their surroundings like a torch. He closed his bag and began to march forward, beckoning the rest of them along.

The dungeon twisted and turned, long tunnels branching out into splinters and curves and dead ends. The entire maze was as silent as an undisturbed creek, a devourer of noise that played off Espurr’s ears in an uncomfortable way. Did anymon even live in these things? How could a place be so quiet, so dead?

In the shadows and corners, something felt off. The life in the air was being sucked into the cracks in the floor. The walls breathed, smothering everything inside in rotting dampness. It was like there was something Espurr couldn’t see watching her from in between the roots and vines. Was it the same thing that had haunted her in her dreams?

It was halfway through the second floor (Watchog and the other teachers had promised three) that the ground suddenly rumbled. Strong wind blew through the corridor, bringing with it a powerful gust that nearly knocked them off their feet. The familiar stench, like something had died, pervaded the air. Holding her nose, Espurr looked back at where the wind was going. But as the ground continued to tremble, suddenly realised she needed to look down.

Whispers spread throughout their group – “What’s going on?” “Is this part of the trip?” – but the teachers, catching their bearings, didn’t seem to have any answers.

It was Tricky who broke the silence. Her ears perked up in realisation, and the rest of her quickly followed.

“The dungeon!” she called out. “It’s rearranging itself!”

Espurr barely had time to ask “what does that mean?” before she was nearly obliterated by a swiftly moving wall.

“Everymon come closer!” Audino’s shout was nearly drowned out by the sudden rumbling as several more walls and pathways began to move and collide with each other.

All of the sudden, something lurched out of the darkness. Espurr only saw it for a split second before she reacted herself: a face with gleaming green eyes, overshadowed by a large hatlike adornment on its head the size of a cone. She saw the blinking lights shine: red, yellow, green. Her body reacted before her mind, and she jumped away immediately. And just in time. The beheeyem made a snatch at her, her feet barely escaping the grip of its arms before she hit the ground several feet away.

Espurr immediately tried her best to get to her feet, but the ground was unsteady and hindered her efforts to stand up. The beheeyem’s eyes glowed, and suddenly she could feel herself being tugged back in the beheeyem’s direction. She cast a panicked look towards the others, yelled for help, but what few of them she could see were just as panicked as she was, and were too far away to do anything. She had to fix this herself! As she was being dragged back, Espurr tried to do as Nuzleaf had instructed, and began to perform the motions for the attack they’d been practising.

But when she focused her energy, concentrating on her fear, nothing appeared.

The beheeyem’s gaze was suddenly cut off from her by a moving wall, and with the cut contact, so was its pull on Espurr. Spooked immensely, she stumbled to her feet as quickly and she could and moved to leave. She needed to get back to the group!

Tricky seemed to see something the others couldn’t. She suddenly broke away from the faltering group, hopping over patches of moving floor and weaving between wavering walls over Audino’s shouts. She jumped high and snatched something from a moving patch of ground, then sped back to where the group was haphazardly moving and jumped between a pair of closing-up walls.

They could only watch as the dungeon settled down around them, walls finally clicking into place. Tricky came trotting back to them. In her mouth, she clutched what they had come for – the flag!

Espurr could only glance around uncomfortably until they’d left. If the beheeyem were lurking around in here… they could be anywhere. What if they were in the town?

~\({O})/~

They all shuffled onto the boat in much lower spirits than when they’d boarded it earlier that day. In all the chaos, it was hard for the judges and instructors to decide just who had come out first. But eventually two schools emerged: Crossings and Serenity Village. Serenity Village had won by one saving grace – they’d been carrying the flag when they came out.

True to Watchog’s word, the sun was indeed setting, even though they’d only seemed to have spent what seemed like an hour in there. But even though the effect was curious, no-mon was in the mood to talk about it. All ragged and beat up, the journey back to the island was quiet.

They departed back into Crossings at nightfall. Lights were already on all around the town, shining brighter in most houses than they ever had in Serenity Village. It wasn’t until they got back to the inn that trouble reared its ugly head once again.

There was a gathering near the inn doors, where a whole bunch of pokemon were blocking the way forward. Watchog, who looked especially haggard and grumpy sighed.

“Alright, what now?” he questioned crabbily, marching forward with purpose. “If somemon hasn’t died, I’ll—”

But he was stopped short when they got close enough to see what had happened. In the middle of the square, surrounded by townsmon who were either whispering to each other about it or pointing what looked like strange, blue, orb-like things at it, was a nearly perfect stone statue of a ‘mon. A Seviper, posed like they were fleeing from something in terror.

“I seen them!” bleated a loud and frenetic flaafy repeatedly to anymon who would listen. “Two o’ them! Big, brown, with cones on their heads!”

The description captured the attention of Espurr and her friends immediately. The coneheads…

Immediately, Espurr, Tricky, and Goomy were looking at each other. Espurr tiptoed away from the crowd.

“What are you doing?” questioned Audino in a sharp hiss. Espurr stopped in her tracks. So close, too… “Stay with the group!”

“And I seen him, too!” continued the flaaffy, loud enough somemon on the other side of town could hear them clearly. “A big, cloaked Ampharos!”

And that sealed the deal.

Espurr could tell Audino looked scared silly. And she could hazard a pretty good guess as to why.

“That ‘mon…” she breathed under her breath, looking at the Seviper.

Espurr understood immediately: it was her guardian.

~\({O})/~

Music of the Week!

The Goblet of Fire – Patrick Doyle