Chapter 2 – Walking and Running and Tripping Over Ourselves

“What is that?” Corphish asked, staring with wonder.

Gigue looked at him, a fork in her wing paused above her plate. “This… is a crepe.” The Oricorio pointed the fork at him. “Never had one?”

Corphish shook his head. “I’ve never heard of it until now.”

“Hm, the Grass Continent must be fairly uncivilized then,” she replied, smirking, “Just kidding, here, try some.” She cut it in half and gave Corphish one of the halves.

The cafe was quieter than it had been the day before. Corphish and Gigue were alone at the same table they had been at yesterday. Sunlight streamed through the windows and a breeze from the ocean drifted in.

“Hey, hey, this is really good!” Corphish exclaimed, devouring the entire thing in three bites. “If only Spinda had stuff like this in his cafe…”

Gigue rested her head on one wing. “Do you come from a small town, Corphish? It’s funny, I’ve heard of your guild, but I have no clue where it is.”

“The guild is in treasure town,” Corphish replied, his expression momentarily somber as he thought about everyone at home. “Admittedly, it’s a smaller town. The first time I visited Capim town, I was shocked.” 

The Oricorio chewed on a piece of crepe thoughtfully. “Did you travel much as an explorer?” 

“Never out of the continent,” Corphish said, “Not that there’s any restrictions, there’s more than enough to do around home to keep things in order. If I had to guess, the farthest I’ve ever traveled was when the whole guild went on an expedition to… the foggy forest.” 

He frowned. “I wonder if we still have to keep that promise,” he muttered. 

“What was that last part?” Gigue asked, leaning her head forward. 

“Nothing, just- thinking about something,” Corphish replied nervously, “Anyway, this is the furthest I’ve ever gone from home for sure now.” He sank back into his seat, looking out the window. “So, first things first, I… couldn’t think of a name.”

“That’s fine,” Gigue said, wiping crumbs off her face. “I wasn’t expecting you to.”

Corphish seemed to wilt. “Oh,” he said quietly.

The Oricorio glanced over. Seeing Corphish looking dejected, she waved her wings. “Wait, I didnt mean it like that. I’m not saying I didn’t think you could do it, I wouldn’t be able to think of anything either in such a short time!” She hopped up, grabbing Corphish’s claws. “Sorry! After yesterday, I should have known that wouldn’t sound right.”

Corphish looked up at the Oricorio, his expression brightening a little. “Th- thanks, Gigue. Sorry to make you worry like that.”

“It’s my fault, don’t apologize,” Gigue said, a little sharply. She huffed. “We’ll circle back to this later. Here, look at this.”

She put a piece of paper on the table, unrolling it to reveal a map. Written in faded lettering at the top was the phrase “Sandmass”.

“Excuse the awful pun,” Gigue said, scowling, “This is an older map, evidently made by someone who thought they were funny.” She composed herself. “Ignoring that, this is the Sand Continent, and we arrrree-” She drew out the word. “-right here!” She pointed at the east edge of the map.” 

“Uh-huh,” Corphish said, examining the map. “There’s a lot of mountains here. I thought there would be more desert.”

The Oricorio shot a look at Corphish. “Is there a desert on the Grass Continent?”

Corphish groaned. “Hey, hey, I understand what you’re getting at, it’s just that I thought there would be more vast stretches of desert, you know?”

Gigue relented. “Okay, that’s fair. I suppose you can say it’s like judging a book by its cover. Most pokemon wouldn’t wait years for a full geological survey when you can just call it by the first thing you see.”

“Actually, now that I think about it, there is the Air Continent and the Mist Continent,” Corphish said, “Now I feel silly.”

“I think we all do a little bit.” Gigue shrugged, then pointed at the map. “So look here. See the inlet near the center of the continent?”

Corphish followed her wing. “Yeah. Is it really the center if you count the outlying islands though?”

She jabbed at the map. “Shut up- center of the main landmass, okay?” She exhaled loudly. “I was thinking this would be a great place for the guild.”

After studying the map for a moment, Corphish nodded. “That makes sense. So we’re going to travel there?” 

“Yes!” Gigue puffed up proudly with a smile. “Now I’ve thought ahead and I already have a plan to take care of our basic needs.” She held out her wings dramatically. “Let me introduce you to our guild’s gardener!”

Corphish was dumbfounded for a moment. “Gardener?”

The Oricorio nodded. “Growing our own food compared to say, buying or scrounging from dungeons is more efficient and viable for the long term.”

Corphish followed along, not completely convinced. “If you’re sure, I trust you. So will they meet us there?” 

“Nope, we’ll be traveling with her, so be nice!” Gigue stood up, sliding out of her seat. “We can get into the specifics as we’re on the way. But we should head out now before it gets too late.”

“Okay.” Corphish glanced at the sun as they walked out of the cafe. “How long will it take to get there?” 

Gigue shrugged. “Three to five days. Depends on if we go through any dungeons on the way. But you’re the expert on those, so it should go quick, right?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘expert’,” Corphish replied modestly, smiling a little. “But hopefully you can count on me!”

“I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed,” Gigue said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The road leading out of Sahra Town was a thin dusty trail running parallel to a nearby mountain. Corphish surveyed the horizon while Gigue watched the town looking irritated. 

“Do you know if there are any towns or villages nearby where we plan to… I don’t know if I should use the word settle or something else.” Corphish crossed his claws, closing his eyes.

“I believe there is a small town just down the river,” Gigue said, her eyes still locked on the town. “A few hours away by my estimate.”

“Hey, a few hours?” Corphish hummed. “I was under the impression that we would aim for the general area, but it sounds like you already have a spot picked out.”

Gigue opened her beak to speak, but hesitated, an odd expression crossing her face. “Yes,” she said eventually, “I’ve been there before. I traveled around the continent in the past.”

“That’s good.” Corphish sighed. “I’m starting to feel a little nervous.”

“Honestly? Me too,” the Oricorio replied. She sucked in a huge gulp of air. “Come on! Where is she! She better not have stood me up again.”

“Gigue? Are you here?” A small voice emanated from a bush, a yellow Tatsugiri emerging. 

“There you are,” Gigue said, relieved. “Were you already here the whole time? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I got here at sunrise like you said,” the Tatsugiri said, looking a bit woozy. “You’re the one who’s late. I’ve been going over my supplies to make sure I have all the seeds I need.” She turned to Corphish. “So you’re Corphish?” 

Corphish nodded. “Hey, hey, nice to meet you. Thanks for the support!”

The Tatsugiri nodded. “Explorers find all sorts of stuff in dungeons right? Then you better get me the best ingredients!” She stuck out a fin. “I’ll feed your guild! You can call me-” 

She cut off mid sentence, falling on her face in the dust. 

“Ah!” Gigue rushed over, gently grabbing the Tatsugiri and checking her. After a moment, the Oricorio relaxed. “It’s okay, she’s probably just dehydrated.” She looked down. “You dummy, I said we should meet two hours after sunrise. You’re always not listening to me fully,” she murmured, almost too quiet to be heard. 

Corphish regarded the two awkwardly. “She is… a friend?”

Gigue nodded, her eyes closed. “Not off to a great start, I know.” She held the unconscious Tatsugiri in front of her towards Corphish. “Corphish, this is Eiri. It might seem like she lacks sense sometimes, but I can guarantee she’s probably the best chef on the continent. And uh, gardener too.”

“I guess I’ll introduce myself when she gets better,” Corphish replied, trying to stay positive. “Are we going to stick around until she recovers?”

Gigue looked at Eiri for a moment. “No.” 

She stared straight at Corphish, her expression a mixture of fierce confidence and desperation that caught him off guard. 

“Like you said yesterday,” she said softly, “If we wait, we’ll second guess ourselves.” 

“R- right,” Corphish said, trying to figure out where her sudden outburst had come from. “Would you like me to take the lead?” 

Gigue curled one wing into something barely resembling a fist and shook it. “Go right ahead and show me what you can do.”

—

The mountains formed a natural pass, jagged walls of rock on either side gently caressing the rocky trail in the center. It was lined with carefully built limestone cairns, some of which had little odd messages scribbled on them- a mixture of greetings to travelers and unsolicited advice on random topics.

“You’ve been staring at that one for awhile,” Gigue said, tilting her head at Corphish. “What does it say.”

Corphish looked at the rock with a frown. He turned to her. “It says ‘How to hit on girls with one hundred percent success’.”

The Oricorio returned a stony expression. “And what exactly does it say?”

“Read it for yourself and decide,” Corphish said, pressing onwards.

Gigue walked over, a little faster than she intended, and took a look. “Huh… well, I guess you need a way to pass the time traveling out here.”

“I’m going to ignore that,” Corphish said, “How is Eiri doing by the way?”

The Oricorio peeked in the backpack she was wearing. “Still asleep. She looks a lot better though.” 

“Great!” Corphish smiled. “We’re making good time too. We can stop for lunch soon.”

Gigue looked around thoughtfully. “Forget five days, we’ll get there in two and a half,” she said approvingly, “You *are* good at this.”

Corphish glanced back at her emphasis on the word ‘are’. “It’s nothing really. Where we’re headed is due directly west from Sahra, plus the trail is clearly marked.”

“We have passed a lot of forks you know,” Gigue said, narrowing her eyes at him. 

Corphish shrugged. “It was fairly obvious which trail was the main path, nothing to it really.”

Gigue rolled her eyes, smiling. “For you it was. I know this road because I came from the opposite direction in the past. All those twisting mountain roads back there all look the same.”

Corphish’s eyes widened. “Eh, erm, ah, well.” He stared at the ground, opening and closing his claws. “S- sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you were-”

She interrupted him. “Shut it, it’s fine, Corphish.” The Oricorio giggled. “It’s not unearned confidence, so I don’t mind you bragging a little. A guildmaster should be confident, no?”

“Not at the expense of their recruit’s confidence,” Corphish protested. 

“Fine, that’s a fair point, but it’s hurting you too,” Gigue shot back. “You don’t have to qualify for my compliments.”

“I just didn’t feel like I earned it,” Corphish said, looking away with a huff.

The Oricorio threw her wings up. “Augh, whatever.” Her beak curled slightly inwards. “That’s really not something you decide,” she added quietly. 

—

Spotting a grove of trees a little ways up the mountain, the pair hiked off the trail to the shade. Slinging his pack off to one side, Corphish spread out on his back, while Gigue walked over to a tree. Reaching in her pack, she carefully removed Eiri, placing the Tatsugiri on a soft patch of grass before leaning against the tree herself. 

“This brings me back to the expedition,” Corphish said, “It’s hard to decide if that was a great memory or not. I had a lot of fun with everyone and learned a lot. But it was the start of the whole crisis.”

“Crisis?” Gigue looked at him expectantly. 

“It had a few different names,” Corphish said, rolling to one side. “The time crisis, the collapse of temporal tower, and a few others I can’t remember.”

“Oh, that.” The Oricorio shook her head. “I’ve never had much of an idea how bad that was. Most of the news about it didn’t reach the other continents until after the fact, aside from the major cities that is. How come the Grass Continent gets to have a monopoly on time gears anyway? Might as well start calling it the Time Continent.” 

Corphish made a face. “It wasn’t my decision how that all was made the way it was.” He sighed. “But anyway, this brings back memories…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, hey, is he alright?” 

The Charmander looked over at Corphish and held up one claw to his mouth. “Shh, don’t say anything, Corphish. When Karel gets like this, he’s in the zone. You don’t interrupt the zone.”

Next to him, a Mudkip was staring dead eyed at the side of a large statue. A string of drool was hanging out of his mouth, something the Charmander was resolutely ignoring. 

Fighting the urge to ask if Karel was alright, Corphish nodded silently and watched as the Mudkip slowly came out of his stupor. Without much warning, the Mudkip snapped over to the Charmander. 

“Zupa, the stone please.” 

Zupa stared at him for a moment. “Ah- you mean the stone we found earlier!” The Charmander fished around in his bag and pulled out a pyramidal red stone, handing it to Karel. 

The Mudkip stared at it for a moment before abruptly inserting it into the center of the statue. He nodded to himself. “Mm, ‘at should do it,” he said, a little bit of an odd accent in his tone.

As they waited, the ground began to rumble. Corphish fell back, his claws grasping at the ground to try and steady himself. Zupa was saying something that was lost in the noise, the Charmander looking around fearfully as he waved at Karel. The Mudkip was completely unmoved, staring straight ahead with a serious expression. Eventually, the Charmander gave up on prompting a reaction and hunched low to the ground, watching carefully to see if anything was falling from anywhere. 

Then the fog lifted. The three of them looked around in confusion until finally someone looked up to find that perched thousands of feet in the air on a huge column of stone was a massive bowl-like piece of land from which water flowed in torrents. 

“That’s so great I think I’m going to cry,” Zupa said, awestruck. 

“Don’t do that,” Karel replied. He turned to Corphish. “You don’t do it either, Corphish.”

Corphish nodded slowly, a little overwhelmed. “Hey, hey,” he said in a daze. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

Shaking his head to refocus himself, Corphish looked over at Karel and Zupa as they readied themselves for the climb up the spire. “I’ll go get the others,” Corphish said, waving, “We’ll be right behind you!” 

As he made his way back to the camp, Corphish was only a little jealous. Would everyone else blame him if he went with Karel and Zupa instead? For just a moment, he wanted to turn around and run after them. But he stopped, telling himself-

—

“Want a cookie?” 

Corphish blinked, staring at Gigue as she waved a cookie at him. “Geuh?” he said, sounds spilling out of his mouth as he brought himself back to reality.

“It’s a snickerdoodle,” the Oricorio continued, smiling. “I got some for the trip.”

Corphish looked at the strangely appetizing cookie. “Sure. Thanks, Gigue.” He took it and started chewing on it. 

“So this brings back memories for you?” The Oricorio glanced to her bag. “Actually, it brings a lot of stuff back for me too.”

“Have you lived on the Sand Continent your whole life?” Corphish asked.

She nodded. “More or less. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!”

Corphish lingered on her words for a moment. “Yeah- I wouldn’t trade the Grass Continent for anything else either.”

They enjoyed the quiet a little longer, saying nothing. 

“Let’s get going,” Corphish said, feeling a little sleepy. “We can still make some good headway before nightfall.”

Gigue nodded, briefly checking her pack before slinging it on her back again. “Gee, Eiri is still asleep. I wish I could sleep like that.”

“She has been out for a while,” Corphish said thoughtfully, “Are you sure she’s alright?”

“Yeah, she just needs the sleep because-” Gigue seemed to catch herself, her eyes flickering off to stare in the opposite direction. “She’s tired from getting up too early.”

“Ah, right.” Corphish glanced at Gigue’s pack where Eiri was sympathetically. “You said earlier that she misheard your instructions.”

“Eiri can be a bit forgetful sometimes,” the Oricorio said. “Try not to let that upset you, okay? She really doesn’t mean it.”

“Hey, hey, I won’t blame her,” Corphish said reassuringly, “You know, when I first joined Wigglytuff’s guild, it took them some time to get used to me!” 

Gigue stifled a giggle. “You mean how you sometimes say ‘hey hey’? I just started noticing that earlier, and honesty for me, it’s kind of cute.”

“Eh?” Corphish froze and looked over at the Oricorio. “I, uh, if you say so.” He hid a smile. “I’m actually a lot better; I used to say it all the time. It’s been a tic of mine for a long time.”

“Well I like that about you, so you don’t need to change it any more,” Gigue said, “Got that?” 

“Ha, sure thing.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night had come. The moon was slowly rising in the sky, cutting a path through the stars in its way. 

Corphish groaned. “Ugh, I thought there would be a dungeon along the valley, so we took this route. But there’s a dungeon here too?”

They were on a trail higher up the side of the mountain, a sheer cliff to their left. Corphish kicked a rock off the edge, listening to it bounce a few times until the sound faded away. 

“I don’t think I can keep going tonight,” Gigue said, sitting on the ground, exhausted. The bird looked at Corphish. “What are our options?”

Corphish looked at the entrance to the dungeon nervously. “I’ve never actually spent the night in front of a dungeon. I haven’t heard if it’s a good idea or not.” 

The Oricorio slumped, sticking her tongue out. “Bleeeh, can’t we just backtrack a bit then? Would that be safer?” 

Eiri popped out of Gigue’s bag. “What happened?” she asked, looking around. “It’s nighttime?”

“Eiri, you’ve been asleep,” Gigue replied, her expression brightening at the Tatsugiri’s appearance. “We’ve been on the road all day!” 

“Huh…” The Tatsugiri looked around before her gaze landed on Corphish. “What was I saying to you earlier before I was interrupted?”

“You were about to introduce yourself,” Corphish said helpfully.

“Right, I’m Eiri,” she replied, “So why are we stopped? Shouldn’t we still be traveling?” 

Gigue looked to the side, making a face. “It’s getting late, so we were thinking of stopping to rest.”

Eiri hopped out of Gigue’s bag, walking in between the two with an odd snakelike motion. “Are you tired?” she asked, looking at the Oricorio. 

The Oricorio nodded slowly. “Very. It’s hard walking.” 

“And why didn’t you fly?” Eiri asked, narrowing her eyes. 

“Because I was carrying you!” Gigue said, her feathers ruffling a little. 

Eiri was unmoved. She pointed at Corphish with a fin. “Why didn’t you make him carry me?”

“I just-” Gigue faltered. “I wanted to carry you!” 

“That’s dumb,” Eiri replied flatly. 

The Oricorio’s mouth fell open. “E-e uh, mm, nnnn, ghhhhhuu.” Gigue visibly deflated. “Sorry.”

“Whatever, it is as it is.” Eiri turned to Corphish. “Are you tired too?”

“I could go either way,” Corphish said, shrugging. “I’ve stayed up days at a time- it’s part of being an explorer. My record is actually-” He trailed off, seeing Gigue glaring at him. “I can stay up if needed,” he said quietly, wincing as the Oricorio groaned.

Eiri nodded. “Then why don’t we continue on while Gigue sleeps? You’ll carry her.”

The Oricorio whipped over to look at the Tatsugiri, shocked. “You’re just going to decide for me like that?” She glanced over at Corphish. “I’m not saying that I wouldn’t want to be carried around by you, I wouldn’t mind it really! I mean, if it’s necessary of course, I’m not saying that I would want to for no reason.”

Corphish met Gigue’s glance. “I suppose I could carry you,” he said sheepishly. 

“Shh!” Gigue waved her wings in a panic. “Don’t go along with her!” 

“What’s the problem?” Eiri interjected, looking peeved, “You can rest like you wanted, and we can continue traveling, like I want. I just slept all day, I wouldn’t be able to stand here while you two slept. I’d explode!”

“Mnnnghh, I guess,” Gigue muttered, crossing her wings with a frown. “But we have to go through a dungeon! I know I said Corphish was a good explorer, but if he has to carry me then he can’t perform at his best.”

Corphish was about to chime in that he had more than a few experiences having to carry trapped pokemon out of dungeons while defending himself, but clamped his mouth shut at the last second. 

Eiri puffed up triumphantly. “Then all we have to do is go faster so we don’t get in fights! Even better, no?”

Gigue seemed to have run out of things to say, her wings falling limply to her sides. She looked at Corphish. “I wouldn’t be too heavy, would I?”

Corphish looked at the bird’s slim frame. “Probably not,” he said, thinking of Chatot who he knew wasn’t heavy. “Hey, hey, maybe it’s weird that I have that frame of reference,” he murmured to himself.

The Oricorio made a face and nodded stiffly. “Okay… good luck, and goodnight.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a bit of maneuvering around, Corphish had managed to fit Gigue’s backpack around his claws. Shifting some of the contents inside around, he and Eiri somehow stuffed the Oricorio halfway into the bag, leaving her legs and tail sticking out. Gigue was already out, snoozing peacefully despite being upside down on Corphish’s back. 

“Did you know that Sahra town’s population is almost a perfect fifty percent split between diurnal and nocturnal pokemon?” Eiri asked. Without waiting for Corphish to acknowledge her, she continued, “That’s what the statistics say anyway- point is, there’s always someone around making a mess.”

The dungeon so far was little more than a quiet winding tunnel. It was hard to tell it was more than a simple cave, but Corphish could see and feel the signs- small, almost invisible repeating patterns, a pervasive unnatural sensation, and an uncomfortable feeling of being followed that pulsed in and out; stronger and weaker at random intervals.

“I guess I’m selfish, but I can’t stand the quiet,” the Tatsugiri said, staring at the ceiling. “That’s why I like living in town, someone’s always talking. Doesn’t matter if it’s chatting, fighting, even making out- I just have to hear something.” She hummed to herself. “I suppose that’s why I’d rather not stop for the night.”

Corphish listened along, nodding. He was only half listening though as he tried to keep an eye out for any danger.

“Okay, I’m done,” Eiri said, “Could you start talking about something so we’re not walking in silence?”

“Huh?” Corphish looked over. “O- okay. Ummm-” He racked his head to think of something. “Did you know team Rebellion actually saved the world twice? Most everyone knows about the first time, but they did it again a few months later! Nothing really bad happened to the world that time though, so it wasn’t really noticed.”

The Tatsugiri looked at him blankly. “Why?”

“Why? I guess it would be unnecessarily stressful for pokemon to know that the world almost ended again.” Corphish rounded a corner, beckoning for Eiri to follow. “Maybe ‘ended’ isn’t the right word. Grovyle and Karel came from the future, so the world wasn’t destroyed. Compared to the meteor from years ago or that thing a few months ago with the… dark matter or whatever, this wasn’t as bad.” Corphish frowned. “Relatively speaking. There was something on the Mist Continent too that happened, but I’m not too familiar with that one.”

“No, I mean why did they save the world?” Eiri’s question was completely serious. “If they didn’t, time would stop right? That’s what I remember hearing about. Do we really even need time?”

Blindsided by Eiri’s question, Corphish tripped over a rock. Falling flat on his face, he jumped up quickly, looking back in a panic to see if Gigue was alright. Surprisingly, the Oricorio was still asleep. 

“But we need time!” he said, “Not that I’ve seen what stopped time looks like myself, but I’ve heard all about it. Nothing grows and there’s no sun!”

“That’s because of the removal of time, isn’t it?” Eiri made a face. “Maybe it wouldn’t get that way if there was no time in the first place.”

“No time?” Corphish tried to wrap his head around the concept, but couldn’t even begin to conceive of it. “What would that look like?” 

The Tatsugiri shrugged. “I don’t know, but that doesn’t make it an impossibility. Why do we just have to go along with time passing when it’s so unfair to us?” A hint of anger crept into her tone. 

Corphish was about to reply when a rock flew past his face, shattering against the wall nearby. Turning to look, he saw two Krokorok advancing from behind them. “Look out, Eiri!” he shouted, water gathering in his claws. 

Eiri glanced at the Krokorok who hissed at her. “Hah? Ack!” She ducked, covering her head as one shot a jet of mud at her, the attack flying over her head. “We have to run away!” she said in a panic.

Corphish shook his head, shooting a glob of water from one claw. “They’re too close now! I’d have to turn away from them to run fast enough to make any distance.”

“What do you-” the Tatsugiri’s eyes widened as she understood what he meant. “So wh- what do we do?” 

Corphish neatly sidestepped another rock. “First, you have to calm down. If you can’t think straight, you’ll get hurt.”

Eiri gulped, breathing heavily. With her eyes locked on the two Krokorok, she backed up until she was next to Corphish. “Okay, what do I do next?”

Corphish looked at Eiri, nodding. “Well, when you’re in a dungeon, you have to analyze the situation. Sorry if I freaked you out, they just attacked without warning.”

“Does this happen all the time?” Eiri said, looking at the Krokorok warily. The two pokemon seemed to have gotten in a fight with each other, clawing and spitting in each other’s faces. 

“It’s part of the job,” Corphish replied, “Dungeons are unquantifiable and unexplainable. I see things I’ve never seen before constantly. Surprise attacks are realistically one of the few things you can reliably expect.”

“I see,” Eiri said, calming down a little. “Should we run now that they’re distracted?”

Corphish shook his head. “Probably not. It would get their attention if we ran. Plus now that I’ve had a chance to look at them, we should have no problem beating them.”

As if on cue, the two Krokorok seemed to resolve their argument, glaring at each other before turning back to Corphish and Eiri with a growl. 

“Most dungeon pokemon are brutes,” Corphish said, pointing with a claw at another swirling ball of mud forming in one of the Krokorok’s claws. “More dangerous dungeons are a different story, but on average, pokemon in dungeons have no sense of strategy or tactics.” 

The Krokorok fired the mud at Corphish, who again stepped to the side. “See? A slow attack fired straight at an opponent looking directly at them. They’re not particularly creative either- look at them.”

The Krokorok who had missed was gnashing his teeth together, another jet of mud already forming in his claws while the other one was hefting a medium sized rock. 

“Um, so one throws rocks and the other shoots mud?” Eiri asked uncertainly.

Corphish nodded. “That’s probably the extent of what they can do,” he said. “If we let them try it for long enough, they might think to combine the two, but that’s about it. But don’t underestimate a dungeon ever!” He gave the Tatsugiri a serious look. “You never know what might happen.”

“You say that, but you’re very confident here,” Eiri said, skittering away as the other Krokorok lobbed the rock at her. As it bounced off harmlessly, she sighed in relief. 

“H- hey, hey, there are signs that generally indicate how dangerous a dungeon is,” Corphish said, sounding embarrassed. “And as far as I’ve known, they’re pretty consistent.” He looked at Eiri apologetically. “Sorry if I sounded like I was showing off.”

The Tatsugiri made a face at him. “You’re not wrong as far as I can tell, I just wanted clarification to be sure. Don’t be sorry for anything.”

“Well, if you say so,” Corphish said quietly. He composed himself. “Anyway, now we can counterattack.” 

Corphish brought his claws together, forming another glob of water. As he focused, the water turned a deep blue, a thin glow emanating along the edges. 

Eiri stared, her eyes wide. “Wow,” she said.

As the intensity of Corphish’s attack increased, the mud Krokorok looked at him nervously, another mud attack shaping in its hands fizzling and disappearing. It turned to the other Krokorok who was busy trying to lift a large rock, poking it and hissing in alarm. Just as it stood up, growling at the other Krokorok, Corphish fired, a powerful column of water arcing across the air and slamming into it and sending it tumbling into the wall. The other Krokorok yelped, dashing away into the darkness and leaving its companion unconscious against the wall. 

“Dungeon pokemon aren’t much for camaraderie either,” Corphish noted, shaking his claws as the energy in them slowly dissipated. “I probably didn’t need to use something so powerful. I really am showing off.”

“What was that?” Eiri practically bounced over, grabbing one of Corphish’s claws with her fins and excitedly looking over them. “That attack was so cool!”

“In technical terms, that attack was called hydro pump,” Corphish replied, trying to hide his happiness at being complimented. “Really, any water pokemon can learn it- you included. It’s something I’ve been practicing for a long time.”

“I can learn it too?” Eiri asked hopefully. 

Corphish smiled. “Yeah! Have you used any attacks before?” 

In his head, Corphish noted that the tension from before they were attacked had completely disappeared. Whatever Eiri had had on her mind before was gone now, the Tatsugiri full of energy. 

“I don’t think so,” Eiri said.

Corphish briefly checked on Gigue. “Did I really wear her out too much today,” he said to himself. Shaking his head, he turned back to Eiri. “I should explain, attack is just a relative description. I can shoot water at someone, but I can just as easily use it to clean a house. Sorry, I should have asked if there’s any particular skills you have with water.”

Eiri crossed her fins, thinking. “Well, since I do a lot of cooking, I figured out how to make hot water and cold water. Does that count?”

“Definitely!” Corphish was surprised. “Making hot water isn’t a beginner skill you know, I haven’t figured that out myself. Something like that is really useful for catching an opponent off guard.”

“Huh, I didn’t know exploring and fighting could be so interesting,” Eiri said, “Now I get what Gigue was going for. I’m glad I listened to her.”

“Ha.” Corphish felt the rush of the battle wearing off. “Well, we should keep going. Do you uh, want me to keep talking? You were saying earlier about needing to hear…” he trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence. 

“Tell me more about your guild,” Eiri said,” What kinds of moves did everyone have?” 

“That’ll take me awhile,” Corphish said, “Before that though, you know we’re going to start a guild in a place away from towns, right? It’ll kind of be just the three of us at first, so it’ll be quiet a lot. Will you be okay with that?”

“I’ve been thinking about that- don’t worry, I’ll figure something out,” Eiri said, “Just tell me about the guild already!” 

Corphish was concerned, but pushed it away. “Alright then. I’ll start from the beginning. So! Wigglytuff’s guild was founded by Wigglytuff obviously. He’s super strong, and…”

~~