Rasque of the Sun

The gentle warmth of the cabin’s fireplace cast the cold away from the five residents, three young critters chatting and playing amongst themselves while their older guardians tended to the house’s front windows and doors. Claws hastily covering the glass panes with thick, black cloths and leathers, hanging them over curtains and nailing them to the walls. Their skin shivered against the cold, the light of the fire too distant to reach the two guardians barring fleeting moments of the outside wind’s respite. The cloths and leathers did little to fend off the cold, yet the two didn’t stop; a large green armored figure scanning relentlessly for any spot the windows could be uncovered as a smaller, brown furred shape finished nailing the last of the leathers down.

A nail faintly clicked against the tiled floor, near imperceptible against the whistling wind, now a roaring and powerful gust passing by and muffling the brief sound of metal against wood. Yet it wouldn’t go under the unbreakable focus of the Chestnaught, her gaze immediately shooting down from the cloth she was inspecting.

“Agh, it came off,” she muttered, “let me finish these last ones, you can go to the fireplace.”

The Excadrill halted her small hammer in the air, her gaze drifting to her partner beside her. “Ah, no, let me get it.”

Before she could reach the nail, however, the Grass-type snatched it first. “I can cover the windows well enough on my own, and I don’t want you to miss any spots.”

“But I’ve been doing a good job with them!” Though she didn’t dare raise her voice, the Excadrill’s tone very well carried the frustrated sigh she was holding down. “Quincy, come on, I’ve been getting better at these─ and you’re just being paranoid!”

Another faint metallic clicking followed the fall of yet another nail, the Chestnaught’s eyes squinting at the Ground-type with a small playful grin growing along her face.

“…ok, maybe I missed a spot.”

Quincy grabbed the other nail as the Excadrill handed her the hammer, “Lily, I know you’ve been getting better at holding the hammer and all, but…”

“But…?”

The Chestnaught nailed the covers with a focused gaze, far past the walls of the wooden cabin. She opened her mouth to speak, but several heartbeats passed without a response. “Nothing. I… nothing.”

The Excadrill looked up at Quincy, holding her gaze to meet her eyes. Though neither moved, Lily knew that a storm of thoughts brewed in the Grass-type’s mind. She took a step forward, hesitating a second before letting herself fall on the Chestnaught’s side in an embrace, arms coddling around her waist and snout nuzzling her sides. She had to stop herself from gripping her too tightly, her frown deepening as she considered the words stuck in her tongue. Once, twice she opened her mouth without a sound. She didn’t want to share her worries, but it was starting to eat her from the inside.

And yet all she could manage was but a small whisper. “Do you think… we’ll actually be able to get to the other side?” She turned around, the gentle candlelit path to the warm living room trailing to the three younger Pokemon mingling on their own. “If getting here that night was already hard enough, then…”

“…I know it looks hard, but…” Quincy swallowed. “We don’t have much of a choice.”

“…couldn’t we stay here instead? In this cabin? We wouldn’t have to leave so much food behind that way…”

“Honey, you’ve seen how easily the supports shake when I so much as stumble, those things will topple when they get here,” Quincy weakly laughed.

“If they get here,” Lily corrected her.

“When.” She tried to, at least.

“Quincy…”

“You…” The Chestnaught’s claws balled up into a fist, but the thought of her beloved relaxed them. “You… weren’t there… Those things, they’ll— they’re going to find us, and they’re going to–”

A tighter embrace stopped Quincy’s words, who turned to look down next to her and met the somber eyes of her lover. “I wasn’t there, but… I’ve seen you and how you fight them, how you’re working yourself to the bone and I…”

Neither of them spoke, the Chestnaught raising her head with her eyes pinned on the nails in the window frames. Not a single ray of sunlight would enter the house when the morning comes.

“…how sure are you that they’ll find us?”

“It’s almost a certainty. The kids told me that the Nidoking used to be close to their parents. They know the three, they’re going to follow us.”

The two stayed silent, Quincy raising her arm and letting it rest on Lily’s shoulders. She raised her other claw and gently pulled one of the looser nails, pulling away at the cover, her gaze settling down on the distant view of the mountain’s side. A wide road with a gentle slope, it used to be a decently transited path between the two sides of the mountain, though most would usually just hire a flier to go above it, go through the underground pass, or risk the path through the Mystery Dungeon inside the mountain. Nowadays, with the pass caved in and the dungeon filled to the brim with ferals more than ever, the only safe path was the road around the mountain, grown unstable and ruined by the attacks of the distorted.

“Besides, the kids are super excited for once. Even with all this,” Quincy waved her claw at the moonlight filtering through the hole, “they find a moment to laugh and play.”

Lily turned around, letting go of her beloved. In the living room several pages away, beyond the halls and the door, a Charmander waved a wooden figurine high in the air against the light and warmth of the fireplace. Alongside him, a smaller Totodile played along with a mass of crumpled black paper, wrapped around a smaller figure with string as a Shinx watched. The figurine, a simple Feraligatr of cubes and big shapes, dropped onto the large wrapping of paper, the Charmander and Totodile smacking the two gently against one another while their electric companion narrated with wide glinting eyes.

“With fierce determination, the… fierce warrior fell on the monster’s hide! The slimy and goopy skin of the distorted creature bending and warping under his—”

“Eeewww!” The Totodile stopped for a second, pulling back the paper-wrapped figure, “can we not do the slimy and gross skin? It weirds me out!”

“Fine, fine, the, uh,” her companion tried to continue, but couldn’t find the word.

“Steel-scaled!” the Charmander piped up, holding his figure close to himself.

“The steel-scaled creature roared and cried, flinching at the beast tearing at their skin!”

Between cheers and giggles, the Totodile tore off the paper wrappings and undid the strings, revealing the head of an Ampharos in the middle of all the papers.

“But from within, the Feraligatr’s partner called out— begging for help! At their call, the warrior slashed and tore, breaking away the black mass that had taken the electric type, and soon—!”

Claws pulled at the black cloths covering the Ampharos figures, slowly revealing its yellow color and yanked out of the black covering it.

From many strides away, beyond the door and the halls, Lily watched with a growing smile. But beside her, Quincy’s gaze was lost again beyond her sights, the children’s play lost under a haze of thoughts and memories.

Whatever vision she had was cut short by the embrace of the smaller Pokemon. Lily’s soft touch gently shook her from her stupor. Her claws caressed the armored hide of the grass type, the edge of the sharp weapons barely scratching the shell— though the deft, careful and gentle expression was slow, calculated and deliberate.

BANGBANGBANGBANG—!

Startled, the lover’s embrace was cut short, the kid’s play torn away. All the eyes were on the front door of the wooden house, hidden behind coverings of cloth and rags, behind furniture barricading the door. The once gentle embrace seized up as Lily’s breath hitched, tightly gripping at the Chestnaught’s arm— though it was not like it hurt her much.

One heartbeat, two heartbeats later, and Quincy opened the door slightly ajar, thankful for the moonlight clearing away the dark. Her eyes fell on a Slowbro, his tail swinging left and right as his gaze jumped up.

“A–Ah! There’s— er, ahem,” he stopped himself, “w–we couldn’t help but n–notice that you— that there are p— uh, that—”

“PLEASE LET US IN!” someone shouted from behind the pink Pokemon, the red head of a Druddigon peeking from a small crowd formed at the entrance of the house. Although the scales glowed against the moonlight, the scent of warm copper and rend flesh sent a chill up Quincy’s spine.

She opened the door fully, blocking the entrance with her large frame— stretching her neck to find the sight of the distant town further into the grassy hills, past the treelines and far from the mountainside.

The light of fire and the plumes of smoke all but turned her stomach from inside herself.

“Th–those things,” a Kanghaskan interrupted her scanning, “they— they killed the mayor. They killed the guards— they–they mangled them, they—”

The Druddigon hugged the panicking Pokemon tight, pressing his head against her neck.

“…we…” The Chestnaught turned around to look inside the house, Lily’s wide open eyes and shaking arms giving her pause. “We… we thought the distorted wouldn’t be here until today or so…” Her mind went to the warm fireplace inside the living room, to the burning wood crackling and lighting up the dark, to the smoke rising up from the chimney. “If they already went to the town, they’re not going to take long to be here— they will find us quickly. And with the sun coming up in a few hours…”

A pit formed in Quincy’s stomach.

Behind her, Lily was paralyzed.

There wasn’t anyone in the crowd that looked remotely capable of fighting— it was mostly women and children in the group, some younger men, smaller Pokemon, or heavily wounded people. They carried few supplies too, mostly what they could carry with themselves between baskets, boxes and large bags.

“We wouldn’t be able to push them off before sunrise…” 

Quincy turned around, meeting the wide eyes of her beloved. She was shaking in the spot, legs ready to give out at any moment, but once their gazes met and locked on one another her quivering slowed to a halt. Slowly, she nodded.

As Lily moved away, the grass type’s eyes drifted off to the covered windows. Her lips gave way to a sigh. “At least someone might make use of them”, she thought.

---

The trip over Spearhead mountain was known by all to be an arduous task. Even with flying types, the harsh winds would make flying around the steep paths impossible lest one risk great injuries, if not outright death. Even before the great civilisations had formed across the land of Laosen, ancient records tell of many fools losing their lives to the risky climb. But with great effort, teams of explorers, diggers, and many more managed to carve a path around the great rising steps, allowing for a safer—albeit slower—detour.

But, after the sunlight was blighted and the surge of Pokemon warped and distorted by its rays, these roads seldom reflected what they once were. With the stone path crumbling on the sides, giving way to perilous falls below, boulders and debris blocking the way forwards, and craters scattered along the ground below, it was not as easy of a journey as it once was— not that it was any easier before.

The cold of the night bit into Quincy’s exposed hide, her cloak given to someone who didn’t have the fur or the feathers to weather the temperatures. The cold air pained her from the inside, but she pulled her feet forwards. With immense strength, and aided by some of the larger townsfolk, the Chestnaugth pulled another large boulder off of the road, the rock rolling down the mountainside. 

With steam spewing from her snout with every breath, she looked up at the sky. The moonlight would never replace the warmth of the sun— yet it energized her still as she was basked in the white light. She was thankful for the blessing of the moonlight. Undeserving as she was of it, she trudged on. Lily had warned her that they might not be able to clear the walk before the sun rose, but they had traveled much too far to turn around. Quincy figured it was the best choice, as it was either risking meeting the sunrise or having to face a horde of distorted Pokemon.

The roadblock now clear, she followed the crowd in search of her partner. Despite her arms not pushing any great weight, they still ached and shivered, shaking at a thought drilling into the back of her mind. With the road taking a serpentine climb, twists and turns that would easily nauseate the unprepared, it was much too hard to look behind and below them, at least until they cleared the next turn. Quincy scanned the crowd ahead of her, spotting Lily right behind the spot they just cleared. She was helping the people pass, handling bags from the people most exhausted and passing them over to the Pokemon that were better fit for carrying heavy loads. Though she didn’t blame the Excadrill for helping around, her partner was too restless to feel good about slowing down. She picked up the pace, ignoring her dull and sore legs— she was too anxious to wait to reach the top in a slow stroll.

Though by the worried murmurs and the panicking glances from those at the end of the turn, she could guess that something was starting to go terribly wrong.

Smoke was rising in the distance— not from the house they took refuge in, one she would miss dearly, but from something larger, much larger. As she went further up the road, the light of flames shining in the dark forest visible between all the trees clued her in that the town wasn’t standing much longer.

As they flooded into the road’s turn, the townsfolk quickly turned to sorrow, lamenting the loss of their hometown.

“What are we gonna do!?” A stressed Lopunny called, hiding her face in a tight embrace of their Torterra partner. “W–We can’t go back now!”

“Where are we going to settle down?”

“What, did you think they wouldn’t burn down our homes!?” A Ninetales screeched at the question, “every town they go across they either demolish, burn or wreck down!”

“Those things are despicable— isn’t it enough that they killed my nephew!?”

“Wh–Why do they do all that?” An Eevee nuzzled their mother’s leg, keeping what little warmth he had, “mama, why do they hate the towns?”

They don’t hate the towns. They love them. They only destroy because they’re looking for something.

“Let’s just make a barricade and fight them off!! I’m tired of having to run from those gross black-scale monsters!”

The regular Pokemon wouldn’t be able to fight them off.

“Can’t we just run!? They can’t follow us deeper into the caves, right!?”

They would always find them.

These monsters remember what they once were. Fragments of their families, their friends and homes, all warped and corrupted beyond recognition— they have the bonds, but these bonds would not spark emotions or further experiences. All these memories are an empty goal of recovering something stolen from them. Even when these monsters find their loved ones, they can’t ever remember why they were looking for them.

They’re not allowed to.

The flames engulfed every house in the street, every flag hanging from above— falling apart when the burnt wooden beams couldn’t handle anymore. The heat chipped away at every bit of her home away from home, chipped away at the grassy armor that covered her hide. Debris fell from the house near the two— Quincy almost launched herself over Lily, covering from the wooden tiles falling from above, her shell taking the brunt of the hit. Still, little embers bit at her hide, drawing a sharp breath at the sting.

Before she could even ask if she was ok, the Excadrill grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from more debris. The two looked back at the once-beautiful house, the same one where they bought the sweet cinnamon rolls they had this morning. She was about to shout at Lily, but she quickly grabbed her snout, closing it shut.

“Don’t you dare ask me if I’m alright— look at your back! Your shell is going to catch on fire if you keep doing that!”

With difficulty, she grabbed the sharp metal claws of her beloved, wedging them open and freeing her snout, “I’m fine— I can take it!”

“No you can’t!” She shouted back, as another house crumbled apart nearby. “No you can’t, just like you nearly died when the sun was blighted!”

“I was fine— I am fine!”

“No you’re not!”

“It doesn’t matter— This is all my fault!”

Quincy’s screams were only drowned out by the roaring of the flames and the crumbling of the houses.

“I brought them here— these monsters are here because of me! They followed us and got more people caught in the sunlight, made more of them and now the whole town is falling apart!”

Lily all but threw herself at the larger pokemon, arms hugging her tightly, “Stop, please… stop… it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault…!”

The Chestnaught was going to cry out more, but she bit her tongue. Large arms embraced back her partner, and she rested her head on the Excadrill’s own, careful with the spikes of the steel spikes jutting out.

What was a second felt like an eternity as the two let their tears roll down their cheeks, sobbing at the misfortune and misery they found themselves in. Only the further crumbling of a house nearby jolted them back to reality, Lily grabbing Quincy’s arm and pulling her.

“W–we gotta run, find a place to stay! Hurry!”

The scorching red light of the fire dimmed away, the white light of the moonlight above replacing the inferno of a vision long past.

“We need to move,” shaking away the rising emotions nested deep in her heart, Quincy called out to the townsfolk. “We’re on good track, but now they could be upon us at any—”

Crack.

A large, disjointed claw scraped at the edge of the cliff’s road. Black skin oozing out dark, rotten blood. Peeling scales dotted the flesh of the large paw, the body of the distorted creature rising from below the cliff.

It was large, broad, yet frail and hollow. Limbs bulky and inflated, spikes jutting out from what would be the forearms, the head and the spine of the creature. Long ears elongated past its head, skull deformed and riddled with spikes, piercing its nose, its face and its eye sockets. Its decaying nose huffed, and without eyes it stared at the group— reading its head back and roaring loud enough to echo in the mountain behind. The crowd erupted into pandemonium, screams and yells of pain drowning Quincy’s ears.

But as others ran from the beasts, the grass type jumped into action, slamming her fist straight into its head. The creature snatched her out of the air with a bite and trapping her in the grip of its maw. She grit her teeth; though her armored shell resisted the piercing bites, her body was still squeezed under the pressure of the beast’s jaws. She reared back her free arm, putting her digits together in a piercing point, and drove it into the beast’s skull. 

Her fist dug through the bone with ease, the Chesnaught shuddering at the gross sensation of the melted skin and flesh.

Even with a set of claws engraved deep into its head and a large grass type in its maw, the beast still found the strength within itself to roar.

It only further encouraged Quincy to push her claws deeper, grasping at something gross and moldy—

She suddenly clenched her fist, grabbing onto the first thing she found, and wrenched out her claw. In her grasp, a black, melted mound of something unrecognizable— mushy, black and starting to fall apart.

As she dropped it out of disgust, the beast shuddered, reaching out to grab her legs but falling limp halfway through the motion. Still, the maw held onto her, dragging Quincy down the cliff with the beast.

Her claws dug into the cliff, trying to hold onto something— anything to keep herself from falling to the dark below, the rocks giving away, crumbling as she tried to get a grip. Every leverage she found turned to dirt as she gripped empty air. She closed her eyes shut— finally allowing herself to scream at the pain of the compressed limbs, as it flailed in the air—

A Kangaskhan and a Lopunny held onto her arm before she could be dragged down below, and with that little help she managed to grab onto the ledge of the cliff. She grit her teeth as the fangs pulling her down dislodged themselves from her midsection, falling below and crumbling to dust with a crash.

Pulling herself from the edge, the Chestnaugth flopped onto the ground, hissing between her teeth. She thanked the two, but her blood went cold as she looked below the cliff.

That wasn’t the only creature hot on their tails.

Claws digging into the rock for leverage, one large creature made its way up the precipice, its elongated scaled shape zigzagging across the rock’s surface before throwing its claws at the stone— puncturing a hole into the cliffside and vanishing into the makeshift tunnel.

Quincy whirled at the screams of the civilians. A lanky and sickly quadrupedal pokemon had jumped over the wall of stone they had crossed, ramming its horn into the crowd. The few in the mark of the attack managed to dodge the brunt of the damage, but a black blur swiped two of the running pokemon. They screamed as the bird flew high into the air, so fast that Quincy could hardly tell what had grabbed them at all.

“Watch the ground— one is below us!” she roared, sprinting at the horned horse before it could harm more innocent folks, but its blank eyes turned at the sound of her heavy footsteps. She skidded to a stop, raising her arms just in time for the horn to drive into her— catching it with her armored shell. 

The beast reared back, and she ducked, its two hind legs kicking empty air as she slammed her shoulder into its side before grabbing the creature and smashing it into the ground. Quincy’s claws gripped its neck tightly, the beast roaring furiously as it tried to bite her arm, before she crushed its skull with her fist, turning its head into a fine black paste staining the cold stone below.

She stood up, taking a second to regain her balance and swallowing the bile in her mouth before looking up just in time to see the flying beast careening out of the sky, its wounded body still carrying the two innocents from before. Its weight was too much for the three of them, and its chipped and eroded metallic wings pierced and stabbed their bodies as they fell. 

She forced her gaze away from the creatures, scanning the running crowd for the brown and red fur of Lily.

And there it was, deep in the crowd, trying to make a path for everyone and retreating herself, smashing her claws into a relatively small quadruped creature. Its tail and neck fluff’s shape was barely recognizable, its limbs now stretched unevenly. She almost bolted to her right then and there as the monster grappling with her sank its teeth into her arm, but she managed to restrain herself.

There were a few Pokemon trying to hold off the creature; the Druddigon bit off the chest of a large, bipedal pokemon, overgrown and grotesque body tearing its faded armor. His head visibly swayed left and right, the blood pooling beneath the gushing wound he had sustained earlier. The Slowbro who had been lagging behind was pushing a Kangaskhan further up the road, handing her her child before jumping out of the way of a blade’s cleave. A thin-armed thing dragged two large scythes, their stride struggling to raise the weapons before swiftly rending whatever was in front of them, the water attacks of the Pokemon doing very little to stop it from advancing and slashing their torso, a large gash spilling blood and mixing with the water.

Despite almost everyone holding decently well against the creatures making their advance, Quincy could see the stutters in Lily’s movements, the flinches from the monster’s biting and lunging, and the hesitation as she drove her claws through its head. 

Even before she could get her claws out of the decaying creature, she glanced at the large dragon-like monsters climbing the road and their steps making the ground crumble, at the flying ones as they fell from the sky as their wings gave away, at the ones climbing the cliff holding onto stone with claws.

She could barely hide the grimace in her face, turning it into a thinly-veiled focused expression.

Quincy took a long breath, preparing to bolt at the next monster that dared approach—

The ground rumbled below her.

“LILY!” She darted towards her beloved, the Excadrill looking back with wide eyes— before she could even react, the ground below her erupted, a long, black-scaled lizard exploding out of the hole that it just made, their enlarged maw crossing easily over Lily’s own height.

Before the razor teeth could snap shut on her, Quincy bolted to her side, wedging the jaw open with her shaking arms.

“Run! I’ll deal with this!” she shouted, shaking her leg violently but failing to get it off of her. 

Her arms began to buckle, the sharpened teeth nearing her face, but a kick inside the monster’s maw made it screech and weaken the guillotine trying to snap Quincy in half, giving her a bit of extra leverage.

Despite that, the stalemate held on for what felt like ages longer, until the sound of stabbing pierced the air— she glanced down to see three metallic claws puncturing through the lower maw of the creature. 

The Chestnaught blinked, quickly stepping aside as the monster’s jaws weakly snapped shut, stumbling as she did, before realizing that Lily was still trying to dig her claws deeper into the larger creature, who was now attempting to flee by digging into the ground.

“L–Lily! Just— leave! That thing’s gonna bleed out later!”

“L–like hells I will!” 

“No! You’re going to—”

“To what!? Get hurt!?” Lily shouted out, changing target and slashing at an approaching small, flying monster. “I’d rather get hurt with you than seeing you alone!”

Quincy smashed the thing with a fist, rotten blood spurting everywhere. “I don’t want you to get hurt—”

“And neither do I!”

The deafening sounds of battle drowned under Lily’s scream.

“Look, I’m scared, I don’t know if this will all work, and I don’t know if we’ll even get to cover before the sun rises, but I don’t want you to keep saying that— that thing!”

“I–I—” Quincy stammered, “I’m sorry—”

“It wasn’t your fault! Or maybe— or maybe it was! But you’re trying to change things— and I want to help, or at least make it feel right!”

The two stared at one another, and Quincy could swear that she heard Lily’s heartbeat drowning away the noise around them. She lost herself in the Excadrill’s eyes, her own gaze tracing down her shape and fur, stopping to admire the red patterns of her hide, the metallic sheen of her claws— all so menacing and threatening, yet she managed to make all of them look delicate and sweet, still carrying a sharp edge to them. Quincy’s lips pursed, and her knuckles turned white at having dragged her into this fight.She wanted to make amends to the pain she’s brought to those around her, Lily most of all. 

She still wanted to stay by Quincy’s side. Despite everything, she wanted to stay by her side.

“I–I’m scared— and I’m not sure if any of this might work, but— but you! You make me believe it all will end well! You—!”

A flash of black behind Lily forced the Chestnaught to grab her and smash a fist against an incoming monster’s own. Its arm gave away as it made contact, forced to reel back and recover. Quincy reared back her free fist once more, slamming straight through the thing’s torso.

Once it fell, she stared back at her beloved, trying to find what she wanted to say.

“I–I—” The Chestnaught started, unable to form the words. “I—”

“Don’t.” Lily leaned in from the soft grip her lover had on her, a kiss straight into the grass type’s snout. “Just— tell me what to do. I’ll trust you.”

She held still, losing herself in the Excadrill’s eyes. But eventually, the words shook her. “Right. Right.”

Her voice, though shaky, was still determined as she scanned her surroundings.

The Pokemon were hastily making their retreat, screaming and crying out as some were picked off by the creatures making their advance— the closest ones were closing in to Quincy and Lily, thankfully.

“Wait— where are—”

“The kids are in the front, I told them to guide the townsfolk and lead them deeper into the mountain.”

“Ok, ok.”

Quincy’s mind raced, the smell of blood, rot and stone filling her lungs as she took deep breaths. Her gaze went back and forth, between the many corpses lying in the ground, between the rocks that were the wall they had to dig through and the many holes and craters underneath the two Pokemon—

“Right. Right! Ok, you’re going to have to help me here a bit.”

Before she could speak, the two ducked under a slash of a large scythe, the blade embedding itself in the Earth.

Quincy heaved a fist right into the creature’s arm, bending and twisting it— she even felt something snap as she put her whole weight into it. 

Her face twisted into shock as the creature raised its scythe-arm, the elbow bent the wrong way.

Before she could step back, a metallic slash struck the creature’s limb, tearing it away and leaving it with one less weapon to use, their now-only weapon still stuck on the ground.

“Make a landfall!” Quincy bellowed as she smashed her fist once more into the monster’s chest. “Dig around the mountain’s cliff and the road! I’ll smash it apart when you’ve made a rupture!”

The creature heaved back, one last effort to lift the weapon, but its struggle was cut short by Quincy’s fist crushing its head at last.

Her eyes darted to the side, her lover long gone into a tunnel. A quick gasp escaped her lips, but she steeled herself.

The ground shook at the steps of something— a bulk of flesh stomped on the skull of a fallen townsperson, arms like trunks and torso like a boulder; large, bulky and swollen. Much, much too swollen.

With lethargy, it turned its head to meet Quincy’s gaze. With a swift step, she was upon the bulky creature, driving a spike into its torso.

She made the mistake of looking at its head. The fins in its head were too familiar, despite only having seen them in passing. The Swampert’s annoying face had melted into swollen flesh and empty eyes, his boasting words echoing in her head, of a lucky find of a rare TM for him to—

Quincy only managed a gasp as a large hand grabbed her whole head in one swing, digits digging into the side of her helmeted head— the pressure from the thing raising her into the air slowly but surely becoming unbearable.

She swung her fists, she kicked her legs, but the thing didn’t seem to stop, not even as the black liquid pooled under it from the claws jabbed into its body.

A crack from the ground below shook the creature, its grip on Quincy shaking with it. It was enough leverage for her— she smashed her fists together straight into the creature’s arms, crushing it and forcing it to let her go.

She nearly crumbled on the ground there and then, but she held her footing and retreated from the creature. Her gaze darted between all the monsters approaching from—

The large distorted creature raised its leg.

“N–No— LILY!” She was still under them, digging along the ground below. If an Earthquake were to fire off, she would be crushed.

She didn’t think twice when she slammed her body into it, the claws jabbed into the creature digging deeper and its body rolling into the ground.

It raised a fist, ready to pummel her down, and she rolled just in time to dodge the hit as it cracked the stone below.

And it cracked more. And more.

It was as if the entire mountain was shaking, the stone below them giving away, weakened from the tunnels dug below.

From the same crack, a spinning flash of white lunged through the creature’s head, exploding and splashing black grime all over. Lily landed not far from Quincy, flashing her claws ready to—

Quincy reared her arm back, glowing a fierce green, and smashed her fist into the crack— the whiplash running up her limbs as she cried out from the pain.

But it was just enough for the crack to grow, into a large hole, and then into a large gash in the road. Rocks fell down the cliff, the road splitting into a large precipice. The Chestnaught held onto her partner tightly as the hole threatened to pull them under, rushing away from the site. Every step felt like it was about to fall under the stone, but Quincy was quick enough to outrun the growing sinkhole.

Said sinkhole grew into a fissure, and the fissure grew to split the mountainside in two.

But even as one quadruped creature tried to make the jump between the two, rocks crashing into it as a landslide dragged gravel and stone down the mountainside.

The two laid in the ground, heaving and out of breath, simply watching the creatures unable to make the jump across.

“…If it wasn’t for the kids, I would be fine with resting here until sunrise,” Quinn whispered, holding her beloved in her arms.

“The… the kids, they… they’re leading the townsfolk deeper into the mountain,” Lily was confident in the three— at least to trust them to survive, “I think, I think they saw something in… in the mountainside.”

Between pants and gasps, Quincy pressed her lips on Lily’s own.

---

Catching up to the kids after an arduous walk came with a surprise; It was a large, deep system of paths intertwining with one another, one that the townsfolk took no hesitation in using as refuge against the rising sunlight. Even as they went deep within the cave walls, the air felt about as fresh as it was outside. Lily guessed that there were conduits for air flow— perhaps a vestigial trait, for a few knew that the caves were, in fact, part of the Mystery Dungeon below them.

Or at least, what used to be one. With lessened traffic and all the ferals disposed of, the Dungeon’s influence had begun to falter, shrinking away below the mountain and leaving the cave system out of its surroundings. Hidden under the mountain with almost no paths leading into it from the road most Pokemon would cross, the survivors only encountered the caves by chance; the three kids had caught a peek of it after a stray monster tried attacking them from below the ground.

With such luck, the few ground and rock types, along with anyone that could break the mountain walls dug a hole that would open into one of these paths. And so, with the monsters out of sight, Lily led the way deeper into the caves, to a depth not even the moonlight would reach.

And yet, two lovers still rested close to the makeshift entrance, to make watch and to ensure the cave is sealed properly, and not risk a single ray of sunlight to pass through. A curtain of cloths and fabrics half-done hung over the entrance, letting only one side of the cave to be lit by the moonlight. Basking in it, Quincy rested with Lily in her lap, sitting down with her back against the wall. The white light glimmered against her recently-polished metal spikes, the Chestnaught’s arms resting in a hug.

“…Lily?”

The deep rumbling of Quincy’s voice sent shivers up Lily’s spine.

“Yeah?” she answered with a growing smile.

“…Thanks. I guess.”

Awkwardly, the Excadrill turned her head to meet her lover’s gaze. She opened her mouth to ask, but she couldn’t find the words.”

“Gravel and stone, Quinny— ‘I guess?’ You gotta find something better to say,” she continued with a chuckle and smiled. Only a few months ago did she find a decent swear that didn’t speak of the gods the two wanted to forget.

“Pff, come on, you know I suck at words…” her gaze drifted towards the full moon above, light leaking through the unfinished curtain. “…and… I’m sorry it all came to this.”

Lily stopped whatever quip she had in her.

“I… if only I… if only I hadn’t…”

“…Listen.” Though her tone was firm, her voice was as sweet as ever. “It wasn’t you who did this. Not the lovely Quinny that is always trying to keep everyone safe, not the shy Quinny that doesn’t have the ways with words, not the Quinny who insisted on salvaging as many books we could when we first ran… but the wrath-filled Chestnaught that was angry, rightfully so, for what happened to her kin. To her family. To her people. And, well, if I found out that my tribe was all wiped because of some dumb idiot’s idea, I would’ve gone ballistic, too, y’know.”

“But would you have tried to grow a new tribe on your own? Or would you have tried to kill…?” Quincy’s question died in her tongue.

In her lap, Lily shifted, turning around to rest in her partner’s chest. “Quinny… I’m… you know I’m not good with that kinda words. But—” she stopped halfway, hesitating at the thought.

“Lily. There’s just… no excuse for what I did.” The grass type closed her eyes, letting her head rest on the wall behind her. “I was… so angry. I just wanted them all to pay for what they did— for what I thought they did. And now the whole world paid the price.

“…There’s no way you’d know any of this would happen.”

“But it did happen. I cursed the sun, and now the sun curses us.”

Visions of that day flashed in Quincy’s vision, clouded by red and drowned in rage. How she visited the ancient shrines of Solgaleo, how she looked for answers of her kind’s eradication, how she received nothing but contempt for the mortal lives that were lost from a decision done on a whim.

How she stepped onto the hidden pillars of the sun and the moon temples, blight from the distortion realm staining her claws, ready to spread to the godly beings.

How his flesh twisted and melted.

Now his cries of agony fell on deaf ears.

How the sun turned dark and hostile.

How people started distorting and twisting.

How she had stood by as it all unfolded, as the realization of her actions striking her heart.

A gentle touch brought her back to reality, wiping away the tears running down her cheeks. The Chestnaught was heaving, a cold sweat running down her forehead. Her eyes met the tender gaze of Lily, eyes filled with sorrow, quivering and misty.

Suddenly, she grabbed Quincy in an embrace, the two feeling each other’s heartbeats, both slowing down on every passing second.

One second would pass. And then another. and another. Seconds would turn to minutes with the two wordlessly gazing at one another, feeling their heartbeats, their breaths, their very presence. The grass type’s tears dried up long ago, only wistfully losing herself in her lover’s gaze.

After what felt like hours, Lily spoke.

“Even if you disappeared, nothing good would come out of it. If anything, my world would fall apart completely. So… let’s do the best we can from now on.”

Quincy held her gaze on her beloved’s eyes. Tears threatened to well up in the corner of her sight, her smile growing wide.

And so, she rested her head carefully on Lily’s own, careful of the metal spike of the Excadrill. The ground type caressed Quincy’s chest, ruffling her fur with a delicate touch. The two stayed there together, for just a little bit more, basked under the moonlight filtering in from outside

The larger Pokemon’s head tilted towards the inside of the cave, a wistful expression painted in her face. But as the thoughts came and went, as her chest heaved with every breath, a thought occurred. “Those distorted Pokemon can’t enter dungeons. They won’t dare come inside these caves so close to one.”

“Then… we have a plan?”

Carefully, she stood up, lifting and setting down the Excadrill as she did. “Yeah. Yeah, I… I think we have a plan.”

Lily returned her gaze with a smile.

Quincy grinned as she turned to the entrance. “Ok, but now we gotta nail the curtain properly this time, so come and help before we do anything.”

A snort echoed in the cave as the two resumed from their small rest.