Stealing From Kecleon

“It was supposed to be a simple job… Ambush the merchants, start grabbing stuff, and run…” A scraggy thought as he ran through the woods. “Who knew a pair of kecleon would be so strong…?”  

Crash stopped and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. “ Scorch is not gonna be happy about this… ” The scraggy said to himself as he looked around for any sign of his team, as well as the kecleon. 

“ He’s gonna fucking kill me… ” Crash said as he put his back against the tree. 

Scorch “The Inferno” as he was called, was easily one of the most notorious bandit leaders of the western forests. And is best known for his explosive temper. And it didn’t help the scraggy’s case that all he had to show for his efforts were a slingshot and a tamato berry.

“Wait! Let’s talk about this!” Crash said before being thrown out of a large, dark red tent. 

“I’m starting to get real sick and damn tired of you and friends coming back here with NOTHING!” A deep voice yelled. 

“Yeah, well screw you! I don’t need your fat ass anyways!” The scraggy yelled back. 

A large orange and black pig stepped out of the tent, looming over the scraggy. “ You wanna repeat that…? I couldn’t quite hear you…? ” The emboar said in a low, angry voice. The scraggy’s eyes widened as Scorch reached down and grabbed him by the arm, lifting him off the ground and in front of his flaming beard. 

“Cause last I checked, you need me. And I’m sure as hell starting to think I don’t need you…”

“Look, Scorch. If this is about the raid going bad, it wasn’t my faul-” The scraggy said before Scorch jabbed him in the chest with his other hand. The emboar gave the scraggy one last look before giving an annoyed huff, throwing him to the ground.

Crash shuddered as he thought the last time his team screwed up on one of their raids. “ Okay Crash… ” The scraggy said to himself. “ You have two options. Either you can… …You know what, nope, he’ll kill me… ” 

As Crash continued to walk through the woods, something caught his eye. A vulpix wearing a dark green scarf, and carrying a small messenger bag was walking down the path ahead of him.

After watching the vulpix for a bit, Crash soon got an idea. “What’s the one place even Scorch and his cronies wouldn’t come near…? A guild…” Crash thought. 

Crash then pulled the red, spiky berry he stole out of the pouch of skin that hung around his waist and stared at it. “Well… Here goes nothing… This is either the best idea I’ve ever had, or I’m about to make the biggest mistake in my life…”

As Cinder walked through the woods, she glanced around at the forest around her. “I wonder when Char and his friends are coming back…” The vulpix thought, before a loud rustling in some nearby bushes got her attention. Cinder took a battle stance, a few small embers fell from her mouth as she prepared to use flamethrower. 

“Wait! no! Stop!” A voice from the bushes called out, as a scraggy covered in dirt and blood stumbled out in front of her. 

Realizing she wasn’t in any danger, the flames faded from the vulpix’s mouth. “What happened to you?!” Cinder asked as she ran towards the scraggy. 

“I… I got attacked… Wait… You’re with a guild right…? ” 

“Yeah, I… It’s, uh… It’s not that far if you can still walk.” 

“Yeah… Let’s… let’s go…” 

“Here, take this.” Cinder said, taking an oran berry out of her bag. 

“ Thanks… ”

“Not much longer now…” Cinder said as she and Crash passed a wooden sign reading: “Timberglade”. As the two entered the town’s limits, Crash’s eyes began to wander as he glanced at his surroundings. The town was quite literally built into the forest. While some were on the ground, many of the wooden houses were perched amongst the trees, most of which being connected by platforms and rope bridges. Many small shops of all sorts lined the dirt roads, each one seeming to have at least one or two pokemon ethier browsing the front, or chatting with the owner. 

Cinder led Crash to a massive, hollowed tree in the far end of the town. She looked up at a large treehouse that sat at the tree’s highest point. “ I really hope he finally found a partner for me… ” The vulpix sighed. “ It’s starting to get a lot harder to this myself… ” 

“You say something?” 

“Ah, it’s nothing…” She said as she began to walk inside. 

“Alright Crash… Let’s do this…” The scraggy thought, following Cinder into the Timberglade Guild.

Once inside, Crash couldn’t help but look up. Along the inner walls of the tree, there was a giant spiral staircase leading to several platforms that sat on alternating sides. The scraggy shook his head and glanced off to the side as he was starting to get a bit disoriented. But as Crash did so, something almost immediately got his attention. 

“ Oh shit… ” The scraggy said to himself. There next to him, on the guild’s job board was a picture of a scraggy with a scar across their forehead. With the word “WANTED” directly above it. Crash’s eyes widened as he started to panic. He frantically looked around, before trying to snatch the paper off the board. 

“Hey, scraggy. You coming or what? The infermary’s this way.” Cinder asked, as she had started walking towards the far end of the lobby. 

“ Yeah… I’m coming… ”

“I need to get rid of this… Just grab it, and shove it down the pouch. No wait, someone might see… Eat it.” Crash thought as he reached for the poster. “Yeah, just crumble it up, and eat it.”  

But before he could grab it, an arrow-like feather flew at the board. Hitting the poster dead in the center, further pinning it to the flat surface. The scraggy looked behind him and saw a decidueye standing behind him with another one drawn, pointed right at him. 

“Hands. Up. Now.”

“This was a bad idea…”