Chapter 4 – Fatigue

The walk back to the guild is quiet.

Each member of the group, Kai notices (or guesses, at least), has some sort of problem circling their heads.

He and Sumac are pretty much fine at least. He’s mostly just drained, and she seems more worried over the other two than anything involving herself.

Mainly Myzi though who, for her part, looks incredibly antsy, and somewhat miserable. Her head pops up every so often like she wants to say something, only to drop it back down a moment later with some form of a doubt-riddled grimace.

Mudkip, however, just looks plain angry – glaring at the ground with a malice that Kai can’t accurately evaluate. He wouldn’t have much to compare it to regardless, but the quilava makes sure to keep himself a good few feet away from the mudkip.

With all that said though, Kai really just wants to settle down for a while. Barely midday, but the so-called ‘dungeon run’ was still a bit much for him, especially considering the circumstances.

Without the haste they’d maintained in the earlier morning, it takes them nearly twice as long to reach the guild as it’d taken them to get to the dungeon. Not that they were really that physically exhausted.

As the guild comes into view, one of the passersby outside of the guild spots them and waves a quick greeting, before seemingly realizing something and quickly rushing their way into the guild.

Kai doesn’t catch the look on its face, though is aware enough to identify that it does in fact also have a beak, like the things in the dungeon. ‘Not the same species, though.’

The quilava decides then and there to stop and settle down until they come back. He responds to the group’s confusion by saying “Someone noticed we were gone, I think. Ran in after seeing us.”

Nobody moves, though Kai does catch Myzi tensing up a bit.

A good ten seconds pass before Mudkip mumbles something incomprehensible, and begins to walk away.

“Mudkip! Where are y-“

He gives the goomy addressing him a death glare, before turning back around and continuing his mumblefest through an undergrowth some distance away. Kai and Sumac just stare. “Uhh…”

Myzi hums, but otherwise keeps quiet.

Kai briefly looks at her as she whispers something to Sumac before turning his attention back to the guild, not saying anything himself.

“You gonna stay with us, Kai?”

The question from Myzi feels a bit sudden, his eyes widening ever-so-slightly, but he keeps them fixated on where he thinks they’ll come back out. “Have nowhere else to go, so I’m good to wait here. Have a few things to talk to Zoo about too, and she’s probably gonna come with the beaked creature anyways when they come out.”

Myzi huffs out a light laugh, ending drawn-out and pained.

Sumac’s gaze narrows. “…Are you doing alright, Myzi?”

“Sure. Just don’t feel-“

Myzi freezes suddenly, before letting her paw kick at the ground. “…We can talk about it later.”

“…Okay…” The goomy gives Kai a side-eye, but quickly diverts it back to the deino when she sees him looking.

Kai’s eyes narrow, and droop just a tiny bit more. “…Do we know what we’re gonna tell ‘em?”

“We-”

Myzi perks up, “I’m just gonna tell ‘em we did some off-site training. Nobody got… nobody really got hurt in a way that matters – considering Mudkip’s pretty much fine right now last I saw, if a little grumpy. Just some little mock battles between… Mudkip and I against each other, and you two against each other.”

Kai slides from his sitting position onto his belly, shrugging lightly, “That works, probably.”

Kai puts his head down.

“You’re cool with that, right?”

Kai flicks his tired gaze to Myzi, then to the ground. “Mmmmhm.”

She opens her mouth to say something back, but snaps it shut when she hears the guild members approaching.

Kai lets himself look up at the approaching footsteps, before being silently thankful that it’s just Zoo and the thing that’d spotted them earlier. It quickly becomes just Zoo however, as the two give one another a brief hug before parting ways.

With a quiet mumble, sigh and ear twitch, Zoo strolls over to the group with a weak smile, gaze zeroing in on the quilava.

She gives the group a small wave to keep the conversation casual, though keeps her gaze firm. “Hey you three…! Where’ve you been? I was, uh…” She gulps, “Looking for you! Mudkip too – did he go with you to… wherever you went?”

Myzi’s response comes out automatic, and somewhat robotic. “The four of us went out training. I wanted to see what Kai could do, so he went against Sumac while I went against Mudkip. Mudkip went back to his area early, but the three of us talked for a bit on our way back.”

Kai closes his eyes as Zoo responds, “…Cool! What’d ya talk about?”

It takes a moment for Myzi to respond, so Sumac steps up in her place. “Kai asked a few questions about how things worked – general stuff, and we helped answer ‘em whenever necessary. Myzi had a few questions she’d asked him too, mainly to see uh…” She side-eyes the deino, frowning, “…She wanted to see how he’d do in comparison to Mudkip.”

Kai opens his eyes again to catch Myzi biting her lip.

“…Interesting. Um, were you… planning on doing anything after?”

Kai shrugs, and the other two shake their heads.

“I’ll leave you guys to… whatever else you might do then, but uh… can I talk to you for a bit, Kai?”

Kai just nods, rising slowly with a stretch and a yawn. Sumac jumps onto Myzi’s back, staring at Kai for a long moment before they turn away, headed towards the guild.

Kai looks away.

“So. I kinda just want to talk to you for a bit, um… here – can I just bring you to my room for a bit? Well- first, is there anything you want to do? I don’t mind-”

Kai’s eyes narrow slightly. He quickly interrupts her, “Whatever works for you. Ya don’t have to spoil me, y’know.”

‘If anything, I’d rather just be treated like I don’t exist for these first few days so I can actually get my crap together in peace. Don’t think that’d really have been an option either way though.’

“A-alright. If that works for you, then follow me…!”

‘Ehhh. …That’s… probably bit of a stretch actually. Nevermind.’

She sets off, and Kai follows slowly behind, mind going numb as he lets his eyes wander.

Within a quick few moments, they make it to her room. It’s far bigger than the rooms Kai’d seen so far.

He would’ve made a comment on it, but he doesn’t need to learn more things right now if he doesn’t have to.

Zoo answers the unspoken question regardless, “Ah, room might be a bit bigger than you’re used to, I’m technically part of a team of 3, and we usually share this room. I am the, uh… I’m the technical third member of the guildmaster’s official team, but them and their assistant both have a room to themselves so this one’s mostly used for guests.”

Kai’s attention strays a bit away from the conversation. “Cool.”

She sits down, shifting around uncomfortably in a wooden-crafted chair as the quilava lays himself down in a hay bed.

“…Might as well get this out now… What did-… Are you doing alright?”

With the question, he’s drawn right back in, albeit hesitantly.

He stretches again. “…? …I mean, sure. Nothing to really not feel ‘alright’ about. Today was quite a bit more than I was expecting so far, but otherwise I’m fine. Just a bit tired now.”

“…Was Myzi telling the truth back there?”

Kai closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, counts to 5, and lets it out.

“We definitely did more than what was said. I’ll… I did learn a lot from what we did at least, but my brain’s kinda… fried.”

“…Oh. …Would you be willing to say what you did?”

‘…Damn it.’

He perks up slightly in mild annoyance, eyes opening just the tiniest bit to glare at a piece of hay in front of him. “…Something we… probably shouldn’t have…? I’d just… say wait to see if Myzi or one of the other two tells you. …I dunno.”

“Th- hah… That’s… okay. Fair enough, I suppose.”

She frowns. “…Just… If they… don’t let them go too far, I guess. I don’t believe Myzi’s gone too far with anything yet, but neither she nor Sumac really tell me enough to confirm that fact. So… If they go too far, just… let me know. Or let someone else know. Alright?”

“…Sure.”

She takes a deep breath, looking out the window.

“Okay. I’ll let you go, but if you need something, just ask around. Someone’ll probably be willing to help out. You’re free to stay and sleep here too, if you want.”

Kai sits up. “Alright. …Um, is there, like… a research… place? Don’t know what you’d call it, but like… just a place where I could look into stuff on my own?”

She tilts her head, “We’ve… got a library, that’ll probably fit your needs. That’s, um… Mudkip goes there a lot. Has a good amount of writings about random stuff. Non-fiction is the area you’re probably looking for, fiction stuff is made-up. I personally can’t say if there’re any good books in there – I’m not much of a reader, and there aren’t too many books there regardless – but there’s bound to be at least one or two good ones.”

“Mhm.”

“It’s… located on the lower floor; just go down the stairs at the back corner in the cafeteria. Farth… From where you’d walk in, it’d be directly across from you, I guess.”

“Cool, thanks.”

“No problem!”

She gives a tense wave and he gives a half-hearted salute back before meandering towards where she’d directed. While he’s not totally sure where the cafeteria is from the room, he makes it without much issue, bar a wrong turn or two.

As he enters the cafeteria, he can’t keep his eyes from staring at the piled-up fruits, and his stomach makes the incentive obvious by growling at him.

He doesn’t take the bait however, shaking his head.

As he forces himself past the needless mental barrier and past the stairs, he doesn’t let himself ponder why he’d done that, and instead guides himself towards where he’d originally intended.

He gently hops down the final stair, finding the library easily – indicated as being the only room down there having something akin to natural light.

He briefly wonders if he’s allowed to be down there without explicit permission, before promptly dismissing his concern with an annoyed huff.

The library is… small, though he really wouldn’t know what to expect. Two shelves, the one labeled ‘non-fiction books’ having probably thirty or so ‘books’, as the name defines them as, and the other, ’fiction books’, having a measly twelve.

The room itself is stuffy, natural light streaming through a little rectangular cut in the corner of the ceiling. The shelves are on the opposite side of the room and elevated slightly though, so Kai can only assume it’s worked out fine when the occasional natural disaster comes around.

There’s only one table with three seats, and he takes one for himself, wincing at the chair’s quiet creak.

Then, he closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath, holds it for 10 seconds, lets it out, and waits, leaving his mind empty for as long as he can manage.

He knows he can’t do it forever, but it’s just nice to relax his mind for a few minutes… or however long he can force himself to do it.

His stomach, greedy as ever, brings him out of that flow with a bellow. He winces, looking at the exit for a moment before redirecting his attention to the shelves, looking for a distraction.

His scanning eyes ultimately drift towards the non-fiction shelf, and land on a book titled ‘Mystery Dungeons – A History’.

He quickly bookmarks the title in the back of his mind before letting his stomach take over his mind, carrying the rest of him into the cafeteria in what feels like a single blink. He manages to stop himself before he grabs his first apple however, looking around to see if anyone’d noticed.

…Nobody in the room does. Casual conversations continue, the room’s occupants continue eating their food, and only the quieter ones lay a curious eye on him. Even they don’t seem to care, though.

He grabs himself an apple and moves to where he’d sat with Zoo the previous day, keeping his eyes glued to the apple as he sits himself.

The apple’s gone in seconds, but his stomach yearns for more. He reluctantly obliges, though with more confidence this time.

Four apples disappear from the pile before his stomach is finally satisfied. He feels a bit bad taking from something that isn’t his, but he was admittedly hungry.

‘…Wonder if that was a habit of mine… putting others’ needs in front of mine. For food specifically, at least.‘

He stares at the apple pile as many moments pass, before turning away to head back towards the library.

‘Wouldn’t be able to say.‘

He lets out a light yawn as he picks out the book he’d remembered, setting it on the table and himself in a seat with a deep sigh.

The book itself doesn’t seem too thick, but he figures it’d take him multiple sessions to read through the full thing if he does actually decide to read it.

…Or he could just skim through the entire thing in one sitting.

…

At what he processes as around thirty minutes later, he puts the book back on the shelf with a scowl. None of the others catch his attention, and he leaves without gaining much of anything.

‘…Not even worth reflecting on.’

He shakes his head as he climbs the stairs again, entering into a… commotion.

Not a big one, but enough to gather a small crowd. Not a big enough one for Kai to care either – just some scuffle over something he doesn’t hear enough to know anything about.

An explosion startles him before he can leave the room, followed by loud shouting from the fighters and a few spectators.

He leaves the room, still frustrated and tired, and returns to his room.

Myzi was apparently waiting, once again chatting up her partner. Kai’s pace falters, and he stops a few feet in front of them.

Sumac catches on quickly, though her expression immediately turns sour as she whispers to Myzi.

The deino herself seems back to her normal self, however.

“Yo Kai! Can we talk for a bit about something?”

The quilava takes a step back, flicking an ear unconsciously. His eyes track up to it for a brief moment in interest. “Is this about what I told Zoo?”

“Um…” She falters, but continues, “No…? She hasn’t talked to us about anything yet. Not what I care about right now, and I’ll keep this short for now. Mudkip apparently heard something I’d said earlier about wanting to join the guilds, and he said that he was interested! Figured I could ask the same question to you. Honestly, that was kinda my goal with the run we did earlier in general, but yeah.”

He takes another step back, but tilts his head in confusion. “…Yeah… I remember you mentioning that I think, but… what would we even do? Besides, like, going in dungeons or whatever.”

She grins, “Ahh, there’s a ton of things. Biggest benefit is that we can do things every day without being bored. Or mostly bored. I dunno. There’d be a lot to do there, and the guilds are pretty good at assigning daily jobs. Heard the training’s pretty good too – gotten better since it’s first started from what ‘mons have said.”

“And… fighting…?”

“Fighting’s a thing, too. Pretty sure that’s the step after introductory stuff, anyways – finding a suitable trainer for ya. We’d be able to figure that out as we went along. So! Are you interested?”

“What are… all the things I’d be doing in the guilds? I read a book that kinda went over the history of stuff, but it really didn’t-”

“You can ask Zoo about stuff when we inevitably tell her of our choice. To keep it simple, there’s an introductory week-long thing, fight training, item-crafting, exploring and medicinal stuff. Then ya can choose to focus in one of those four areas, or ya can switch between.”

“Are we… When would we tell Zoo if I say yes?”

“I mean, as soon as we get Mudkip, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to ask her about it right away. Hell – we might be able to leave for the other guild today! I’ll take that as you saying yes?”

‘...Someone’s memory’s a bit shallow.” His eyes drift to the goomy on her head, who… doesn’t look very happy.

“Can you give me, like… uh… can we talk with Zoo about this before we come to a final decision?”

Myzi twitches. “Sure. Just – wait here. I’ll get her and Mudkip.”

She leaves, and Kai settles himself against the wall in tired annoyance. ‘…So we start again.’

He doesn’t let himself wonder what the best option is, and just lets his legs carry him to his hay bed.

He takes a deep breath, and takes the small three or so minutes he has to close his eyes, and turn his brain off.

3 minutes isn’t as long as he’d like it to be, but any time to himself is better than none as their voices ramble into existence from down the hall.

“…-planning on joining the guilds, and Mudkip’s already said yes. Kai said he was interested too, and-… oh, he’s probably just inside his room – but when do you think we’d be able to leave?”

Four creatures Kai’s come to be familiar with turn into his room.

Zoo cuts in front and leans on the doorway, blocking the other three from entering. “I’d rather… confirm that everyone’s good with this. After all, there’ve only been two of you who’ve outright said that you’ve wanted to go. You and Mudkip.”

Myzi shrugs with a light frown, jostling one of the two in question, “Pretty sure everyone’s fine with it, but go ahead.”

She looks into the room, eyeing Kai’s near-unconscious form before frowning and looking up to the goomy of the group. “…Sumac, do you want to join the guilds?”

The goomy shuffles around on Myzi’s back anxiously, looking down. “I mean…”

She stops, staring at the quilava. “…I’m honestly not that into the idea of joining the guilds, but like… as long as we don’t push things too far I’ll be fine.”

Myzi’s frown deepens, and Zoo nods in silence. All of them turn to Kai.

He glares at a piece of broken-off wood stuck in the wall, answer muffled by his bed, “What Sumac said. I ‘unno.”

His ear twitches again, sending a shiver down his spine. He holds it down with a paw in annoyance.

Many mouths open, but Myzi’s is the first to sound out, “You aren’t interested in joining the guilds?”

The quilava lifts his head up, “Um… sure, it’s an interesting thing, but like… I’m still figuring stuff out.”

“It’d probably help-”

“Myzi,” Zoo interrupts.

“-…”

…

Kai doesn’t like the attention, so he directs his own elsewhere. Mudkip looks indifferent to all this, while Sumac just looks drained, though he can see where that came from.

He feels that way too.

The quilava lets himself simply shrug, eyes rolling back to the Azumarill.

“Like I said, what Sumac said. Um… could we give it a few hours, before we leave though, at least…? If… we’re leaving at all, or that soon.”

She stares at him for a moment longer, before slowly turning back to the others, frown still holding strong on her face.

“…You two are good with joining the guild, right?”

Kai’s gaze slithers to the ground, matching Sumac in answering with a droning “Sure.”

She waits for a moment, looking between Kai and Sumac for a couple of seconds, before sighing.

“If you’re sure… then when do you want to leave? We can either go a few hours from now, or we can wait till tomorrow morning.”

Nobody says anything, and Zoo’s attention follows that of everyone else’s as they all fall to Kai.

His ear twitches again in spite of him holding it down.

“You’re leaving it up to me again…? Uhhh… We can go earlier, if you guys want. No point in putting it off if we don’t have to, I guess.”

Zoo looks unsatisfied, but gives a smile despite that. “Alright. We can leave in… three hours? We’ll be traveling for quite a while though, fair warning.”

Myzi pipes up again for the first time in a bit, “How long?”

“Um… rough estimate, probably about three days. It’ll probably be pretty boring, but the continent’s quite sizeable. Me and maybe two or three others would be going with you too in case we run into any ferals along the way.”

Myzi smiles, jittering in her spot. Mudkip, though less obviously, does the same.

Zoo walks past them with a small smile on her face.

“I’m gonna go and get some stuff ready for the journey. If any one of you want to move it back to later, just let me know. You all, including the other two in the nursery, are my responsibility. I want you all to be happy. Got it?”

She gets two excited nods and one half-nervous one. Kai drifts off a little.

Zoo’s smile flickers, but she waves her temporary goodbye before walking away, leaving the four to themselves.

Mudkip quickly runs away to who-knows-where before Myzi can say a single word however, leaving it as just her, Kai and Sumac.

She puffs out her chest, “Why aren’t you guys excited about this? We’re going on a journey! That dungeon gave us a little peak at the world, but I… I just can’t wait! There is so much we can…-”

Her question quickly evolves into a ramble, unaware of Sumac jumping off her back, quietly making her way over to the half-dozing Kai.

The goomy hesitates, wincing her eyes shut, before forcing out a whisper, “Why’d… why aren’t… uh, how do you feel about this, Kai…?”

The quilava cracks an eye open, letting it look at Sumac for a moment before diverting it down. “…I dunno. Neutral, I guess.”

She stares at him for a moment, waiting for anything else, before leaning back a little. “You aren’t-… nevermind.”

She turns around to go back onto Myzi’s back, the deino having stopped ranting to probably listen in curiously.

Kai speaks up quietly, “I’m gonna… take a nap. If I’m not awake by then, just get someone to wake me up or whatever.”

He sees Sumac give a small nod while Myzi gives him a boisterous “I gotcha!” before they leave the room, leaving him in silence once again.

He rolls onto his back, looking out the window.

‘Ahhh… I don’t know whether to be excited or terrified…? Or do I really just not care about this.’

He blinks at a leaf drifting through the window, landing a few feet in front of him.

‘I don’t think I’m scared, but… am I?’

He crawls over to the leaf, flipping it over.

‘…Maybe I’m still processing this as a dream. …Well, if it isn’t. I still don’t know that for sure.’

He grabs the leaf, tracing over its lines with a claw.

‘I don’t even know what that would entail. But… I think I’m just not emotionally invested… or something. No clue at this point.’

He crumples the leaf up in his paw before haphazardly throwing it at the window. It doesn’t even make it halfway, the balled-up leaf rolling to a stop only a foot or two past his bed.

‘Getting harder and harder to pass this off as a dream, though. Everyone seems… mostly real, I think.’

He rolls over to face away from the window.

‘…Ah, not really worth thinking about. Concerns for later, if I’m still here when I next wake up. Probably will be, but that possibility’s always there.’

He closes his eyes, curling up, and can’t keep a smile off his face, though he isn’t initially sure why. He opens his eyes again to almost instinctively look at the doorway again, remembering the little adventure they went on.

‘…Maybe I am having a little fun here, though.’

With that final thought, he closes his eyes, and manages to fall asleep within a few minutes, a light smile still on his face.