Chapter 5 – Starless

At the prodding of his side, the quilava drifts into consciousness with a puff of air.

As he opens his eyes, putting a paw down to raise his head, he stops at the sight of a vaguely familiar individual.

Recognition hits him quickly, though not completely. He looks away in embarrassment with a masking frown of confusion as the riolu in front of him tilts its head just the slightest bit, face neutral.

“Kai. Zoo told me to wake you up.”

His memories of his time in this world spiral up and around and, with a bit of mental prodding and guesswork, he puts a name to a face. Kai turns back to the riolu.

“…Paws?”

The riolu leans back, head held high to look down at the quilava almost regally. “They’re all in the guildmaster’s quarters. I’ll bring you there. But, firstly, can I ask a question?”

Kai’s head and eyelids droop slightly, but he nods.

“Why are you joining the guilds?”

Now it’s Kai’s turn to tilt his head, shifting right back to attention.

“…Is there something… wrong with them or something?”

The riolu hesitates, “No… not that I’m… aware of. I’m just surprised at how quickly you’ve committed to it. You didn’t answer the question though.”

‘…Committed?’

The quilava blanches, breaking eye contact. “Oh… um, then I guess because Myzi recruited me and I didn’t want to say no…? Can I-”

The riolu’s eyes widen, and his pupils dilate, head-feeler things floating up. “How interested are you in fighting?”

Kai jerks back at the qurstion, “-…I mean, I’d be fine learning, I guess. I’m not the most interested, but… um…”

The riolu’s eyes close. “Continue.”

“…I don’t really have anything else to say…? Though, can I ask-”

He quietly interrupts me again with a whisper, “Nothing…”

“…What?”

His head-feelers drop and his eyes open, staring at Kai dully.

“I don’t think you’d be a good fit as a guild member.”

…

…

…

“How the fuck am I supposed to react to that?”

Paws blinks in surprise at Kai’s hiss of a response, before going back to his annoyingly dismissive, neutral stare. Kai’s stomach churns.

“I, as a riolu, have the ability to see the aura of any individual which is, in a way, a measure of potential. For you, though, I can’t see-“

“Just like Myzi?”

Paws’s stare falters, if only out of confusion.

“Are… you trying to call me blind?”

Kai himself falters, “No – fuck, spoke too early – she can’t… what were you going to say?”

“…I can’t see any aura readings coming from you.”

Kai clicks his tongue. “Thaat’s what she said. Something like that at least. Kinda. I don-”

“-She… can’t. …Why then…? …”

Paws puts a palm to his head, closing his eyes in thought.

With a second of waiting, his eyes snap open, before he once again goes back to his neutral expression.

“Follow me.”

The riolu’s body turns around, eyeing Kai with mild curiosity before his head follows suit. Kai falls into step just short of being beside him.

Kai feels a small smirk on his face, “Is this your way of motivating me to do better at the guilds, or something?”

“Um, no. You’re being impulsive, so I’m making sure you actually think about this.”

“…Oh.”

Kai’s confidence wavers. ‘…Am I being impulsive?’

Paws turns back to Kai again, eyes calculating. “You’re a fire-type, correct?”

Kai nearly runs into him, nodding immediately before second-guessing himself once again. The riolu doesn’t notice, ‘hmm’s, and they continue.

They make it to a few steps away from the guild’s exit before Kai realizes they miiight not be going towards the guildmaster’s quarters.

“Um… Paws? Where are you bringing me?”

The riolu doesn’t speak, continuing through the exit. He stops when he notices that Kai’d stopped just inside, turning around. They get a few stares from some of those in the cafeteria behind them.

Paws takes a deep breath.

“What fire-type moves do you know then, Kai?”

“…”

Kai cowers, shivering.

“None that I’m aware of…?”

“Do you know how to generate fire?”

Kai shakes his head, sparing a glance behind him.

Who he sees surprises him, and Paws’s eyes narrow ever-so-slightly.

“What are you doing, Paws?”

“…Whatever do you mean, Myzi?”

The deino fumes. “Why the fuck did Zoo assign you to wake him up? …Well, I was on my way to pick up food for our little trek that’ll be happening in like fifteen minutes, and find myself coming across you trying to lead Kai out of the guild, grilling him about stupid unimportant nonsense. I ask again: what are you doing?”

Kai takes a step away from the conflict and Myzi takes two forwards, nearly taking the quilava’s place. In a way, she does.

“Why do you want to join the guilds with Kai?”

“I-…” she spares a headturn in Kai’s direction. “Did you tell him about… y’know… earlier?”

Kai says “Uhh… no…?”, and she nods, turning back.

“I want to have a rival. Kai seems like a great option for me specifically.”

Paws leans against the guild exit’s frame, neutral stare ever-present.

“And what qualities make him that ‘rival’ for you?”

“Are you really going to make me spell it out for you?”

“I don’t want you putting someone through something they can’t handle, Myzi.”

“Yes, and you’ve got a great way of going about it too!~ With your judging fucking stare and overly blunt tone.”

“I’m just telling him-“

“I have my reasons, Paws.”

Kai pipes up, though reluctantly, “I-if it gets to be too much for me, I can just quit, right? C-come back here or whatever?”

Myzi scowls, and Paws doesn’t move. They otherwise ignore his question.

“I read his aura. He doesn’t-“

Myzi grits her teeth in an angry grin, letting out a cackle, “I’m well aware, dumbass. That’s the fucking reason.”

That gets a reaction out of Paws, who stares at her like she’d grown a second head.

“Wha-what? Why!? Isn’t-“

“Don’t care. I know what I’m doing, and I’m not explaining it to you of all pokemon. Figure it out yourself.” She then whisks around approximately back to facing Kai, “C’mon. I’m grabbing a couple apples for the journey, can you grab some too?”

The riolu holds a paw out to stop them, “Wait-“

Kai shrinks back a little at being addressed, looking between her and the riolu before nodding with a shaky “S-sure…?”

“Great.”

Myzi starts trotting away, just about leaving Kai in the dust as he’s forced to catch up.

Paws watches from the guild entrance solemnly.

At the food pile, Myzi speaks up again, “Paws has a damn log up his ass I swear to […]. I hate him so much sometimes.”

He doesn’t register the small buzz in his mind as he begins picking up berries, turning his head to Myzi. “What is… Why hasn’t he joined the guild yet?”

She growls, “Never told me, never bothered to ask. Pompous ass is probably looking for someone with ‘the perfect aura’ or something fantastical like that. I fully expect him to still be rotting away in the daycare area when we graduate.”

“…”

Kai manages to fit 10 berries on his back alongside Myzi’s 6. He flinches as a question once again comes to the forefront of his mind, nearly dropping some of the berries, but he keeps it to himself for later.

They begin to leave the cafeteria, and Kai catches the riolu’s eyes. Paws looks… worried.

Kai tears his gaze away as he realizes that he’d frozen in place, continuing quickly on.

The quilava doesn’t quite know what to make of the riolu’s perspective.

---

Kai and Myzi arrive at the guildmaster’s room within two minutes, Myzi confidently (and somewhat aggressively) leading the way. She announces her presence by loudly dropping the apples on the floor, startling two of the creatures in the room – both of which Kai recognizes.

As the Mudkip and Goomy recuperate, Kai drops his haul on top of hers, though quieter, as he counts to himself the number of bodies in the room.

The guildmaster looks at him curiously with a small smile while Zoo casts a quiet glare at the deino. Kai doesn’t remember what species the guildmaster is, nor can he put a name to her.

She speaks up in a soothing voice, “Glad to see you, Kai!” She nods at the deino with a quiet mumble of something similar before turning back to him, “You ready for this?”

Kai plants himself down, frowning as he lets his mind linger on the riolu for a moment longer than he’d like. “Sureee.”

The guildmaster doesn’t dwell on his slight hesitation, instead grabbing some small bag made of leaves from atop her desk after saying “Okay! Cool. Now, for the trip, Zoo and I worked a bit to get together a few traveling herbs that’ll hopefully fill you all up and give you energy for quite a while. They’re a bit bitter, but they shouldn’t be too bad tasting.”

She drops it in his paws. “You don’t need to eat it right away either, just when you get hungry. Or if you start getting tired early, though I’ll assume you guys will probably stop a bit early anyways considering its already a bit later in the day.”

She steps away from him, turning to the two in the room Kai doesn’t remember seeing. One’s on four legs with vibrant yellow and blue eyes and alternating black and white stripes as fur color, while the other stands on two with red and white fur plus a slim tail with a flickering flame at its tip.  

“Now, these two will be guiding you guys to the western guild. They’ve been back and forth quite a few times, since that’s their primary guild anyways, so feel free to ask them whatever questions you may have.”

Zoo’s the first one to speak up, turning to the two as well, “What do you guys call yourselves by? And if not by species, what species of Pokémon are you, if I might ask?”

The one with stripes speaks for their duo, “We just go by our species’ names. I’m Zebstrika, and my partner here’s Monferno. We graduated… I think like three or so months ago from this place…? That sounds right.”

The now-defined monferno hovering behind him smiles. “Yeah, was three months ago. And I was honestly noooot that confident. Pretty sure we barely passed this place’s test, considering-“

The Zebstrika scoots in front of his partner with a grimace, “Aaand we’re really glad to meet you guys! This is technically our first official guiding mission since we graduated.”

Kai pokes at the herb he’d been given a little before setting it on his back for later, not really paying attention to the guides. Myzi grits her teeth excitedly from beside him while Mudkip steps between paws in anticipation. The goomy wordlessly hops on the deino’s back, eating her own herb immediately with a shiver.

Zoo grabs a sack from the desk, fills it up with the apples Kai and Myzi had brought, and slings it over her shoulder as she turns back to the antsy zebstrika and his partner with a lopsided smirk. “…Cool! This is gonna be a pretty easy mission too I’d say – just come with us to the western guild, with the occasional hunt to gather what foods we might need, considering how long this’ll be. Wouldn’t want to jinx it, but we should be fine, just the 7 of us. Don’t think we’ll be needing to enter any dungeons either unless something pops up for some reason, and even then none of the dungeons along the way are exceptionally dangerous, bar like one or two of ‘em.”

She turns her head to Kai for a moment, before looking back at the two. “Let’s just keep this whole thing simple and easy, yeah? The sun’ll be down in only a few hours so we won’t be traveling long, but today’ll be a good test run regardless to see what we should be aware of. I’m sure the two of you have been on guiding missions like this already?”

The zebstrika nods, as does his partner.

“Great! Also considering how dark it gets at night, having a fire-type as a guide is gonna be an […]-send for us.”

Kai’s ear flicks in annoyance.

The azumarill, unperturbed, turns to the four soon-to-be guild members, the meganium behind her smiling, “So! You four ready? We’ll head out when you all say so.”

Mudkip nods his head like a jackhammer as Myzi gives the azumarill a feral grin. The goomy gives a slow nod, eyes tracking Kai as he spaces out. When a light shiver runs up his spine, he nods with wide eyes before once again bringing his attention elsewhere.

‘So… my brain is censoring references to this place’s God, I guess. Or it’s one of those things that’s ‘impossible for the human mind to process’, or whatever.’

He glares at the ground, missing the azumarill’s final question.

‘That feels… like something I don’t think I’m ready to fully think about yet.’

He jumps back in surprise as the deino whizzes past him.

Looking around slightly shakily, he briefly makes eye-contact with the azumarill before getting a small headache again, turning away to wait for the deino to return, as he assumes is what is going to happen.

His assumption is correct, as she returns around thirty seconds later with Sumac still on her back, and a necklace around her neck, some random small purple gem hanging from it. Nobody thinks to ask about it as she shouts a quick “ready!”

Zoo gives a simple smile, joining the deino and goomy at the room’s entrance. “Alright! Let’s head out then.”

They exit the guildmaster’s office with a wave from the guildmaster, Kai taking his spot in the makeshift line in front of the two ‘guides’ and behind Mudkip. He instinctively feels that he’s being watched by one or both of those guides, but he doesn’t turn around to confirm that fact, just continuing on through and to the outside of the guild.

They pass by Paws on the way out, and nobody bats an eye.

---

The walking is nothing new to Kai, considering they’d done something similar quite literally that same day, though this time feels a little easier since their primary guide in this case, Zoo, picked out a well-known route for them to take. She’d said it would take a bit longer to reach the guild with that route, but that it was far safer than the alternatives. Myzi made to argue, but thought better of it.

Kai briefly wonders about the lack of obstacles on this route, casting a light glare at the deino, but the thought quickly leaves his mind.

The guides assigned to them kept to themselves, mainly just chatting with one another about random topics that Kai didn’t pay too much attention to. Stuff they’ll be doing in the future, new graduation tests, and a few passing mentions of the group they’re currently with.

Myzi’s whisper-talk with Sumac is somehow just as loud, so the two separate conversations jumble together in his mind well enough to merge into what he’d just barely consider ambiance to mindlessly listen along to as night slowly approaches and as their trek continues onwards.

He blinks out of his stupor around thirty minutes into their travels as the group behind him mentions his name, and his ears perk up slightly.

They do so again and he turns his head around curiously.

“…Yeah?”

Monferno scratches his neck with a guilty-looking grin, “Sooo uh… I’ve been kinda wondering about this for a bit, but you are a fire-type, right? I think I know your species n’ all and they’re fire types, but… yeah, just curious.”

Kai turns his head back around, giving a sniff as his mind wanders back once again to his brief talk with Paws.

“…I’ve been told I’m a fire-type, I guess.”

The monferno waits for more, and when he doesn’t get more he frowns. “…So, are you?”

Kai looks back again, foot catching on a root that causes him to stumble a little. He turns back around, glaring at his feet, “Ask Zoo. I dunno.”

The monferno stares at him for a few moments longer before going back to talk quietly with his partner. Kai blows out a quick breath as their journey continues, the sky getting darker and darker.

Zoo suddenly turns around, and Kai nearly runs into the Mudkip in front of him, stomach grumbling. He takes the herb from off his back and quickly pops it in his mouth, and grimaces immediately. It tastes terrible, but he manages to get it down before it can sit for too long on his tongue.

It doesn’t even feel like much.

From the front of the party, Zoo’s voice sounds out, “There’s a campground area a little ways off the path from here. There should be some firewood ready for us, but yeah. Just follow me, and try not to trip.”

They make a 90-degree turn to the right, and walk through some trees. Kai ends up tripping again, but catching himself when walking on four legs is probably easier.

And as they slowly make their way to the site, the sky begins to glow orange, then minutes later, a dark ocean green. When he would finally be able to see the logs and burnt patches on the ground of previously started fires, he’s momentarily blinded as the monferno rushes past him, tail waving inches in front of his face.

Kai stops to blink his vision clear of the flashbang-induced white spots before moving to join the others at the closest of the three or so ‘gathering spots’, as he’ll define them.

Not that he could really see them at all, nearly tripping over the log Mudkip had sat himself next to simply because he couldn’t see.

The azumarill points out some firewood for the monferno, who brings it to the center of their little setup, sets them on an already burnt spot, and flicks his tail over to the firewood, watching as it lights up the area around them more before settling on a log next to his partner. Kai flinches at the sudden burst of light once again, turning his attention upwards.

Something picks at his brain when he sees the absolute lack of anything in the sky. No clouds, no… whatever else his memory decided to conveniently block out.

Looking back down again, he turns his gaze once again away from the fire, and towards the azumarill sitting just beside him and Mudkip. He opens his mouth just the slightest bit, but doesn’t say anything. The azumarill in question sees him, waits to see if he’d say anything, before frowning and turning to the rest of the group with a smile. 

“Dunno how tired everyone is, but I’m feeling pretty awake right now. Might as well ask, since you completed the guild circuit n’ all – do you guys have any stories you’d like to tell? Considering these four-“ she gestures to the four soon-to-be’s, “-will be starting at the guilds in a few days regardless. Could give ‘em a little picture of something to expect. Or not! Whatever you choose. Just – heh – just don’t scare ‘em away. I don’t think I’ve heard too many horror-“

Monferno pops up in his seat, his tail crackling alongside the fire he’d started, “Ooh! I’ve got one! Zeb! Remember that one Pokémon in the desert?”

The zebstrika in question groans. “Yes, I do. Specifically because I had to drag your monferno body halfway across a desert while still being a blitzle. I also recall we took the next week off because of that encounter.”

Kai doesn’t acknowledge the blip in his knowledge, and the monferno helps him distance his mind from it by egging the zebstrika on, “Why don’t you tell the story, then? Or I could tell it up until I got knocked out, and you could tell the rest?”

Zebstrika chuffs. “Sure. Second option.”

“Cool!”

The group leans forward in interest as the monferno starts, “So! Me and Zeb were walking through the desert, on a delivery mission if I recall. Don’t remember the item, though that doesn’t really matter.

“On our way, was veeeery hot, Zeb was kinda losing it honestly-“ “-No I wasn’t. I wanted water, and you thought I was hallucinating for some reason so you shoved one of our few oran berries into my mouth.” “So yeah, it was very hot… heheh.

“After a while, we found some battle skid marks in the sand, presumably some feral versus feral action. As someone who loves battling, I wanted to follow the tracks, but my partner told me that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I forgot why-“ “-Fire-types and electric-types don’t do too good in deserts.” “-…Yeah. That.

“A few minutes later regardless, we ended up finding yet another set of battle marks on the ground, with the accompanying ferals. One was a… one was a gabite…? I think.”

The zebstrika nods.

“Yeah. One was a gabite, and the other was some cactus thing with big ears. Someone’s probably noted something about it somewhere, but I dunno. We didn’t really look too much into it, just told the guilds about it and moved on. Anyways- yeah. Gabite and cactus thing battling it out, and the cactus thing was pretty much running circles around the dragon. Crazy part? It didn’t even have any legs. Within 10 seconds of us arriving at the scene of battle, the thing knocked it out, too. Neither of us really even saw what it did, but one moment the gabite’s up and fighting, the next it’s out cold, the cactus thing wiping dragon blood off its arms on the ground. Was kinda badass.”

Kai’s eyes narrow.

Zoo pops in, leaning back a little. “What color was it? I think I might’ve heard of it, actually.”

The monferno’s eyes widen. “Oh? Um… It was green, and it had yellow eyes. No legs, looked like a cactus, yeah.”

A small smile comes to the azumarill’s face. “That might be a maractus, then.”

“How do you-“

“We can talk about it tomorrow sometime. Continue, if ya want.”

“Oh! Sure. I’ll have a few things to ask you about, actually.”

He looks at Kai for the briefest of moments before focusing back on the story, “So – maractus, I’ll just call it that – turned to us. Its zigzaggy smile looked terrifying, honestly. It said something I don’t remember, then it just knocked me out, pretty much. Zeb?”

The zebstrika’s eyes, half-closed, snap to attention. “Y-yeah?”

“What’d the ‘maractus’ say?”

“Mara… Oh! It pretty much saw Monferno as another Pokémon to battle, and knocked him out in one hit. I don’t remember what it said exactly. No blood of his was shed, thankfully, and the thing pretty much just let us go after that. I carried Monferno over to the nearest campsite, which took like two hours, considering how tired I already was, and we ended up calling for a rescue ‘cuz there wasn’t much we could’ve done from there.”

Sumac asks a question herself, “How does rescuing work? I haven’t really seen what’s done to get that info from one place to another.”

“Ah!” The zebstrika suddenly gains a bit of energy, turning to Monferno, “You brought one of those with you today, right?”

The monferno frowns at the zebstrika’s shortening of events, but regardless takes out the item.

From what Kai can see, it just looks like some sort of seed.

The zebstrika continues on regardless with a gleam in his eye, “It’s actually coincidentally part of the next task we were assigned, but yeah. When we needed that help, there was just a ‘mon stationed at every other campsite, and there was food and water provided at the sites, so ‘mons could afford to wait. Now, however…”

The monferno holds up the seed with a feral grin, continuing for his partner, “This baby right here is a far better solution than that, and doesn’t need us to have a pokémon at literally every campground. Basically, it-“

Across from him, Myzi yawns, and the yawn is contagious. The fire weakens a little as well so Zoo throws another piece of firewood on it.

“We can go over what the seeds do in the morning. It is getting a bit late, and we should probably think about going to sleep to continue the trek in the morning, yeah?”

The monferno makes to say something as the zebstrika pouts, but they concede as the monferno puts the seed back in his bag. “We doing watches?”

The azumarill nods, “Yeah. I can take first watch and keep the fire running, if you two want to take later watches.”

“I’ll take second watch,” Monferno poses, and his partner nods in acceptance.

The azumarill drops her sack with a clap and a smile, “Alright! Wasn’t much of a traveling day, but I’d say we made some good progress. Everyone good to start back up at dawn?”

The group responds with a flurry of positive responses, and the azumarill reaches in her sack for a moment, taking out a few seeds of her own.

“Figure I could bring these with us just in case, but I brought a few sleep seeds in case you guys have trouble sleeping. For some of you,” she starts, looking between Kai and Mudkip, “I don’t know if you remember spending even a day sleeping outside of the guild, so I figure this might be helpful. Plus, having the energy when you wake up in the morning is always a plus. And, as long as you stay in sight of the campfire, you’re free to sleep wherever you want. I’ll be sitting on a log watching over the fire, if anyone needs me.”

With that, she puts the seeds back in the bag, sits down on the log, and the group scatters as Kai once again finds himself spacing out. Questions of various levels of importance circle around in his mind, but he’s quick to push them down when he realizes that it’s just him and Zoo sitting around the campfire now, others’ bodies just barely in view, quiet whispers echoing around the site.

Zoo turns to Kai with a sympathetic smile, “I figured you’d space out a bit. Have any questions you wanna ask me?”

The question nearly breaks down the dam of questions Kai’d built up in his mind, and he flounders for something to say. After a moment, with a calming sigh and a sheepish grin, he asks, “Can I… can I have one of the sleep seeds?”

She nods, opening the bag and handing Kai one. “If ya need anything, feel free to talk to me whenever you want. We’ve got a good two or three days of traveling ahead of us, so this should be some help in getting your thoughts together, yeah?”

With a nod of thanks and confirmation, Kai settles himself behind a log, eating the sleep seed in one big bite.

It tastes minty.