Chapter 4: The Cave!

“Well well, & just what are a pair of brats doing here in my cave?”

Eric & Riley both turn to the figure now approaching them, after Riley had barely managed to save Eric from what could have been a dangerous ambush. Said figure approaches the pair as the dust settles, revealing their form more clearly. They were somewhat tall, taller than both Eric & Riley at the very least, with large silver, claw-like hands & a similarly silver horn on their head, along with various red markings along their belly & back. This was none other than an Excadrill, & they looked pissed.

“Oh! Uhhh, H-Hey.” Riley gives a tiny wave as he & Eric take a couple steps back. “Yeah so uhh, really sorry about this. We were just-”

Riley gets cut off mid sentence as the Excadrill takes a mighty stomp forward, making the two smaller Pokemon jump back a little in response.

“Just what? Trying to break into someone else’s personal property & steal their shit?!” The Excadrill snaps at them.

“N-No no! That’s not it at all!” Eric stammers in response, his ears flatten to his head, growing more & more anxious by the second. Riley on the other hand, grew more defensive rather than anxious, his hands tensing somewhat into fists.

“Look! We had no idea there was anyone else here. Umm, someone else, an acquaintance of ours told us to come down here, we’re trying to prove ourselves as an explorer team you see. So, would it be okay if we could take a piece of that crystal cluster behind you? You let us do that, & we’ll be on our way!” Eric spoke, trying to be as calm as he could in this situation. However as he spoke, the Excadrill only seemed to grow more & more irate as he heard the Eevee speak.

“Really? You expect me to believe some bull crap like that!? Hate to break it to ya brats, but no one who’s come into this cave of mine comes back out!” The Excadrill exclaims.

Marco, who had been listening intently from within Eric’s mind let’s out a little scoff. “Seriously? This clown just decided to lay claim to some random cave that’s barely a mile outside of town? Who the heck is this guy?” He says, to which Eric lightly shushes.

“Hey! You be quiet! You’re not the one staring up at an angry Excadrill-clown or otherwise!” Eric utters under his breath. As he does though, the Excadrill gets even more pissed.

“WHAT’D YOU CALL ME!?” The Excadrill yells, then lunges at Eric, intending to spear the Eevee with his claws, making Eric yelp in fright, but he gets suddenly pushed out of harm’s way by Riley, who with quick thinking, shoves Eric away with one hand, then with the other, had gathered some aura around his hand & managed to push the Excadrill back with a force palm, a resounding bang resonating through the cavernous space as Riley jumps back, now with a noticeable spring in his step, & a firm glare behind his glasses.

“Hey! I dunno what you said exactly Eric, but I don’t think he’s in a talking mood anymore! Get ready!” Riley adjusts his glasses slightly then cracks his knuckles. “You know how to fight, right?”

Eric looked greatly concerned at first, then he took a couple small steps back. “I-Im sorry, I’ve never been in a fight before!” Eric shakes his head, & Riley turns his head back to Eric.

“Y-You serious?” Riley looks surprised as well, but then quickly shakes his head. “Ahh, don’t worry about it, just don’t get close to the guy! Leave that to me. See if you can’t get him at range or somethi-OH CRAP!” Riley gets cut off mid-sentence as a large rock comes flying at the both of them. Riley spins & dodges to the side while Eric barely dives away & flops onto the ground, the rock shattering to pieces between the two of them. “Alrighty then! Come on!” Riley hops in place twice, before rushing toward the Excadrill, who had another large rock in his other clawed hand, ready to throw.

With nimble speed, Riley runs up & thrusts another force palm forward, striking the Excadrill in the stomach who coughs out in shock. He drops the rock he was previously holding before he swings his claws at Riley in a downward arc. But with more of his natural dexterity, Riley sidesteps & spins, & strikes out with a third force palm, this one slamming into the Excadrill’s arm. Riley winces slightly as the arm seemed to be much harder than his previous blow.

“Nice try ya little bastard!” The Excadrill grins before swiping a claw to the side, smacking Riley across the cheek, making the Riolu stagger to the side before going for another swipe, to which Riley nimbly leans backward to avoid & flips backward on his hands to avoid.

As all this was happening, Eric was getting back to his feet, looking to see Riley appearing to square off against their opponent. “Ohh man, what do I do here? Marco, can’t you do anything?” Eric says in a nervous stammer. “I-I’ve never fought anything or anyone else before!”

“Geez kid, why are you asking me!? You’re the one in control here! Just fight!” Marco retorts.

“But how!? I don’t know any special moves or anything!”

“Oh gods above kid! Can ya stop being pathetic for two seconds!? You gotta know something! Just focus & do something! Hell, you need me to guide you or whatever?!”

There was a bit of silence from Eric, though he does nod his head.

“Oh. You really want me to guide you on how to fight? Ohhhh boy…” Marco let out a heavy sigh at this. “Ya know what? Maybe it’s best I do that actually. If you wind up getting turned into paste, I die too… can’t be having that. Alright! Get ready kid!” Marco’s tone shifts to a more serious one as opposed to his prior mix of condescension & slight concern at this Eevee’s complete lack of combat prowess.

“Alright kid, focus! Your friend there seems like he’s doing okay, so see about using the move swift! Ya gotta know at least that, right?” Marco says as Eric widens his stance a little bit.

“Uhh, okay okay. Focus… focus…” Eric closes his eyes & begins to concentrate.

As he does, Eric would continue to hear Marco’s voice speak to him.

“Okay, listen & listen good. If you’re gonna do this, you gotta do it right. If you think that you’re gonna be an explorer or whatever, traveling across the region & assume you’re not gonna fight? You’re gonna be in for a real disappointing time! Just look right in front of you!”

Eric opens his eyes to see Riley appearing to almost dance around the Excadrill, quick-stepping to & fro while his opponent would wildly swing his now metal infused claws. The Excadrill then slams his claws hard into the ground, tearing up a large chunk of earth & hurls it at Riley, who does a spinning leap backward, narrowly avoiding the hunk of earth that flew directly at him, though some shards graze his sides, making him wince a bit. As he spun back to his feet, Eric could see what looked to be small embers gathering around Riley’s feet.

“Uhhh, Riley!? Your feet!” Eric stammers, pointing to the embers.

“Don’t worry about it! You’re still gonna help me right!? No rush, but I figure I’d ask!” Riley exclaims as he then slides underneath another large rock that was thrown at him, then he dashes forward, pulling a feint going low, then lands a spinning high blaze kick across the Excadrill’s face, making him yell out in shock & pain.

“Ha! How was that!?” Riley seems to grin as he spins around once more, then jumps & goes for another blaze kick, but then gets struck hard by the metal claws from the Excadrill, slamming him to the ground, his grin instantly turning to a look of pain as he now laid on the ground, stunned somewhat. “Hey! E-Eric! Anytime now!” Riley exclaims before narrowly rolling away from a near stab of metal claws to his torso.

“Umm. R-Right! Just uhh, hang on!” Eric then closes his eyes again & tries to focus

“Oh! Hey here’s a thought kid, you know how that sister of yours could use swift to play the piano? Why not use that?” Marco asks.

“Wait what? I’ve never used swift to attack before! Is it an actual attack!?” Eric exclaims in his mind.

“You…..” Marco goes dead silent at this, before letting out the loudest, most agonizing groan a voice in an Eevee’s head could muster. “Are you SERIOUS kid!? Swift IS an actual attack! What did you think it was!?”

“I dunno! A means for ‘mons like Maya & I to do certain things!?” Eric then quickly shakes his head. “Okay, okay! So it’s an attack! So I can go help Riley now?”

“…YES!” Marco screams in indignation, making Eric stumble a bit. “GO HELP YOUR SOON TO BE POSSIBLY DEAD TEAMMATE ALREADY!”

“Okay okay! Just let me focus!” Eric replies before he begins to concentrate one more time.

“YOU SAID YOU WERE GONNA FOCUS LIKE THREE TIMES ALREADY!” Marco fires back.

Eric was about to make another retort, but then shakes his head & concentrates. Though said attempt at concentration gets quickly interrupted when he hears a loud grinding sound. Eric looks to see that there was a large hole in the ground in front of Riley, who had just missed another spinning blaze kick. “Damnit! He dug underground!” Riley says, clicking his tongue as he looks around. “Eric be careful! He could pop up anywhere! But I know how to find him.” Riley says as he then closes his eyes & tunes to his aura sense. He takes a deep breath as he waits & listens. Though after a moment, he gasps. “Eric watch out!” Riley would then hurry toward Eric & just barely push the Eevee out of the way, as the Excadrill seemed to drill up & out of the ground, his entire body rotating like a drill, intending to slam into Eric, but Riley winds up taking the brunt of the attack-throwing him hard to the ground.

“Ahh! Riley are you okay!?” Eric hurries over to the downed Riolu’s side, who clutches his chest in pain.

“Oww… I’m good, I think. Ohh wait, nope, I think something might have broken, that was a really strong hit. Yeah sorry… I’m about at my limit now.” Riley utters through gritted teeth. Eric went to say something else, but was stopped when he heard heavy footfalls approach. The Excadrill, looking noticeably bruised in certain places, stares down at the both of them.

“Well, how about that? Looks like you actually had a little more skill than I thought, brat.” The Excadrill says to Riley, wiping the corner of his mouth before shifting his gaze to Eric. “But now what about you? Little runt who stood off to the side. You said you were gonna be some explorer or whatever? Heh. Some teammate you are!” The Excadrill chortles at that, making Eric whimper to himself.

“Come on kid! Moment of truth right here! Ignore what the clown’s saying! Focus on whatever power you probably have! Hone in on it, & let it loose! He’s right in front of you!” Marco says, & Eric nods his head.

Eric narrows his gaze at the Excadrill as he then takes a deep breath, stepping over so he puts himself between the Excadrill & Riley. As he does, Riley & the Excadrill could both see for a moment, Eric’s tail begin to glow a soft white light.

The Excadrill chortles at the sight. “Ohhh lookie here! You finally decide to step up to the plate after that friend of yours is down for the count!? I shoulda figured. I’ll just turn you into a smear on the floor right now!” The Excadrill then raises his claws up with a wide grin, a hint of crimson dripped from the tips of his claws along with the gleam of metal shining briefly despite there being not much natural light in the cave, save for the reflecting bit of light from the crystal cluster.

“Okay…. Now kid! Go!”

Right as he was about to bring them down on the Eevee before him, Eric hears Marco call out to him & he just barely seems to jump away from the strike-the claws just barely manage to cut the Eevee’s cheek. And as he does, he swings his tail once & a barrage of glowing white stars shoot out from Eric’s tail, though strangely enough, there was a small tinge of black that mixed with the white of the stars as Eric’s swift stars shoot out, & bombard the Excadrill right in the face. He grunts over & over as each star slammed into him. Once the attack would subside, Eric let’s out a shout & swings his tail one more time, letting out a larger star fly out & smack into the Excadrill, knocking him off his feet & he flops onto his back, letting out a low groan as he seemed to now be down for the count.

“A-Are you finished? Can we go now?” Eric says, amidst some panting. The Excadrill merely groans in response.

“Urrgh… fine whatever, take what you want…. Here I thought it was just gonna be one…” The Excadrill mutters that final part under his breath before he lifts his claws up, then would crawl over to the hole he made previously, then he proceeds to slide into it & dig away.

Once he was gone, Eric heaved out a sigh. “That was really close.” Eric says before suddenly turning to Riley, who was in the process of sitting up. “Riley! Are you okay? I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you earlier!” Eric spoke quickly, hanging his head down.

“Hey, hey it’s alright. Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’ve taken a few hits in the past.” Riley says with an assuring nod. “It’s like you said, that was your first real fight wasn’t it? It’s okay. Besides, we’re teammates aren’t we? And teammates have each other’s backs.”

Eric stares at Riley, a look of surprise on his face, before the look turns to a smile & a nod of the head. “Yeah! You’re right. We’re teammates now.” He laughs a bit, alongside Riley before they both get interrupted by the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat.

“Hey! Are you two finished now?”

Eric & Riley both look back to see none other than Dante, who had a rather impatient look across his face.

“Seriously! How long is this simple task supposed to take, really?” Dante says, looking over the pair. “It was just go in, grab something remarkable, & get out. How in the world could you have gotten hurt?” He adds, to which Riley scoffs & gets back to his feet.

“Well maybe you try fighting an angry Excadrill who apparently laid claim to this place from the start!” Riley snaps at the Murkrow.

Dante goes quiet at that, appearing to mumble something to himself that Riley & Eric couldn’t quite catch. “But anyway, that aside. So how about it Dante? Still think Eric here doesn’t have what it takes to form an explorer team of his own?” Riley says, crossing his arms as he gives Dante a narrow gaze.

Dante surveys the area for a moment, noting the chunks of torn up ground, clusters of rock littering the area & the large hole in the ground. “Well, given how much of a battlefield this place looks compared to last time I was down here, I suppose I’ll believe you about this Excadrill. Fine, fine. If you two really could hold your own in a fight, then I guess maybe, just maybe you might have a chance in forming a team.” Dante says while he seems to grab something from within his wing & he tosses out two little objects at them both. Riley catches them, one by one & looks down to see they were blue looking berries, roughly the size of his fist.

“Oran berries?” Riley tilts his head at Dante, who looks away.

“Don’t question it. If you’re gonna go at this, you better know the right things to have.” Dante then turns & starts to make his way out.

“Wait a sec Dante! Do you still wanna join us?!” Eric suddenly pipes up, stepping next to Riley, who looks surprised at first.

Dante doesn’t say anything for a moment, not even turning his head to look at Eric.

“…Nah, I think you’ve got a better partner for now. Don’t go getting in each other’s way or whatever. See ya.” At that, Dante then makes his way out, leaving the two of them alone. However, such an answer only left Eric feeling unsatisfied as he then gives chase. “Hey! Dante hold up! I thought you wanted to team up with me-with us!” Eric says, hurrying after the Murkrow.

“What-Eric! Hang on a sec!” Riley quickly pops one of the oran berries in his mouth, feeling his energy getting restored at a much better rate before taking off after Eric.

The two hurry on out of the cave, not even bothering to collect any of the crystal they had initially come to acquire, eventually clambering out of the tunnel entirely, to find that Dante was unfortunately nowhere to be seen.

“He’s gone…” Eric trails off, looking rather disheartened.

“Hey, come on now kid, that Murkrow wasn’t worth it. He thought you were a total scrub before all this.” Marco chimes in. Eric sighs & shakes his head.

“I guess… but even still, before Riley, I still think he genuinely wanted to. I wanted Dante to know the door was still open.” Eric responds, to which Marco then sighs.

“Geez kid, that kind of attitude is what makes you a prime target to be taken advantage of. You know that right?”

“Well-” Eric gets cut off by a little tap on his back. He jumps a bit & turns to see Riley, having caught up to him.

“Hey! Sorry, had to slow down a bit coming back out of that tunnel. Looks like Dante went ahead & skedaddled.” Riley says, putting a hand on his hip. “Why’d you go out to follow him anyway? He clearly wanted to get moving on his own.” He asks, giving Eric an inquisitive look.

“Er, it’s like I said. I wanted to make sure Dante knew he still had a place, but he was already gone before I could say anything.” Eric responds, looking out toward the sky, which now was starting to bear a low, orange hue that was slowly dimming to a dark blue as the sun was setting for the day.

Riley then sighs & shrugs his shoulders. “Ehh, I guess… but would you really want Dante on our team? I feel like he’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Well, before you, he seemed like he really wanted to. And I still wanna give him that chance, even if he is a jerk.” Eric replies, before letting out a little yawn.

“Eh, I guess. But hey, why don’t we go back to town & get a place to sleep for the night? I know my gramps place is still open so we can go there, get some food, & treat that bleeding cut on your face.” Riley says, a small smile forming as he points to Eric’s cheek.

“Yeah, that sounds goo-wait, bleeding?”

Eric tilts his head slightly at that, before he reaches a paw up to his cheek & wipes it. And upon seeing the red now lightly soaking his fur, the Eevee’s face goes pale, his eyes widen & he lets out a shriek.

“AAIIIE! BLOOD! BLOOD I’M BLEEDING THAT’S MY BLOOD I’M GONNA DIIIIIEEE!” Eric begins to utterly freak out, making Riley jump back in shock.

“Woah woah! Eric relax buddy, it’s just a little cut! Just eat this berry & you’ll be fine!” Riley raises his hands up a bit to try & hold Eric still, but the Eevee was too busy freaking out, babbling incoherently now at such a small amount of blood. Before Riley could say anything else though, he would then see Eric’s eyes roll backward & he promptly flops to the ground.

“Annnnnd he fainted… okay then…” Riley was at a loss for words at first, before letting out a tired sigh. “Well, no use fighting that I guess. It was his first fight after all. Guess I should have seen that coming.” But after a moment of pause, he goes & picks Eric up-setting him up on his back, then he would make his way back to the town of Allenwood…

As Eric lay totally still in Riley’s arms, deep in his mind, he found himself drifting in a void of pure blackness, not a speck of light anywhere to be seen. He slowly opens his eyes, looking around the pitch black darkness & his ears flatten back onto his head. “Ohh no… Marco, what’re you doing?” Eric says, his voice in a low whimper. There was a low grumble in response, before a singular cerulean blue eye, roughly half the size of Eric’s head seemed to manifest in front of the somewhat cowering Eevee.

“Good griefing gods kid! What the actual hell was that!? I seriously had to hold your paws through that whole ordeal!” Marco says, letting out a heavy sigh afterward, the eye seems to narrow at Eric, giving what could be best described as an annoyed gaze. “You’re lucky that Riolu’s so surprisingly selfless-taking that drill run from that clown Excadrill. If he wasn’t there, you probably would have just been a smear on the wall in that cave!”

“What!? I said it before, didn’t I!? I’ve never been in a fight before in my life! At least, I don’t think I have.” Eric quickly retorts, though he seems to trail off some at the end, making Marco huff.

“Seriously kid, we gotta nip this little ‘Ohh I’ve never fought before’ problem in the bud as soon as possible, because I guarantee you, it’s only gonna get more difficult further down the line. You get that, right?” Marco spoke, the eye appearing to half-cock its eyebrow as his voice echoes throughout the black void.

Eric looks away from the eye briefly, before giving a somewhat incredulous look. “Are you just trying to scare me right now? I know that’s like, one of the main things you like to do with me, but just stop okay? I really want to do this exploration team right, & I don’t want to get scared out of doing it, like you’ve scared me out of doing a bunch of other things!” Eric spoke, stamping a paw down on nothing but empty space in front of him, to which Marco merely chuckled.

“Ha! Please kid, I don’t scare you out of doing anything! You’re the one who scares yourself outta doing things. I just tell things as they are! Not my fault that the world’s so full of the unknown. And it’s not my fault that you’re such a little wimp to begin with.” Marco says, the eye seems to roll as he spoke, but before he could say anything else, Eric suddenly interjects.

“Ohh will you stop it already!? I hate it when you think you can talk down to me!” Eric snaps at the eye, but Marco merely laughs once more.

“Haa! Hahaha, oh please kid! You just make it so easy! It’s almost sad sometimes.” Marco retorts, still chuckling a bit.

Eric grumbles a bunch before he turns his head away in a huff. “You know what? Forget it! Did you bring me here just to laugh at me? Or were you gonna actually try to scare me again, or what? Just say what you wanna say already.” Eric says, no longer meeting Marco’s gaze.

The eye blinks twice before the sound of Marco clearing his throat could be heard.

“Yeah, I basically just wanted to say kid, don’t get us killed, alright? Get some actual combat experience please. Because I can’t go around telling you how to fight at every encounter. And I guarantee you, you’re gonna have a lot more encounters when you travel around. I would know, I’m a very well traveled ‘mon myself.” Marco says, the eye closing & tilting upward slightly, appearing to show off a somewhat dignified-if not slightly pretentious air about it, which makes Eric grumble just a little bit more.

“Okay then Mr. Well-Traveled-‘mon, mind sharing where I should go next?” Eric replies, cocking an eyebrow at the eye now.

“…Nah, you can figure it out kid.” Marco replies after a long moment of silence.

“WHAT!? WHY NOT?!” Eric snaps, now glaring at the eye.

“Oh come on kid! What’s an adventure if you have everything told to you in advance? Just get out there & explore! Ya know, like explorer teams do, or whatever. I don’t really care-just don’t get us killed.” Marco spoke before the eye slowly began to fade away.

“Wha-Hey! Wait a second! Don’t just appear, make fun of me then tell me to figure things out on my own! What’s your problem!?” Eric says, raising his voice, to which Marco sighs.

“Kid! You’re a team now aren’t you? Talk with that teammate of yours! That’s what he’s here for. Geez louise…” Marco retorts before the eye fully vanishes, leaving Eric alone in total darkened silence. He sighs then slowly closes his eyes. His thoughts start to swim around & around, the chances of him even getting far with this explorer team business, where his travels could potentially take him, who he might meet later down the line, & most importantly, the Riolu Riley, who aided him in his first ordeal given to him by Dante. Eric began to tremble as he curled in on himself, still floating aimlessly through this void, fear growing in his heart, until he could faintly hear a different voice beginning to call to him.

“…ric… Hey! Eric… y…. kay…?”

Eric tilts his head up & looks around, unsure of what to say at first, until suddenly his vision gets encompassed in light.

“Eric. Hey! Eric, you okay?”

Back in Allenwood Town, Riley had gone all the way back to his Grandfather’s inn. Seeing that his grandfather appeared to be out at the moment, Riley took it upon himself to get one of the empty rooms for the two of them to relax in for the time being. Everything seemed to be going smoothly enough, he set Eric down on the bed, then went ahead & easily treated the cut on the Eevee’s cheek, but when he started to tremble & mutter things under his breath, that was when Riley started to grow a bit concerned, which led to him now talking to him & gently trying to shake him awake.

What Riley did not expect however, was the eyes of the Eevee to suddenly shoot open, & suddenly shoot up from the bed, promptly smacking him in the forehead, making both young pokemon cry out in shock & pain.

“OWWW! Dangit! Oww! Eric!?” Riley rubs his forehead as he spoke through gritted teeth, while Eric had curled on the bed, rubbing his forehead with both paws.

“Oww Owww….” Eric whines, then looks back up at Riley. “Riley? Oh gods I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you. Wait, where are we?” Eric asks, now looking around a bit, gathering his bearings. Looking around, Eric could see the room in question had a rather quaint, almost homely atmosphere to it. The bed he was laying on was rather soft, albeit a bit easy to sink into. There was a red plush throw rug in the center of the room made from very soft wool, along with a large drawer pushed up to the far wall, & a small bedside table that Eric’s bag sat on that had two little chairs (albeit Riley was using one chair to sit beside the bed) on opposite sides of it, with a window that looks out toward the center of town.

“This ahh, it’s my gramp’s inn. Just one of the rooms.” Riley replies, sighing after the brief pain had now subsided. “Are you doing okay though? You weren’t out for too long, actually it’s getting more later in the evening now, but it’s whatever. I carried you back here after you fainted from seeing your own blood. Thankfully I didn’t get any weird looks or questions as to why I was carrying an unconscious Eevee on my back like a weirdo all through town.” Riley explains, chuckling to himself at the end.

“Uhh, oh I see. Sorry for the trouble…” Eric blinks twice, having taken a moment to process all the things Riley was saying. It’s at this point, Eric could see now that there were in fact some bandages wrapped around the Riolu’s torso, which makes him hang his head, a more forlorn look on his face now.

“I’m so sorry… You probably think I’m a total wimp, huh?” He adds under his breath.

Riley goes quiet for a moment, glancing down at the bandages he had on, then he shrugs his shoulders. “You’re talking about back in the cave, right? I mean, it was an actual fight. And you said you were never in one before, so I can understand. Fights are scary.” Riley says, giving a little wave of his hand. “I’m just glad you were able to stick it out in the end. You gave that clown what for with that swift! It was awesome!” Riley gives a wide grin at that.

“Don’t worry about me, okay Eric? I may not look it, but I assure you I can totally take a few good hits. It’s totally fine. This’ll heal up in no time. Honestly the bandages are a little overkill in my opinion, but Gramps just wanted to make extra sure, that’s all.” He goes & gives Eric a little pat on the head, still smiling as if he had never gotten injured at all.

“Are, are you really sure? You thought what I did was awesome? I mean, you did the majority of the fighting. I barely did a thing.” Eric replies, still looking somewhat forlorn.

“Of course! Even if it’s just one thing you did, you still did something to help. And we made it out because of it. So don’t feel too bad Eric. Now that we’re a team, we can have each other’s backs all the time!” Riley gives a thumbs up at that, still grinning ear to ear.

It’s at this point that Eric couldn’t help but smile back at Riley. He started to find the Riolu’s overall enthusiasm, even after getting injured rather admirable. Eric chuckles a bit to himself, then straightens up some more.

“Yeah you’re right, we are a team aren’t we?” Eric says, his ears perking up now.

“Mmhm!” Riley nods his head, then suddenly gasps. “Oh! Hang on, I almost completely forgot! Gramps gave this to me for just such an occasion!” Riley says as he scrambles over toward Eric’s bag, reaching inside & he pulls out the box from before. Opening it, he pulls out two of the dark gray bandanas inside & presents them to Eric. “I still don’t know why Gramps kept these under the bar, but he gave these to me when I told him about what you were doing & how I wanted to join you. What do you think? Wanna try it on?” Riley asks.

Eric looks wide-eyed at the items in Riley’s hands. He was unsure of what to say at first, having found this moment being almost absurdly convenient (for lack of a better term Eric could make in his mind), but his smile would then return & he eagerly nodded his head. “Yeah! Totally!” Eric scoots forward a bit as Riley would then go ahead & tie one of the bandanas around Eric’s neck, keeping it somewhat loose, but secure enough that it would not fall off unexpectedly. Riley then gestures to a nearby mirror hanging on the wall next to the dresser-like a retainer would to their lord, to which Eric looks himself over in. Eric stares into his own eyes for a moment, the one dark brown eye & one cerulean eye staring back at him, then he looks down at the bandana now around his neck. He picks it up briefly in one paw, feeling the fabric, then folds it slightly to look at the large puff of pale tan fur around his neck, along with the streaks of black that run down in multiple vertical stripes, before he lets go of the bandana end.

Eric takes a small breath in, then exhales, then looks to Riley, who had just gone ahead & tied his own bandana around his neck, & was now looking himself over as well, appearing to be satisfied with the look he now had.

“Well? How about it? I think it looks good.” Riley says, slightly adjusting his bandana, then he turns to Eric with a smile. “Your thoughts?”

“I… I love it!” Eric was beaming now, which made Riley let out a small sigh of relief.

“That’s great! I’m glad you like it. And we have like, three more of these so when we get more teammates, they can wear these too-but let’s worry about that another time.” Riley says before putting the box back in Eric’s bag. “So, you wanna head out tomorrow? Or at least, make a plan to head out tomorrow?” Riley then asks.

“Umm, why don’t we just get that figured out tomorrow? I’m kinda tired honestly.” Eric replies & Riley nods his head in understanding.

“Alright, sounds good to me. I’ll leave ya to it then, leader.” At this, Riley hops up from his little chair & sets it back near the table. He briefly adjusts his glasses on his face, then he makes his way to the door. “Take it easy okay? If you need anything from me, I’ll be in the room next door.”

Eric nods his head at that, then gives Riley a wave before the door gets closed, leaving Eric by himself. He looks down at the bandana once more, then nods his head. “Wow… Riley he’s… he’s a really nice guy.” Eric says, then he goes to curl up on the bed once more. “I can’t wait to be on an actual team with him.” Eric would then slowly close his eyes, hoping to find a peaceful slumber so he would be ready & eager to really kick off his journey with his new friend. Whatever fears he had that was welling inside him had greatly diminished whenever he thought of Riley, giving Eric a newfound excitement the Eevee had never felt before until now. And it would be one he would hold onto for as long as he could as sleep would soon take hold…