Chapter 5: The First Movement

As Eric fell fast asleep, he would soon find himself drifting in total subconsciousness, a pitch black void that he found himself familiar with for quite some time now. Opening his eyes, Eric could only gaze into total darkness, but with some effort, he could move his limbs somewhat. It felt like he was trying to move through syrup, but after some grunts of exertion, he felt his paws touch something- something soft, grass? Yes, that’s it, grass. Glancing down, Eric would see grass begin to sprout beneath his paws, & spread all around him, as if he were the source of the grass sprouting around. With the grass, large trees would follow suit & grow in tandem with one another.

An entire forested landscape was growing & expanding before the Eevee’s eyes. He looks on in wonder at this sight before him. He looks up to see the trees still growing & growing, a sky pitch black could now be seen with a beautiful, crescent moon hanging high in the sky- which would soon be covered by the growing canopy of dense leaves. Eric glances around some more, then he finds his bag slung on him. Blinking twice, he would then see Riley standing in front of him, waving a paw in front of his face. “Hey! Buddy, are you good? Come on! We can’t stay in one spot for too long!” Riley spoke, his voice sounding almost distant at first, yet there was a sense of urgency to it.

“Oh! Right- right, sorry.” Eric shakes his head quickly, then the pair would start to run through the forest, being careful about where they step.

“Man, there sure are a lotta big roots & stuff. And it’s so dark, I can barely see a thing. And at the same time, I can’t help but feel like we’re still being watched…” Eric says to himself as he watches Riley hop from thick root to thick root. “You’re sure you know where you’re going?” He then calls out to the Riolu, who spins around on the root he was currently standing on to face him.

“Totally! We’ll get through this in no time, you’ll see! Just trust me! We just gotta keep moving. Whoever that was, they gave off a really bad vibe to me!” Riley proclaims as the two of them continue onward. Every so often, Eric would look around & he would just barely catch a glimpse of a pair of eyes, a pale teal color, appearing to watch them, before they blink & vanish from view. Eric sweats a bit before he continues on. He looks around once again, then he sees a second pair of eyes, this pair being an almost shimmering gold that pierce the darkness, locked onto the both of them, but then Eric blinks again & they are gone. He looks over to Riley, who didn’t appear to notice any of this, which admittedly surprised him. Granted, the pair were trying to hurry through the forest so he supposed it made sense.

However there was not much time to be surprised as the both of them come to a small clearing in the forest, where they come across a large lake that was in the shape of the crescent moon. The pair looked enthralled at the sight as a break in the treetop canopy gave way to the iridescent moonlight that shines down on the lake, giving that soft glowing shine to it.

“Oh wow… so pretty.” Eric trails off at the breathtaking sight, while Riley closes his eyes, appearing to focus in on his aura sense.

“Yeah, too bad we can’t enjoy the sight much, we gotta- LOOK OUT!” Riley suddenly dive tackles Eric to the side as an unknown attack nearly cleaved the Eevee in two from behind. They both tumble to the ground & look up. To Eric, he could see a figure, but it was completely covered in wispy shadows, rendering him unable to discern any features, aside from a vaguely humanoid shape.

“Hey! How the hell did you catch up so fast?! Leave us alone will you!?” Riley yells up at the figure, but there was only a distorted noise that responded. Eric winces as he covers his ears from the sound, but Riley seemed not bothered by it, as if the figure had spoken an actual sentence to him instead of the noise. “Fine! If you’re not gonna leave, we’ll just have to make you go away!” Riley gets up to his feet, but Eric finds himself unable to move as fear would seem to have a vice grip on him. Riley turns briefly to see Eric still trembling. “E-Eric? Hey come on, we gotta-AHHH!” Riley suddenly cries out in pain as the figure lunges forward, a shadowy appendage shooting out & gripping Riley around his torso, lifting him up off the ground. A second shadowy appendage would then lunge out & grab Eric as well, picking him up high. Riley does all he can to try & break free, but to no avail as both he & Eric start getting a painful crushing feeling around them. Eric would start to see his vision begin to darken, the sounds of Riley yelling in pain getting drowned out by that horrid distorted noise from the shadowy figure, but the very last thing he would hear, is another voice, a young female voice calling to him, but he couldn’t make out the words as a rush of wind would fly out.

Moments later, Eric would awaken with a loud gasp, panting & coughing a bit as he would quickly check himself over. “Wha-? Huh-? What was that…?” Eric utters, staring down at his still shaking paws. “Marco? Are you there?” Eric says aloud, looking around the inn room he was currently in. A few seconds went by & there was no response. “Huh, weird… He’s usually quick to comment after I have a nightmare…” Eric trails off mid sentence, looking over toward the mirror on the far wall, his thoughts drifting about after such a harrowing dream.

“Oh, you’re up kid?”

Eric jumps at the sound of Marco’s voice suddenly speaking to him before he lets out a terse huff. “Geez! Were you just waiting for me to wonder about you or something!? I asked for you but you didn’t say anything!” Eric retorts, staring at the mirror. Marco merely chuckles in response at that.

“Awww, did you miss me kid? Don’t worry, it’s not like I can leave at the moment. Once the new moon comes around, then maybe. But that’s still a ways away is it not?” Marco speaks in a rather roundabout way. Eric rolls his eyes at that before he slowly flops back down onto the bed, laying on his side. “Anyway, it looks as though you had quite the dream kid. Care to share?”

Eric closes his eyes, taking a breath in, then exhaling as he would then go on to describe the nightmare he had just gone through. All the while, Marco would listen intently – as if he had anything better to do, & once Eric had finished, he goes deep in thought.

“Well well, that does sound like something. You & your new friend were having a little romp around the woods & got attacked by someone?” Marco summarizes & Eric nods his head. “Alright then. Well that hasn’t happened yet, so what’s the point?”

“What do you mean what’s the point!? Riley & I were getting attacked! That has to mean something right?!” Eric spoke, looking more anxious. Marco was going to say something else before the two of them heard a knocking at the door to their room.

“Hey! Eric, are you awake? It’s me Riley! Hellooooo?”

Eric jumps in place suddenly before he clambers off the bed.

Outside in the hallway of his grandpa’s inn/tavern, Riley could hear the sounds of muffled mumbling, followed by some thumps & grunts, then a yelp of surprise. Riley shifts his gaze side to side & adjusts his glasses briefly, before the sound of the door unlocking could be heard, followed by the heterochromatic gaze of Eric could be seen peeking from the opposite side of the door.

“Heeey, good morning buddy! How’d you sleep?” Riley gives the Eevee a pleasant grin, who gives a small smile in return.

“Hi, good morning Riley. I slept okay. Thanks.” Eric gives a small nod before opening the door fully. Looking him over, Eric could see that Riley looked completely healed from their excursion yesterday. “Umm, did you need something?”

“Well I mean. We’re gonna be a team together, so I thought you & I could chat about some explorer team stuff. Or did I wake you up too early or something? You still look kinda tired.” Riley says, stepping back a bit to let Eric pad out into the hallway.

“Oh! No, no I’m fine. Like I said I slept fine. You want to talk? Yeah we can talk!” Eric says in a rather rushed tone, hurrying past Riley to go downstairs, but he gets stopped by one of the Riolu’s paws lightly grabbing his fluffy tail, stopping his movement.

“Hey hey, slow down one sec buddy. You seem really really anxious & it’s not even noon yet. Let’s take some breaths, get some breakfast & we can just talk, okay? My gramps is making his special razz berry pancakes today & they are amazing! We’re not in any particular rush, are we?” Riley says, giving Eric a kind smile. Eric looks back to see Riley’s little receptors having just fallen down, as if Riley had taken the moment to check Eric’s emotional state… which is actually exactly what he did as he had thought to do so after Eric had brushed past him rather abruptly, while talking almost a mile a minute. The two locked eyes with one another, & the tension Eric had been keeping in seemed to fade somewhat at Riley’s calm demeanor. He inhales, exhales, then nods his head.

“Yeah. Let’s just talk.”

At that, the pair of would-be explorers made their way downstairs together, & they were first greeted with the sight of Gramps, pacing around the tavern floor, sweeping things up. A marowak was sitting at a lone table with a large plate of pancakes in front of him.

“Ohh it’s you two. Good morning!” Gramps waves to the pair as they make their way to one of the empty tables.

“Howdy Gramps! As you can see, I’m all better now. Can we get some of those awesome pancakes of yours?” Riley waves back to the old Charizard as he speaks, hopping up onto a chair. Eric follows suit as they both get themselves settled. Gramps nods his head at that & heads into a room behind the bar, presumably the kitchen to make some food.

At that, Riley then looks to Eric with a kind smile. “Alright then, so we’re gonna be an explorer team. Do you know what you want to do for it? You wanna go freelance or start a guild?” He asks, staring at Eric as he rests an elbow on the table, opening his palm & resting his chin atop it.

Eric ponders for a moment, before giving a slight shrug in return. “Honestly I’m not too sure. I haven’t considered what would be the best option for us. I mean, we’re only two Pokemon, would guilds even accept two ‘mon teams? I feel like that would be difficult.” Eric says, lightly tapping a paw on the table.

“Huh, that’s a fair point. I imagine it’s possible, but I haven’t really seen any two-mon teams. Do we want to try & find more folks for our own team then? Though to be honest, I don’t really know anyone else. Suppose we could go out & just chat some folks up in other places, yeah?” Riley says, pulling his glasses off his snout & cleaning the lenses with his bandana. As he does, he glances over to see Gramps approaching & setting down plates of razz berry pancakes before the both of them.

“Ya know? You kids looking for somewhere to go? Try Balistine City. A little ways before the Flamberge Kingdom’s castle city, but it’s way bigger than here in Allenwood.” Gramps says as he then wipes his hands after setting the food down.

“Balistine huh? Sounds like it could be interesting. I’ve never been there myself though. Where is it exactly?” Eric asks as Riley would start digging into his food.

“Well, to get to Balistine City, you go along the Greenery Highroads just outside of town heading northwest. Then, you’d have to cut through a portion of the Crescent Forest for the quickest way. After that, it’s a straight shot to Balistine.” Gramps explains as he watches the two of them start eating.

“Though that particular forest is a bit special, considering the fact that if I recall correctly, there’s two clans that reside in that forest. The Dream Wards, & the Lunar Saints.”

Eric & Riley look at each other, both equally perplexed, then Riley looks to Gramps while Eric looks down at his food.

“Sorry, clans? As in those special groups of Pokemon that pray to the legendary Pokemon? They just live in that forest. Who do they worship again?”

“Aye, the Dream Wards worship Cresselia, while the Lunar Saints worship Lunala. I think there’s a third clan actually, but the name escapes me at the moment. But, the bottom line is that so long as you don’t bother any of them or cause any major issues while traveling through the forest, you kids should be okay. Just treat the forest with respect & try not to get lost.” Gramps explains, rubbing his chin in thought. Riley puffs one cheek briefly, before looking toward Eric once more.

“Don’t disrespect the forest & the clan Pokemon won’t come after us? Okay, sounds simple enough.” Riley says with a little shrug of his shoulders. “Wait hold on, won’t we need an extra map or something?” He asks, though as he speaks, he sees Gramps walk back to the bar, reach into a drawer & pull out a piece of parchment – a map, & he sets it down on the table. Riley grabs the map & opens it, revealing a more expanded version of the map Eric had previously. “Huh, this one’s bigger. I imagine it’ll show us where to go then. Nice.” He smiles up at the Charizard before rolling the map back up. “Wait, you’ve just had a map like this sitting in a drawer Gramps?”

“Yep. There was another explorer team that came by one day, but they left that map behind. Didn’t want it gathering dust in my drawer, so I figured you might get some use out of it. Now, anything else you two wanna know before you head off on your way?” Gramps says, looking between the two younger Pokemon as they finished their food.

“Umm…” Eric thinks for a moment. “You wouldn’t happen to know of any other dangers in that forest, do you?” Eric asks, giving a somewhat anxious stare.

“Hmm… dangers eh?” Gramps scratches his head in thought for a few moments, before shaking his head. “Nothing comes to mind at the moment. I reckon it’ll be a safe journey for you two. Just like I said before, don’t go around causing any trouble.” He says, to which Eric’s expression relaxes somewhat.

“Okay then, thank you very much sir.” Eric smiles up at Gramps while Riley nods his head.

“Yeah thanks a lot Gramps. I’m surprised you know so much though.” Riley adds.

“Hey, I run an inn. I get all sorts of travelers, explorers, merchants, you name it. Everyone’s got a story to tell, rumors to share, all kinds of things to say. I just so happen to pick up on quite a lot of things.” Gramps smirks at that while Riley & Eric get themselves ready to go. At that, the two would-be explorers say their goodbyes to Gramps before they take their leave, leaving the old Charizard to his devices. The marowak that was gorging on pancakes looks to Gramps with a slightly incredulous stare.

“You really think those lads are gonna make it out there? I mean just look at ’em. A pair of green-hearts is all they are – I can see it. I reckon they won’t last a week.” The marowak says before letting out a loud belch.

Gramps shoots a fiery glare at the Marowak, snorting once as little gouts of flame fire out from his nostrils. “Oi, one of those green-hearts you mention is my grandson! So shut your trap Vince. And when’s that tab of yours gonna get paid hmm? My room, food & drink ain’t all for free you know.” Gramps says in a low growl, making the Marowak named Vince shudder slightly.

“I-Its coming, it’s coming! Once I get paid tomorrow, you’ll see! And besides, if ya didn’t want me to rack up such a tab, maybe your food shouldn’t be as delicious as it is! I mean seriously mate, these things alone are probably what’s keeping this heap afloat for so long!” Vince chortles some before another flaming snort goes his way, making him yelp in fright as Gramps walks off, muttering some choice words under his breath in regards to deadbeats who refuse to pay what they’re due.

“So! We have a plan now right Eric?” Riley asks, an optimistic look in his eyes as he looks to the Eevee he was now walking beside.

“Umm, yeah more or less. We’re gonna go to Balistine City via the Crescent Forest, then try to find at least one more potential team mate before finding a guild. I was thinking we start in a guild first to better figure out the ropes. Then if we like it, we can stick to that, or just go freelance.” Eric says as the two of them were now walking on the road outside of Allenwood Town.

Riley nods his head at that. “Sure, sounds good to me. I’m sure it’ll all work out.” He says while he rests his paws behind his head, staring up at the clear blue sky.

“Sure you wanna go down that way kid? Remember what Dante said.” Marco would chime in, making Eric stop briefly, before quickly catching up with Riley. “Teams that go freelance after being part of a guild wind up having a harder time after the fact. You remember that little tidbit?”

“Y-Yeah I remember.” Eric mutters under his breath. “But I wanna see what both sides have to offer, so I’m willing to take that chance. Not that I assume you care. Honestly I’m surprised you even brought it up.”

“Hey it’s not whether I care or not. I just don’t wanna hear you start crying when you learn the hard way of the results of switching from a guild team to a freelance team. Even if it would be funny to watch.” Marco quickly rebukes, making Eric huff in annoyance.

With that, the duos traveling continued on. The morning sun was shining brightly overhead as they walked through the Greenery Highroads, one of the many stretches of terrain that make up the entirety of the Stratos Region. Occasionally, they would pass by some other traveling pokemon, going about their own days, even a couple carriages but they all appeared to be full, but they were able to get extra directions to their destination. Aside from those, the main brunt of the duo’s journey was filled with their idle chatter, talking about all sorts of things, ranging from comments about the weather, what they hope to achieve on their travels, even a couple jokes. Riley proved to be a rather talkative young fellow, with all sorts of things on his mind, as well as an eagerness to better see the world around him. Eric seemed to be genuinely interested in the things Riley had to say & he was happy to just listen. Granted, some things he could not quite catch at times as other times, Marco had the mind to toss in his two cents about everything in the Eevee’s head. Whether he had a reason or not, Eric could not figure it out, but he ultimately came to the conclusion that Marco was just simply bored, to which Eric merely gritted his teeth & bares as he was putting more of his focus on Riley.

The day continued on, until eventually, after cresting a hill, the pair arrived at the sight of a huge expanse of remarkably tall live oak trees. “Wooooah…” Eric looks up, & up, now craning his neck as he tries to take in the whole sight of these trees, their leaves gently swaying in the breeze. “Is this it? The Crescent Forest?”

Riley looks up as well, then nods his head. “Looks like it. And hey, the road we’ve been traveling on leads right inside!” Riley points ahead to show the roadway did indeed continue onward & into the forest proper, though the further they looked, the darker it appeared to go. “Huh, seems like it’ll get pretty dark once we go in there. Ah well. Let’s go!” Riley eagerly strides onward, though Eric seemed slightly apprehensive as he didn’t move in yet. Marco lets out a “harumph” in Eric’s head before the Eevee could put a paw forward.

“Marco, umm…” Eric trails off briefly, unsure of what to say at first.

“What kid? Scared that that nightmare you had will come true?” Marco retorts in a rather blunt tone, making Eric flinch in response. He then scoffs at Eric’s silent nod. “Ahh geez kid. It was just a dream, don’t take it as something bad that’s guaranteed to happen or whatever. Use it as a way to keep yourself on guard, be aware, but don’t be a complete wuss that won’t go. Just don’t get us killed while you’re making your way through, okay?”

Eric pouts at that, but then takes a moment to think. “It’s not guaranteed to happen? I should try to stay on guard huh? Hm… You know, you’re right. Maybe I am worrying too much. Thanks Marco. You actually gave some decent advice for once.”

“Ha! Yeah of course I – Hey! What do you mean for once!?” Marco fires back. Eric lets out a small chuckle after he says that, then starts moving forward, quickly to catch up to Riley.

As the pair went on into the Crescent Forest, unbeknownst to them, another group of pokemon approached the same entrance toward the forest. They all appeared to be wearing traveling cloaks of varying sizes, three of them in total as they stared down the entrance.

“Do we all remember our objectives?” One of the pokemon, a Krookodile, spoke first, looking to their companions.

“Yes, of course.” Another of the group, this one a Bisharp replies, stepping forward first. “I’m to find the Crescent Lake & desecrate it.” The Krookodile nods at the Bisharp’s words, then looks to his left.

“And you?” The Krookodile looks toward the Salazzle on his left, who merely giggles.

“And I have the delightful task of finding the leader of the Dream Wards.” The Salazzle spoke, giving a malicious smirk. The Krookodile nods firmly.

“Alright then folks. Time to set our masters’ plans in motion. Kill anyone that dares get in our way. Now go!” The Krookodile waves a hand forward & both the Bisharp & Salazzle at once, dash on into the forest, then split off, one going left, the other going right. The Krookodile meanwhile, grins & walks straight ahead into the dark forest…