Chapter 8 – Another Chance

Tracklist

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“And then he just… left!”

Bezel failed to keep in a sigh as she wiped her eyes with the back of a wing. In a rare change of pace, she had hardly any make-up on. But not none. Bezel still had standards.

“You know Ennea,” she exhaustedly chided. “When I said you could come over early for breakfast, I was envisioning it would be sometime in the realm of 7 AM. Not 4:45.”

Ennea flicked a paw, nearly tossing her half-eaten slice of toast through an open window. “I’m an early riser, you know this! Had to be for council work!”

“Yes, yes. You’ve told me quite a deal about that as well. So, what exactly is the problem here?”

“’What’s the problem?!’” Ennea cried. “After everything we went through together, Autumnal just screwed off! I said some real embarrassing stuff to him, too! I don’t even know if he heard it!”

“Well, he was a Dungeoneer. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.”

“Adventurer,” Ennea corrected. “And no, it isn’t! I had friends! Plural! Do you know what it’s like to have multiple friends?!”

“…Yes?”

Ennea slammed her paws down on the table. “Exactly! I can’t go back to having just one!”

“Haven’t you made friends with that destructive Zweilous guard? And Polaris? I must say I resent you acting as if she doesn’t count.”

“I mean, yeah, but like… Autumnal is special.”

“Really now?” Bezel raised an eyebrow as a catty smirk came back to her. “And just what exactly did you find so ‘special’ about him?”

That made Ennea back off. Her ears slowly tilted from side to side, like they were dowsing. It was a bit of a huge question to just drop on someone out of the blue.

She and Autumnal had spent a lot of time together these last few weeks. More than she’d spent with any one person in a long time. Ennea hadn’t really thought about it before, but why did she like that so much?

“When I do stupid stuff… he goes along with it, y’know?” was the best she came up with. “I dunno, even when he doesn’t have the same energy, he still gives me whatever he’s got. He commits to my dumb bits, and even claps when they’re done. He adds to them.”

Ennea’s ears finally went straight again. “I feel like I can just do whatever with him. Like I don’t have to worry about it.”

“So he’s your enabler,” Bezel quipped.

“No, he can keep up with me.”

“My word, Ennea.” Bezel played up her dignified indignation. “Between that and your insistence that you can’t go back to ‘just one friend,’ it’s sounding like you’re trying to say I’m not good enough for you.”

“You know what I—!” Ennea cut herself off, remembering to play into it and forcing a smirk of her own. “You know what? As a matter of fact, you’re not.”

Ennea cleared her throat as she settled back down, dropping the act. “But this is what I’m talking about. Conversations between us are fun, but always feel a little bit like a contest. I liked having someone who just… accepted me.”

“Come now Ennea, we’re friends. I’m not about to reject you.”

“I know, I know. But I still like Autumnal. He shares my weird interests—or at least reads some of the same books! He had weird talents and stuff, too. And it was fun seeing the weird way he could take things. Being with him made things feel more like one of my stories… and I don’t want for all of that to just end.”

“You’re really not going to let him go, are you?” Bezel sighed. “Well. You do complain a whole lot less with him around. I suppose that’s reason enough for me to approve of him.” She rest a wing on the table. “You wish to know where he is, yes?”

“Wha—? Yeah!” Ennea had to catch a plate that had nearly pushed off the table by how quickly she leaned back in. “You can find out?!”

“Oh, Ennea.” Bezel looked away and waved off the Eevee’s excitement. “I have many sources of information, you know. I simply must be up to date on everything happening around town. What kind of respectable socialite would I be, otherwise?”

“Oh, I see. Why Bezel, I should’ve surmised that you have your very own stalker network to spy on Polaris!”

“Ah-ah.” Bezel waggled a wing. “No taunting me or my refined speech this early in the morning. I’ll use my ‘network’ so that you can stalk your Dungeoneer. He had better give you the fantastical life you desire.”

“You sure? You’ll really do that for me?”

“Of course. Fair’s fair.” Bezel pierced her with grin. “After all, the most unexpected thing happened the other day. I was working the shop, and to my utter shock Polaris of all people comes in only to strike up a conversation with me that lasted nearly an hour! Now, I wonder why that happened?”

Ennea countered with a familiar, evasive shrug. “Guess she must’ve heard about it from a reputable source, you never know!” She couldn’t help but lean in again. “How’d it go?”

“I nearly fainted on the spot. She was wearing the prettiest sunhat, it was astounding. Did you know just how talented of a gymnast she is? And how knowledgeable, too! I’ve never been able to have such a vivid conversation about proper floral cultivation before!”

“So, suffice to say you both got along well?”

Bezel chuckled and gave a demure roll of her wing. “We’re going out for lunch tomorrow. Meanwhile, I need to figure out a way to capture her radiance in scent before the ball.”

Ennea’s tail wagged. Nothing like a plan going off without a hitch to make a rough day better.

“I simply can’t have it. If nothing else is done, then the two of us are even.” Bezel scoffed like the very word was offensive. “I abhor having friends who don’t owe me.” In a single flap, she shot off through the window. “Allow me to remedy this unfortunate situation!”

And then Bezel was gone.

Without her, the dining room went quiet, the impression of life inside slowly fading away. All the little creaks and clinks that made the sounds of a shared meal vanished. Ennea wrung her paws together in that new empty feeling, leaving what was left of her breakfast untouched on the plate. Without Bezel to keep her spirits up, she wasn’t actually all that hungry.

She hoped Autumnal had just chosen to leave. The alternative would mean he had more enemies than just Hiketeria. But why? After all the fun they’d had, why wouldn’t he want to stay for more? Was it really because he was an adventurer? Was he just off to another journey?

…Alone?

…

A whoosh struck down the silence, jolting Ennea out of it.

“Good news, dear Ennea,” Bezel announced, still perched on the windowsill. “Your Dungeoneer has been seen. His hair made him easy to spot.”

“Yeah, complicated the case by a lot, too.” But Ennea wouldn’t have it any other way. “So he’s alright? Where’d he go?”

“Well, he left the town walls, but didn’t take any of the roads. Last my friends saw, he was in the fields north-west, near Mt. Cephalo.”

“So he’s near—” Ennea nearly flipped the table with how hard she slammed it. “WHAT?! Mt. Cephalo?!”

“Near. They didn’t see whether or not he—”

Ennea leaped all the way up to the window, shoving past Bezel before dropping down to madly pace on the cool cobbles outside.

“He’s there, I know him! He went to Mt. Cephalo? Without me?!”

“Don’t forget this.” Bezel tossed a forgotten bag out the window. “But I must ask. Ennea, you aren’t about to do some—as you would say—‘stupid stuff,’ are you?”

Ennea pulled her bag taut before giving a fiery look back. “Of course I am! And he’d better go along with it!”

 

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A lone Marowak yawned, propping an arm on their bone as they watched the first sliver of the sun peek over the horizon. It was a slow day. Though the festival had begun, they were stuck out here, all alone on their guard post.

Or so they thought.

This instance of Ennea’s “stupid stuff” began with hiding in a nearby shrub. She’d had a lot of practice with this part. Back in the countryside with her nan, there was basically no other way to simulate adventure.

She stared down the Marowak’s post, a stone arch at the base of the mountain, nearly falling apart from the weathering it had endured in its age. Quite dramatic. A bit small for Ennea’s tastes, but it was still a gateway to adventure. The nondescript appearance beyond it was proof enough of that.

That also meant there was only one way in. An easy thing to obstruct. Even if Ennea ran for it, she’d be caught immediately. No one outside of the guilds could ascend Mt. Cephalo.

Ennea kept in an involuntary shudder—the rustling would give her away.

Was she really about to go through with this? Rules were rules, and nobles were expected to follow them to the letter. Even ninths. Especially ninths. This really was stupid. And dangerous. Maybe she should—

The Marowak turned their head, momentarily looking away from Ennea’s shrub.

Now. Ennea’s paws dug into the ground as she sent a smattering of Swift stars flying. They curved, arcing and angling down until they were heading straight towards the ground. But Swift wasn’t known for missing. This was all part of the plan.

They crashed right on target, chipping into the bottom of another shrub, sending it soaring up and over so high it became a bushy blur in the sky.

Whatever drowsiness the guard had snapped away. Their head shot up to the flying plant, squinting to make it out from the still dark sky. But underneath that squint their eyes shone with the belief that their lonesome post had given them a view of the festival’s most coveted sight.

Aha! You think that’s Shaymin, finally paying Epiphany a visit! Sorry, but not this time!

Ennea burst out from her hiding place, letting loose a Quick Attack to cover as much distance as she could. The poor guard was so caught up in her trick that she shot right past them before they could even get a look at her crossing through the gateway to adventure.

 

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Ennea circled around the rock formation one last time, starting to wonder what she was even checking for. She looked up at its jagged tip with a tired frown. The stupid thing was so big that it made it impossible to see most of the—

Wait.

“I’m in!” Ennea stumbled backwards as she realized. She’d done it! She had entered Mt. Cephalo!

Ennea moved to finally get past this dumb rock. Knowing Autumnal, he was probably already at the peak. She would have to hurry up if she was going to catch him. And since she was on her own, she’d have to rely on stealth. She needed as few abberants to know she was here as possible. Stick to small chambers, move fast, and hug every wall like your life depends on—

Ennea’s whole body seized up and went utterly cold. She scrambled back to the safety of the rock formation’s shadow, heart pounding against her chest.

No… no! That’s just too cruel!

She chanced another look beyond the rock at the Dungeon before her. But what she had seen wasn’t her imagination. It was cruel, cruel reality.

Mt. Cephalo didn’t have any walls.

Apart from a cliffside roughly giving her side of the floor a border, each “room” of Mt. Cephalo was actually a small plateau connected by thin, rocky bridges. All of it was out in the open. Apart from a couple of plants or boulders, she’d be completely visible to every abberant on the floor.

And there were a ton of them. There were at least seven Ennea saw at a glance, give or take two. She managed to identify an Axew, Skiddo, Farfetch’d, Dolliv, and Chimecho, all with those same, dead eyes. Like they didn’t even know what life was. Like they’d tear her apart for having ever experienced it.

Ennea sank down in despair, the reality of the situation making her clutch her chest so hard it hurt. This really was stupid. Too stupid. Now she was stranded in a Dungeon far too dangerous for her and about to die. Again. All because she wanted to see—

Autumnal. He had made it through here. Or maybe he was even still inside. The closer Ennea could get to him, the safer she would be. If she was going to see him again, her best shot was right now.

With her breath forced back into her body, Ennea got ahold of herself. This really was stupid. But damn it, if Ennea was going to do something stupid, she was going to commit. It was time to think like an adventurer. Stealth was out of the question, so speed would be her saving grace.

Ennea peered around the rock once more. She needed a route that both avoided abberants and ended in somewhere to hide. Autumnal had said that abberants “didn’t think,” right? She could probably trick them by just being fast.

Focus… move the energy at your core down to your feet….

And release. Ennea pounced, Quick Attack giving her extra momentum as she rushed out and took the first of many zig-zagging pathways. She had to force through the tufts of her fur that got caught on sagebrush flanking the path, and the rough gravel of the mountain dug into her feet as she took a rocky bridge hardly wider than she was.

Her fur stood on end when an angry bleating followed. She’d already been noticed. The Skiddo was after her, already close behind on the same path.

That was fine! She was faster than it! Ennea shook her head and got her attention back to the upcoming platform.

It forced her to skid to a stop, kicking up a massive cloud of dust in the face of a Fraxure hulking over her at the end of the bridge. Its tusks were glowing, and a guttural sound was coming from its throat.

Shit, shit, shit! Ennea flailed around in a desperate attempt to change course. As she bolted in the other direction, a rocky crunch followed. She didn’t look back, despite the pebbles raining down on her back.

Now she and the Skiddo were charging right towards each other. Ennea grit her teeth and whipped her body around in a spin. A couple of Swift stars shot out to her side, then launched right back in at her enemy.

The abberant’s bloodlust kept it from noticing her attack until too late, when the Swift sliced in and clipped the Skiddo’s hooves. It barely reacted as it lost balance and tumbled off the edge, falling until became just as nebulous as the abyss below.

The moment Ennea touched down back on her original platform, she leaped off to take another path. It was much, much steeper, but she clambered up with reckless abandon, purposely kicking down as many rocks as possible in case anyone else was following her. It was a good call, if the hissing from what Ennea assumed was the Fraxure was any indication.

But it was a distraction from what was ahead. The moment she’d hoisted herself up top, a Girafarig’s eyes were on her. With them came floating chunks of rock seconds away from being thrown.

Without any other ideas, Ennea just rolled and crashed right into a mess of plants near the edge, having to cling to a root to keep herself from falling right off. She huddled into the branches of the bush and braced for a painful impact… but it didn’t come.

Peeking her head out of the shelter, Ennea saw the Girafarig’s own heads looking around aimlessly. The rocks it had been levitating all fell harmlessly to the ground. It ambled off to another plateau, having completely forgotten the Eevee it was about to maim.

Do these guys seriously not have object permanence?! Gah! I can’t die to them! That’d be freaking embarrassing!

The moment she had enough confidence to stumble out of the mess of thyme, she wound up poking her stomach on a branch. That wouldn’t have bothered her too much, there were a lot of branches poking her right now… but this one was weirdly flat.

Pawing at it knocked it straight to the ground, and fishing it out revealed that it definitely wasn’t normal. It was perfectly sized to hold and swing around and had a strange shape at the end, even and rectangular, like stacked bricks. A single leaf hung off the middle.

Wait, was this thing special? There were magic wands in Mystery Dungeons, right…?

Right. Autumnal could tell her. He would tell her. Ennea tried pocketing the wand, but it didn’t fit in her bag too well. A quarter of it was still sticking out. But it would have to do for now. She still had her adventurer to catch.

After reemerging, Ennea decided to stick to the cliff face this time. This at least reduced the number of directions abberants could attack her from. The elevation also kept her out of sight and gave her a good view.

Ennea frowned. Where’s the stairs? Stalking along let her see at least 18 other platforms, and while many had boulders, overhangs, bushes, trees, or schisms, none of them had an exit. She was losing time.

A boom erupted from the cliffside behind Ennea. She snapped her head back before thinking better of it and dashing off. She’d been noticed again! While fleeing, she looked out to as many other platforms as she could before finally seeing another Girafarig sending Dark Pulses her way from afar. Or it might’ve been the same one. Didn’t really matter, it was trying to kill her!

C’mon, I need another place to hide! This place never ends!

Ennea scrambled across the cliff’s ledges, nearly tripping every time another Dark Pulse left a new gash in them. She couldn’t afford to check where she was going anymore, she just needed speed.

One of these places has to have the stairs! They’ve gotta be just around the—

Ennea did a double take as she slid past a nook in the cliffside. A place to hide?! She wasn’t totally sure if it would obscure her from the Girafarig completely at this angle, but maybe it was deep enough!

Ennea turned back and leaped over a Dark Pulse to return the nook. It was definitely deep enough! She couldn’t even see the end!

…Wait, she couldn’t see the end? Wasn’t that just like—?

No, there was no time! Ennea ducked inside right as one last Dark Pulse brought it crumbling down.

 

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Ennea finally stopped cowering, lifting her paws off her eyes.

Wait, what?

The Eevee gave a suspicious look to her own limbs as she got back up. Wait, no. Got up for the first time. This was another floor. She’d just had a lapse in memory.

Alright, very funny. I get it, I was scared. So you spawn me on the next floor freaking… curled up like I’m a sniveling kid. Apparently, the Dungeon had a mean sense of humor. Another point in the camp of them being sentient.

Actually, was the lapse in memory real? Was Ennea actually doing something before it ended, or did it just feel like it? Did she lose her free will in the period between floors? If that was the case, did that mean she temporarily became no different than the abberants? And if—

Holy shit, I need to get a hold of myself. Philosophical musings could wait until after she was safe and had a Dungeon expert with her. Both of which could be accomplished by getting a damn move on. She had to find the next set of stairs.

Wait, not stairs! That nook! These lapses in memory really made it hard to keep track of her thoughts. So not all Dungeons had stairs! You just needed to find some sort of path that was impossible to fully make out!

That made this a bit like a puzzle, didn’t it? Well Ennea had proven she was good at those!

Speaking of, there was another one to solve! Where was she?

She’d wound up in something of a grove, in the center of a very leafy platform. Bushes and young trees covered in moss surrounded her, and one large oak gave her shade. It was a comfortable spot, seemingly keeping her out of the abberants’ eyes without being too cramped.

A perfect place to plan. Now that Ennea knew she was looking for a nook in a wall, she could plan her route much more intelligently.

Well, the planning paid off. But it revealed that this floor would be a gauntlet. The nook was on a tiny plateau several stories up, with a lone bridge connecting it to a massive peak that broke through most of the landmasses. Ennea would have to circle around that peak to find a trail up.

But it’d work. Time to go.

To be safe Ennea, chose an overgrown series of ledges around the peak. Plenty of extra hiding spots, though it did make things cumbersome. She tiptoed over errant branches, narrower parts of the path forcing her to hold her breath.

“HHHSH…!”

Ennea looked up, seeing a Gogoat hanging above on the cliffside and snorting at the sight of her. So much for being safe!

She ducked down into the shrubbery and waited. But a steady clacking of hooves on stone kept coming, closer and closer.

Why isn’t it turning around? Why isn’t it turning around?! Why isn’t my hiding spot in the plants-?!

Grass-Type! Certain species must’ve been able to see through different tricks! That’s gotta be the most annoying thing in the world!

Ennea tumbled out of the shrubs. She looked back for long enough to see them get shredded by a hail of seeds before another slip of her feet forced her head forward.

Rocks and dirt crumbled around her, but her pursuer wasn’t struggling with any of it. The abberant’s hoofbeats were only gaining speed as Ennea struggled with the difficult terrain.

Dammit! It’s perfectly suited for a cliffside! I gotta get out of here before—!

Ennea felt the ground under her hind legs give. By instinct, she pounced forward. By luck, where she landed was solid enough for her weight. That Gogoat had just landed behind her!

Her frantic search for the nearest alternate path was made much harder by the pounding of her heart in her ears. Darkness began to seep in at the corners of her vision. She wasn’t even thinking about her feet anymore, she was just running and praying.

There!

Around a bend, Ennea could see a bridge! She ripped through thorny bushes to take the quickest route to it, feeling quakes from the Gogoat using Bulldoze behind her as they took down more and more of her ground.

The whole cliff began to crumble away. What was a sprint had become desperate leaps to the few remaining rocks jutting out. But with one last jump, Ennea landed onto the bridge.

And it swayed.

Ennea gasped, realizing that this particular bridge wasn’t natural. A simple suspension bridge was what she’d been bolting towards, and she’d been too frightened to notice.

Who cares?! It’ll get me away from this crazy thing!

And so she bolted across the bridge as well, its unsteady rocking welcome in comparison to the collapsing cliffside. She flew across the gaps in the floorboards like they weren’t even there and easily outran the Gogoat’s continued barrage of Seed Bombs.

Ennea hit the platform the bridge was connected to so fast that she had to grab onto a nearby branch for dear life; she’d nearly gone right off the edge! But it was perfect. In addition to foliage, this platform had a rock arch balanced on it. She could hide behind this!

Sure enough, the moment she was blocked from sight by rock and not plants, Ennea heard the Gogoat’s hoofbeats slow to a mindless trot. But the creaks of wood gave way to the clacks of stone. It didn’t know she was here anymore, but it hadn’t turned around. It was still coming her way.

Clack-clack. Clack-clack. The sound made Ennea’s teeth clench and her paws dig into the gravel below her. Her energy went down to her legs. Ennea’s eyes narrowed, watching the bend just to her side. Her life depended on it.

The black of the horns peeked by. Ennea waited just one more second. When the Gogoat’s eye was just far enough to see her, she leaped. All of her momentum was thrown into a Quick Attack—one that would kill her if she missed. But she wouldn’t.

Ennea felt her shoulder pop as she crashed into the Gogoat with her whole body. It let out a confused bleat as she sent it tumbling right off the narrow edge of the platform. Down it fell into the abyss. Yet another quadrupedal Grass-Type down.

Ennea’s back went to the safety of the rock arch before she collapsed, clutching her forehead like it would quell the pounding all that stress had given her.

Arceus above, this was nothing like it had been exploring Epiphany Sewers. This was far more like fighting Hiketeria had been. Every second another roll of the dice, where the bet was her life.

How did he do it? How did Autumnal do all this alone? Why did he do this alone?! The threat of death was constantly hanging above! There was nobody you could trust to save you! If you messed up, that was it!

Ennea’s head tilted up to the sky, her mouth fighting to take in more air. Past a lone branch jutting out above her, the sky was a deep, dark blue fading to a pale pink down at the horizon. It was almost like a joke. All of this before the sun had even risen.

A strange form made Ennea’s eye twitch. Looking at it for so long, Ennea saw something wrong in the deep blue sky. A weird oval hanging from the branch above….

Something made Ennea just jump up and pluck the thing off, caution to the wind. Getting a close look at the tough blue skin of the thing was enough. Unlike the other items she’d found, Ennea knew exactly what this one was: an Oran Berry!

She looked back up at the branch she’d gotten it from. It was just… hanging out of the arch. Wide, ovular leaves. Weirdly glossy. It wasn’t exactly possible for someone of her low botany skill to determine what it was, but it definitely didn’t seem like a species that should grow fruits.

Items seemed to form in strange or impossible places. Like the seed somehow stuck in that bottle. It tempted Ennea to fall back into philosophy as she ventured back to the peak and onto the long trail up.

Well, it was less of a trail and more of a climb. Rocks jutted out from the ground, serving as stairs at first but quickly becoming so disjointed that Ennea was forced to jump from one to another.

Her legs were starting to burn by the time she was close enough to see that the bridge to the nook was another suspension bridge, this one much older. Or could things in Dungeons even be old? Since they changed every time someone went in them—

Ennea jumped for another rock, only for it to get blasted away by another Seed Bomb, sending her sliding down a level.

This better not be another quadruped, I swear to—!

She had to cut that thought right off as a Simisage soared over her, swiping for her head. It flew past the trail but caught an outlying rock with its foot and swung right on back, spit flying from its fangs as it screeched at her.

Okay, not another quadruped! Much worse!

Another mad scramble broke out, Ennea fighting to get higher than the abberant. This thing was utterly rabid! It didn’t just attack, it threw its whole body at her! If it were any other species, it would’ve launched off the cliff a hundred times by now!

Work with it! Now the jaggedness of the path was a blessing in disguise. Ennea timed her jumps with the Simisage’s attacks, making them double as dodges. Just when it was looking close to learning her pattern, she’d send a Swift its way to pester it into forgetting.

She nearly screamed in joy when she made it to the top, the bridge rocking back and forth just a step away! She didn’t hesitate to dash onto the rotten wood.

The bridge bumped. Way too hard for it to be something normal.

Ennea chanced a look back, seeing approximately too many abberants on her tail. A Zorua, another Girafarig, a Cherrim, and a freaking Haxorus were all cramming onto the bridge with her!

Wait, but where’s the—?

She actually screamed in fright as a hand hooked around her leg. The Simisage! It was climbing the underside of the bridge!

“Get off get off get off get off get off get off get off get off get off!” Ennea desperately tried to shake the thing’s grip, but it was strong. Its pull made her stumble towards the edge, falling against the rope.

The rope’s threads begin to snap.

Yelling near every profanity she knew, Ennea took a gamble, raising a paw up, then smashing it down into the failing plank below her. It shattered, sending her hind legs dangling and a shower of splinters into the Simisage beneath.

Its shriek was painful, but it finally let go just long enough for Ennea to clamber back onto the bridge and sprint like her life depended on it.

She wasn’t lucky enough for the Simisage to fall. It flipped up, landing on the bridge with enough force to make the whole thing tremble.

Just go away already! The abberants were gaining on her! So many had piled onto the bridge that it was barely holding up!

Oh fuck it, why not?! Ennea took a look at the fraying rope to her side, and with a lurch sent a Swift right at it.

The bridge flipped the moment the rope was severed, throwing all the unbalanced abberants into the cloudy depths below. One of them snagged the other rope on the way down, taking the bridge with it.

Ennea jumped, using the bridge’s flip and one more Quick Attack to get just enough distance that she grabbed the other side. With one last grunt she pulled herself to safety, a panting mess.

“Autumnal…” she gasped. “You are getting such a stern talking to after this….”

One more push. Then she’d make that a reality. Ennea stagged across the platform towards the nook, stumbling over some of rocks embedded in the ground that were loose.

Wait, she’d learned by now. If it’s weird, it might be useful. Ennea took another look back at the loose rocks, lifting them up and tossing them over the side. She mostly got dirt for her troubles.

“Ha!” …Until one of them had a small gap under it. It almost looked like an intentionally made stash. It felt cool to uncover it, like she was finding the secret storage of some crafty criminal! But the only thing they’d stored was another Orb. Still, victory for Ennea!

She pulled the Orb out and took a look. This one was perfectly spherical, filled with a deep, reddish purple and a single mass of clouds in the center.

Well, it wasn’t a Petrify Orb. But it still might save her. Or Autumnal could identify it. Or both! Ennea put it in her bag, right next to the mystery Wand still sticking out.

Her paws dug into the ground a bit as she stared down the next nook. She’d come so far already… moment of truth….

 

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Ennea looked around at the mess of platforms around her. Nope, it wasn’t over.

This floor was similar to the first, a series of mostly level plateaus with a massive cliff on the far side. A whole host of abberants were about, many of them flying over—

No, never mind, none of them mattered! Off against that cliff was a Pokémon that definitely wasn’t an abberant: a Vulpix!

“Autumnal!” Ennea called out, paying no mind to the distance. She was loud enough to reach him.

Autumnal’s head snapped up, his dark eyes piercing across the whole floor.

“Ah!” his cry was almost too quiet to notice, but his hurried pointing past Ennea wasn’t.

“Huh?” Ennea looked behind herself just in time to see a Farfetch’d swoop in, slashing at her with its leek. “Gah!” She dove out of the way, landing right at the feet of a Cherrim.

The Cherrim spread the leaves of its stem. When it did, the inexplicable light the Dungeon had began to beat down until it felt like Ennea was baking. The purple petals covering the Cherrim began to quiver, its body underneath glowing just as hot as the nonexistent sun—

“Eyb!”

“G-got it!” Ennea stumbled up and took the closest path to her. Petals whipped around and tore the platform she’d left to shreds. Wouldn’t you know it, they still found a way to be festive, even out here!

Just as she was figuring out where she was trying to run, Ennea’s whole body seized up! She was hoisted upwards to stare right into the empty eyes of a Swoobat about to use Psychic to slam her back down into the ground, or worse!

A ball of condensed sun smashed into the Swoobat, knocking it away and dropping Ennea from its hold. Was that Weather Ball? Autumnal was shooting them down!

Ennea wasted no time, jumping off in his direction the moment her paws touched ground. They’d be safe together!

“Autumnal, cover me!” she charged at an Arboliva blocking an otherwise unoccupied path. He was a Fire-Type, he had this!

Sure enough, as it was distracted by the Eevee coming its way, the Arboliva was socked by another Weather Ball, leaving a nasty scorch on its back and toppling it right over.

Ennea trampled right over its body without an ounce of respect for whether it was conscious or not. She was so close! Autumnal was lying just a few platforms away!

She fought to outrun the utter pandemonium behind her. Attacks were being sent her way by every abberant on the floor! But each time leaves or beams started to get too close, another Weather Ball flew in to keep them back.

She zigged left, zagged right, anything to keep them guessing on aim. A Fearow tried to stop her from reaching the last bridge. She just slid right under it.

A deep crunch erupted, and the bridge collapsed in front of her eyes. It had been hit! From the cloud of dust rose a freaking Salamence, crushing more rocks in its jaw! She was trapped with this beast without any way out! Unless…

“Autumnal, I’m about to do something really stupid! You watching?!”

“Qglr?!”

“Awesome!”

Ennea jumped towards the gap where the bridge once was. Or more accurately, to the Salamence still hovering there. It was too distracted eating stone to chomp her, letting her latch onto its face. It started thrashing immediately, forcing Ennea to hold onto the most dangerous abberant yet for dear life.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” She was tossed around like a ragdoll. A very clingy ragdoll. A very clingy ragdoll experiencing untold amounts of whiplash as she barely kept her grip on a lone headfin. In just a moment it was impossible to tell which way was up and which was down.

Then it became very easy to tell which way was down, because Ennea was slammed right into it. The ground, more specifically. She flopped flat onto the rocks, the few items in her bag scattering out.

Ennea groaned as she picked herself up off the ground.

Wait, the ground! It worked! And not too far from where she landed was Autumnal! He’d bit the Salamence’s tail to draw its attention! Hooray! Now it was attacking him! Oh no!

Not to mention every other abberant on the floor! All of the ones that could fly were closing in on them from high above, like an avalanche about to crash down.

“Ah!” Autumnal managed to break Ennea out of staring, wildly pointing to something nearby as he dove under the Salamence’s claws.

“Wha—?! Where?!”

There! The Orb had fallen out of her bag! Ennea pounced on it, smashing the glassy surface with a paw.

Smoke poured out, giving a nasty hiss as it escaped into the air around her. That smoke swirled into a ball of clouds, then burst, sending a pillowy shockwave all the way to the sky beyond.

Right when they got hit, the mass of abberants really did crash down. Straight down, into the abyss. Within seconds the floor was suddenly clear of them.

“What in the world…?”

“Mm….” Autumnal limped over to the Salamence, one of the few abberants that had hit ground. Its eyes were screwed shut, and a puddle of drool was already forming below its mouth.

“That was a Sleep Orb?!” Its effects were much more devastating for fliers than Ennea had imagined! And it hit the whole floor because there weren’t any walls!

“Akynvwe Iev, lxrylkkt…” Autumnal coughed. “Buxw qiej.”

“Yeah, that’s—wait a minute, you’re hurt!” Ennea finally noticed the blood trailing from Autumnal’s leg.

She scampered on over, finally able to see just how scuffed he looked. Someone needed to fix up that leg, so Ennea reached for it—

Autumnal tore his leg away from her despite the pain flashing across his face.

“Why are you—?” Ennea smacked a paw to her forehead. Dammit, she forgot about his thing about physical contact!

“Oh wait, here!” Searching around for a moment let Ennea find the Oran Berry, just a few paces from the mystery Wand. She shoved it in Autumnal’s face, and he gladly took it.

The patch-job that followed was surprisingly gross. Autumnal only ate half the berry. The rest was chewed up and applied directly to his wounds, along with some bandages Ennea had kept in her bag from the hospital. But it worked, and he was back on his feet in less than a minute.

Ennea gave a worried frown at his once again bandaged leg. “Just how bad did the Dungeon go for you…?”

Autumnal evaded with a shrug, pointing with a tail to the sleeping Salamence beginning to stir, then a nook just a plateau away.

“Right! Let’s get out of here!”

 

---

 

Ennea felt that sense of utter stability, where the ground beneath her feet was real and the world had an underlying logic to its behavior. There was no subtle sense of freefall at the back of her mind despite how thin the air was. They’d made it out of the Dungeon alright!

Autumnal was just ahead, near the end of the trail to the peak. Just a few steps more and he’d crest over to the summit.

He looked back at Ennea, just a stone’s throw away.

“Rglbj tiy.” He gave a grateful bow.

That was absurd. So much that it made Ennea growl, furiously messing a paw through her hair to vent the frustration. “What’s with you?! You up and left the festival to go here?! And now you’re thanking me like it’s no big deal!”

Autumnal staggered back, somehow surprised at Ennea’s outburst. He pointed to the ground, then off into the distance. I was coming here, then leaving.

“That’s even worse! You freaking ditched me! And for what, to go up Mt. Cephalo alone again before bouncing for good?! You totally got yourself hurt doing this, too! Sheesh, you really are a Dungeoneer! Look at your leg!” Ennea pointed out the bandaged leg before having a terrible realization. “Wha—? It’s the same one! We just had it fixed!”

Other than his eyes going wide, Autumnal’s face was blank. He pointed to Ennea and tapped his head, then used a tail to alternate between his hind legs. You remember which one it was?

“Of course I do! I’ve stared at your legs long enough to know!”

That broke Autumnal’s poker face, making him recoil and stammer incoherently.

“Oh no, no changing the subject! You were just going to leave! Did you forget that you can’t even speak normally?!” Ennea plopped down and crossed her arms. “Seriously, what was your plan? How were you expecting to get by without the one person who can translate for you?!”

“Vyr U xlb’r vyeswb tiy qurg—”

“Nope, that’s wrong.”

“Vyr agw lkqlta riks nw rglr U eyub—!

“And that’s dumb.”

Ennea tried to turn her head up and away, but the way Autumnal sputtered in disbelief made her look back.

“Did you really not even consider asking your friend to go with you?”

“Deuwbs?”

Ennea drew a high pitched gasp at the indignity. It was probably the most she’d sounded like a noble in a long time.

“Are you kidding?! Freaking… we spend weeks together, I go into a Dungeon for you, you take a hit and almost die for me, and you don’t even consider us friends?!”

Autumnal flailed his arms back and forth in front of him, frantically trying to dispel that idea as his breath heaved.

With disjointed, shaky motions, he touched his chest, then tapped his head, pointed to Ennea, tried to grab nothing, and made an X. I… didn’t think you would want that.

“Now you’ve got to be kidding. What, did you think I was just hanging out with you out of obligation or something?”

“…U-uh huh.”

“Unbelievable. I’ve never been so insulted.” Ennea huffed. “Seriously, are you gonna apologize, or what?”

“A-aieet….”

Ennea gave a mean smile. “Nope! That didn’t sound much like ‘sorry’ to me!”

“Ah?! A-aieet! Aieet!” Autumnal apologized repeatedly.

“Yeah, I dunno. Still not hearing it. Think about what my parents will say if they find out I let this happen! Guess you’re just gonna have to get that speech thing fixed so you can apologize for real!”

Autumnal just hunched over in despair, hair hanging over his face. Maybe Ennea went a bit too far.

“…Aren’t you gonna ask me for help? We could find a way—together.”

Autumnal looked back up, whipping his head from side to side. He pretended to drop some coins in his paw, then brought that paw down close to the ground.

“’You don’t have much money?’” Ennea cocked her head. “Why would that matter?”

Autumnal flinched, his eyes going wider than Ennea had ever seen. He looked at her like she’d said something horrifying. It was enough to shock her out of her anger. Now she was just worried.

Backing away and shaking his head, Autumnal pointed to Ennea, then brought his tails together and separated one from the rest. Then he just… kept doing it, like it was a chant.

He was losing it. Ennea had to work out the puzzle fast. It wasn’t meant to be just them two, he put all his tails together. And it was her that split from the rest, meaning it couldn’t be literal, but….

“I’m different?” Ennea confirmed.

Autumnal squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, still endlessly repeating that same series of gestures over and over. You’re different. You’re different. You’re different.

“Wha—?” Ennea puffed out her chest. “Damn right I’m ‘different!’ Sheesh, it took you this long to notice?! I dunno who the heck you’ve been around, but I’m not like them! I help the people that I like!”

“Bi!” Autumnal cried. He pointed at the two of them, moved two tails together, then made a thumbs down. Us being together isn’t right!

“Why not?!” Tears pricked at the edges of Ennea’s eyes. “What so wrong about that?!”

Autumnal slammed a paw into his chest, shook his head, and forcefully served Ennea a platter of nothing.

‘I can’t give you anything!’

His breaths went ragged, and he couldn’t look anywhere but the ground. Even still, he weakly repeated the gesture. I can’t give you anything….

“I—” Ennea tried, but no words could come out. She raked a paw through the dirt, trying to force some kind of clarity.

That was why he left? Because he couldn’t give her anything? It was all… payment?

Did he think of everything like that? Was that why him not having money was important? So every interaction that he had was just… transactional? But then why did he ever accept her help with the case?

…Wait. When they talked about it, late that one night, he immediately was able to tell Ennea exactly how the case personally benefited her. He’d already thought through it. The case was his payment. And now that it was over, he had nothing.

Everything to Autumnal was a series of exchanges, ones he was always coming up short on. He must have been viewing everything between them through that lens. It was why they couldn’t be together: he’d never be worth it.

It hurt, in a way, for Ennea to realize this. She didn’t know Autumnal as much as she thought she had. Part of him didn’t make sense to her. All this time, there was a disconnect between them, and it wouldn’t be easily resolved.

And yet….

It was also somehow exciting. There was more to him. She didn’t know everything about him, and that meant there was more to learn. She could try to understand. It was… a puzzle.

Ennea straightened herself out, and gave the warmest, brightest smile she ever had.

“Autumnal,” she cooed. “There is something you can give me.”

He looked up, face breaking with emotion. Whatever mask of apathy he normally wore had cracked for her.

“Give me you.” Ennea stepped closer. “Let me see who my friend is.”

Autumnal’s breath hitched. He briefly shook his head and tapped it, but then looked up to the summit. His eyes shifted, from realization, to fear, to resolution. His shoulders lowered, tension leaving them as he decided.

With one more look back to Ennea, Autumnal set off towards the peak, but not before gesturing for her to follow. She gladly accepted the offer, and after less than a minute, they finally made it to the very top of Mt. Cephalo. The sight Ennea had dreamed of seeing ever since she’d arrived in Epiphany.

The ground shot out like an arrow reaching as far as it could across the sky, which had turned completely pale. When Ennea peered out beyond, she could see the rolling plains all around the town down in the mountain’s shade. The climate never left those plains fully green; it was always intermixed with burgundy and yellows. She could see them rippling in the wind. They truly had everything below them.

Autumnal wandered over to the side, past a few shallow puddles to a strange formation. 6 sticks had been stuck into the ground in a row, making the shape of a fan. The Vulpix took a deep breath as he rest a paw on the soft ground in front of them, and then began to dig.

Before Ennea could even question it, he hit something, pulling out a dark bag much more worn than Ennea’s. He brushed off some of the dirt before opening it up, slowly pulling out a long indigo cloth.

“What is that…? Is it yours?”

“Mm,” Autumnal confirmed softly. Then he swept the cloth up and around with a dramatic flap and let it fall upon him.

Autumnal stood and faced the rising sun, casting a long shadow as the winds swept his hair. A hooded cape now fluttered behind him, tattered at the ends but holding strong. His cape.

“W-wow…” Ennea stared at his gear. That dark fabric on his body completely changed his appearance. “Now you look like an adventurer….”

Her eyes ventured back to the bag, seeing a small box sticking out of it. “…What’s that?”

“Ah….” Autumnal pulled out the box, then with the dual clinks of latches being undone, opened it. He lifted up carefully crafted metal tubes, fitting them together like he’d done it thousands of times.

Autumnal held a completed flute in his paws. He looked at it with a strange mixture of appreciation and apprehension.

“Wait, you play that? You’re a musician?!” Ennea didn’t even wait for him to nod. “C’mon, play something! I wanna hear you!”

Autumnal sat down at the edge of the peak. He held the flute up with a paw, and his tails all uncurled, their tips taking positions on the keys. He took a breath, but stopped to give Ennea one last look.

“…Rglbj tiy.” He breathed in once more, and some tails pressed down their keys, and then….

The sun broke over the horizon. The next moment, everything was gold. Ennea knew it was the light, but it was so radiant that it became impossible to imagine anything around them with any less luster.

Being taken to this golden world didn’t give Autumnal any pause. The sound of his flute began to flow out as he played a series of cadenzas all ending in the same, graceful note. It danced along with the fiery clouds in sky.

Autumnal’s tone slowly gained confidence, growing into something dark and warm as he tested his range. When he was ready, he began a lyrical, swaying song. Its mood couldn’t be said to be wholly happy or sad. All it had was a deep, deep longing. That longing echoed off into the distance, reverberating, calling out for someone.

After just a lone phrase, the song slowed to a halt. Autumnal trailed off at the end, allowing one last held note to gradually fade away along with the brilliance of the sunrise fading into day.

Hesitantly, he brought his lips away from playing position. It looked like a long sigh.

“…Nt leruxyklruiba qwew akioot,” he complained.

“Oh come on, that was amazing! You’re your own worst critic.”

Autumnal blinked, dropping any sort of artistic pretense and gave Ennea a shocked look. “Tiy ybswearlbs?!”

She stuck her tongue out. “Nope, still can’t understand you! But I know that tone.”

“Ah…”

“…So, you ready? Ready to ask what you should’ve a while ago?”

With a deep breath and an adjustment of his cape, Autumnal gave a nod. He took a low, reverent bow before Ennea. “Okwlaw gwko nw rlkj lflub.”

Ennea huffed in satisfaction. “Gladly! It’s like I said before: we’re in this together. From now on we’re a team, so don’t forget it!”

“Mm.” Autumnal thumped a fist to his chest as he nodded.

“Ah.” Then his head tilted, and his tails curled behind. He used his arms to mimic a clock, then pointed at the ground.

“’What now?’ Isn’t that obvious?” Ennea pointed to the town far below them. “We’ve got a festival to enjoy!”

 

---

 

“None over here! How about you?”

Autumnal emerged from a dark alley of discarded furniture and shook his head. He moved his paws up and down, pointed to his nose, and gave a thumbs-down. Maybe I smelled wrong.

“Nah, no way! I trust your adventurer’s instincts! We just need my investigator’s instincts to bring it home!”

Ennea returned to sniffing around for flowers. Gracideas specifically. They were the rarest of the flowers hidden around town, and the only ones that hadn’t all been snatched up yet. They only needed two more, and they could exchange them for treats!

They were going to get ice cream, and they were going to get it for free, no matter the cost!

The tarp Ennea had been looking under fluttered back down to the ground. No flowers under there, either. Ennea looked up to the roofs. She kept being tempted to check up there, but fliers generally picked them clean pretty fast….

Autumnal kept circling around the area, frowning deep in concentration. He could smell a flower, it had to be nearby. And that ice cream had a special, festive flavor, apparently like custard mixed with raspberries! They had to try it!

Ennea looked up yet again.

When she shook herself out of it, she saw Autumnal staring.

“Sorry, I just keep feeling like—”

Autumnal stopped her, then pretended to use a magnifying glass. Investigator’s instincts.

He was right! There must be some reason she kept wanting to look up. If a flower was around but they hadn’t found it on the ground, it must be above them. But for fliers not to spot it….

It must be under something else! Check the upper walls, not the roofs!

“Aha!”

After just a moment of weaving between buildings, Ennea saw a bit of pink sticking out from a home’s rain gutter! Giving it a smack made the wooden thing rattle and drop the prize.

Or prizes, actually! Instead of a lone Gracidea, two flowers plopped down to the ground. They were in luck! Ennea scooped up one, then absentmindedly reached for the other while stowing the first in her bag.

She froze as her paw touched another’s. Could it be…?

Ennea looked back at the second flower, only to be face to face with some Pachirisu kid.

“Gah!” Ennea hopped back. A big mistake. The kid blew a raspberry at her and ran off!

“Hey, wait!” Their last Gracidea! It’d just been stolen!

Ennea growled and gave chase. They couldn’t lose their free ice cream to some kid half her size! Of course, that size gave them advantages. They ran straight to where the crowds were and started ducking between peoples’ legs. Ennea couldn’t do that!

But she was craftier! They’d gotten close to the games. Ennea split off to the side, zipping around people in search of something. Something stupid.

There! The high striker! Just as a burly Aggron was swinging the hammer down, Ennea jumped in, onto the end of the lever! The impact launched her high into the sky, and a Quick Attack on lift-off sent her flying far faster than that kid could run!

“Gimme back the flower!” Ennea yelled, finally prompting the Pachirisu to see her hurtling towards it.

The kid screamed and passed the flower to a Bunnelby by their side. Both of them rushed out of the crowd just as Ennea had a painful impact with the ground.

Pain be dammed, there was ice cream on the line! Ennea just cursed and pursued the duo, chasing them to the nearby set of homes. Without people to shield them, the kids were slow, and Ennea was gaining!

She pounced for one, but it tossed the flower to the other. Trying again gave the same result. Dammit, they had the numbers advantage!

All three of them screeched to a halt as the street was blocked by a shadowy wall of smoke. The sudden darkness was like a nightmare taking over.

An orange beast burst out from the smoke and lunged right at the kids! The clutched each other and screeched so loud it probably alerted every parent in town. But more importantly, they dropped the flower!

Ennea slid in and nabbed it, skidding to a stop right next to the orange monster. Or more accurately, Autumnal. Emerging from a cloud of shadow could do wonders for one’s fear factor.

Instead of eating the kids like they probably expected, he just gave an earnest bow. Thank you for watching the show.

“Ha! Take that!” Ennea gloated. “Next time, make sure you’re not stealing from weirdos! We’ll always out-do you!” She hooked her tail around one of Autumnal’s legs and pulled him back beyond the smoke.

 

---

 

“I still can’t get over the looks on their faces!” Ennea laughed between licks of her hard-earned ice cream. “Does that make me a bad person?”

Autumnal shook his head, but paused for a second to think… and then shook his head again. He’d already finished his ice cream. Ennea had tried to give him one of her scoops as an apology for how shaky he got after she touched him, but he refused it.

“So, was yours good? I honestly think I might like vanilla better.” The raspberry gave the Sky’s Bloom flavor a bit of a tart kick, enough that it overpowered the custard, unfortunately.

“Mhm!”

“Really?” That was an enthusiastic response! “Think it’s your favorite flavor?”

Autumnal pursed his lips, then shrugged.

“Aw, come on! Don’t skimp out on the answer! What is your favorite flavor, anyway?”

“Ah.” Autumnal shook his head. He pointed to his empty bowl, tapped out one and touched a paw to his mouth a few times.

“Wait… you can’t be serious!” Ennea leaned at him over the bench they were sitting on, forcing Autumnal against the armrest. “That was your first time having ice cream?!”

“U-uh huh?”

Ennea flopped back. “That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.” Even Ennea’d had ice cream. Her nan always smuggled some in for her during birthdays and holidays. “Please tell me you’ve at least had dessert of some kind.”

Autumnal nodded, but then brought a paw down near the ground. When I was little.

“Sheesh! Glad I helped fix that!” They’d have to get more over the rest of the festival.

“Mm. Rglbj tiy.”

“Uh oh! Last I checked, that means ‘I’m about to ditch you.’ And after I helped you finally try ice cream….” Ennea looked away to hide her lopsided smile. “You really are vicious, Autumnal!”

“Ah!” Autumnal desperately shook his head, trying to lean around Ennea so she could see him trying to thank her and apologize.

“Pfft. Don’t worry, I’m messing with you!” Ennea just liked seeing him flustered. “So, final verdict? How was your first time trying ice cream?”

Autumnal sighed in relief and looked around. The sun had begun to set, but the petals in the air weren’t going down any time soon. Enough had accumulated over the festival that they were almost their own weather event. It was certainly quite the backdrop for a tasting session.

Autumnal brought a paw to his lips and gave a chef’s kiss.

“Ha! Yeah, I agree.” Although as the sky began to darken, more and more people were showing up and crowding around… there must’ve been something about to go on here. Their little bench was starting to feel like a boat barely keeping afloat in a storm….

Ennea lapped up the last of her ice cream and put away their bowls.

“Hey Autumnal?”

Autumnal’s ears flicked towards Ennea. He gave a questioning look at her uneven smirk.

“…Catch me if you can!” And then she shot off, sugar giving her more than enough energy for another chase.

“Huh?!”

Ennea just laughed as she fought against the overwhelming current of pedestrians. She fled to the first route that interested her, taking a gander at some of the attractions that were winding down. In particular was a massive water installation meant to replicate those made in the Eastern Arm.

Its fountains were off, but there was still a thin layer of water its floor. Ennea leaped onto it, skidding across the massive puddle and parting the coating of petals it had gained.

A short series of hisses snapped out. Ennea looked back to find Autumnal on her tail, evaporating the water wherever he stepped on it. He wasn’t going to lose easily!

Guess I can turn up the speed even more! Ennea changed course and headed off to the bathhouse. She was running fast enough to complete a whole lap around it in just a minute, getting to see every angle.

The temple-like building had been adorned with banners glorifying Uxie. They illustrated him advising a crowned Delcatty, lecturing crowds, and crafting mechanisms. Each one had paragraphs upon paragraphs of tiny text explaining and contextualizing the deeds. It was almost too over the top for Ennea’s tastes.

“Haah!”

Autumnal was still in the race and close behind, even if they’d been going so long that the sky was starting to get as dark as his eyes!

Ennea grinned back at him. Her own muscles were crying out at this point, but this was stupid, and that meant committing. Time to end this!

She led him off to a familiar spot, where the roads started to get rough and the houses were pressed up against each other. This had to be a new record time for her to make it back to The Stem.

Finally, they arrived at the Guard’s Hall, the tallest building Ennea knew. But she didn’t stop just yet! She circled around to find a set of stairs—for maintenance, or races in this case. Leaping up them was hard, but worth it as the air got cooler with height.

When the metal stairs reached their end at the top floor, Ennea still didn’t stop, hopping onto the railing, and then the roof. Finish!

Barely a second latter, Ennea heard the soft sound of Autumnal landing beside her.

“…I think we can call that a tie….”

Ennea all but collapsed against the roof’s tiles. Hexagonal things, colored in blacks and greens. Seemed a bit silly to have such an ornate looking roof up where no one could really see it, and evoking the God of Justice seemed awfully ironic given that they were on top of Hiketeria’s former office. But it was the highest, most exclusive spot in town, giving Ennea the freedom to pant away without any onlookers.

“Phew… been a while since I ran for that long.” Ennea made a half-hearted attempt to look Autumnal’s way. “How’re you holding up?”

He was hunched over, managing to stay standing, but panting just as hard as Ennea was. He’d been run ragged by the race.

That made a goofy smile spread across her face. “Hah! I managed to make an adventurer winded!”

Autumnal tore his head up from the ground, giving Ennea that subtle smile and a thumbs up. She had his breath and his approval.

“Mmm…!” He stretched his back out, clearly feeling sore. But he pushed through and plopped down onto a dormer jutting out, sitting in a dignified position and looking out to the town below.

Ennea pulled herself up to join him. She couldn’t be outdone, after all! And quiet moments on loud nights like this were best enjoyed together.

“Hope you don’t mind me bringing us up here,” she sighed. “I just needed to be away from the crowds and stuff, y’know?”

Autumnal ignored the far-off lights and flying flowers to gesture for Ennea. He nodded quite a few times and tapped his head.

“Yeah, you get it!” Ennea gazed back out, giving him a chance to actually take in the sight. “Bezel always calls me out for that. But I dunno, that many people around can just be hard.”

A wince from Autumnal brought her attention back to him. He gave a knowing nod, and brought his paws up to point around at himself—eyes, all looking at him. It made him shudder.

“Oh yeah.” He completely got it. That was more than welcome. “You deal with that too, as an adventurer?”

Autumnal moved his paws up and down—scales. He mimed out a clock, then moved a paw forward. Continuing the idea, he brought the eyes back, then had them all turn away.

“Over time, people stopped gawking?”

“Hmm….” He did scales again. “…Owiokw arioows xleubf. Ur nlsw nw ybayew ud U qla arukk ewlk.”

“…Well, I guess people started looking at me less, too.” Ennea’d been out of the public eye for a long time. Most people their age and younger didn’t even know House Harmonie had a ninth child.

“But even still,” she continued. “The crowds. They bring me back to when I was in the castle.”

Autumnal’s ears flicked up, and he laid back on a cushion of his tails. Ennea had an audience, and it looked like he was comfortable.

“I know I complained about being shunted off to the countryside and all, but those days were actually the better ones. When I was really young, and in the castle…” Ennea shrunk as she wrung her front paws together. “That was the truly awful part.”

She hadn’t meant to say even this much, but now that she’d started, the words started flowing out of her. “Every day was multiple appearances. Y’know, parades, interviews, balls, tons of random, meaningless junk that everyone’d care about for just a few hours. But it wasn’t allowed to be meaningless for me.

“I had to win over peoples’ hearts, or else. If I wasn’t precious enough and representing my house well, wasn’t making people forget the crisis the continent was going through, that’d be it. All it would take would be locking me in the dungeon….”

Ennea looked up, managing an ironic smile. “That’s with a lowercase D, by the way. I know you’re probably used to the other kind.” That smile turned genuine at Autumnal’s exasperated eyebrow raise.

“But anyway, if they wanted, they could just lock me down there and tell the world I fell ill. If I wasn’t good PR alive, I’d be a sob story for them dead. So I had to play along, be the precious little baby they wanted. My appearance was all that mattered, and it had to be perfect. Not a hair out of place. They’d definitely want me dead if they saw what I looked like now. Hair and collar are all fluffy, that’s not proper. And now I have… this.”

Ennea pointed to the split in her ear. A tear, showing she’d been in a fight. Nobles didn’t fight. And while her hair and fur could all be fixed any day she felt like it, her ear would always be like this. She’d lost the ability to be what she was supposed to be.

Staring right at this glaring flaw, Autumnal looked genuinely confused. He pointed at her ear and gave another thumbs-up. “Ur’a xiik… kujw tiye wtwa.”

“Pfft. Thanks. Guess it might appeal more to an adventurer.”

Ennea allowed herself to relax, idly watching some of the flowers fly. The white ones were her favorite. They caught the glow of the lights below, almost looking like stars being put back into the night sky.

She couldn’t be what she was supposed to be anymore. But what she did have, an adventurer liked. That didn’t seem nearly as bad. Less of a loss and more of a… career change. It wasn’t like an Ace Investigator had to look pristine, after all.

“That really makes me think. I lived my life back then acting for them. Being just… a tool for their image. And I was so sure they’d have just disowned me by now that I didn’t realize… isn’t that how it still is?”

“Hm?” Autumnal pointed at Ennea questioningly. You, a tool?

“Yeah. I mean, not like with the investigation and stuff, but the council work. I’m here to make it seem like House Harmonie cares about individual towns and stuff. And they’re the ones who control my paycheck. I’m still acting for them, just from afar.”

Ennea sighed, laying back on her own tail to copy Autumnal. It was fluffy enough for some good comfort. He had the right idea.

“I guess that’s why at times like this I wanna get away from it all. All of that… familiar pressure. Even when I’m really feeling it, super energetic, I can’t actually be around people for all that long.”

Autumnal gave a concerned pout and pointed to himself.

Ennea waved it off. “Nah, you’re not ‘people!’ You’re Autumnal. And I can be around Autumnal for a lot longer.” She put on an innocent smile. “Wanna see just how long?”

Autumnal bobbed his head back and forth. The tails he wasn’t leaning on joined in, making it almost a slow dance as he thought. Or maybe that was actually them wagging… Ennea could hope. Either way, he came to his decision, giving a single, sure nod.

That smile of Ennea’s turned devious. “Heh, you fool! You’ve fallen for my expert machinations! I don’t take inconclusive results. That’s not good science.”

Autumnal gave a soft gasp, touching the tip of his paw to his chest in shock at this betrayal. Truly, Ennea had shown her true colors tonight. But what could it mean? What was this cruel trick all for?

“No ending early… so we’ve gotta hang out until I say I’m sick of you, which hasn’t happened even after weeks….” She stuck out her tongue at him and practically sang, “Yep, looks like you’re stuck with me!”

“A-ah.” Autumnal’s mouth began to curve up before he threw a paw over it. Ennea just leaned around to see the smile he was trying to hide.

You don’t have to worry about… “paying me back.” Being “worth” my company. ‘Cuz I’m the one taking from you. It was an elegant solution. Even if she couldn’t understand how he could look at things like that, she could still help.

The fur on Ennea’s back raised as a roar erupted in the distance. It took her a moment to determine if it was a crowd or a particularly rowdy Dragon-Type, maybe even Salute. But given the sudden marching of lights piercing through the night, it looked to be the former. Uxie’s parade had begun, meant to be the path to intellectual enlightenment.

“Oh, there it is….” Ennea dismissed.

To her surprise, Autumnal got up, standing on his toes and trying to get a good view of the parade they were way too far from to see.

“Really? You’re interested? Sorry, I just figured since we solved the case and all that we’ve already done enough for Uxie’s sake.”

Autumnal tried an evasive shrug, then thought through what Ennea had said. He pointed to her and tapped his head, then pointed to himself, shook his head, grabbed for nothing, then pointed to his eyes and the parade in succession. You thought I wouldn’t want to see?

“Well, I mean, yeah! You’ve seen way more interesting stuff than some festival in a pass-through town like this!” Ennea pointed right at Autumnal to interrupt a rebuttal. “And don’t try to say you haven’t! I know you’ve got crazy stories you just can’t tell yet!

“Like….” Ennea pointed up at the silhouette of Mt. Cephalo. “Everything we saw up there! The sunrise with the whole world below, that was gorgeous. This is nothing in comparison.”

Autumnal played with his hair for a moment, frown deepening. He didn’t seem to agree.

“Seriously? Its just a bunch of floats and stuff people threw together and a lot of lanterns.” Ennea looked up at the sparse collection of stars visible above. “All those lights make the night sky harder to enjoy. With everything you must’ve seen so far, you still think that’s something worth watching?”

“Mhm.” Autumnal followed Ennea’s gaze up to the sky. Something complicated was in the darkness of his eyes.

Slowly, Autumnal pointed to himself and lightly tapped his head. I think….

He gestured up to Mt. Cephalo and thought before floating a paw out, wiggling his digits as he did.

“What’s that one supposed to mean?”

“Uh….” Autumnal thought again, then pointed to his eyes and gave a tail-thumbs up.

“Oh, that’s meant to be ‘beautiful.’ I get it!”

“Mm, mm.” Autumnal did the gesture again for Mt. Cephalo. The view up there was beautiful.

With a soft smile, he pointed to the town below them, then repeated the wiggling float. The wiggling must’ve been him trying to mimic sparkles. But this town is beautiful, too.

He swept his paw out all around them, to the town, the sky, the mountain, the plains beyond, everything. Then the sparkles gesture once more. I think the whole world is beautiful.

“The whole world, really?”

“Mhm.”

Ennea’s smile went lopsided. “…even the sewers?”

“Ah.” Autumnal brushed back some of his hair, but seemed to be thinking it through, not giving up.

He moved his paws like scales, then pointed down below. He shook his head, pointed to his eyes, and did sparkles. Maybe the sewers don’t look beautiful…

But it wasn’t over. He shifted his shoulders, did scales again, pointed to the sewers, did sparkles, then separated his paws. But maybe they’re beautiful in another way.

“Ah!” Autumnal jumped up as he thought of something. He quickly nabbed the flute from his bag, throwing it together in a blur. To Ennea’s surprise, he pushed it towards her, presenting it.

With his free paw, Autumnal pointed to his flute, then his eyes, did the sparkles, but then shook his head. This doesn’t look beautiful.

That drew quite a bit of incredulity from Ennea. This thing was his instrument! But a closer look revealed just how much the flute had tarnished. What little it could reflect was a blurred mess. It was quite uneven, too, obvious at a glance which parts Autumnal was grabbing most often. It certainly wasn’t a shining example of a flute—quite literally. It couldn’t shine.

Autumnal made a big show of shifting his shoulders as he brought the flute to a playing position near his lips. But….

With a soft breath, he began to play a tune, slow and lyrical, floating over the town’s celebrations. It trailed off, and he brought his prized possession down once more.

He pointed to his ears, then floated his paw out again, making sparkles. It sounds beautiful.

Something in his expression turned sheepish. “…U giow.”

Autumnal sat back down, putting his flute back in the case, but not before using it for one last gesture. He gently touched his chest, tapped his head, then pointed to the flute, everything around them, and moved between the two. I think the world’s like my flute.

“I get it…” Ennea finally responded. “You’re saying there’s some sort of beauty in everything. Maybe not in how it looks, but maybe in how it sounds.” It wasn’t hard to extrapolate from there. “And maybe not even that, either. Maybe there’s other things you can look for.”

Ennea laid back, gazing up once more at the speckled sky and waning gibbous. It wasn’t nearly as pretty as the perfect sky in her dreams.

And yet, the longer Ennea looked, the more stars she could see forming a sparkling river. It was kinda like the gesture Autumnal had made….

“A magical otherworld, lying so close…” Ennea murmured. If Autumnal was right, there was hidden beauty in everything around them. It was less like her dreams, but more like her daydreams.

“Is that why you’re an adventurer?” she asked softly. “To find the beauty in the world others don’t see?”

“Hmm….” Autumnal nodded hesitantly. He made a box in the air, then a smaller box inside of it.

“Just part of it, huh?” Ennea sat back up with a loose smile, looking out at the parade she’d dismissed. “Guess I’ve got a lot to learn if I ever wanna be an adventurer myself.”

“Hm?” Autumnal tilted his head like Ennea had just said something weird.

“Well, of course I’d wanna be one, pretty much every kid—”

Autumnal waved a paw to stop her. He pointed at Ennea, then brought a paw above his eyes, pretending to shield it from the sun as he gazed out beyond.

Ennea blinked. She must’ve misinterpreted that. “I… you meant that as a question, right?”

Nope. Autumnal shook his head. Then he did it again, pointing to Ennea and shielding his eyes from the sun.

“You’re an adventurer.” That was what he was saying.

“I—” Ennea had to avert her eyes from his. “Y-you’re just saying that! C’mon, I don’t count as an adventurer!”

“Mhm!” Autumnal pouted, then pointed straight down with one tail, and out to the lone mountain beyond with another. You explored Epiphany Sewers and Mt. Cephalo!

“W-well, yeah! I was just following you! It’s not like I can do any of that on my own!”

Autumnal raised an eyebrow and pointed to remind her once again of Mt. Cephalo.

“I was just following you, b-but like, from really far away! That’s all!”

Autumnal’s next shrug was in exasperation. If you say so….

“…Do you really think that?” Ennea whispered. “That I’m an adventurer, too?”

There wasn’t a bit of dishonesty in his eyes as he nodded. No patronization, no trickery. Autumnal really thought that of her.

“Th-thanks.” Ennea tried to wave it off. “Still though, not sure I can really believe it.”

“Hmm… ha!” Autumnal’s tails spasmed as he got an idea.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then pointed to Ennea.

“Wha—? ‘Say it?’”

“Twa.” He mimed speaking again, pointed to Ennea, then shielded his eyes. Say you’re an adventurer.

“Um… okay.” Ennea cleared her throat. “I’m an adventurer.” It made her heart flutter to say it aloud, but still felt a bit like pretending.

Autumnal waved his paw like a director dismissing an actor. He began to raise a paw up before it changed course, having another idea.

Ennea had to follow this next point out to a massive mansion in the distance, visible even from out here. Merx Manor.

Autumnal pretended to talk again, pointed to Ennea, then Merx Manor. Say it like you say stuff there.

“Huh…? Say it loud, like at the gates? Alright, alright.” Just as Ennea was gearing up for the act, she realized an alternative reading of his gesture. “Oh, I see! This is revenge for when I made you do that!”

“Ah?!” Autumnal genuinely looked worried for a moment, but Ennea just gave him a lopsided smirk as she climbed up to the very top of the Guard’s Hall.

“So vicious…” she teased. “But if you’re forcing me, guess I’ll do it!”

She grabbed onto a spire sticking out from the very tip of the roof and looked out to the town she was about to address. The wind ruffled her hair, picking out a few petals that had gotten caught in it and carrying them all the way to the parade, nearing its end at the lakefront. Now or never.

Ennea took a deep breath, and shouted with all her heart:

“I’m an adventurer!”

It reverberated throughout the town—no, the world. Ennea’s heart pounded as she heard the echoes of her own voice speaking it into reality.

But she shoved all the feelings it stirred aside for the far more important goal of messing with Autumnal.

“I dunno….” Her lopsided smile beamed at him. “I’m just not feeling it. Maybe if I heard a real adventurer say it just as loud, I’d believe it!”

“Ah—” Autumnal sighed and hung his head, subtle smile never leaving. While giving a disapproving head shake, he tapped his chest, then his head. I should’ve known….

He hopped up beside Ennea, holding the spire at its base with a tail. He brought a paw near his throat so he could clear it dramatically, gave Ennea a knowing look, took a full breath, and then:

“Wbbwl’a lb lscwbryewe!”

The scrambled sounds pierced through the town just like Ennea’s declaration had. Autumnal could be real loud when he wanted to be. It made her realize just how softly he spoke normally.

“Hm.” Autumnal took a moment to tilt his head, considering something, but gave up with a shrug. Instead, he looked back at Ennea expectantly.

“That was pretty good, even if my name sounds pretty weird with your thing….” Ennea gave the cockiest look imaginable. “But I can do better. Watch!

“I’m an adventurer!”

Ennea looked back at Autumnal. Now she didn’t have to talk either. It was obvious that her expression was a “beat that!”

Autumnal nodded, up to the task. When he breathed in, his whole body moved, chest expanding and shoulders rising before:

“Wbbwl’a lb lscwbryewe!”

He looked back at Ennea.

“I’m an adventurer!”

She looked back at Autumnal.

“Wbbwl’a lb lscwbryewe!”

They looked back at each other. There was only one way this could end. The duo looked out at the world they had in front of them, still clutching their spire to steady themselves against the wind, at the end of a long, long day, yet one that had left them more energetic than ever. And….

“I’M AN ADVENTURER!!”

“WBBWL’A LN LSCWBRYEWE!!”

…
“…we know!” shouted some annoyed pedestrian far below.

Ennea’s cheeks puffed out, a paw shooting over her mouth. But she couldn’t keep it in. She burst out laughing, falling down onto the lower part of the roof, a mess of giggles. The impact didn’t even make her pause, it was just too much.

Autumnal slid down beside her, his smile conflicted. He pointed to Ennea and did a tail-thumbs up. You okay?

“Okay? I’m great!” Ennea laughed. “I was so caught up in all that I forgot other people could hear us!” They were both exceptional at being nuisances. The true mark of adventurers.

It took time, but Ennea eventually managed to slow the giggling to a stop. The smile wasn’t going to leave any time soon though. They’d really pissed that guy off.

But it was ‘we know…’ not the normal ‘shut up.’ They know. They know I’m an adventurer. I really am one….

“Hey Autumnal… thanks.” Ennea took in the sights of the Sky’s Bloom one more time, committing it to memory. The sky, the sounds, the warmth of Autumnal’s presence by her side, all of it. “…This is the best festival I’ve ever had.”

It certainly wasn’t how most people celebrated. But Ennea wouldn’t trade it for anything. This was the moment she became an adventurer and joined her friend. They shouted it out, unafraid of who would hear. She learned more about Autumnal, about herself, and tried seeing the world in a new, brighter light.

I never want to forget this moment… Ennea thought. I’m an adventurer, now….

But for what? They were going to try to solve the mystery of Autumnal’s speech, but what else?

I think that’s it. I want to figure out what else. More of who Autumnal is, why he adventures… and who I am, and why I’ll adventure. What this world has for me that I never saw before.

Perhaps this was the revelation Mt. Cephalo gave her? A bit delayed, but it felt life-changing enough to be one. Yet another mystery. Perfect.

She looked out to that mountain, and then her gaze wandered to the lake below. The lights of the parade were beginning to die down. The God of Knowledge’s celebration was over.

“Well…” Ennea sat up straight, fully certain. “First thing’s first: we need to know more about your speech problem. And as a qualified adventurer, I think I know the first place to check. You cool with that?”

Autumnal nodded and gave Ennea a salute.

“Heh. Awesome. And what a coincidence, I think we’re gonna need his help for this….”

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TRACKLIST:

 

1. Forbidden Knowledge ~ for Mt. Cephalo                                                END POINT

2. Another Chance                              END POINT

3. Stargazers                                                END POINT