Gloomwoods

Chloe took a deep breath, and followed Piper into the dungeon. Though she was more prepared than last time, the world spinning, morphing, twisting all around her still left her nauseated. About half way through the transformation, she couldn’t take it any more, and squeezed her eyes shut. That helped a lot. Eventually, her partner spoke.

“Open your eyes. We’re in.”

She followed Piper’s instructions, though it didn’t change much. The dungeon was dark, as expected. Not the true darkness that you might find in the depths of a deadly cave system, but more the darkness of the wild outside world at midnight. As she let her eyes adjust, she found that she could kind of see; she could see a faint disturbance when she passed her hand in front of her face, she could see the vague shape of Piper staring at her impatiently, and she could maybe judge where the walls of this clearing started.

Piper spoke again. “You gonna try that sunny orb or what?”

Chloe nodded, feeling around inside the bag strapped to her front. It was strange to wear the bag the way she was, strapped under her wing sheaths, preventing them from closing all the way. It was a little uncomfortable, but it was the best way for her to carry the necessary supplies into the dungeons. She felt the perfectly smooth surface of the orb, and picked it up with the sticky nub on her silly hand.

She pulled it out of the bag, holding it close to her eyes. “How do I use it?”

“How should I know?” Piper said. Chloe couldn’t see it, but she knew Piper had accentuated her point with a shrug.

Chloe frowned. “He said it was like a pokémon move, right?” she thought aloud. “Maybe I should try and use it like a pokémon move?”

“Just hurry up,” Piper complained. “We’re wasting our ten minute timer. I don’t want that flygon swooping in here and babying us again.”

Chloe focussed on the orb. Her pokémon moves all came from within in some way, so even though it felt pretty silly, she tried willing the orb to work with her mind.

Use sunny day! she projected as hard as she could to the orb.

The orb vanished, scaring Chloe half to death, but it worked. The dungeon suddenly lit up, rays of sunlight shining down from nowhere. Chloe lifted her arms to shield her eyes from the sudden change. As they slowly adjusted, she got a proper look at the dungeon that had formed around them.

Similar to crooked grove, the trees had shifted and condensed themselves into an unnatural wall of tree trunks and greenery. However, what stuck out to Chloe was that the trees looked completely different. Instead of the proud brown trunks holding full canopies of golden leaves, like the ones in the woods they had just been in, these trees were a dusky grey, their trunks gnarled, and the leaves were a muted dark green. They didn’t grow straight up, rather in strange zigzagging patterns, and Chloe almost thought she could see faces in the bark, but it was always out of the corner of her eye, never where she was looking. The canopy extended unnaturally outwards into the dungeon clearing, spreading right the way across to form a roof of leaves. Even the grass underfoot had changed from a healthy light green to a dull, dying shade.

Chloe was feeling nervous. “Are- where are we? This looks completely different!”

Piper seemed less concerned. “Gloomwoods. I guess dungeons don’t always look the same as the outside, whatever. We should focus on our mission.”

With that, Piper set off, heading straight to the nearest dungeon corridor. Chloe quickly flew to her side, unwilling to be left alone.

The corridor was different to the ones in Crooked Grove. There, they’d been easy, straight lines, but here in Gloomwoods, the pathway formed a zigzag, like the trees growing either side of them. It made it harder to see if any ferals were up ahead, or, Chloe worried, if they were being followed.

Chloe needed to make conversation, to take her mind off the dungeon. “S- So what other moves do you know?”

Piper gave her an irritated look. “We are not making small talk right now. We’re on a mission.”

“B- But-”

“No buts!” Piper barked. “As the leader, if we’re on a mission you need to do what I say.”

“Who made you leader?” Chloe argued. “We were put on the team together, we should-”

Piper turned to face Chloe, a stern look on her face. “I’m way stronger than you. I know how this world works, and I’m not scared half to death like you are right now.”

Chloe wanted to argue, but she had no comeback.

“We’re here to find a sitrus berry. If any enemies show up, let me handle them.”

Chloe had to say something. “But how am I supposed to get stronger without actually battling?”

Piper tilted her head. “You can throw swifts out I guess, but no close quarters combat. Got it?”

Chloe’s will to argue fizzled out. “Y-yeah,” she conceded. Piper nodded once, then continued down the path.

Chloe felt humiliated again. She hated being reminded of just how useless she was, and she hated it even more that she didn’t even have an argument. Just as she was starting to get used to it, she was starting to feel a growing resentment towards how useless her ledyba body was. Could have been a garchomp, she thought, or a nidoqueen, or gardevoir, or…

“Paras,” Piper warned, snapping her out of her spiralling thoughts. Chloe looked up, realising they were at a new clearing. Inside was a lone paras, milling about aimlessly.

“Wait here. I’ll sneak attack. Keep watch for other threats, and if any show up, cover me.” Piper instructed. Chloe nodded without arguing. Piper stepped soundlessly into the clearing, creeping up on her prey expertly.

Chloe watched her thoughtfully. Piper was acting really serious about this, taking the role of leader and issuing these commands to her, even though it was just a low rank practice mission. It was admirable in a way, and she almost didn’t mind being bossed around by her. Almost.

Piper pounced on the paras, sending it tumbling across the room. It struggled to get back to its insect feet, looking maliciously at Piper. Piper stared it down, waiting for it to make a move. It started creeping towards her, glowing a soft green, clearly preparing some kind of move.

Chloe’s hand twitched. Piper had told her to keep watch, but…

She felt the well of energy inside her, itching to take shape. She directed it to her outstretched hand, willing it to break free. She pictured hundreds of stars bombarding the paras, homing in on it and knocking it senseless. She released the energy.

Two puny stars shot from her hand, hitting the bug type between the eyes. It didn’t even flinch, and continued to stalk towards Piper. Piper spared her a glance before returning her attention to more important things.

Chloe deflated. Useless! She shrank in on herself, embarrassed to have made such a pathetic attack in front of her leader- her partner. She buried her face in her hands, missing the moment that Piper struck, winning the fight in one more attack.

Piper was quickly upon her. “Hey, what are you moping for? Are you watching out for other pokémon or not?”

Chloe jumped. “Uh-”

“Do you want us to wipe? Have Kite swoop in and save the day because we couldn’t finish a simple mission?”

“Lay off me!” Chloe couldn’t contain herself. “I was just trying to get in some practice! I’ll never get any better if you don’t let me at least try!”

“I literally said you could do that!” Piper shouted. “The problem, is that you weren’t being a proper lookout. I don’t care how many swifts you throw out as long as you do your job! Okay?”

Chloe looked at the ground. “Sure. Whatever.”

Piper huffed, and left Chloe alone. Chloe followed her into the next corridor at a distance.

Why did Piper have to be so difficult? Chloe felt her anger towards Piper building. She hated this side of her, and it was making her rethink her friendship with the nickit. Why be friends with someone who was going to treat her like this?

They reached another clearing. Chloe spotted the stairs in the corner, and there were no other pokémon in sight.

“Let’s go,” Piper said curtly, heading straight for the stairs.

“Wait!” Chloe stopped her, desperate to one up the fox. “Shouldn’t we explore the rest of the dungeon, to make sure the berry isn’t on this floor?”

“Chloe,” Piper said, exasperated. “You haven’t been paying attention. There were no other pathways on this floor, it was a straight line here. Three clearings. Can you start taking this seriously?”

“Why are YOU taking it so seriously!” Chloe exploded. “You’re being such a tyrant right now!”

Piper flinched slightly, but then got right back in Chloe’s face. “Why AREN’T you taking it seriously? One of us has to, and if you’re not going to then who else is?”

With that said, Piper turned back to the stairs, hitting Chloe with her tail as she did.

“I hate when you do that,” Chloe spat.

Piper just huffed, and took the stairs alone.

“Ugh!” Chloe groaned, hurrying to catch up.

---

The second floor was dark – the same darkness that Chloe had experienced when she first arrived.

“Use the orb again,” Piper instructed. Chloe gulped.

“Uh, it disappeared when I used it on the first floor.”

“Huh?” Chloe sensed her frown. “Why would Kite only give us one if they only last one floor?”

“I don’t know!” Chloe said, beginning to panic. She reached into the bag, feeling around for another orb. “It’s not in the bag. What do we do? I can’t see!”

“Don’t panic,” Piper said.

“What do you mean don’t panic?” Chloe said, panicking. “What am I supposed to do if I can’t even see?”

“How much can you see?” Piper asked. “Can you see my outline?”

“Sort of,” Chloe said, staring hard at the shadowy blob in front of her.

“Okay. Just stay close to me, then,” Piper said. “I won’t let anything get near you, okay? Let’s just get this berry and get out of the dungeon.”

“C- can I hold onto your tail?” Chloe asked, trying to keep her panic from rising.

Piper seemed to hesitate, though it was hard to tell in the dark. “No,” she said eventually. “You can just follow my silhouette, right?”

“Are you that upset with me?” Chloe sniffed. “Please! It’s so hard to see-”

“It’s not because I’m mad,” Piper said quickly. “I- I really don’t like being touched. I’m sorry.”

“Is that why you got so mad when Kite kept blocking your way?” Chloe asked without thinking.

There was a long silence.

Why did she say that?

“I… don’t remember that happening,” Piper finally said.

“Huh?” Chloe was confused. “You seemed really mad… Is that why you never brought it up again?”

There was another long silence.

“I might have blocked it out,” Piper said, clearly uncomfortable. “Can we not talk about this? I don’t want you holding my tail, I’m sorry. Let’s just go.”

Chloe took a deep breath. “Okay,” she agreed quietly.

“Follow me, this way,” Piper said louder, before moving away. Chloe could just about make out her shape shifting in the dark, walking away from her. She kept close to Piper, resisting the urge to reach out and grab her.

“Now I’m even more useless,” Chloe moaned. “I can’t fight, I can’t look for the berry, I can’t keep a lookout…”

“Yeah,” Piper agreed absent-mindedly. Chloe sighed, giving up on the faint hope that Piper might say something to make her feel needed.

“Um,” Piper said, as they entered what Chloe thought was a dungeon corridor. “I, uh. Being a Delver is really important to me.”

She stopped speaking. Chloe couldn’t get a read on her in the darkness. “Yeah?” Chloe prompted.

“We’re doing a real mission now. For a real client. Even if it’s an easy mission,” Piper kept speaking in short sentences, like she was trying to find the right words. “Even if it’s an easy mission, it’s- it’s important to me that we succeed. So that’s why I’m taking it so seriously.”

Chloe digested her words. She hadn’t really considered that on the other side of this mission, there was a real pokémon, with real needs, that they were really helping. She was starting to feel embarrassed that she hadn’t been taking it as seriously as Piper had been, but she couldn’t admit that, so instead she asked a question.

“Why is being a Delver so important to you?”

Yet another long silence.

“I don’t want to get into it right now.”

“You always say that,” Chloe complained.

“I- I’ll tell you later. This isn’t the place,” Piper promised.

Chloe didn’t reply. She still thought Piper was being a bit unreasonable about everything, even if it was that important to her. Did she have to get so in her face about every little mistake?

If you took it just as seriously then she wouldn’t get in your face at all. She might even like you more.

But I’m useless anyway… how can I take it seriously if there’s no way for me to help?

Maybe by actually keeping a lookout? Like Piper told you to?

I- ugh.

She hated when her inner voices were so reasonable.

She steeled herself. “Piper, I’ll- I’ll try and take it more seriously too, so we can help lots of pokémon. Okay?”

Piper continued walking, and Chloe couldn’t tell if she’d made a physical reaction because of the darkness. But finally, Piper spoke.

“Thanks, Chloe.”

Chloe’s heart fluttered. Yeah, she was doing the right thing.

“Stop.”

Chloe stopped moving straight away, nervous. “What is it?” she whispered.

“We’re at the next clearing. There are some ferals in here,” Piper whispered to her. “Don’t move a muscle, I’ll take care of them.”

“W-wait!” Chloe whispered, a little too loudly. “You’re just going to leave me alone here?”

Piper hesitated. “What else can we do? I’ll take ’em out quick and come back to your side, okay?”

Chloe gulped, as Piper’s silhouette disappeared soundlessly.

Oh, Arceus, this sucked.

She could tell there was a big, open space in front of her, but besides that, she couldn’t make out anything. She held her breath, and landed, making herself as small as possible. She didn’t want anything to spot her.

She heard the first blow being made, Piper hitting a sneak attack on something. She wished she could see. She heard the terrifying sounds of battle, she heard unnatural clicking noises, whooshes of attacks, thuds and thumps of tackles and sucker punches.

“Augh!”

Piper grunted in pain, and Chloe flinched. Was she okay? Was she going to lose? Leave her all alone, lost in this dark dungeon? They were going to come for her next! What were they? Should she run?

“P-Piper!” she called out desperately. She had to know if she was okay. If anything happened to her-

“Shh! I’m fine, don’t draw attention to yourself!” she called back.

She was still alive. Phew.

The battle continued for a little longer, until silence fell. “I won,” Piper called, moving towards her so that Chloe could see her silhouette again. “Oran berry.”

“Oran-” Chloe realised what Piper was asking, and pulled a berry from her bag. She held it out, and felt a paw swipe it from her own hand.

“I hate fighting bugs,” she growled.

Piper realised why. “They hit you hard, huh?”

“Yeah,” Piper said. “Even though they’re low level, still hurts. Let’s go, the stairs are in this room.”

“They are?” Chloe asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” Piper said, moving into the clearing. Chloe kept close. “No other paths, either. The layout of this place is super basic, hardly even a maze. Won’t complain about that, makes a fetch quest more straightforward.”

“True,” Chloe nodded.

“Stairs are right in front of you. You go first. Don’t want to somehow leave you behind.”

Chloe nodded again, feeling in front of her for the stairs. Sure enough, she felt the rough stone of the first step, and began the climb to the next floor.

---

“I wish I could see,” Chloe moaned.

Floor three had been a bit longer than the first two floors, and they’d passed through two clearings already. There had been more bug type battles for Piper, who’d had to eat their second oran berry.

“Yeah,” Piper agreed. “I’m gonna give that flygon a piece of my mind when we get back.”

Chloe couldn’t wait for that. “So how are we supposed to do missions in dark dungeons?” Chloe wondered. “If orbs are as rare as Kite said, there’s no way we could pack enough for a bigger dungeon.”

Piper hummed. “Maybe we can pick up a lantern or something. Or we just focus on missions in bright dungeons.”

“What if we bring that charcadet, what’s his name, Spiral? He could be our torch,” Chloe snickered.

Piper scoffed. “No way. That guy’s the worst.”

Chloe laughed. “Yeah, he’s pretty annoying. He talks like he’s some kind of super chivalrous knight or something. Guess he sort of looks like one, too?”

Piper stopped walking, and Chloe flew into her. “Chloe, he’s more than just annoying. You know that, right?”

“Uh…” Chloe wasn’t sure what Piper was getting at. “He’s pretty rude too, I guess?”

“He hates dark types, Chloe,” Piper stated.

“Oh.”

Chloe didn’t know what to say, but for some reason she said something anyway. “Spiral’s all about protecting the weak, being a hero, right? Are you sure?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?” Piper said, raising her voice. “He called me a common thief. He moved all his food away from me as I walked past his table! Don’t even talk to me about this.”

“S-seriously?” Chloe was stunned.

“I don’t want to be anywhere near that guy,” Piper growled.

“Yeah…” Chloe agreed. That’s what he’d said in their first group meeting? That’s what the argument in the cafeteria had been about? “W- We should tell Kite, we could tell Cobalt-”

“Stop.” Piper said. “I’m not going down that route.”

“But-”

“I’m dealing with it, okay!” Piper snapped. “Just stay out of it. Stairs are here.”

Chloe felt upset. How could she just stay out of it? This wasn’t right! And how could she have missed this in the first place? She was ashamed of herself, she had to be better than this.

“No berry or branching paths?” she asked weakly.

“Nope,” Piper replied. “You hit the stairs first.”

Oh, Arceus, was Piper mad at her again? She was being so curt. Chloe felt miserable. She’d completely killed the mood. She sighed, finding the stairs and warping herself to the next floor-

Six horrible, insectoid legs, wrapping around her body from above.

Squeezing her, forcing the air from her lungs.

She tried to cry out. She couldn’t.

Impossibly loud buzzing. Wings? She was dragged into the air, flown out of the clearing. Piper hadn’t had time to reach the next floor, she wouldn’t know where Chloe had been taken!

What had taken her? Some kind of huge, flying bug type. It was squeezing her so hard, it hurt, it hurt, she was going to die here, alone in the dark, killed by some unknown monster-

Think!

Do something!

What did she have? She was too weak. She was useless. Even if she could launch a swift like this, it was too weak to have any affect.

There must be something!

She wriggled, squirmed, trying to break free, but the legs grabbing her only tightened in response. The pain forced tears from her eyes. She heard a horrible crunching noise, and hoped it wasn’t her.

Still, she kept trying, she kept trying, until she pulled one arm free, the top left arm. She started punching at the creature. It’s body was long, insectoid. Its head was above and in front of her. Her punches were doing nothing, obviously. But what else could she do?

What else do you have?

She couldn’t breathe. She was getting light headed. It was so dark.

What else do you have?

She reached into her bag. She felt oran berries. She felt seeds.

A blast seed?

She pulled out a blast seed. Would this thing really work?

If it didn’t, she probably wouldn’t make it out of this alive.

She put the seed in her mouth. She looked in the direction of the creature’s head, and swallowed the seed.

She felt a fire in her stomach, roaring around, building up rapidly, before rushing forth from her mouth in a glorious fireball. It burned, it lit up the room, and she saw it – yanmega. The fireball engulfed the yanmega’s head, and the yanmega squealed in pain as the fire started spreading down its long body. It dropped Chloe immediately, who fell to the ground with a thud. She took huge, gasping breaths, and her light-headedness faded as she got the oxygen she needed. The huge bug type fell soon after, writhing around on the ground as the fireball burned its body into unconsciousness.

Chloe wished the darkness would come back.

She curled in on herself once more, shutting her eyes tightly. She reached into the bag again, shoving an oran berry into her mouth, then another. It helped with the physical pain, but she was still badly shaken from the experience. Where was-

“Chloe!”

Piper. She came rushing into the room, straight to Chloe’s side.

“Are you okay?” she asked urgently. “Can you move?”

Chloe opened her eyes, seeing Piper’s concerned face in the fading glow of the fire. She nodded. She wanted to be strong for Piper. “I- I had some oran berries. I think I’m okay.”

She opened her wings, and took off shakily. The oran berries had done the trick. She still felt a little sore, but she was mostly fine.

Chloe couldn’t bear to look at the corpse of the yanmega. “I killed it, didn’t I?” she whispered. “I had no choice. It would have killed me otherwise-”

“Huh? What?” Piper looked confused. “Of course you didn’t kill it. Do you know how hard it is to kill a pokémon by accident? It wouldn’t have killed you, either.”

“H- how could that have not killed it?” Chloe was shocked. “Where I come from, that kind of fight would have left one of us dead for sure!”

“Chloe,” Piper looked at her curiously. “Pokémon are made of seriously hardy stuff. You did a number on that yanmega for sure, but after a few days its injuries will have healed up.”

“For real?” Chloe asked weakly. “And I wouldn’t have died either?”

Piper barked a laugh. “Look, some fights’ll probably leave you as sore as that yanmega,” she said, “but unless there’s a serious power imbalance – like if you tried to fight one of the Gods or something – nothing’s gonna leave you dead, Chloe.”

“Yayyy…” Chloe slumped in the air. “Sorry. Guess I need to try and learn not to treat every battle like it’s life or death. That’ll make ’em way less stressful, at least…”

“Well, we still gotta be way more careful in a dungeon,” Piper explained. “If we both wipe, then we get stuck in here until someone comes to rescue us.”

Chloe nodded, taking it in. “How come? Can’t we just take the stairs once we wake up?”

“I’m not sure,” Piper admitted. “I heard the stairs stop working if you go unconscious, and then you need a mon from outside to guide you through them. We could ask one of the nerds, as Kite calls them, if you want?”

“Maybe,” Chloe giggled. Piper laughed too, and the sound lifted Chloe’s spirits, even as the fire finally died out, plunging them back into darkness.

“Anyway!” Piper said. “The berry and stairs were in the first clearing. Let’s head back and get the hell out of here.”

Chloe perked up hearing that. “Finally! I never want to do a dark dungeon again, this sucked!”

Piper barked one more laugh, and headed back the way the yanmega had flown Chloe. The ledyba flew close behind her friend, ready to get out of this horrible dungeon.

---

“Great work, you two! Never doubted you for a second!”

The team had taken the final set of stairs, and emerged triumphantly into the sunlight. They were on the edge of the golden woods, on top of a hill somewhere. Kite had been waiting for them expectantly, and had greeted them with enthusiasm.

“No thanks to your stupid orb!” Piper got on his case immediately. “That thing only worked for the first floor!”

“Wait, for real?” Kite said, genuinely surprised.

“Yes, for real,” Chloe glared at him. “I had to do the last three floors in the dark.”

“Wow, that would definitely have made it way harder than it should have been,” Kite laughed. “Well done girls!”

“Shouldn’t you know these things?” Piper wasn’t ready to let it go. “You’re supposed to be teaching us! You let us into that dungeon totally unprepared!”

“Hey, I hardly use orbs, it’s not my fault!” Kite pouted. “I thought I set you up good. Did you use a blast seed?”

“I did,” Chloe admitted. “It saved me from a yanmega. I guess they’re pretty useful for-”

“SEE!” Kite pumped a fist into the air in triumph. “I told you didn’t I? They’re awesome for newbies!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Piper waved him away. “Anyway, we got the sitrus berry, now what? Back to the guild to turn the mission in?”

“Yup!” Kite nodded. “Quickest way is back through the dungeon.”

Chloe blinked. “What?”

Piper nudged her. “Look over there, Chloe.”

Chloe looked, and she gasped. How had she missed the huge city in the distance? “What’s that?” she asked.

“Xernia,” Piper said, uninterested. “That dungeon took us a long way.”

Chloe was still enraptured by the view. It was wonderful. In contrast to the old fashioned inn she’d been living in, this city looked a bit more modern, built into the rolling emerald hills. The buildings were made of a beautiful white stone, of varying sizes, likely to accommodate all kinds of pokémon. The roads were wide and paved, and seemed well maintained. There were lanterns hung at regular intervals, winking at her as the sun fell lower and lower. She couldn’t make out much more detail, but the scale of the city was breathtaking.

“Can we go?” Piper whined.

Chloe tore her eyes from the capital. “Back through the dungeon? Seriously?”

“Fastest way!” Kite agreed cheerfully.

“How’d you get here before us then?” Chloe asked.

Kite laughed. “I’m really fast! But I’ll come with you through the dungeon this time, and it’ll be a breeze, okay?”

Chloe sighed.

“Let’s get this over with.”