Chapter 4: A Thief of the Dark

Alec sat by the map Shannah had gotten from her bag while she went to town to pick up some last-minute supplies. He studied the path on where they needed to go. 

Doesn’t seem like it’s that far. Just a bit southeast is all. Path is even paved there. 

Alec couldn’t get the exact amount of time that it would take to get there, however. The distinct lack of clocks and measurements of time besides “days” was one of Alec’s bigger pet peeves about this new world.

Shannah returned with a small pouch of supplies. “Ok. I got a few apples in case we get hungry, some Oran berries just in case we get hurt, and a few Blast Seeds, because you need to have some way to fight.”

Alec cocked his head. “Blast Seeds?”

A small smirk appeared on Shannahs face as she took one from the bag, and threw it at the ground. A series of small explosions appeared before the two. Alec stumbled backwards from the surprise. 

Shannah snorted with laughter. “We got about 5 of them now. Should be plenty, especially if I’m going to be doing the fighting for the most part. I just don’t wanna leave you defenseless.” She tossed Alec the bag. “Let’s get going before anyone sees us leave. I don’t wanna get caught.”

Alec dusted himself off and got up. “No time like the present. Let’s go!”

*

If Alec had to guess, the walk didn’t take much longer than 20 minutes. Still a decent amount of time, but nothing that would warrant any complaints.

The duo arrived at a marshy clearing. The paved ground they walked upon slowly faded away into the muddy ground. Jagged rocks surrounded the clearing, and the dour, gray clouds looming ahead provided a small sprinkle of rain. At the end of a clearing, a small pathway laid, surrounded by tall grass that barred any vision of the path beyond an introductory point. 

“We’ve made it, the Drenched Bluff.” Shannah proclaimed. She stretched her arms above her head. “This is gonna be interesting. Do we even know who we are looking for?”

Alec re-adjusted the supply bag around his shoulder. “A Fennekin. Or something. Apparently. Doesn’t matter, they’ll have what we are looking for.”

Shannah shivered. “We don’t know if the rain will pick up. Are you sure you don’t wanna just drop this? Like, what if one of us gets hurt?”

Alec shook his head. “Hey, if you can deal with whatever was wrong with that Galvantula from earlier, you can handle whatever’s crawling through that path.”

“But I had my dad–”

Alec cut her off. “Have faith in yourself! You are a part of the guild. You know how to fight. We don’t even know if we will have to fight anyway!” He walked up to Shannah and gave her a pat on the back. “If we stick together, we should be fine.” He gave her his best attempt at a warm smile.

Shannah sighed. “Only because I can’t convince you otherwise.” She took a deep breath, then started to walk towards the pathway, with Alec close behind.

They pushed through the tall grass blocking the pathway, only for them to be greeted with a rather dense forest. The forest floor varied in elevation, and large rocks barred the edges quite a bit. Paths were carved out, but they seemed sporadic at best. Looking behind, Alec noticed that the path they emerged from had disappeared. 

“Yep. We have entered the Mystery Dungeon. No way out unless we have an orb, or we make it to the end.” 

Alec couldn’t shake off the initial feeling of shock. He knew that this was a phenomenon, thanks to Shannah, however the simple fact that he was in some sort of dungeon almost immediately frightened him. 

Shannah broke his bewilderment. “Our goal is to find the peak of the bluff. That’s where the end of the dungeon lies. If the thief is anywhere, they are going to be farther in the dungeon than not.”

“Yes, right. Makes sense.” Alec shook his head, readjusting his mind. “So just follow the path up?”

“Seems right to me.” With a nod, both of them began to climb the bluff bit by bit.

The rain did begin to pick up a bit, dropping the temperature more. The rain began to soak his fur, causing the coldness to only amplify. 

The two walked up farther with relative ease. They noticed various Pokemon in the distance, however they never saw the need to interact.

Eventually, there was a small curve in the path. As Alec began to turn the curve, he heard a small psst!

He stopped in his tracks. Shannah jumped and immediately summoned an icicle in her hand. She darted her head all around her. “Who’s there?! I know how to use this thing!”

“Woah woah, easy there hotshot.” A low-toned female voice called out. “I don’t mean to cause ya any harm here.” A Fennekin jumped out of a bush at the curve of the pathway. Around her neck was a rather exquisite looking pearl necklace. 

Alec jumped at the sight of her. “Hey! You’re the Fennekin who stole that from Ms. Jumpluff!”

She snickered. “Oh, Fennekin? I guess I forgot to turn this off. She shook, and almost like water, the image of the Fennekin flaked off to reveal a Zorua. Her fur, instead of black, was a deep brown, and the tips of the tufts of her fur were colored blue instead of red. A sly smile was present on her face. 

“Yeah, I stole it. Makes no difference to me, really. Just thought it would be fun.” She sat down and let out a rather large yawn.

Alec stepped forward. “Well, if it makes no difference to you, can you give it back?”

The Zorua snickered. “Hell no. Why would I? It’s not yours.”

Alec was getting more frustrated. “It’s not yours either!”

“Fair point, still don’t care.”

Alec reached into the bag without thinking and threw one of the blast seeds. A short burst of explosions appeared around the Zorua, causing her to jump from her seat. “Woah, easy there wide eyes! I thought you guild folk were supposed to be reasonable.”

Shannah stepped behind Alec. “Listen, we don’t want trouble. We won’t turn you in if you just give us the necklace. That’s all, really.”

“Well, I would be inclined to do so if you weren’t so trigger happy. I got half a mind to just sell the damn thing, since y’all clearly don’t want me to have it.” She began to walk further along the pathway. “If you guys are so insistent on getting it from me, you just have to catch me first.” She ran further down the path. 

“After her!” Alec shouted as he began to sprint. He stumbled at first, but eventually got into the flow of it. Shannah was close behind.

The path became more twisted as the elevation increased. Before they knew it, the Zorua jumped off the path onto a low hanging branch. 

The Zorua held a paw up to her mouth “Yo! Dex! We got some viiisitooors!” She snickered, and continued to hop between trees.

“Oh no.” Shannah summoned another icicle. A Mightyena emerged from the path ahead, eyes half open. “Damn it Ana, always something with you…” As he brought his head up, however, he saw Alec and Shannah, still catching their breath from their sprint uphill. 

“Oh wow, she actually meant it this time. Huh. I guess I do need to wake up a bit.” He got into an aggressive stance and began to growl.

“Oh no. Oh no no no no no…” Shannah began to hyperventilate. “I’m dead. We’re dead. We’re going to die.” She started to curl into a ball. 

Alec got another blast seed ready. “Shannah, get a hold of yourself!” It was too late. She was already curled up. 

The Mightyena charged. Alec threw the blast seed at the ground right in front of the charging Pokemon, causing a flurry of explosions. He was knocked off his feet for a second. 

Alec continued to rummage through the bag a bit. Besides basic foodstuffs, he noticed that he only had 3 blast seeds left, a light purple-colored seed, an orb with a small lightning bolt, and another orb with a staircase on it. 

The Mightyena got himself back up. “Shit. That hurt.” He began to charge again.

What worked once will probably work again. Alec took another blast seed and threw it right in front of his foe.

The Mightyena knew better. He sidestepped immediately and avoided the blast radius. 

Alec gulped. The Mightyena immediately lunged at Alec. Once again, Alec braced himself, and the bright, shimmering barriers appeared in front of his paws once again.

The Mightyena was repelled from the barrier, causing him to be knocked back once again. “The hell kind of Espurr are you?” 

“I have no clue, man.” Alec concentrated on keeping the barrier active. As he separated his paws from each other, he noticed that each of them had a smaller barrier in front of them. He got into a defensive stance.

“I gotta get wise here, huh.” The Mightyena began to circle around Alec, growling. 

Alec kept his eyes on the circling foe. His confidence was all for show, but at the very least he had some way to defend himself from the oncoming foe. 

The Mightyena pretended to jump forward, faking Alec out. He held his paws out in front of him, attempting to defend himself.

The Mightyena took that chance, and circled around Alec rapidly. He got a claw swipe right on his back, knocking Alec over. The Mightyena stood over him.

“That was honestly pathetic, kid. Come on. You got one good hit. I’m in the back half of my life and I still was able to knock you down.”

The taunting continued to anger Alec. He got out his claws, and swiped at the muzzle of the Mightyena.

The Mightyena did nothing but blink. “Alright, fine, two hits. Big whoop. But move like that again and I’ll make sure you don’t move again. Now. What you’re going to do is take your fuzzy ass back to the guild and tell them to never come back to the bluff again. We’re tired of your kind.”

Alec was ready to admit defeat, until the Mightyena was knocked down once again. A bright white ball landed in front of Alec, and uncurled to be Shannah. “You don’t get to talk to my friend like that!” She got into a battle pose. 

The Mightyena growled. “Come on guys. There’s two of you? I was supposed to sleep in…” 

Shanna formed an icicle and slid it across the ground. A small trail of ice quickly followed it. 

“Hey, you missed–” The Mightyena didn’t have a chance to rebut, as Shanna slid on her stomach and landed an uppercut. On the descent, she threw down more icicles. 

“Agh! Come on!” The Mightyena struggled to get up. 

“Don’t mess with the guild!” Shannah said, with an adventurous grin. 

The Zorua hopped up onto the tree branch once again. “Come on Dex, really? You lost to these yahoos?

“They caught me off guard, what can I say?” the Mightyena continued to lay on the ground. 

Shanna shifted her gaze to Alec. “The Petrify Orb!” She pointed at the bag.

Alec rummaged through and picked up the orb with the electric bolt. That had to be the one, right?

The Zorua panicked. “Oh shi-”

Alec threw the orb at the ground, much like the seeds before. A fury of lightning bolts appeared from it, striking everyone but Alec. 

Shannah sighed. “Maybe not throw those next time?”

“Well you never told me how they work!” he walked up to the now frozen Zorua. 

“Well, damn it. Can’t say I didn’t try.” she muttered. 

Alec swiped the necklace from the caper. “Serves you right!” he poked at the thief. Suddenly, her movement was regained.
“Pfft, they really put their D-list members on the job, huh?” She snickered, and ran back off farther in the distance.

Alec was dumbfounded. “I thought these were supposed to keep them in place!”

Shannah sighed. “Until physical connection is made with another Pokemon. Sorry, I should’ve told you. We can both take the blame on this one.”

Alec walked over to Shannah and gave her a small pat on the shoulder. Almost like a game of freeze-tag, she regained the ability to move. “Well, we didn’t catch the outlaw, but at least we got the necklace back, right?”

The Mightyena spoke up from behind. “Hey! You guys gonna free me too?”

“You literally tried to hurt us. Why would we do that?” Alec remarked. 

“Listen kid. I just took the orders from Annabelle over there. She retreats and I have nothing else to do. Frankly, I just want to go back to sleep.”

Alec and Shannah gave each other a somewhat sympathetic gaze. Alec walked up to the frozen Mightyena and gave him a tap on his shoulder. 

“Thanks kid. And I’m sorry about earlier. I know it doesn’t mean much. Sometimes she just gets herself into shit she doesn’t know how to handle on her own.” The Mightyena slowly walked away from the duo, into the deeper woods beyond.

Shannah pulled out another orb from the bag from Alec’s shoulder. “This should be able to get us back, since we have no team badge to speak of.” She held the orb in front of her and Alec. 

“Press right here.” She pointed right at the staircase icon. Alec nodded, and placed his paw right on top of it.

A brilliant blue light began to shine around them. Alec felt his feet leave the ground, and before he knew it, he was whisked away into the air. In a split second, he landed right back on his feet, this time at the initial clearing. 

Shannah turned to him, with a small smile on her face. “Well, we did it. And we only almost died, too.” 

Alec gave a nervous laugh. “Hey, at least we are alive, you know? That could have been a lot worse.”

She shrugged. “I guess so. Come on, let’s give Ms. Jumpluff her necklace back.” 

Shannah gestured as she began to walk the path back to the guild. Alec started his trail back, but he couldn’t help but feel as if he was being watched. He looked around, but couldn’t see anyone. He shrugged it off, and began to walk back.

The Zorua from earlier hopped up onto a tree branch nearby. “Strange ass guildfolk. I’ll never understand them.” She turned around and returned to the bluff.