3: In Which Fuel is Added to the Fire

Twig had to get a job eventually, but none of the openings in Verdant Village worked with her expertise. Technically she could start another apprenticeship— maybe learn carpentry under a nearby watchog who was looking for workers, or figure out how to cook using something other than a single vegetable grilling strategy by working as a apprentice for the restaurant run by that one tangrowth— but none of them sounded particularly appealing. Lucky for her, she came across an idea when she set up a small stand to sell some excess loot from mystery dungeons she didn’t need. The items were all gone in a flash, and Twig made a pretty penny for what was absolutely useless to her. After all, what was she going to do with a rollcall orb when she didn’t have any teammates to explore with? 

Thus began a little business operation inspired by the Kecleon Market back in Treasure Town. She’d go dungeon crawling, pick up as much loot as she could carry, keep what she could use, and sell the rest. As a nod to the Guild, she let frequent customers know they could contact Chatot about any inquiries on starting an exploration team or apprenticing within Wigglytuff’s ranks, and gave discounts to exploration teams that passed through the area when they showed her their explorer badges. It was nice. It gave her the excuse to keep exploring, and she made more than enough money to keep from digging into her savings— as extravagant as they were, she didn’t want to live above her means. 

That was how she found herself in Mount Travail— it was one of the closer dungeons with better loot, so she would make longer trips to it every so often to stock up on the rarer items you could find there. It was a simple, routine trip that she set off on. Honestly, it wasn’t even like she had brought her larger bag to stock up on things more intensely. She just wanted to get some fresh air and be productive doing it, so she’d slung a smaller bag over her shoulder and hiked up to the mid-section of the mountain where the mystery dungeon had formed for a nostalgic grocery run. 

She found an apple that was the size of Lyra’s head and nabbed it to give to her on her way home. Their chats had calmed down once Lyra ran out of questions to ask her, but the kid still loved to hang around Twig and show off her homemade exploration gear. Twig tried not to think too much on how her enthusiasm despite her timidity reminded her of Azurill. How old was he now? Gosh, she felt old… She needed to send him and Marill a letter. 

She was halfway through the dungeon when she felt it— a weird sort of prickling itch traveling up and down her spine. She shrugged it off. Maybe she’d been lingering too long in the dungeon and it was getting ready to blow her out of its turf? No problem, she could pick up the pace. She’d already gotten everything she needed— orbs and bands, a few baubles that she could send back to Croagunk as a thank-you for not stealing her teeth or anything during her apprenticeship, and a number of foods she could stick in her stock pot back home and make a stew out of— so she could make a beeline for the exit. 

She entered the next floor.

The feeling didn’t dissipate.

It got worse.

She felt like something was behind her, but everytime she looked, the most she saw was an occasional pokemon sizing her up from the sides of the path, and never approaching. The space behind her was always empty. Nothing was there. No one was there. Yet the sense of paranoia still nipped at her mind, and she couldn’t shake the unease that it filled her with. Something was off, and she couldn’t figure out why. 

Or at least, she couldn’t figure it out until she turned a corner and spotted him. She didn’t scream, surprisingly, but she did leap about three yards away in a panic.

Darkrai lurked deep within a grove of trees, almost entirely concealed by the trunk of one oak and a cluster of tall ferns, looking just as startled as she felt when their eyes met.