Chapter 2: Midnight Reflections

Chimecho went all-out preparing dinner that night, cooking up an absolute feast for the whole guild as a way to celebrate Flynn’s safe return. There were several different dishes available to cater to the varying tastes of the guild members. From spicy tamato pasta, to a mixed berry and vegetable stir fry, to a deliciously sweet pecha berry pie for desert… even as varied as the guild members’ tastes were, they were all more than satisfied with the selection.

As soon as Chatot gave the group the okay to start, everyone eagerly dug in. Nobody had very much to say during the meal itself, other than the occasional complements to the chef. They were all too focused on simply enjoying the meal.

But once the plates had been emptied, and everyone’s rumbling stomachs had been satisfied, they all remained at the table for a good while longer. The apprentices chatted about how today’s missions had gone, exchanging friendly banter and just hanging out together.

“So anyway,” Sunflora recounted, “things were going fairly well at first. At least, as well as a trip to the Northern Desert can go, anyway. We managed to tough it out through the harsh sun and the sandstorms, and found the pokemon we were there to rescue. But then, oh my gosh, Loudred over here…” She paused to shoot an annoyed glare over at the normal-type in question. “…just had to call out to her like he was trying to wake up every pokemon in the whole desert! Oh my gosh, the poor thing just ran off as fast as she could, before she could even realize we were explorers at all. She was terrified!”

Loudred rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Hey, I SAID I was sorry, didn’t I? And we still managed to rescue her before she ran into any MORE wild pokemon.”

“That’s not the point! We were supposed to help her, not give her a heart attack!”

Melody couldn’t help but giggle a bit at the pair’s antics. “Those two never change,” she whispered, just loud enough for Flynn to hear. The Cyndaquil chuckled softly and nodded in agreement.

“ANYWAY!” Loudred called out. “Surely someone ELSE has an interesting story to share?”

“Not me,” Corphish chimed in with a shrug. “Filling in for Loudred at sentry duty was as boring as ever, hey hey. Though I suppose there’s worse ways to spend a day, at least.”

“Um…” Bidoof raised a paw to get the others’ attention, before nodding in Melody’s direction. “What about Team Sunrise, by golly? How’d things go for you two, now that your team’s back together?”

Melody shrunk back just a little as the entire room’s focus shifted to her and Flynn, but she quickly recovered after a moment. “I-It went pretty well. The mission itself was fairly straightforward, though, so there’s not a whole lot to say about it.”

She paused, smiling warmly as she thought about the Eevee they’d rescued. “Though… I guess our client made the walk back a little more notable. The little guy had so many questions about what guild life is like. He even, um…” A faint blush appearing on her face as she continued, “…He even told us at one point that he wants to be ‘a strong and cool explorer’ like us, someday.”

Sunflora let out an audible squee at that. “Aww! Oh my gosh, that’s absolutely precious!”

Bidoof chuckled. “S-Shucks… I think most of us here can probably relate to feeling like that when we were younger, by golly.” He cocked his head slightly as a thought seemed to occur to him, and he nodded over at Flynn. “Must’ve been a little awkward for Flynn though. Answering all those questions, I mean.”

The group’s focus shifted over to Flynn. After a moment, the Cyndaquil silently shrugged, the corner of his mouth curving up slightly in an almost imperceptible grin. Melody let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head softly.

After a short, cozy silence, Chimecho was the next one to speak up. “You know, Melody, you didn’t actually answer Bidoof’s question completely.”

Melody cocked her head slightly at that. “Hm? What do you mean?”

“You talked about how the mission went. But…” Chimecho gestured over at Flynn using her ribbon. “…How are you two actually doing, now? It must still feel a little surreal, being reunited again after what happened.”

“O-Oh.” Melody looked over at Flynn, a bit of heat rising on her cheeks as she met his gaze. “I-I mean… y-yeah. It’s still kinda hard to believe, to be honest. It took a little while to get readjusted to everything during the mission today. But I think we managed to hit our stride again, after a while.” She gave Flynn a lopsided smile, which the Cyndaquil happily returned. “Really, I’m just… I-I’m just happy to have my best friend back.”

Sunflora let out a soft giggle at that. “Mhm. ‘Best friend’, huh?” She smiled knowingly at the pair, before winking right at Melody. “Oh my gosh, it feels good to see you two together again like this. You make a really cute pair, you know?”

Melody and Flynn exchanged a brief look, a visible blush spreading both of their faces, before Melody quickly looked away. “H-Hey, um… how about s-somebody else goes, now?” she stuttered. “A-Anyone have some other fun stories to share? M-Maybe something that Flynn would have missed, while he was gone?”

Several of the apprentices seemed to chuckle quietly to themselves at Melody’s all-too-transparant attempt to change the subject. But thankfully, after a few moments, somebody obliged. “Hey hey,” Corphish started, “I suppose I might have something.” He grinned over at Bidoof. “Just a couple weeks ago, Bidoof and I took a mission to apprehend this band of thieves. Real nasty pack of Houndoom, hey hey — had to be at least a dozen of them, all ready to defend their stolen loot! So…”

“G-Golly,” Bidoof interrupted, “I-I only remember there being s-six or so of them…”

Corphish flinched a little at that. “H-Hey hey now, the exact number’s not that important! Besides, winning a two-against-six fight’s still an impressive feat, hey hey. A-Anyway, there we were, ready to face down the odds…”

Melody smiled softly to herself, settling in comfortably next to Flynn as Corphish recounted the battle.

The guild members continued to swap stories and chat amongst themselves until well into the evening. But eventually, they all began to get tired, and Chatot shooed them all off to their respective rooms for the night.

(…wanted to apologize again for not writing to you all more often.)

Off in the corner of Team Sunrise’s room, Melody sat beside a small luminous orb lamp, with a piece of paper laying on the ground in front of her. The Skitty awkwardly held a writing implement in her mouth as she continued to scrawl down words. It wasn’t the easiest way to write a letter, but quadrupeds like her didn’t have many other options. It was either this, or dip one of her paws in ink and use that to write.

(I know you guys have been worried about me lately, and I really have meant to try and stay in touch more. It’s just been… hard to get motivated.)

It had been about ten minutes since the guild members had all dispersed to their rooms for the night. Flynn had already laid down for bed, and Melody had initially intended to do the same. But she wanted to do this first, before it slipped her mind again. It had been too long since the last time she’d written home like this.

(Things have gotten a lot better recently, though! Just last evening, I was down at the beach…)

Eventually, the Skitty finished. She looked over the page once more just to be certain, before tucking the letter and the pencil away and turning off the lamp. She let out a soft yawn, and turned back towards her bed.

She jolted slightly as she noticed Flynn. She’d expected him to still be asleep, but the Cyndaquil was currently sitting up in his bed, a curious look in his eyes as he stared straight at her. Melody blushed. “O-Oh, hey Flynn. I… didn’t wake you, did I?”

Flynn shook his head. “Don’t worry.” His gaze briefly drifted towards where Melody had left the paper, before turning back towards her again. “…Letter to your family?”

Melody nodded. “Y-Yeah. It’s been a while since my last letter, but… well, there was some pretty important good news to share, now.” She smiled softly at her partner, which he returned after a moment.

“…What are they like, anyway?” Flynn asked.

“Have I not told you about them?” Melody cocked her head slightly as she tried to think back. This wasn’t the first time that Flynn had seen her writing a letter to home, or getting one back. She knew she’d at least told him who she was writing to, but beyond that… “I guess I probably haven’t.”

Flynn shrugged. “I probably should have asked.”

Melody gently settled back down on her own bed, taking a moment to get comfortable as she thought about where to start. “Well… Mom’s a Delcatty – er, that’s the evolved form of Skitty – and Dad’s a Persian.” Melody figured they probably wouldn’t mind her telling Flynn their personal names, but she decided against it just in case.

“Any siblings?”

“One. A little sister.” A fond smile grew on Melody’s face. “Probably the most rambunctious little Meowth you’ll ever meet. She’s never been quite as interested in exploring as I always was, but she still tagged along sometimes when I’d go out and play explorer in the hills near town as a kid.”

Flynn chuckled. “Sounds nice.”

Melody nodded. “They all live in a small village, about a day or two’s journey northeast from here. It’s a pretty cozy place, really… but it could get a little boring sometimes. Not much really goes on there usually, and there’s only so many times you can explore the same old hills and groves before it starts to get boring.”

“So you moved here?”

“Mhm. I’d pretty much always wanted to be an explorer, ever since I was little, and the Wigglytuff Guild was the one I set my sights on joining.” Melody glanced over at the window, a slightly distant look in her eyes. “Mom and Dad were sad to see me go, of course. I think they would have preferred if I could have picked something a little safer and closer to home. But they knew how much this meant to me, and they were supportive about it in the end. We sent out a request for a team to escort me out here to Treasure Town, and Mom and Dad even gave me a bit of money and supplies for the trip.”

The Skitty’s expression soured a bit. “Of course, when I got to town, I… couldn’t work up the courage to actually join the guild. I would just walk up to the entrance, stand on the grate out front… a-and then chicken out as soon as Diglett chimed up to read my footprint.” She let out a sigh. “After a while, I managed to find that abandoned den out at Sharpedo Bluff, which at least gave me somewhere to stay without having to spend my dwindling funds to stay at an inn. But I was still too scared to make it past the guild’s front gate.

“And then…” Melody turned to look at Flynn again. “…t-then one evening I found you passed out on the beach. And, well… you know the rest.”

Flynn nodded. “Must have been lonely, without your family around.”

“Yeah. But at least we still try to keep in touch like this, even if I… don’t always remember to write back as often as I should. And they did actually come visit here once, while you were… gone.”

Melody’s ears drooped as she thought back to that. Her family had intended the visit to be a happy one. They’d wanted to get to see her again, catch up on everything that had happened, and finally get to meet this ‘Flynn’ they’d heard so much about. But, well… those plans had fallen apart pretty quickly, for obvious reasons.

She shook her head, not really wanting to dwell on those memories again. “A-Anyway, they had really wanted to get to meet you, after everything I’d told them about you. They can’t just easily come here whenever they want, but now that you’re back, I’m sure they’ll want to visit again when they have a chance.”

“I’ll look forward to it, then,” Flynn said, smiling warmly at her.

A comfortable silence settled over the pair, only to be broken shortly afterward by Melody letting out a yawn. Melody glanced over at the window. “We probably shouldn’t stay up much later, or we’ll regret it in the morning.”

Flynn nodded in agreement. He settled back down onto his straw bed, while Melody curled up on her own and tried to get comfortable.

“Goodnight, Flynn.”

“‘Night, Melody.”

The next several days passed fairly uneventfully, as Team Sunrise settled back into their usual routine of guild work. Flynn was more than glad to return to these simpler, lower-stakes missions again, now that the Time Gear crisis was over. Though, of course, that didn’t mean the two of them were only doing easy missions.

One morning, just after the daily briefing, Chatot approached the pair and offered them a special assignment. Far on the south side of the continent, a new mystery dungeon called Midnight Forest had been discovered. Apparently, the trees there were so densely clumped together that their canopies blocked out nearly all sunlight, leaving the place almost pitch black. Early reports also said that the dungeon was crawling with bug-types, and fairly strong ones at that. A couple of teams had already attempted the dungeon, but nobody had managed to clear it yet.

Team Sunrise immediately accepted, of course. Melody especially had been ecstatic at the prospect of a brand new place to explore.

“Just think about it, Flynn!” Melody gushed as the two of them left the guild. “A secluded mystery dungeon tucked away deep in the shadows, in a forest that nobody’s ever explored before… ooh, who knows what could be waiting at the end of a place like that!” She stared off into the distance, a starry-eyed look on her face. Flynn chuckled softly and nodded in agreement.

(…She’s really cute when she gets like this.)

Flynn lightly shook his head to dismiss that thought, a faint blush appearing on his face that he hoped Melody didn’t notice. He tried to refocus his attention on the task at hand, doing his best not to think too much about the odd, fuzzy sort of warmth in his chest. Despite his efforts, though, that image of Melody continued to linger in Flynn’s mind as the pair headed into town to get their supplies in order.

After packing their treasure bag full to the brim with all the supplies they thought they’d need, Team Sunrise set out. Their destination was quite a long way from Treasure Town, so it took the pair several hours just to reach the forest at all. But after so long of working together as an exploration team, the two of them were used to handling long journeys like this. Somehow, all that walking never seemed quite so bad, with the right company by your side.

Multiple times, Flynn noticed Melody quietly humming a tune to herself as they walked. As usual, he could never recognize what the specific songs she was humming actually were. But they always sounded pretty, regardless.

Eventually, the team finally reached their destination. Just like they’d been warned, the trees quickly started to blot out the sky as the team pressed deeper and deeper into the forest. Soon, it started to feel like the dead of night, even though the sun had still been high in the sky not even ten minutes earlier.

Flynn tried to use the flames on his back to light the way… but while it did help somewhat, he still couldn’t see very far ahead at all. He warily gazed from side to side, looking out for any danger as they searched for the dungeon’s entrance.

Something odd stood out at the edge of Flynn’s vision. He hastily turned to look, his flames intensifying a bit on instinct. But upon taking a closer look… he realized it was just another tree. Albeit a fairly unnerving looking tree, admittedly. Gaps in its gnarled, withered bark seemed to form a rather ghastly-looking impression of a face, made all the more unsettling by the flickering firelight, and jagged arm-like branches stretched out over the explorers’ heads as if ready to reach out and grab them.

Flynn shook his head, letting out a quiet huff as his flames settled back down to their normal level. It was still just a tree, he reminded himself. Nothing that could hurt them.

A soft yelp from behind him prompted Flynn to glance back towards his partner. Melody seemed to have just noticed the same unnerving tree, her ears perked straight up in alarm as she stared up at it. But after a moment, she took a deep breath, recomposing herself. Flynn could still see the Skitty’s legs faintly trembling, but there was a fiery sort of determination in her eyes as she turned to face him again.

They nodded resolutely to each other, before turning their focus back to the path ahead and resuming their march into the forest.

Soon enough, the pair managed to find the shimmering distortion that marked the dungeon’s entrance. But unfortunately, as the team headed inside and started to explore… things didn’t go quite as smoothly as they had hoped for.

The darkness here was absolutely smothering, even more than it had been outside. Flynn had hoped that his fire would be enough to help light the way forward in here, but he very quickly started to wish that they’d brought along some luminous orbs. There were countless dark little corners for the wild pokemon to hide in. Despite the team’s best efforts to stay alert, they had been ambushed constantly, and while they could fend off most of those attackers with only one or two hits, the damage still added up. It didn’t help that the same fire that allowed Team Sunrise to see, also ensured that every bug in the area could see them.

Even just navigating each floor was also proving to be an ordeal. As dark as it was, it was difficult to tell one room of the dungeon from another. Eventually, they started using some of the more distinctive trees as landmarks, to help keep track of where they’d already been. But even then, they still found themselves starting to wander in circles a few times.

The worst part of the dungeon, however, were the airborne bug-types like Dustox and Beautifly that started to appear as the team delved deeper. Under more ideal circumstances, Flynn and Melody could probably knock each one out of the air with a single Flamethrower or Thunderbolt before they could pose any threat. But here, the bugs could swoop in and out of the pair’s vision before either of them could react. Or even worse, simply flood the air with Silver Wind, hitting both explorers from all the way across the room.

Flynn tried his best to handle most of the fighting, since he could take hits from these pokemon better than Melody could. But there was only so much that he could do. Constant battles had worn both of them down, and they’d had no choice but to use up most of their supplies just to keep going.

Through sheer perseverance, they’d managed to make it decently far into the dungeon. Fifteen floors, if Flynn’s count was still correct. But there was no telling how much deeper the dungeon actually was, and with their supplies as depleted as they were at this point, they likely wouldn’t be able to last much longer.

A low rustle sounded from a nearby bush, snapping Flynn out of his thoughts. Both he and Melody immediately froze in place, and they turned their wary gazes towards the source of the noise. A few seconds later, a wild Ariados leapt from its hiding spot, mandibles outstretched as it lunged at Melody.

The Skitty let out a startled yelp and hastily dodged to the side, the Bug Bite missing her by only a hair’s breadth. She managed to land on her feet, and quickly retaliated with a flurry of powerful strikes with her tail. But while the Doubleslap did push the Ariados back quite a bit, it still refused to go down that easily. It lunged forward once again, this time leading with the horn on its forehead.

Without a moment’s thought or hesitation, Flynn leapt in the way of the attack. He gritted his teeth as the Poison Jab impacted against his side. The flames on Flynn’s back intensified, and he turned to glare at the Ariados, causing it to start hastily scurrying away in fear. Just before it could escape into the bushes again, Flynn managed to catch it with a powerful Flamethrower, knocking it out.

Melody let out a shaky sigh of relief. “T-Thanks, Flynn. Are you alright?”

Flynn nodded, trying his best not to wince. “…I’m fine.”

From the look on Melody’s face, she was anything but convinced. She leaned in to check the spot on Flynn’s side where he’d gotten hit. After quietly chiming out a Heal Bell just in case he’d gotten poisoned, she glanced ruefully at the treasure bag on her back. “…I-I’d tell you to eat an oran berry, but…”

“…We only have one left,” Flynn finished.

Melody nodded. “A-And we still need to walk all the way back to town, after we get out of here.” She sighed, her ears drooping as she looked around. “I… don’t want to just quit now, after we’ve gotten so far, but… w-we might have to just use our escape orb, at this point.”

Flynn frowned. A part of him stubbornly wanted to keep going just a bit longer. They could be stopping just before the end, for all they knew. But… he knew that Melody was probably right. If they tried to press their luck too much, they could end up needing rescue here themselves.

Sighing in resignation, Flynn reached into their treasure bag and pulled out the escape orb they’d brought. He held it up over his head, causing a bright light to envelop both him and Melody.

A moment later, the light faded away, depositing the pair near the outskirts of the forest. The trees here were still dense enough to block out most of the sky, but a few small gaps here and there allowed just a little bit of light to creep in. Though, judging by how orange the sky looked to be, they might not have very much daylight left, regardless.

Melody let herself collapse into the grass, and Flynn followed suit a moment later, the adrenaline slowly wearing off now that they were safely out of the dungeon again. The Skitty let out another quiet sigh. “It’s frustrating that we couldn’t make it all the way through. We really underestimated this place a bit. But…” She turned back to glance at the depths of the forest again, that same burning determination from earlier returning to her eyes. “…But I think, now that we know more of what we’re dealing with… I-I’m certain we could get through here next time, if we prepare a bit better.”

Despite a bit of lingering pain in his side, Flynn couldn’t help but smile. “…Yeah. Sounds good.”

That warm flutter in his chest started to come back, a little stronger than before. Once again, he tried his best to ignore it, with limited success.

He looked up at the gaps in the treetops overhead. “…Should probably find a better place to rest for the night, while we still have daylight.” Even though they were out of the dungeon now, this forest still wouldn’t be Flynn’s first choice of a place to sleep.

Melody nodded in agreement. The pair slowly forced themselves back to their feet again, trudging through the foliage once again as they made their way out of the forest.

Eventually, Team Sunrise managed to find a good enough place to stop for the night. There were a couple of bushes to provide a bit of cover, a small pool of water nearby to drink from… and, of course, they’d put a comfortable distance between themselves and that bug-infested forest, now.

The duo had packed plenty of food before they’d left town, knowing how long the journey here would be, so they still had more than enough to cobble together a simple dinner for the night. Once they’d both eaten their fill, they curled up on the ground a couple feet apart, and tried to settle down for bed.

Melody dozed off fairly quickly, still exhausted from everything they’d been through today. But Flynn ended up staying awake for a little while longer, staring up at the stars and letting his mind wander for a bit. He thought a little about how the dungeon run had gone; what they had done wrong, and how they could better prepare for next time.

Mostly, though… he found his thoughts kept drifting back to Melody. Her cute, giddy smile, her determination and drive to explore… just, everything about her, really.

Sunflora’s teasing from the other night rang in his head again. Flynn let out a sigh, and lightly shook his head.

…He’d deliberately gone out of his way not to think too much about romance, ever since he’d become a pokemon. It just felt… so strange, thinking about a pokemon in that sort of way. As often as Sunflora liked to tease him and Melody about how… close their friendship become… he always just tried to shrug it all off.

But… he supposed that continuing to ignore it wasn’t going to solve anything. He was going to have to sort through these feelings sooner or later, whether he wanted to or not.

He stared down at one of his paws, a pensive frown settling on his face. On the one hand, a part of him still considered himself human, even after all this time as a Cyndaquil. It was simply part of who he was, and it probably always would be.

On the other hand, though… he couldn’t even remember anything from that old life, anymore. Even after Grovyle and Dusknoir told him bits of what he’d done, and what he’d been like… he still couldn’t remember any of it. Every moment of his life that he could actually remember had been spent as a Cyndaquil.

(If I’m honest… I wouldn’t even want to turn back at this point, even if I somehow could. It took time, but I’ve gotten used to this form, for the most part. I’ve carved out a good life for myself here. I’m… I’m happy as a pokemon. So…)

His gaze slowly drifted over to his side. Melody was still laying quietly in the grass, a peaceful smile on her face as she continued to sleep.

(…Would it really be that strange to… to fall in love with one?)

For literally as long as Flynn could remember, Melody had been a constant presence in his life. She’d come to be a very close friend, and an irreplaceable partner. She was kind, cheerful, and easy to talk to. They were a good team, and he enjoyed her company.

(And… she is pretty, too,) he admitted to himself. (Even if I only think that because I’m a Cyndaquil now… it’s still true.)

That feeling in his chest came back yet again, stronger than ever. This time, though, Flynn didn’t immediately try to ignore it or brush it aside.

He still wasn’t certain exactly how far his own feelings went. And he really wasn’t certain what he would actually do about it, either way. But…

(If I’m really honest with myself… I think I’m falling for her.)