PMD: Stargazer Chronicles

Guildmaster- Sanctuary

"Thanks for carrying my stuff," Light said.

"Yeah," she said, turning the side of her bruised face away. "Sure. No problem."

"I'm sorry," he blurted. "I wanted to use Helping Hand, but it was all too fast..."

"Just means we have a card to play next time."

The carriage started moving. Light rocked back and forth in place and closed his eyes.

"Hey," said Ariel, "sorry we never got to cutting your fur. Hope it's not bothering you."

Flareon Light's fur grew overnight at its usual rate of nearly doubling in size. His gray mane and tail were puffed up, and the white fur on the rest of his body had edges like a cloud.

"It's okay," he said. "It's not that bad, just really tired. It's weird that Chad, Markus, and Zhen aren't coming with us to the city for a pit stop, though. Since it's so close, why don't they resupply?"

"Oh, did I leave out that detail?" Shaymin Mei asked herself. Light turned to her with his eyes barely open.

"What?" he asked.

"It's the city of Nǚxìng, the city of women. Men aren't allowed in."

Light had a weird feeling. Surprise rocked his brain, but he was too tired for it to reach his body.

"Do... do they think I'm a girl?" he questioned slowly.

"No," she answered. "But you have a lot of honorary citizenships. So, you specifically can go in whenever you'd like. In other words, you're a special guest. A very, very special guest."

Questions piled up in his head. How it was enforced, if it changed the infrastructure. The top question he had was how the population worked. It must've been completely made up of pokemon coming in some way or another.

"Have you ever been?" Light asked. "What's it like?"

"Boring," Mei said. "Well, for the most part. Backstabbing. Phony compliments. Backhanded insults. Amateur tactics for getting into people's heads, but it got me off to a great start..."

"Mei just met some bad people," Ariel said. "I'll be here to help out with it all."

"I mean, how do the people feel about me being there?" Light asked.

"Based on what I read online, all the ones that don't literally hate all men are fine with it," answered Mei.

"No one will try to kill me, right?"

Ariel and Mei glanced at each other.

"Guys!?" Light questioned. "Why do you look unsure!?"

"Remember what happened to the last guy?" Mei asked.

"Yeah" Ariel sighed. "Lost his tail. Nearly an arm, too."

Light's eyes zipped from one of them to the other. The both grimaced.

"Okay," Light said, "we're not going."

"It wasn't in the first plan," Mei said, "but, we have to go."

"Why?"

"You don't look well. A few shades darker than usual. That city has the closest doctor to take a look at you."

"I'm not letting anything happen, Light," Ariel said. "Just go back to sleep. They don't even know you're coming, so we'll be perfectly fine."

"But I feel fine."

"That's good, but I'd still feel better if we went. So, let's compromise and do my idea."

"Well, alright..."