Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Team Eve - Book One

Chapter 8: Excursion

Evie awoke with a big yawn and blurry eyes, she looked and saw Kin standing by the window. She remembered what had happened the night before, had something gone wrong?

"Kin? What's wrong?" She asked softly.

She saw his shoulders sag, muscles tense and fists clench, he turned to look at her with big teary eyes, he was smiling bitterly. Her heart broke, she couldn't stand to see her friend like this.

"I'm sorry Vee, it didn't work, I promised to help you, to keep you safe, but I'm sorry, I can't do either. I let you down."

"Kin..."

"I'm sorry."

Evie decided something in that moment. She grit her teeth and looked coldly at her friend. "I swear, if you apologise one more time you will be sleeping outside."

"What? But, Vee, it's just that I'm-"

Evie didn't want to hear it, she cut him off. "No! Don't say it! Kin, I don't want to hear how sorry you are, or that you let me down, or that you failed to protect me, because you didn't do any of those things. Kin, I don't know why I'm here, but I do know, as long as I'm with you, I'll be okay, thank-you for that."

Evie hugged her friend, he was surprised but hugged her back, he blinked away the harsh tears that stung his eyes, she couldn't know how wrong she was. She didn't know that he had lied to her, it had worked, and he didn't know what to do about it, so he did what he was best at. He ran, he tried to ignore it, to push it down and hope it would go away, but these things, they have a habit of surfacing sooner or later, and when they do... People get hurt.

Evie broke their hug and smiled at the Riolu.

"Now enough of that, we've got an excursion to go on!" She cheered.

Kin smiled and followed her out the door.

******

When they arrived at the school everyone else was already there, Simisage wore a backpack as did Audino. Stoutland had two large saddle bags slung over his back, Deerling and Espurr were talking excitedly with Levi and Vincent.

"Hey guys!" Evie called as she ran up to them, she joined the small group and began talking happily with them, Kin smiled at Stoutland and the large dog gave him a knowing nod.

"Right then, everyone's here, lets get moving." Stoutland said.

A cheer went up and the troupe left the school, they followed a well-worn path out of Tranquil Town into the forest.

They walked for hours and the sun was beginning to set when they finally reached their destination. It was a clearing in the forest, by the foot of the mountain range, a few Pokémon walked around the camp and there went tents set up in small groups. They walked into the camp and all the students stared in awe at their impressive surroundings, one of the tent flaps opened and out walked a Gardevoir.

"Stoutland my old friend, so good to see you." She said.

"Likewise, it's been too long." Stoutland replied. Stoutland addressed his students next; "Everyone, this is the head of the Rescue Team base stationed in Mistveil city, Guild-master Gardevoir."

Gardevoir looked down on the students with a smile, her elegance and grace quietened them and they listened carefully for her to speak again.

"Welcome all, this weekend we will be looking at rescue teams, who they are, what they do, and how they do it. But more than that, we've set games and challenges, so you can experience some of what rescue teams do." She said.