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Heads up, I might start a clean-up week at chapter 25 (next chapter) instead of updating in order to neaten this up. I will also add the character's visual descriptions that I am only now realizing I left out.
Ps. This is the longest chapter yet, you're welcome.
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"And may the ship, the sailor of the sea
Be ever vigilant and forever free!
May he, named Poseidon, grant blessings to thee!
And may Zeus! And may Thor! And may you know all three!"
That was the final song they were to hear from Lapras, as they were expected to teleport back after all was said and done. Ah, but Eros and Sicily thought naught of this, as they were just waking up. Eros was tired from using his magic, while Sicily was still full of vigor. Lapras turned his head to face towards the two, stopping completely in his tracks. The soft yellow-orange shore and rocky slope was visible in the distance, marking the end of their journey. The island seemed to rise as it went off to the left, eventually turning into a cliff with one peculiar feature: The end of the cliff resembled the head of a Sharpeedo, overlooking the vast blue sea.
Eros greeted Lapras before he could ask a question, "Good morning, Lapras. Why did we stop?"
Lapras looked uneasy, saying, "We just arrived an hour ago. I want going to wake you up because you looked so peaceful in your sleep." A smile. "But really, the Pokemon here don't take kindly to humans. I'd suggest you transform now."
Eros looked to Sicily, who was now awake. He stated, "I still haven't chosen a form yet. I think I'll go as a Sandshrew. What do you think Sicily?"
Sicily was one of those grumpy morning persons today, considering her response was, "I don't know. Go as a Magikarp or something."
"That's not a good idea."
"If you don't like going as a Sandshrew, just change it later."
"I don't think you knew this, but I can only exert myself that much once per day. That's one transformation per day."
"..."
"I'll be a Sandshrew." Eros quickly transformed into his normal Sandshrew form. Lapras turned to the shore again and quickly made it to land, where Eros and Sicily soon dismounted. As they stepped onto the warm sand, the two immediately lost their balance and fell over, proving they more than earned their sea legs.
As they stood back up, Lapras started to head back into the ocean, only turning to say a kind farewell, "Goodby guys! I hope you find what you're looking for!"
The two said together, "Goodby, Lapras!"
Sicily and Eros started walking (or flying, in Sicily's case) down a beaten path that was surrounded by a sparse selection of elfin trees, all leading up to what seems to be a crossroads in the distance. They noticed a beautiful afternoon sun to the west, beautifully giving everything an orange hue.
"Hey, Sicily?"
"Yes, Eros?"
"What do you think the town will be like? I mean, it's called Treasure Town and there aren't any people. Do you think there are houses and stuff?"
"Maybe. I like to imagine it more like my home town, with more burrows and supported caverns. We just took whatever abandoned structures we found and settled for that, sometimes."
The two walked for a bit before actually coming to the crossroads. Up ahead was a pink building with odd ears of sorts on top, sitting at the edge of another cliff in the distance. To the left was a large group of buildings that were surrounded by Pokemon of all types, bartering and trading, which was rather confusing for Eros, considering he had never seen Pokemon act so... Industrious. To the right was a long, winding path that disappeared into the forest and leading off into nowhere. On the forwards-right corner of the intersection is a sign describing where the paths led. From where they came, one sign said, "Beach" in a fine white ink (undoubtedly in Poke). Below that one pointing in the same direction, odd enough, there was ink, but it was scratched out to say "Cave of Death" where something along the lines of "Brine Cavern" stood. Pointing towards the group of buildings was a sign that said "Treasure Town", and pointing ahead, a sign said "Adventurer's Guild". No sign pointed to the right, although it desperately needed something to give a description as to where it lead, since it wasn't plainly visible.
The two decided to head forwards, since they were already confident they could find clues as to where the Humanity Stone was over there. They walked up some more, finding the pink building actually resembled the upper half of a Wigglytuff with a gate leading inside on its stomach. To the sides were two large totems depicting various Pokemon; In front of those, torches. Centered in front of the building was a grate in the ground, the holes spaced in a way so that someone just a tad smaller than Eros couldn't fall through. Eros stood right before this grate, discussing his thoughts with Sicily.
"I think it's a trap."
Sicily gave an odd look. "The grate?"
"Yeah. I don't think they like visitors."
"Well, how else are we going to get past those bars?"
"I'll go knock." Eros walked around the grate in the ground and up to the metal gate, giving it a firm knock and shouting, "Hello? Anybody home? Is this the-"
Eros stopped as soon as he heard a flapping from deep inside. Sicily sighed and flew over to Eros, joining him at his side. As the flapping continued, a grumpy looking Chatot came out of a hole inside the building, visible through the grate. As it hopped over to the doors, it looked frustratingly at Eros and inquires, "Who are you? Why did you skip over the grate?"
Eros flinched a bit at this and said, "Uh, we're here about the Humanity Stone?"
The Chatot only added confusion to his anger, stating, "What? We don't have any here. Are you setting up a request? If so, you have to mail those in."
"Uh... Did someone by the name of Cerci come by?"
"I can't disclose information about any possible clients. I'm sorry, but you'll have to-"
"Then maybe I could talk Eevee and Totodile? Team Something Angels or whatever? They went to the bell tower a while back."
The Chatot lost some of its anger but retained a bit of curiosity. "I'll see if they were expecting anyone. What are your names?"
Eros turned to Sicily before saying, "I'm Eros."
"And I'm Sicily."
"I'll go check now." The Chatot turned and went down the curious hole once more. There also seemed to be a billboard behind the hole, listing ten bullet points about some code of conduct. A few moments later, the same Eevee from the bell tower, as well as the Totodile, popped up from the hole. Chatot followed close.
The Eevee warmly greeted the two with, "Eros! And Sicily! My, you've evolved, Sicily! You must be getting stronger! Come in!" The gate started to open as they said this, allowing Eros and Sicily to walk in. "I have so much to talk about!"
As the party of five, including Eros, Sicily, Eevee (who now wishes to be called Alice), Totodile and Chatot, made their ways down the hole's now visible ladder, finding it led to a large room full of talking Pokemon of all kinds. As a result, the room was full of various sounds and voices. There were two billboards on the closest wall, opposite the side of the building's entrance above. To the side was a stone kiosk adjacent to the wall, hosting a Croagunk and a mystical cauldron. On the opposite side was an empty stand, stating the words "Party Adjustment" above. While they were climbing down and a while after they reached the bottom, Eevee told various stories about the odd "Mystery Dungeons" that she and Totodile managed to fight through, depicting some of their harshest foes. They include, but are not limited to: A Drowzee, an imaginary Groudon and an evil Luxray and his lackeys. Eevee seemed proud of defeating each and every one of these foes, describing the details as deep as to mention every exact move as it happened. By this time, a mysterious Wigglytuff, likely the owner of the building, joined the small storytelling circle that was formed, although he remained silent.
In turn, Eros decided to join Sicily in describing their own adventures. They admitted to not achieving as much, but they told of how they climbed Frostlass Mountain and battled a phantom of Suicune, only to find the beings on top of the mountain were... Unlikeable. Eros also shared the story of how he entered the Contest Spectacular, leaving out the dramatic parts involving Pichu. He then topped it off by describing the fort they found, Fort Alpine, and every last detail of it (except for Equilibrium). These stories brought more confusion and wonder than awe, but it seemed to go over well with the others. They all discussed the finer points of the adventures until the conversation almost died off, until Jigglytuff interjected.
"Well, welcome to the guild, Sicily and Eros! I am guild master Wigglytuff."
Eros said, "It's Eros and Sicily."
"I was really looking forwards to meeting you guys. Although, you seem familiar..." As the guild master spoke, some of the Pokemon around the room stopped talking and stared at the group with expressions of either shock or worry, which unsettled Eros quite a bit.
Chatot suddenly broke in, "HEY! You're the ones Keldeo talked about! What are you doing here?!"
Eros and Sicily just stared back at everyone else for a few seconds before the guild master jumped in to save them, "Well, you're safe here."
The entire room, including Eros and Sicily and Alice and Chatot and even all of the background anonymous Pokemon joined in a chorus of, "What?!"
The guild master looked around, then said, "Well, you helped team Super Angels back at the bell tower, and a friend of them is a friend of ours. Isn't that right, Chatot?"
"B-but sir, these are dangerous criminals!"
"Chatot, how is that?"
"They want to restore a device that will maintain chaos in the world!!"
"Chatot, what if I told you this device would actually help fix some of the problems we are facing in the dungeons?"
"But sir-"
"And what if I told you this device could bring equality in the world?"
"..."
The guild master turned back to Eros and Sicily, stating, "Cerci told me all about the device. I know you are good guys at heart. You're safe here. And Chatot," Wigglytuff added bitterly with his jolly tone, "you can serve dinner tonight. For everyone. Including our guests." Chatot looked at the ground a bit, moping before going down what would be another ladder leading down. Wigglytuff returned to his normal jolly tone, continuing, "It's nice to have visitors like you."
Eros responded, "Nice to meet you too, Guildmaster. We're hoping to find out about any Humanity Stones you may have found. And what's wrong with the dungeons?"
The Guildmaster widened his passive smile. "Let me explain. You see, we here at the Adventurer's Guild work to fight through mystery dungeons, mysterious areas full of dangerous Pokemon who've lost their minds. People will sometimes lose items or find dangerous criminals in these dungeons. It's our job to fix that. However," as a look of concern entered his countenance, "There seems to be something odd going on in them. You see, these dungeons are normally made so that there's an even amount of Pokemon throughout, and they always seemed to keep to a certain level of power. However, just a month or two back, they started to change. The dungeons had either a sparse amount or too many Pokemon compared to before. They would also be really powerful or really weak. In fact, some of the Pokemon here say that the dungeons went as far as to collapse directly over the party. We don't know what's causing this, but I hope that creating Equilibrium will fix that, since it balances things out. We really want this thing built, if you don't mind.
"About the humanity stone, we received an anonymous letter telling us a mystery dungeon that has a stone of your description. It's called 'Darkroot Oasis'."
Eros replied instantly with joy, "Great! Let's head out, Sicily!"
"Wait wait! Don't you want to, you know, hang around a bit? You just got here, after all. I mean, being a Druid and all, no human ever saw-"
"Wait, you know?"
"Well, yeah. Keldeo told everyone here. After all, you are the sparkle shooting Sandshrew, right?"
Sicily whispered to Eros, "I told you to go as a Pidgey."
Eros whispered back, "I told you, I can't fly!"
Alice suggested, "Hey, maybe I can show you around town! We have a ton of good shops! Come on, I'll buy you whatever you want. It'll be on me."
"Uh, okay. But we'll get the stone soon, right?"
The group of four, now only Eros, Sicily, Alice and Totodile, made their ways to the town, but not before receiving temporary equipment from the guild, including a yellow cotton bag (that was worn by Eros), two bronze circle pendants that would teleport the two back to the guild should they faint, a couple of apples and an Oran berry.
As they went through the town, Alice and Totodile fought off silence by bringing up gossip and recent news; On the other hand, Eros and Sicily brought up whatever information they knew that could possible be interesting, such as their new comrades, or spells they've been working on (although Eros kept Enlarge a secret). As they talked, the sun slowly set and the moon rose in retaliation, bringing a bright night sky. As time passes, Alice and Totodile showed Eros and Sicily around. Tall and powerful Pokemon inhabited the streets and shops, running businesses like simple pawn shops, item exchanges, food stores, appraisal, day care and even what could compare to restaurants.
By the end of the day, Alice and Totodile had purchased items for the mission that included Oran berries, mystical orbs like the one Cerci created, magical seeds and apples. The bag was brimming with items by the end of the day, while Alice's pockets still seemed to be brimming with coin. At the end of all the shopping (which Alice and Sicily were much more excited about compared to Totodile and Eros) the two hosts treated the guests to a restaurant run by a Machamp, serving food almost exactly like back in Ashport (although the normal processed foods were not present for obvious reasons).
As they sat down at a tiny table for tiny guests, a Golduck, who seemed to run around and do waiter things, came to the table and asked the table what they wanted. Alice pulled out another healthy chunk of money and asked for four items of a sort. However, being the curious little Sandshrew he was, he was busy looking around at all the other Pokemon while Alice ordered and everyone talked. Moments later he was surprised to find the Golduck bringing four plates, all containing different kinds of berries, brought to the table and served to everyone. Eros' was an array of beige looking fruits that he recognized as those native to the desert biome, maybe specially selected for his species. As he started to eat this (and this ordeal was odd for Eros, much like everything else, because he was to eat with his hands instead of silverware), he was prompted with a question from Alice.
"Did you know Sicily thinks she's going to evolve soon?"
Eros was obviously not paying attention, as his eyes were constantly darting around the room, but he picked up on this and replied, "Yeah. She told me just yesterday morning. I think that with a bit more training, she'll be ready."
"Well," Alice continued, "I actually know a place. It's at the end of a mystery dungeon, but the well lets Pokemon evolve pretty easily. If she feels like it, we can head over and try it out."
"Oh. That sounds like fun. We can do that first." Eros' calm and almost apathetic expression matched his tone of voice. "But we'll still get the stone, right?"
"Of course!"
"Alright then. Hey... If you want, I can try and change you back before I go. No promises, though."
Alice suddenly went from joyful to something sadder and more remorseful, then losing expression altogether in a more meditative phase. Then she replied coolly, "I'd rather not change back right now for personal reasons."
"Oh. That's okay. I can always come back when you're ready. Just don't hit the bottom of the rabbit hole."
Eros started digging into his meal much after everyone else, enjoying what was definitely a themed cuisine. The berries were generally spicy, although one or two tasted minty and cold. Overall, they were completely dry, but this didn't seem to bother Eros as much as it normally would; In fact, he enjoyed the fact the berries were dry. He quickly found that he was consuming the berries much faster than everyone else at the table, he completely stopped eating just short of the last few berries, which he slowly nibbled until the end of the meal. As they finished, everyone simply walked out, waving goodby to the Golduck and making their way back to the guild.
As they made their way down the first ladder, then the second, they found the latter (pun) led to another room similar to the one above; however, it was empty except for a door on one side, and two opposite halls on either side of the room. One led to what was best described as a mess hall, containing many plates set out with food composed of apples, berries and a weird candy-like substance. On the other side was a simple hallway filled with doors of all sizes, although they seemed to be in no particular order.
Jigglytuff appeared behind the party and said to Eros and Sicily, "Well, I hope you can stay for dinner!"
Eros gave a shy look, replying, "Uh, actually, we just ate...."
"Oh, that's alright then. CHATOT!!!"
Chatot appeared from what seemed to be the mess hall, sweating from the work it took to construct a rough meal for everybody. "Y-yes, Guildmaster?" Chatot hid poorly his feeling of stress and worry, looking as if whatever the Guildmaster said next could kill him.
"Chatot, you can put away four plates. These four already bought food. Okay?"
Chatot dropped his head, letting the unimaginable wrath from this deep out only minimally; However, even as he did, anyone could see Chatot was at his limits. He slowly replied in a stammering voice, "Y-yes, G-Guildmaster." He turned back into the room, disappearing for a few seconds before screaming for a few seconds.
Jigglytuff turned to everyone once more, stating, "Don't worry. Sometimes Chatot's simply having a bad day. Why don't you get some rest? You can have the first room on the right."
Sicily replied this time, saying, "Thank you! We really appreciate the help." Sicily and Eros walked towards the hall with many doors, choosing to open the first on the right. Alice and Totodile walked past, seeming to go into a room much farther in the building. Eros thought, 'Did all the Pokemon live here? No, just the guild Pokemon. Wow, I never imagined that a Pokemon could make such a place. Is this what they've done with the gift of civilization and technology?"
As Eros opened the door, which was a bit large for his size, he found the room opened up into a cavern about the size of a normal bedroom (from Eros' diminutive perspective). He was hit by the smell of dirt and powder, as if stepping into a farmhouse in the middle of summer. The walls were made of a soft beige rock, while the ground had a soft growth of grass on it, although there was no evident source of sunlight. In the air, he could almost taste how dry the air had been, almost as if he could feel the particles of dust against his skin. In the back of the room was a small metal torch, lit with an odd crimson and scarlet flame that lacked any hint of orange or yellow. In the middle of the room were two piles of hay, the long strands of wheat all radiating from a center point, indenting into what could be assumed as a makeshift bed.
"Well, Eros, this is it. Be sure to get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Oh, and before we go, I want to go to that well and try to evolve."
"Eh, we've got time. We'll do that tomorrow. Good night, Sicily."
"Good night, Eros."
Eros took the left 'bed' while Sicily took the right. The two slept peacefully throughout the night, thinking of the many things they could face tomorrow.