A low pressure system had come in, and consequently soaked the entirety of Fifty Island in rain.
Shaun suddenly found himself with oodles of time indoors. He once tried to go out into the rain and had discovered how long fur takes to dry. Buizel had come home from school to find the huddled, dripping mass of Shaun sitting in front of the fire, shivering and trying to dry off. “What did you do, fall in the ocean?” he asked, aghast.
“No,” Shaun grumbled. “The ocean fell on me from the sky.”
This is when Shaun had learnt that Buizel was a pluviophile. He watched enviously as Buizel cheerfully made his way through the rain to and from school, unbothered by the water from the sky. “I don’t get how people like the rain,” he complained to no one in general one afternoon. “It just makes things wet and soggy.”
“It’s calming, I suppose,” Floatzel said, picking up various items that had been left on the floor over the week. “The noise it makes hitting the roof always puts me to sleep.”
“All the noise reminds me of is leaky roofing and water damage,” Shaun said darkly.
“Oh, you’re impossible,” she huffed. “You need to find something to do that isn’t grousing.”
Shaun suddenly found himself engrossed in reading the untranslated books by the door that had been forgotten. A lot of them were dry and boring, relating to the chronology of this and the history of that. The only one that had really caught his interest was one about the history of the Explorer’s Society. It detailed its founding by two Pokemon whose names had been lost to time, and various technological advancements that had aided its growth into what it was today.
Ampharos was usually reading in the living room in the afternoon, and he helpfully provided context on various things that Shaun was confused about.
“Task boards were antiquated a while ago,” he said from behind a book. “Connection orbs have mostly superseded them due to being more convenient.”
“What are connection orbs?” Shaun asked.
“I’m not entirely sure myself, but they let Expedition Society members take on tasks easier than using the old bounty system.” He chuckled. “I remember having to fight ‘mons over high-paying bounties sometimes.”
“That seems counter-productive,” Shaun mused, looking back at the untranslated runes. He’d have to wait for Buizel to get home before they could properly translate this one. “Weren’t you all supposed to work together or something?”
“Oh, heavens no,” replied Ampharos, putting the book down to look at Shaun. “It was a very competitive guild, and things like that were encouraged.”
“That sounds like it was harsh,” Shaun said.
“It wasn’t actually too bad,” Ampharos recalled. “Counter-intuitively, I made a lot of friends by fighting over bounties, and quite a few of them even helped with our explorations afterwards.”
Shaun returned to reading through the book, but he had nearly reached the end at that point. A few pages later the book ended, leaving Shaun with a gnawing hunger for more things to do. He got down from the couch, his faux-bed and where he had been reading, and stretched. “Wow, it sure is boring around here.”
Ampharos had returned to reading his book. “Some Pokemon strive for this kind of peace, you know.”
That particular thought was interrupted by Buizel opening the door, breathless. “I’m back from school!” he announced, dripping water all over the floor.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in a flurry of translation and generally enthusiastic discussion. Shaun was interested to see how excited Buizel was by the Expedition Society. He seemed to know a lot of the book’s contents already, even though he kept swearing he had never read it before.
“There’s lots of other books on the subject,” he said, “but this is the first one that I’ve heard that compiles it all into one place. It is a bit outdated, though.”
Shortly after the translation was completely finished, Floatzel announced that dinner was ready. It turned out to be some kind of dip with crunchy leaves to act as chips, which everyone attacked with gusto. Afterwards, Buizel retired to his bedroom, citing “a long day at school”.
Shaun had taken a nap earlier that day, and was miffed to learn that he couldn’t fall asleep. He wanted to do something other than just lay on the couch and wait for sleep to take its sweet time to arrive.
Ampharos saw him tossing and turning on his way into the lighthouse. “Do you want to come up into the lantern room?” he offered. “It would beat tossing and turning on the couch.”
Shaun hastily agreed and followed him onto the elevator. He hadn’t actually gotten to ride it during his entire stay, so he was eager to see what it was like.
Ampharos waited for Shaun to step onto the platform before stepping on himself and pressing the button. The platform shot up, causing Shaun to stumble a little bit, but it quickly arrived at the top of the lighthouse.
The elevator stopped in a circular antechamber, with a ladder leading up into another room. Ampharos crossed the room with the ease of tradition and climbed the ladder, Shaun following after him.
The ladder led into a larger room, but here Shaun could hear the gentle patter of rain hitting the roof. Arranged around the center of the room were massive lenses, which reflected Ampharos and Shaun as they walked into the middle of the room.
Shaun looked at himself in the lenses. For the first time since he had gotten here, he was able to see a mostly non-distorted reflection of himself. It looked about the same from the glass bottle he had looked at a week earlier, but he was able to see that he had a ruffle of fur around his neck.
What really caught his attention was his eyes. For a second, he wasn’t able to figure out what it was. But as he looked closer, he saw that his irises were glowing a faint blue.
Ampharos interrupted this discovery by clearing his throat loudly. “Do you think you could head back down into the antechamber and pull the lever to start up the lighthouse? I completely forgot to do it.”
“Oh, uh, sure!” Shaun fled from the room, glad for an excuse to not have to look at himself.
Back down in the antechamber, Shaun looked around for the lever. It turned out to be on the other side of the room, currently pushed down.
Shaun walked underneath it and pushed it upwards with great effort. He heard something on the other side disengage, and the room above whirred to life. He climbed the stairs again to see an outer ring of mirrors spinning around the center of the room, which was now glowing brightly.
Shaun walked into the center of the room again to find Ampharos’ forehead and tail bulbs glowing. It was hard to look at him, in fact.
“Come sit down.” He patted the space on the floor next to him. Shaun obliged, but sitting next to Ampharos was like sitting next to the sun.
There was silence for a while as Shaun marveled at the engineering that had gone into building this place. It made him feel small and pathetic, somehow.
“So, uh,” Shaun said after a few minutes. “Did you want to talk to me about something?”
Ampharos tilted his head to one side. “Observant.”
“I guess,” Shaun muttered. There was something profoundly lonely about this room.
“Who are you?” Ampharos asked bluntly.
The question caught Shaun off-guard, making him stand up and try to look at Ampharos. “What?”
“Who are you?” Ampharos repeated. “You’re found passed out and sick in the forest, there are no records of any Shinx arriving on the island within the past two hundred years, you can decipher an ancient script which most Pokemon believe is impossible to read, you magically get well with no signs of ever having been sick, and-“ he gestured at Shaun. “You go by the name ‘Shaun’. A nice name, I admit, but I’ve only heard tales of Pokemon with names, and those are exactly those- tales. Again I ask, who are you?”
Shaun stared at the floor while wracking his mind for anything to respond with. He hit the barrier of waking up on the beach, and couldn’t remember anything before that. It was a sickeningly thick fog that defied any attempts to pierce it, like a wall of soft, infinite cotton.
“I… don’t know, sir,” he responded in a small voice, still staring at the floor. “I woke up on a beach somewhere and I can’t remember anything before that.”
He felt Ampharos’ gaze still on him. The answer he had given was unsatisfactory, but it was the truth: he couldn’t remember anything.
At length, he heard Ampharos sigh. “I apologize. You’ve been a Pokemon I’ve been trying and failing to wrap my mind around since I first heard of you. I suppose that was my frustrations coming to a head.”
“I’m not a Pokemon,” Shaun murmured.
This got a reaction. Ampharos looked at Shaun sharply. “Pardon?”
“I’m not a Pokemon,” Shaun repeated, louder this time. He went silent for a second, debating if he really wanted to do this. He inhaled and took the plunge. “I’m a human.”
Ampharos said nothing, but now that Shaun had finally gotten the secret off his chest, he could finally articulate his own thoughts to himself. “Yeah, I know that sounds like a complete lie, and for all I remember, it could be a complete lie. But I don’t think it is, this place feels almost completely alien to me, and I’ve not had an easy time adjusting, but I’ve managed.”
He laughed nervously as Ampharos continued to sit there in silence. “I feel like I haven’t been able to do anything because I have no idea how anything here works.” He stood up, trying to explain. “I don’t know the extent of my own abilities, and I haven’t really had the space or time to learn, or the teacher, and I don’t know if I could actually internalize anything.”
“And not to mention that I don’t have any memory,” he said, pacing back and forth. He was starting to get more frantic. “I’m just one big question mark, and everyone seems to want me for some reason or other that I have no hope of understanding, not to mention that I have no clue what’s going on. I don’t belong here, I’m completely alien to this place, and yet you’ve still taken me in for some reason. I don’t know why you should have, but I-“ his voice broke. “I don’t deserve any of this. I can’t deserve any of this kindness. I just wash up here with no past and you just serendipitously take me in? Likely story.” His tone had turned accusing, but Ampharos still said nothing.
Shaun could have handled anger, or he could have handled fear, but he couldn’t handle silence. “I don’t even know what you want from me. Why am I so special?” he challenged, subconsciously adapting an aggressive stance. “Is it because of my way of speaking? Yeah, I admit, I speak differently to everyone else here, but that’s just who I am. Is it because I can create electricity or whatever? I don’t see you getting all this special attention. Is it because of my eyes?”
Ampharos stirred a little at this. To a panicked Shaun, this was as good as a full blown confession. He glared at Ampharos, even though it was about as effective as glaring at the sun. “Is it because of my eyes? Really? What’s so special about my irises that warrants such- such- kindness?” He choked a little on the last word. “I sure as hell don’t deserve hospitality from you, but you- you give me a place to live. Somewhere to sleep. A home.”
Shaun’s voice cracked on the last word as his brain finally caught up to what he had been saying. A sudden wave of guilt crashed into him, and he looked down at the stone flooring in shame. “A home,” he repeated quietly, “even though that’s not what I deserve.”
Ampharos stood up. Shaun thought that he was about to be smote with lightning, but at that point he wanted to be. “Oh, you’re going to kill me because I’m human. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s understandable. I don’t belong here anyw-“
Ampharos knelt down and hugged Shaun.
Out of all the things Shaun had expected, it wasn’t that. His brain completely shut down as he sat there in Ampharos’ glowing embrace.
“Oh, Shaun,” Ampharos mourned in a soft tone. “Shaun, Shaun, Shaun. You’ve been going through problems that we can’t even begin to comprehend. I’m so sorry.”
These gentle words struck at Shaun, past his goofy exterior, cutting through the inner turmoil of imposter syndrome and confusion, cutting through the self-loathing and doubt, striking directly at his soul.
His eyes began to feel hot as he realized Ampharos didn’t care. He didn’t care that Shaun was a human, or that he had just ran his mouth for what had felt like hours. He didn’t care about Shaun’s eyes. He didn’t care that Shaun was different.
A tiny corner of his brain said that it was because Ampharos loved him, but he largely rejected this notion. How could you love someone that you barely knew? But Shaun sat there until Ampharos broke away from the hug and looked at him consideringly.
“It’s okay to cry, sometimes,” he said. “Maybe not now, but don’t be afraid of tears. It’s a natural part of who we are.”
Shaun swallowed around a lump in his throat. “I guess,” he replied in a quavery voice. Upon hearing himself, he was immensely embarrassed. Willing his voice to not do that, he tried again. “I guess.”
Shaun suddenly found himself completely exhausted. “I think I’m going to go to bed,” he said in a not quite quavering voice.
Ampharos watched him go, slinking down the ladder tiredly. Shaun found himself back in the antechamber with the elevator. He had to jump to press the button, but he was sent down on the wooden platform, trying not to think about what just happened. He was good at that.
Down on ground level, the fireplace had mostly burnt out, casting the room in a dim glow. Shaun wandered over to the couch and crawled onto it, ready to fall asleep.
Frustratingly, sleep still didn’t come. He wanted to avoid thinking about what just happened at all costs, and sleep was going to be his escape. He glared at the sloped wooden roof, as if it was its fault.
The front door creaked open. Thinking it was just the wind, he peeked around the edge of the couch.
Shaun’s fight or flight activated. He hunched into the closest corner of the couch, willing himself to become invisible.
It was the Grovyle.
It took a cursory glance around the room, seemingly looking for something, before climbing up the stairs that lead to Buizel’s room.
Shaun felt himself start to panic and mentally slapped himself. Now was absolutely not the time to panic, Buizel was most likely in extreme danger. As quietly as he could, he slipped off the couch and followed the Grovyle up the stairs.
In Buizel’s room, it was a lot darker. The rain still tapped against the window, indicating why. Shaun looked around wildly as he entered, expecting to see the Grovyle hanging Buizel out of the window or something, but it was completely still. The Grovyle was nowhere to be seen.
Before he could turn around and go back down the stairs, something grabbed him around the middle. “Wh-“
Quick as a flash, he was pulled downstairs, his claws catching on the wooden steps and making a scraping noise. Once he was in the living room, he realized that he was being carried by the Grovyle, who smartly tapped him on the forehead as he struggled. “Keep quiet, or it won’t go well for you.”
Shaun’s first instinct was to call for help, but the claws around his stomach were a great negotiator against that idea. The Grovyle put him under its arm and carefully slipped outside, not bothering to latch the door behind it.
It quickly started off at a run down the hill, jostling Shaun with each step taken. It was very uncomfortable, but Shaun was being kidnapped, so he wasn’t sure what he was expecting.
He was being kidnapped.
The realization hit him like a brick wall. He was being kidnapped, and there was nothing he could do about it. He squirmed a little with the realization that he was helpless, and the Grovyle’s response was to tighten its hold on him, reaffirming his conclusion.
They passed through the wet town, which was very empty. The few Pokemon that Shaun did see didn’t notice the lizard with the Shinx tucked under its arm.
Shaun was actively trying not to panic. A complete question mark was kidnapping him for unknown purposes, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. His breathing came fast and quick as the Grovyle turned onto a path that led into dense trees.
Once they were far enough into the woods, the Grovyle sighed with relief and slowed its pace. To Shaun, this meant that he could talk freely without being heard. “Okay, so what’s the big idea?” His fear had turned to anger during the run and he was determined to take it out on the person literally kidnapping him. “I’m not a big fan of being kidnapped.”
“I need to verify something,” said the Grovyle vaguely. It didn’t elaborate past that.
“I see we’re dealing with an expert in non-answers,” Shaun said dryly. “Tell me, are you doing this just for the thrills? Or is this a hobby?”
A faint look of consternation crossed its face. “You do realize that you’re entirely at my mercy right now.”
“Well, let’s see.” Shaun tapped a paw to his chin in mock thought. “You’re obviously taking me somewhere, and you need me conscious, otherwise you would’ve just knocked me out.”
“I don’t need you conscious,” the Grovyle clarified. “Just alive.” The threat was obvious.
Shaun huffed. “Look, man, I’m entitled to at least something. You can’t just kidnap a guy and expect him to not have questions.”
The Grovyle was quiet for a while as it ran. Shaun thought that it just didn’t want to talk, but it eventually asked, “What do you know of Time Gears?”
Shaun rolled his eyes. “What is with everyone and Time Gears? All I know about them is that they spin or something. Keep time flowing. Bad things happen if they’re removed.”
The Grovyle was carrying him on the same side as its bag from earlier. It reached over with its free arm and opened it carefully. Shaun’s shocked eyes took in 3 glowing blue gears with etched decoration on them. They were all trying to spin, but they couldn’t due to other things in the bag preventing them from doing so. “Wh- what?”
The Grovyle snapped the bag closed again. “I need all of them.”
Shaun waited for an explanation, but he didn’t get one. “So you’re just stealing them for fun. That’s cool. That’s great.”
The Grovyle remained silent. Shaun looked up at it. “Not much of a talker, are you?”
“…No.”
An uneasy silence descended like a layer of radioactive dust. Shaun figured that it was useless to try and get anything more out of him now, so he waited.
After what seemed like forever, they arrived at their destination. Shaun could tell it was their destination because the Grovyle slowed to a walk. They were headed towards a particularly thick shroud of trees, and the entrance was shrouded in complete darkness. “Please tell me we’re not going in there.”
In response, the Grovyle walked straight into it.
For a second, Shaun thought the world had gone upside down and he had just gotten off a merry-go-round. The forest around them spun in odd ways before settling back to normal. “Ugh! What was that?” complained Shaun.
The vertigo seemed to also affect the Grovyle. It was holding a claw to its head in an attempt to steady itself. “Vertigo accompanies entering a mystery dungeon.”
“A what?” Shaun’s brain processed what he just heard. “What is- why did you take me to a mystery dungeon?”
“There’s a place at the end that’s very important,” the Grovyle replied. It dropped Shaun onto the ground ungracefully.
Shaun was still for a moment before turning tail and dashing the direction they had come from. Unfortunately, he failed to see the tree that had replaced the entrance and ran face first into it.
It took a minute for Shaun’s eyes to focus properly again, and the first thing he saw was the Grovyle’s silhouette leaning against a nearby tree, watching him. “You can’t get out the way you go in.”
“Gee, thanks,” Shaun replied sarcastically. He righted himself and looked around.
The forest surrounding them was dense, with a thick canopy above them drowning out any light. Drops of water trickled down through it from the rain, dampening the leaf litter on the forest floor. The grass around them was soaked due to the excessive rains, giving the smell of old dampness. Trees crowded around them, forming a sort of hall shape that continued deeper into the forest. Shaun thought it was rather claustrophobic.
The darkness didn’t help. “Do you have, like, a lamp or something?” Shaun asked nonchalantly. “I can’t see a thing.”
He heard the Grovyle snort. “You can just use your tail.”
“Huh?” Shaun wasn’t sure he heard correctly. “How is my tail-“
“You’re an Electric-type,” it cut in. “You have a natural affinity for light. Will it to light up.”
Shaun still didn’t trust the Grovyle as far as he could throw it, but he willed his tail to light up the surrounding area. To his astonishment, it worked, slowly illuminating the area in a yellow light. “Oh hey,” he said in surprise, “it worked.”
The Grovyle nodded in approval. “Now, listen. Either you follow me to the end of this dungeon, or I’ll drag you there myself.”
Shaun considered this. “Why should I follow you? I mean, besides the obvious threat.”
It tilted its head in acknowledgement of his point. “If we get to the end of the dungeon and my theory is unfounded, then I’ll let you go free. I have no quarrels with innocent Pokemon.”
The last sentence rang a bell of foreboding in Shaun’s mind. He eyed the Grovyle with sudden suspicion. “What do you mean, ‘innocent’ Pokemon?”
The Grovyle abruptly started down the hall in silence, leaving Shaun to hurry after him through the darkness.
Buizel woke up and immediately knew something was wrong.
He wouldn’t have been able to explain it, but something was missing. He sat up and looked around the dark room before getting out of bed. He didn’t like being up at this hour, but something felt so wrong that he had to investigate.
Nothing seemed wrong with his room, so he went downstairs. It was quiet, with the last of the embers fading into ash in the fireplace. Buizel focused and summoned a single small star above his paw.
It provided barely any light, but it was better than nothing. Buizel went around and investigated everything in the house. Everything seemed fine, except for the fact that the elevator was on the ground floor. He glanced at it curiously before walking over to the front door.
A gust of wind blew the door wider open, letting in the sound and smell of the rain. Buizel froze, realizing what was wrong.
Quickly, he ran through the ajar door and looked up at the lighthouse. The beams of light shone far into the distance through the rain, providing a signal for any water-going Pokemon that the island was nearby. Buizel’s focus wandered and the star vanished as he let his paw drop to his side. What was missing?
Buizel went back into the silent house, trying to figure out what was wrong. His gaze drifted over to the couch, expecting to see Shaun there.
It was vacant.
Confused, Buizel summoned another Swift to look around. Shaun was certifiably not there. Nor was he anywhere else in the house. Maybe he’s hiding under my bed as some sort of prank? He dismissed the notion, finding it entirely unfeasible.
Thoroughly trying not to panic, he pushed open the door into his parent’s room and went inside. Like the rest of the house, it was dark, but Buizel had been in here enough times to know the layout. He carefully maneuvered to the side of the bed his mom slept on and gently shook a sleeping lump.
It took a minute for it to rouse, but it eventually did. “Mmm. What’s wrong, Buizel?” came Floatzel’s voice.
“Shaun’s missing,” he said, his voice oddly clipped. “He wouldn’t’ve gone outside because it’s still raining.”
Floatzel got out of bed without further questions. She followed Buizel as he held a dim Swift to show her the door which had only blown open wider since he had come back inside.
“Have you completely searched the house?” she asked at length. “He could just be hiding somewhere.”
Buizel nodded fervently. “Yeah, I already searched most of the house, except the lantern room.” Ampharos had a strict rule against bothering him while he was working.
“That’s… worrying,” she said. She placed a reassuring paw on Buizel’s shoulder. “We can’t do anything about this right now. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s still very dark and the sun won’t be up for another few hours. You should go to bed and try to get some rest.”
“But-! Shaun’s missing-!” Buizel wanted to run out into the dark and look for Shaun, no matter what Mom said. But even as the thought crossed his mind, the reasonable part of his brain told him that she was absolutely right and that there was nothing he could do right now. “Okay…” he trailed off in a defeated tone.
Floatzel gently led him up to his room where he collapsed onto his bed. He felt too sick and miserable to sleep as she returned downstairs. All he could focus on was Shaun having gone missing until it permeated his entire being.
He worried until the dim light of a cloudy dawn began to shine through his window. He still had to go to school today, regardless of if Shaun showed up or not.
Shaun’s light flickered and went out as he collapsed.
They had been walking through the mystery dungeon for what felt like hours at this point. Shaun hadn’t slept in 12 hours and it finally caught up to him as he slumped to the ground.
The Grovyle stopped and looked back. “What’s the matter?”
“Tired,” Shaun replied groggily. They hadn’t stopped walking since they had started.
The Grovyle huffed as it went and started collecting unseen things. The grayness of the dawn was just barely starting to permeate the woods, making silhouettes float around like vague ghosts.
After a short while, Shaun heard it deposit some sticks onto the ground. It rustled around in its bag before pulling out a fire striker. Shaun saw the sparks catch the tinder of a campfire and set it ablaze. The Grovyle returned the striker to its place in its bag before settling down across from Shaun, who hadn’t moved since he’d collapsed.
“Shure know your way around a campfire, eh?” Shaun slurred. He was too tired to bother correcting himself. “Wish I still had opposable thumbs.”
The Grovyle didn’t acknowledge this, preferring to watch the dance of the flames of the campfire. Shaun waited for an answer before giving up, rolling over, and immediately falling asleep, with loud snoring to match.
The Grovyle smiled slightly before staring up into the tree canopy. “We resume the trek at dawn,” it said quietly.