It looked almost nothing like the Island Village Shaun knew. He gazed around, aghast. “You’re positive.”
“Not very,” Sneasel admitted. “But I don’t think we’ve left the island. The geography feels too familiar.”
Shaun had to admit she was right. Even though he recognized none of the buildings, the layout of the village felt eerily similar.
The group slowly walked into the town. Something felt extra off about the town that Shaun couldn’t place until Buizel muttered, “I only see other kids.”
He was right. There were no other adult-looking Pokemon in the town. Aside from the children raucously playing in the middle of the town, it was completely silent and still.
As Shaun was scanning the town, he noticed a young child watching the other children playing from afar. Several times, it made as though to walk away, but it always returned to watching the other children.
Quietly, Shaun walked towards the child. It noticed him when he was about halfway there and it continued to watch him warily as he approached.
“Hello!” Shaun greeted it cheerfully.
“Uhm, hullo,” he replied, a little unsure. Now that Shaun was close, he could see that it vaguely resembled a dog, but it had a large fluffy tail with a cream colored tip, and a similarly colored ruff.
“What’s your name?” Shaun continued. “My name’s Shaun.”
The boy looked a little nonplussed. “I’m Eevee. Um, that’s a strange name.”
“So I’ve gathered.” Shaun sat down next to Eevee, who edged away from him a bit uncomfortably. “Say, do you know where we are? My memory’s a bit spotty.”
“Fifty Island?” Eevee answered confusedly. “And this is, um, Island Village?”
“Ahhh, that was what it was called.” Shaun nodded sagely, mentally taking notes. So this was Island Village. He glanced over at Buizel and Sneasel, who were walking towards them. “Do you know where the adults went?”
Eevee cocked his head thoughtfully. “I think you’re the first one to ask. Uhm, I’m not entirely sure, my mom had to leave for some kind of thing happening on Gray Island.”
Shaun looked at Eevee blankly. “Gray Island?”
Eevee nodded and watched Buizel and Sneasel arrive warily. “Uh-huh. It’s the forty-ninth island. This is the fiftieth island, which is why it’s named that.”
Shaun processed this slower than Buizel, who’s eyes widened in sudden alarm. “Uh, Shaun, can I talk to you for a second?”
“Yeah, sure,” Shaun replied. “Friends of mine,” he told Eevee as he stood up and winced a little. His broken leg was starting to complain that he had walked too much.
They wandered a little ways away from Eevee, who watched them go with trepidation. Once they had ducked behind a house, Buizel whispered frantically, “Shaun, how in void did you send us back in time to before the Great Disaster?!”
Sneasel’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “He WHAT?”
“Keep your voice down!” Shaun hissed. “I don’t know!” He really hoped that Buizel was wrong, somehow, but everything seemed to point toward Buizel being correct.
“Why are we in the past?!” Sneasel didn’t seem too happy about this information.
“I don’t know!” Shaun repeated. “I didn’t exactly want to come here!”
Buizel thought for a minute. “It was the Time Gear, wasn’t it.”
“Well, duh,” replied Shaun, “I think we all know that. The question is why?”
There was silence for a moment. “I want to see if the lighthouse is there,” Buizel said suddenly.
Sneasel and Shaun looked blankly at him. “But what if it isn’t there yet?” Shaun asked.
“I just need to see it for myself,” Buizel said, a little too calmly.
“Alright,” Shaun replied, shrugging. “We’ll go to the lighthouse.”
They started back around the house and nearly bumbled into Eevee, who stumbled backwards at their sudden appearance. “Oh, I- um-“
Sneasel sighed. “You were eavesdropping, weren’t you.”
Eevee ashamedly hung his head, his ears drooping until they almost touched the grass. “Sorry. Yes, sorry.”
The three Pokemon exchanged glances. “Can we trust you not to tell anyone else?” Shaun asked appealingly. “We were talking about stuff that probably shouldn’t be overheard.”
“Um, okay,” Eevee replied, looking up at them. “You’re- You’re not going to punish me?”
“Why would we do that?” Buizel asked frankly. “We’re still kids, ourselves.”
Eevee blinked slowly at them as they walked past. Shaun felt a little sorry for him as they carefully skirted the edge of town and traversed the hill where the lighthouse was supposed to be.
As they crested the top of the hill, they stopped and stared.
The white stone pillar of the lighthouse was still there, just as Shaun remembered it. But nothing else was. No house built around the base, no lantern room built onto the top of the pillar. Faint smoke rose from the top, as if a bonfire had been burning there until just recently. Buizel slowly walked up to the pillar as if in a daze and leaned against it, breathing heavily.
“Buizel?” Sneasel asked, real concern in her voice. “Are you…?”
“Don’t,” Shaun replied softly. Something deeper was happening here, something that Shaun couldn’t have explained if he tried.
Buizel was the furthest from his family he had ever been in his life.
“I know, but…” Sneasel trailed off. She suddenly rounded on Shaun, a fire in her eyes he had never seen before. “You’d better find a way to take us back, or I swear to Arceus-“
Shaun backed away, unnerved by the sudden hostility. “Look, I’m trying! I have no idea how we got here in the first place!”
“Maybe you’re supposed to find something?” a meek voice suggested.
They jumped and turned to see Eevee again, a few feet away from them down the hill. He flinched as they looked at him. “Oh, um, sorry, was I not supposed to-?”
“Why are you following us?” Sneasel asked bluntly, folding her arms.
“Um,” Eevee scrambled for an explanation. “I, um, you’re the only– kind of adults– here, and, um…”
“Spit it out,” Sneasel said impatiently.
“Please find my mom!” Eevee burst out suddenly. “She’s been gone for longer than she said she would, and it’s- I’m worried…”
Shaun and Sneasel exchanged a What do we say look. Shaun had no idea how he would pull that off, or if they even had time.
Buizel solved the dilemma for them. “We’ll find her,” he said heavily, still leaning against the stone wall. He pushed himself away from the wall, seemingly with great effort.
Sneasel blinked at him. “But, Buizel, we don’t even-“
“I said, we’ll find her,” Buizel repeated, the resolve in his voice strengthening. He finally faced them, an expression on his face that Shaun couldn’t read.
Eevee looked at them, hope beginning to shine in his eyes. “You- you will-?”
“Yes,” Buizel replied, returning to the group. Shaun thought something about his body language still wasn’t quite right. “Where did you say she was? ‘Gray Island’?”
Eevee nodded rapidly. “Yes, she, um, had to do something there. All the adults did. The other kids at least got letters saying why they hadn’t come back yet and why they were delayed, but Mom…” he sniveled a little, trying to keep himself from crying. “She would’ve sent a letter, too. I know she would have.”
Sneasel was thoughtful. “Is there a dock yet?” she asked.
Eevee looked a little confused by the phrasing, but nodded. “It’s, um, empty, though. No boats.”
The three Pokemon looked blankly at each other. “I can’t swim,” Shaun almost instantly volunteered. “Even if I knew how, my leg is still broken.” He didn’t add that it was beginning to ache slightly.
“I can’t really swim either,” Buizel admitted.
“Surely there’s something else?” Sneasel said as they started down the hill. “Like, no emergency boats or anything?”
Eevee started to shake his head but then paused. “I’m, um, not sure, actually. Kids aren’t supposed to be around the dock.”
“Supposed,” Shaun said deviously. “But there’s no one here to stop us, is there?”
“The other kids?” Eevee suggested half-heartedly.
Sneasel shook her head. “I don’t think they’d care,” she said, glancing at them still playing as they took a path Shaun didn’t remember.
They arrived at the dock in short order. It was less of a dock and more of a wooden platform that extended out over the water, which gently rose and fell in greeting as they walked onto the dock.
“Wait, how did…?” Eevee looked around at them. “How did you know where the dock was…?”
“We live here, eventually,” Sneasel said, preoccupied with looking around. “He was right. No boats.” There were no boats to be seen.
Shaun peered underneath the dock. A sad, neglected looking rowboat was there, propped up against the sand. “Well,” he announced, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” Buizel asked. It was the first time he had said anything since they had left the lighthouse.
“The good news is that I found a boat,” Shaun replied. “The bad news is that one, it looks old, and two, it’s a rowboat.”
Sneasel walked over to where Shaun was standing and looked for herself. “That looks like it’s going to fall apart if a wave so much as moves wrong.” She swung over the edge and into the water below, which proved to only go up to her ankles. “But,” she sighed, “it’s the only thing we got.”
“I’m a little surprised you’re going along with this so easily,” Shaun remarked from the dock as she pushed the boat from underneath it. “I thought there’d be a little more resistance.”
“I have family I’m missing too,” Sneasel said evenly. “I want to get back as much as Buizel does.” Shaun could have kicked himself for not realizing this sooner.
“Can- can I come, too?” Eevee asked suddenly.
Everyone looked at him. “Um, you probably shouldn’t,” Shaun said. “We don’t know if your mom is in danger or not, and we might get into danger ourselves-“
“The short answer is no,” Sneasel answered, cutting him off as she jumped back onto the dock. “I’m only taking the other two guys along as backup.”
Buizel looked at her slowly. “Hey, wait a second.”
“Shush, Buizel.” She looked at Eevee sternly. “I know you have a vested interest in this, but it’s just too dangerous, okay?”
“Okay…” Eevee mumbled. As he turned away, he said, “Um, by the way, Gray Island is due west from here.”
Everyone stared blankly at him for a few seconds. “I cannot believe we forgot to ask that,” Shaun said in disbelief, turning to the other two Pokemon. “We almost forgot to ask where we were going.”
After a second, Shaun began laughing hysterically. It wasn’t particularly funny, but Shaun felt like he hadn’t laughed in ages. “We agreed to go on a trip to find this kid’s mother, and we forget to ask where we’re supposed to go!” he howled. “Oh my god, we’re so dumb!”
Despite the situation, Buizel began to laugh, too. “We are! We are! Who does that?!”
“Us, apparently,” Sneasel remarked with a wry grin. “Shall we set off?”
The rowboat was quite a bit smaller than expected. Shaun didn’t have arms, so he got to sit on the passenger bench while Buizel and Sneasel had to sit on the other seat and row using oars that looked like they would fall apart if they were used too roughly.
“I do not envy you,” Shaun remarked as they began to row away from the island. There had been quite a struggle to get the boat unaired from the sand underneath the dock and then getting in without being left behind.
“You don’t say?” Buizel said as he pushed against the water. He was uncomfortably wedged against Sneasel and the side of the boat. “Actually, it’s kind of comfortable here. Lots of room, nothing to do…”
“Shut up,” Sneasel growled. “Less talking, more rowing.” It was clear that she didn’t think too highly of the ocean nor Buizel’s sarcasm.
On the western horizon was a thin strip of gray, partially obscured by fog. Shaun looked around in slight awe as Fifty Island disappeared behind them behind the ocean waves. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever been out on the ocean like this,” he said.
“Me too,” Buizel panted as he continued to row. “I’ve never really been allowed out on the ocean before.”
“Never liked it, never will,” Sneasel grunted. “Too much water.”
As they rowed, Shaun stared pensively at the ocean horizon. If they had been sent back to before the Great Disaster, then there was the likely possibility that they were about to live through it.
His gaze turned up towards the sky, searching for the faint red star that he had grown to fear.
It wasn’t there.
Shaun blinked and squinted, trying to find it anywhere. Even though Shaun had just seen the star above them an hour ago, it was now no longer to be seen.
He shrugged it off. Maybe it wasn’t dark enough yet.
Buizel suddenly stopped rowing, causing Sneasel’s stroke to spin the boat wildly. “I need a break, or I’m going to melt into a Buizel shaped puddle.”
“If you think you’re going to melt,” Sneasel muttered. “You’re not even the Ice-type.”
“It is hot,” Shaun admitted. The sun beat mercilessly down on them, making Shaun feel hot and uncomfortable, even though he was constantly being sprayed with seawater. “We must’ve come here during the summer.”
“That’s something I’ve been trying not to think about,” Buizel said. “What if we, uh, completely mess something up in the present by doing this?”
The thought hadn’t even crossed Shaun’s mind. “Oh. Crap.”
“Like, I hate to say it, but what if this kid was never meant to find his mother?” Buizel made a point of looking into the water instead of at Shaun.
“That’s the wrong way to look at it.” Shaun sat up a little straighter. “If the future is changed by a single action done in the past, was that a good future?”
Buizel’s paw fell to the side of the boat. “Is wanting to exist a bad thing?” he asked softly.
Shaun looked out over the ocean horizon again. Buizel’s words had a tone to them which he disliked. “If it comes at the cost of others, then maybe,” he said carefully.
Buizel slammed his paw into the side of the boat. “Dammit, Shaun,” he said, his voice cracking a little. “I don’t want to die because I helped somemon I shouldn’t have.”
“Realistically, you’d probably just instantly cease to exist,” Sneasel pointed out.
“Do you think that’s much better?!” Buizel yelled, turning to the other two Pokemon on the boat. He looked genuinely upset. “Is it a crime to want to keep existing? To maybe see my family again?” His voice cracked violently with the last word, causing him to flush with embarrassment and look into the ocean water again.
Unexpectedly, Sneasel put a claw on his shoulder. “I know how you feel, Buizel,” she said evenly. “I’ve been… trying not to think about it too much.”
“How?” Buizel asked, still staring into the water. “How can you just… not think about home?”
“My parents died when I was six,” she said. The sadness in her voice was barely masked by years of practice. “I didn’t really… have a home for a few years, until Meowstic took me in.”
Buizel looked at her curiously. “Wait, Meowstic took you in?”
She nodded. “I don’t know why. He really shouldn’t’ve.” Her eyes clouded for a moment. “He should’ve just locked me in jail or something, instead of… doing that.”
“Oh.” Buizel contemplated this for a few seconds. “I thought he was just mean and awful.”
Shaun wasn’t exactly sure what happened next, but there was a splash and suddenly Buizel was in the water, gasping in surprise. Sneasel’s clawed hands fell to her mouth. “Oh my gosh. I am so sorry.”
“I can’t really swim!” Buizel gasped from the water, flailing to try and keep himself afloat.
Shaun rapidly limped to the side of the boat Buizel was on and helped haul him back onto the boat along with Sneasel, wincing slightly as he felt something in his leg go wrong. “What the heck happened?” Shaun asked incredulously. “I think I must’ve blinked, because there is no way that Buizel just suddenly fell overboard.”
“She punched me in the face!” Buizel sputtered indignantly.
“I am so sorry,” Sneasel repeated. “I- I kind of have this really bad habit of, um, punching people? When they insult Meowstic?” She pulled Buizel up onto the bench beside her. “I am so, so sorry, Buizel.”
“It’s fine,” Buizel mumbled from behind his paw. He was rubbing his face where he had been slugged. “I’d’ve done the same thing if Haunter badmouthed my dad.” He let his paw fall to his lap. “Just don’t do that again, please?”
“Like I said, bad habit,” Sneasel said, raising her hands placatingly. “I’m- I’m working on it, I swear.”
“Note to self,” Shaun remarked dryly. “Don’t insult Meowstic in front of Sneasel.”
“Sorry!” Sneasel gestured frantically. “I don’t know how that habit even got started, but it’s gotten me in trouble a lot more than once.”
Shaun glanced around and remembered they were still on the open ocean. “Um, we should probably keep going towards the other island.”
They blinked at him for a moment before also remembering where they were. “Oh, right,” Buizel said sheepishly, picking up his oar. “Uh, getting lost at sea with no food or water is generally considered bad, right?”
Shaun snorted. “Very bad.”
They aligned themselves with the sliver of gray on the horizon using Shaun as the navigator and resumed rowing towards it. Shaun watched pensively as it grew closer. What were they going to do once they got there? Could they even rescue this kid’s mom?
The island loomed large above them, the gray rocks sticking out of the water. “Well, we know why it was called “Gray” Island,” Shaun remarked to no one in particular as they drew close to a gray beach. Just about the only thing that wasn’t gray were the tree leaves, and even they had an unhealthy pallor to them.
Sneasel suddenly jumped and pulled her feet onto the bench. “Ack!”
Buizel and Shaun looked at her in surprise. “I have never heard you make that sound before,” Buizel said, resting the oar in his lap.
“Something brushed the back of my ankles,” she replied with affected dignity. “You’d make a sound like that too.”
“But what was it?” Shaun asked curiously.
In answer, Sneasel reached underneath the bench she was sitting on and grabbed something. Her face morphed into confusion as she hauled something out from underneath it.
It was Eevee.
He glanced around at their varying expressions of shock and disapproval, and smiled in a sickly sort of way that indicated he knew he was in extremely deep trouble. “Oh, um, hi…?”
“I thought we told you to stay on the island,” Sneasel said, her voice dripping with venom.
“You did,” Eevee admitted humbly.
“Then why didn’t you?” She set him down in the middle of the boat floor and stood up, crossing her arms menacingly. “Explain.”
“Well, um,” Eevee shuffled in place. “I- I don’t really have an excuse,” he admitted, ears drooping as he stared at the floor. “I just- I just wanted to come and maybe see Mom again.”
There was silence for a moment. Sneasel glared down at Eevee, who looked like he wanted to melt between the boards of the boat and escape into the ocean. Buizel began to fidget uncomfortably, and Shaun watched nervously as their boat slowly began to drift towards the rockier part of the beach.
Sneasel closed her eyes and sighed. “What is it, Buizel?”
“Nothing, nothing,” he assured her. Shaun was pretty sure it wasn’t “nothing”, but he didn’t say anything.
After another minute, Sneasel opened her eyes again. They were significantly less angry, and looked more regretful than anything. “Okay, look. It is far too late to turn around and take you back, and we’re almost at Gray Island anyway.”
Eevee looked up, suddenly hopeful. “You’re not gonna throw me overboard?”
Sneasel rolled her eyes. “No, we’re not going to throw you overboard. You can tag along as long as you follow directions.” She looked at Eevee sternly. “Do I make myself clear?”
Eevee nodded, evidently relieved that he wasn’t going to be thrown overboard. “Yes, miss.”
The boat then proceeded to collide with a rock.
It wasn’t a large rock, nor was it a particularly hard collision, but the rowboat shuddered like it had just scraped an iceberg. A large crack formed down the middle of the boat, which quickly threatened to grow wider.
Without thinking, Sneasel quickly did something to the crack. Shaun watched in amazement as ice formed along it, creating a terrific crackling noise as it did so. She sat back down, and both her and Buizel began to row like their lives depended on it.
The boat shuddered again as they ran aground. Everyone quickly leapt or scrambled out of the boat, afraid that it would do something worse to them if they were still inside.
Once they were all out, they heard the faint hissing of steam as the ice melted. They then watched as the walls of the boat fell outward onto the sand with a muffled flump, rendering the rowboat a sad collection of old boards.
“Welp,” Shaun said matter-of-factly. “We’re stuck here now.”
“Greaaaaat.” Sneasel didn’t seem too thrilled about the prospect.
Buizel absently walked onto the boards and stared out into the ocean for a minute. “No, it’s gone,” he muttered.
“If you’re talking about the boat, you’re standing on it,” Shaun remarked unhelpfully.
Buizel shook his head. “No, I’m not talking about that…” He stared at the ocean for a moment before shrugging and returning to the group. “Just thought I saw something, that’s all.”
Shaun was suddenly suspicious. “It wasn’t another message, was it?”
Buizel shuffled uncomfortably. “Um, maybe. We kind of had to steer the boat. Didn’t get to make out much, and I forgot the one word I did see.”
“Let’s hope that it was unimportant, then,” Sneasel said, looking up at the gray cliffs. “We need to find a way up onto the island proper.”
They began looking around the beach for any ways up to the island. Shaun was beginning to limp badly. His splint was beginning to fall apart, and although he endeavored to keep anyone from noticing, his leg was beginning to make its presence known.
“Hey, I think I found something!” Buizel called.
Everyone walked over to where Buizel was standing at the base of a ramp that sloped upwards. Shaun blinked. “How did we miss this?”
“Beats me.” Buizel started up the ramp, everyone else following.
Predictably, Shaun was the last one up the ramp. He hoped no one had noticed how long it had taken him to struggle up it, but he saw Buizel and Sneasel exchanging worried looks as he finally got to the top of the ramp.
“You good?” Buizel asked as he approached them.
“I’m fine,” Shaun replied cheerfully, trying to mask his pain. “I’ve lived through worse.”
This garnered a different reaction than Shaun was hoping. Buizel just bit his lower lip and looked away, but Sneasel folded her arms and said, “The last time I heard you say that, you got really, really spacey and had to eat a Persim berry to snap out of it.”
“Was that the really bitter one?” Shaun asked, trying to deflect the topic away from his leg.
“I’ve never eaten one, so I wouldn’t know.” She wasn’t fooled that easily. “Shaun, how’s your leg?”
“Fine,” Shaun answered, a little too quickly.
Buizel and Sneasel exchanged glances again. “Well, if it starts to hurt, let me know,” Sneasel said. “I know at least some basic first aid.”
“It doesn’t hurt at all,” Shaun lied. “Come on, let’s get moving.” He started to limp down the path, the other three Pokemon watching him with concern before following him.
The path led through a forest. There wasn’t much to describe, other than the fact that it was almost eerily gray. “Would it have killed them to add a little color here or there?” Shaun muttered.
After a few minutes of walking, in which Shaun’s leg began to loudly protest, they came upon a village.
They almost didn’t realize they were in a village. It was as gray as the rest of the landscape, the houses almost blending in among the gray trees.
Shaun looked around, confused. “Hey, there’s no one here.”
They walked into the approximate middle of town. It looked a lot like Island Village, but more depressing. It was almost completely silent.
“So how the heck are we supposed to find anyone if they’ve all skipped town?” Shaun asked no one in particular.
Eevee glanced around at the seemingly abandoned buildings and cocked his head in confusion. “Where is everymon?”
Sneasel suddenly keeled forward onto the ground, landing heavily with a thud. The other Pokemon looked at her in a mixture of shock and confusion.
“What-?” Buizel was cut off by something yanking his feet from underneath him. He hit the ground with a grunt and quickly found himself bound with rope.
By the time Shaun had clocked that they were under attack, it was already too late. He was kicked onto his side, landing painfully on his broken leg. He gasped from the sudden attack and pain as a figure walked up to him and placed a black foot on his stomach.
“Judging by the way the other three were following you, I’d say you’re the leader,” said a boyish voice. “Who are you and where do you come from?”
Shaun could hardly think due to how much pain he was in. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Eevee was the only one who hadn’t been incapacitated in some way. It was just as well, because Eevee was completely petrified by the sudden attack.
“Well?” the voice asked impatiently.
Shaun inhaled through his teeth. “From Fifty Island. We’re just looking for someone.”
“Oh yeah? Who?” it challenged.
Shaun finally had the presence of mind to look up. The Pokemon that was standing on his stomach looked vaguely like a short, blue, dog-like humanoid with big floppy ears. He glared at Shaun with red eyes from behind a mask like-marking as Shaun’s brain struggled to work properly through the screaming of his leg.
Shaun groaned. “I don’t know, actually.” He gestured with his good hind leg towards Eevee, who shrank away from their attacker even more. “Ask him.”
The dog-thing looked at Eevee curiously. “Really?”
“We- we’re just t-trying to look for my m-mother,” Eevee stuttered, terrified. “A Glaceon. H-honest.”
It looked at Buizel for a third opinion. “Is this true?”
“Yes!” Buizel replied indignantly from the ground. “What’s the big idea?”
“I was told to keep the town safe from intruders,” the dog thing replied with affected dignity. “Everymon else left to go check the other islands.”
“So my mom isn’t here…?” Eevee trailed off, still uncertain about the Pokemon that had just incapacitated everyone but him.
The dog-thing tilted its head thoughtfully. “Actually, no, maybe she is. A few Pokemon wandered into the mystery dungeon, and a pretty ice lady volunteered to get them out.” It shook its head regretfully. “I don’t think I ever saw her leave, though.”
“Cool,” Shaun growled. “Do you think you could let me stand up, please?”
It glanced at him for a moment. “Okay, sure,” it said, stepping off of Shaun.
Surprised by how easily it backed off, Shaun tried to stand. Immediately, he collapsed back onto the ground, gasping with pain.
“Yeah, didn’t think so,” the dog-thing said with a smirk. “Not sure how you’re planning on going through a mystery dungeon with a leg like that.”
“Hey, now that we’ve proven we’re not dangerous, can you untie me?” Buizel asked.
The dog-thing laughed. “You haven’t proven anything at all, but sure.” It nimbly hopped over to where Buizel was on the ground and removed the ropes.
Buizel pushed himself off the ground, rubbing a sore spot. “Okay, wow,” he said, surveying the situation. “So we’re screwed.”
“What do you mean?” Eevee asked.
“One,” Buizel began, listing them off of his paws, “Shaun’s leg is significantly worse, two, Sneasel is unconscious, three, we have no easy way of getting back to Fifty Island, four, we have absolutely no medical supplies-“
The dog-thing dashed into a house and returned with an armful of cloth and brightly colored berries. “Here’s medical supplies!”
Buizel stared at it for a moment. “Four, we have medical supplies, but Sneasel is still unconscious, so we can’t make use of them effectively, and five, apparently your mother went into a mystery dungeon which we don’t know the location of.”
“Oh, I know where it is,” the dog-thing said airily. “Not supposed to, but you know.”
“How old are you?” Shaun asked, nonplussed.
“Seven summers old,” it answered with a certain air of pride. “What, shocked you got beat by a child?”
“I’ve seen stranger,” Shaun muttered.
The dog-thing deposited the armful of supplies near Shaun. “You should probably get your Shaun friend to a hospital when you get back home.”
“I don’t think that was ever not the plan,” Shaun replied breathily.
Buizel walked over and picked up a blue berry. “Do you think an Oran will tide you over until we can get to a doctor?”
Shaun looked at him blankly. “What?”
Buizel rolled his eyes. “Just eat the berry, it’ll make you feel better.”
Shaun took the proffered berry and ate it. It tasted vaguely familiar, with too many flavors. As he swallowed, the muscles in his leg contracted painfully and he nearly choked, but he was in a lot less pain afterward. “What the heck was that?” he asked, confused.
“Oran berries have tons of medicinal compounds,” Buizel said, walking over to Sneasel. “You should feel slightly better for a while.”
Shaun attempted to stand up again and was rewarded with an aching leg. He winced a little as he shifted his weight away from the broken leg and hobbled over to stand next to Buizel.
Buizel was staring down at the unconscious Sneasel. “She’s out cold,” he remarked obviously.
“So I gathered,” replied Shaun dryly. “What the heck do we do now?”
Buizel glanced at Eevee, who was still watching the dog-thing warily. “I guess we do what we came here for,” he said a little uncertainly.
Shaun turned to the dog-thing. “What’s your name?”
“Riolu,” the dog-thing replied. It gave an over exaggerated bow. “At your service.”
“Don’t give me that after having just beat us up,” Shaun said. “Can you take us to that mystery dungeon you mentioned?”
“Sure,” Riolu replied. “It’s not like anymon’s going to get me in trouble over it.” He squinted at them in sudden suspicion. “Will you?”
“No,” Buizel replied, hoisting Sneasel up onto his back in a piggyback fashion. “We don’t even live here.”
“Okay!” Riolu started down a path that led out of the village at a brisk march. Shaun and Buizel followed at a much slower pace, with Eevee trailing behind them.
“What do you think of him?” Shaun murmured to Buizel as they followed Riolu. “I can’t make heads nor tails of his behavior.”
Buizel stared ahead at Riolu. “I don’t know either. Something about him feels oddly familiar, though.”
Shaun shrugged. “I don’t see it, personally. Just an overeager kid, I guess.”
They followed Riolu through a path in the forest that wound around several very large trees. After a while, Shaun began to notice more rocks than grass, and then suddenly they were at their destination.
A large cave opening yawned at the Pokemon as they approached it. Riolu stopped just outside of it and circled around it, returning with a burning lamp. He thrust it at Buizel. “You’ll need this.”
Buizel glanced at the passenger on his back. “Um, how am I supposed to-?”
“’s fine,” Sneasel mumbled, her eyes still closed. “You can… put me down…”
Buizel looked a little startled, but he obliged. Sneasel sat on the grass for a second, a clawed hand drifting to her head. “Feel like I got hit by a tree.”
“Sorry!” chirped Riolu. “Didn’t know you were friendly.”
“You could at least ask first,” she muttered. She tottered unsteadily to her feet, swaying a little as she held a hand to her head. “Arceus, I feel awful. Does anymon have any water?”
The group glanced around at each other. “Um, well, I could condense some water for you,” Buizel offered.
“…Never mind,” Sneasel said. “I don’t need wherever your paw has been in my mouth.” She finally cracked open her eyes and glanced around as Buizel sputtered in indignation. “Where are we?”
“Outside of a mystery dungeon,” Riolu said, shoving the burning lantern into Buizel’s paws. “Glaceon went in and never left.”
“Glace…?” She glanced at Eevee and then nodded in comprehension. “Oh. Alright, then.”
“Shall we proceed?” Shaun said. He was eager to keep going before his leg began to hurt worse.
He didn’t get an answer, but everyone followed him into the cave, except Riolu. “Good luck!” he called after them.
“Thanks!” Shaun called back. He didn’t know how much they were going to need it.
Once inside the mystery dungeon, Shaun understood why Riolu had given them the lantern.
It was dark.
It was the kind of pitch, immobile dark that even the brightest lights wouldn’t have pierced. Shaun shuddered a little at the uncanniness of it, and Eevee shrunk to Buizel’s side, the only source of light.
“Why is it so dark?” Sneasel asked after a while. They had been going through what felt like endless corridors. “I’m a Dark-type, and even this darkness is confounding.”
“A- aren’t all mystery dungeons like this?” Eevee squeaked.
“Even the dark ones aren’t like… this.” Sneasel presumably gestured at her surroundings. “This isn’t your average everyday darkness.”
Shaun’s leg was beginning to hurt again. “Yeah, it’s certainly pitch black.” The walls curved away from them, indicating that they had entered a room of some sort. “I don’t see how it could be much worse,”
Shaun was gone.
Buizel blinked and held up the lantern. “Shaun?”
There was no response.
“Maybe he turned a bend?” Sneasel suggested.
Buizel gestured to the room in front of them. “But we’re in an open space! You don’t just turn a bend in an open space!”
“Well, maybe he got lost in an open room,” Sneasel replied dryly. “He seems the type.”
Buizel rolled his eyes as they started to walk forward again. “Honestly.”
The ground beneath him suddenly seemed to become slick with ice. He skidded forward and hit the ground painfully, the lantern rolling away from the group.
“Are you okay?” Sneasel asked.
“Mostly,” Buizel replied, trying to push himself up.
He couldn’t.
First confused, then panicked, he tried to push himself up off of the ground. “I- I can’t get up,” he said frantically. “I can’t- can’t move.”
Sneasel tried to pull him up and gasped. “Is there quicksand in here?!”
Buizel began to flounder wildly. “I- I can’t move-! Why can’t I-“
“You’re sinking!” Sneasel kept trying to pull him up, but it wasn’t working.
On the floor, the lamp began to burn out. The light in the room began to fade as Buizel sunk deeper and deeper.
“It’s- it’s getting harder to breathe-“ Buizel gasped for air as Sneasel uselessly pulled on his arm.
The light burnt out, and Buizel was gone.