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Description
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Team Name | Team Fraxinella
Guild Affiliation | Adventurers
Rank | Beedrill

FIRST TEAMMATE
Liv | Deerling
Female | Serene Grace
Timid | Quick to flee
Double Kick | Leech Seed | Sand-Attack | Faint Attack
Red Bandana

SECOND TEAMMATE
Silas | Chimchar
Male | Blaze
Bold | Proud of its’ power
Flame Wheel | Leer | Fury Swipes | Ember
Green Bandana

“Come on, Liv, you’re falling behind!”

“I-I’m doing my best, Silas!” the Deerling called out, her lanky limbs sprinting towards the Chimchar. Silas flashed his trademark grin at his friend’s attempts to keep up with him.

“If you don’t hurry, you’re gonna stay stuck in the village forever!” he teased, dashing up the first of what he assumed to be many grassy green hills in their path. It was the marker of where the tiny civilization ended and where the wilderness began. Try as he might, though, Silas was no match for Liv’s sprint, and she caught up to him quickly. The Deerling beamed at him.

“What was that about getting stuck in the village forever?” she giggled. Silas huffed and rolled his eyes at his friend’s faux haughtiness. He couldn’t resist poking fun at her, so it was only fair that he got a taste of his own medicine on an occasion. The two friends scaled the hill, and upon reaching the top. Their reactions mirrored each other.

“Wow…” Silas whispered, gazing at the landscape that lay before them. Hills, valleys, even craggy rocks and caves lay all within their view. Was this all just within a few steps of their village? It was breathtaking. The whole world was out there, and it was theirs to explore. Silas couldn’t wait to see what the world held for them. As such, he began to dash down the hill and into the valley below. “Liv, hurry up! We’re not getting any younger!”

Though Liv felt excited, much like Silas, fear gripped her heart in its’ icy claws. They had never left the confines of their village before. Now here they were, thrusting themselves into an unfamiliar world. Liv knew that the world that stretched ahead of them wouldn’t be safe. Feral Pokémon roamed everywhere these days. The likelihood they would survive an attack unscathed was slim. She began to question her decision to travel with Silas as she ambled down the hill after him. Was this really a good idea?

“Liv!” Silas shouted, snapping the Deerling out of her thoughts. “What’s the hold up? You’re taking forever!”

“I-I’m coming!” Liv stammered as her clumsy hooves struggled to find proper footing on the slope. Finally, the two reached the bottom of the valley, where the grass and wildflowers grew wild. The grass tickled their legs, and many of the flowers were the same ones that grew in the outskirts of the village. But these flowers grew in enormous clumps, carpeting the valley in blue, violet, and red. It was beautiful, Silas thought, but Liv still seemed preoccupied with something. Silas looked up at his taller friend, his brow raised. Was she reconsidering her decision? If she did, he wasn’t sure he could stick with his decision either. Sure, he could be reckless and a little thick-headed, but Silas wasn’t stupid. Even though he was strong on his own, he couldn’t make it without Liv. She wasn’t strong by herself, but she could see around corners that he couldn't see himself. The wilderness wasn’t a place for stupid folks.

“Are you thinking of going back?” Silas asked, a hint of concern in his voice. He had gone through a lot to convince their parents to go on this journey. The last thing he wanted was to waste this golden opportunity, but he couldn’t force her to go along with him. Liv chewed on her bottom lip, a telltale sign she was anxious.

“Kind of…” she admitted sheepishly. “I don’t think we thought this through before we did it,”

Silas sighed. He hated when she was right. They were both so excited that they hadn’t really planned on how long they would be gone or where they were going. They didn’t even have a map. It wouldn’t be hard to get lost. “You’re right,” he agreed begrudgingly. “We didn’t really think it through, but why should we stop now?” He began to perk up for his friend’s sake. Maybe she would feel more enthusiastic if he was enthusiastic too. “We’ve already passed the first hill. If we went back now, we’d look like a bunch of cowards. You wanna see the world just as much as I do, right?”

“Well, yes, but—“

“So don’t worry about it!” Silas interrupted. “If other Pokémon can do it, then so can we,”

“But Silas, I am a coward,” Liv sighed. “And we’re not other Pokémon. Maybe you can do this, but I don’t think I’m cut out for it,”

“Oh, don’t give me that crap!” Silas shouted. Nothing made him more furious than when Liv put herself down. “You’re not a coward! You only think you are! I’ve seen what you can do. You were brave enough to rescue me from that huge tree when we were little, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but—“

“You were brave enough to take the fall for me when I ate a big chunk of the village’s crops, weren’t you?”

“I was, but—“

“And you were brave enough to fight off those bullies with me, weren’t you?”

“Yes, Silas, but I—“

“So that proves my point!” Silas exclaimed. “You’re braver than you think you are, and besides, how do you know that you can’t do this unless you try? Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me to try new things, even if I think they’re stupid?”

“I…I guess so…” Liv mumbled, looking down at her hooves. Silas was right, but she still didn’t think she was brave enough to go on a journey as big as this. The only way she could be brave was if Silas was there to support her…but Silas was with her. He was the reason she had agreed to leave home. If Silas was by her side, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she was making it out to be. “Maybe you’re right…maybe I’m just being paranoid for no reason,”

“Of course I’m right!” the Chimchar beamed, puffing his chest out. “Now quit overthinking things and come on!” He began to amble away from the Deerling, when suddenly, he felt the scruff of his neck caught between a set of teeth. Liv dragged him back to her and plopped him at her feet.

“Hold on, mister,” she huffed when she finally relinquished him. “I know I might be overthinking things, but don’t you think we should at least think about where to go first?” Silas huffed and sat on the ground, his elbow resting on his knee so his hand could act as a rest for his chin. He pouted—again, he hated it when she was right. He wasn’t really sure where they should go. They’d never gone outside of the village before, so he wasn’t sure what was close by. Were there any other towns outside their village? Or would they be walking aimlessly for miles, unsure of where they were?

“I don’t really know,” he groaned, rolling his eyes up to look at his friend. “Do you know if there are any other towns around here?” Liv thought about it for a moment, only to come to the conclusion that she was just as stumped as he was.

“I don’t know either,” she admitted. “I did see some caves on the horizon, though. Maybe we’ll find some civilized folks there who could point us in the right direction?” Silas hopped up on his feet.

“It’s better than nothing, I guess,” he agreed. “To the caves we go!”

It had been weeks since the two friends had seen their home. Together, they had traversed the hilly grasslands, surviving off of wild berries. With Liv's intelligence and Silas's confidence, the duo finally reached the caves. When they finally reached the plateaus, they had searched for some fellow travelers. Sadly, it seemed as if few travelers came up this way. Thankfully, Silas’s confidence kept Liv from giving up.

“So, we made it up here,” Liv remarked, gazing at the land from the top of the cliffs. “But it looks like it was a total bust…”

“I wouldn’t say that!” Silas assured her as he poked his head into the mouth of a cave. “We didn’t come up here for nothing. Check out this kooky cave!”

“You’ve said that about every cave we’ve seen so far,” she chuckled. Her dark eyes scanned the lower lands. After gazing down at a carpet of evergreen trees, Liv was beginning to feel quite discouraged. Had her guidance only gotten them more lost? If that was the case, how were they going to make it back? Just as she was about to turn to ask Silas if they should turn back, an unusual sight caught her eye. Those strange domes further to the west…were they tents or buildings of some sort? Could that be a civilization? Oh, she had to tell Silas—

“No, I mean it this time,” Silas huffed, interrupting Liv’s train of thought again. “It’s like it’s pulling me in. I wanna take a look inside,”

“Wait, I just—“

“Aw, come on!” the Chimchar whined. “It’s only a cave. It couldn’t hurt to just take a peek,” Liv sighed. He was right, it couldn’t hurt to take just a short look inside. Then he would be satisfied, and she could tell him about the civilization she thought she saw.

“Okay, okay, just a peek,” she sighed, submitting to her friend’s will. Almost immediately, Silas lit up with joy and began to scramble his way into the cave. Liv cautiously followed behind, relying on the light from his tail to illuminate her way. He hadn’t been wrong, that was certain. There was a certain quality to this cave that pulled her in. More than that was the strange feeling she got walking further inside. For some reason, everything about the cave felt off in a way she couldn’t describe. It felt as if she was in a dream. Finally, they reached a more open space as opposed to the narrow passageway they had entered. Still unable to shake the dream-like feeling, Liv stepped to the side of Silas.

“Do you feel kind of…weird?” he asked her in a soft voice, which was unusual for him. He hasn’t ever been one for inside voices. If he was whispering, something was up.
“Yeah, I do,” Liv replied, looking around the room they’d entered. “I don’t think it’s just us, though. Look at the ground…don’t you think there should be some stalagmites?”

“Stalag-a-whats?”

“Stalagmites. They’re the pillars of rock that stick up out of a cave floor,”

“Yeah, the floor looks flat, like a lot of Pokémon have been here before us,” Silas agreed. “Here I thought all that reading was useless,” Liv frowned at his comment, but shook it off. He wasn't interested in reading anyways. Liv learned a lot without any kind of formal education thanks to the books her parents kept. Silas moved forward to find two different passages leading deeper into the cave. “Which one do you want to take?”

“Neither!” Liv exclaimed. “You said that we were just going to peek! We’ve peeked, now let’s get out of here. This place is starting to mess with me,”

“Just a little further…” Silas mumbled to himself, as he walked on without her. Even though she wanted to leave, she couldn’t just abandon her friend. She bolted after him, stumbling over a few stray rocks.

“Silas, we can’t stay here,” she hissed, leaning close so he could hear her better.

“I know, I know,” he groaned. “But it’s not like we’re going much farther from the entrance. I just want to see what this place is,” Liv sighed heavily, looking around at the walls that were lit up by his fire. The geometry of this cave was rigid, she thought. Usually, caves were lumpy and oddly shaped. This place felt more like a building. When they reached the next room, Silas and Liv gazed around, puzzled. They were both thinking it—This place is too building like for it to be a normal cave. What’s wrong with this place? Then, finally, Liv figured out what felt so wrong. Yelping a little when the flat ground gave way to a step, Liv gazed down and realized that she was standing on stairs.

“Silas!” she gasped, retracting from the stairs. “We have to get out of here!” Silas jolted at the sound of his friend’s panic and rushed over to her.

“Why, what’s wrong? What happened?” he asked frantically.

“This is a Mystery Dungeon!” Liv stammered, trying to back towards the way they had come.

“A Mystery Dungeon?” Silas asked, his eyes growing wide with excitement. “You mean one of those places that changes every time you enter it? The ones that could be chock full of treasures and mysteries?!” His gaze shifted towards the stairs. “We can’t pass up an opportunity like this! We’ve gotta explore it! Who knows what we’ll find down there!”

“Exactly!” Liv cried. “That’s why we have to leave right now!”

“Liv, think about it—we could be the first Pokémon to ever see this place! We could discover things that nobody’s ever seen before. We have to see what’s down there!” Silas cried back. Liv knew that if she didn’t say something convincing that Silas would talk her into it anyway. She had to think about the situation from his point of view and talk him out of it. Her panicked demeanor relaxed and faded into a more anxious one.

“W-Well, maybe…but we don’t know how many floors this place is,” she started. That caught Silas's attention. Was she interested in exploring this place too?

“Yeah, but—“

“Hear me out,” Liv interrupted. “We don’t know how deep this goes. We’re totally unprepared. We don’t even have a map to mark this place down on. How could anybody ever believe we discovered this place if we can’t point it out to them?” The Chimchar’s excited demeanor began to droop. Again, she was right. They would definitely need adventuring supplies to get further into the dungeon. He crossed his arms and frowned.

“You’re right,” he groaned. “At least, we’d need a way to haul any treasures we find out of here,” he grumbled. He started trotting towards the way they had come. “Man, this sucks. I wanted to explore…” Silas whined. Liv followed behind him, relieved she’d managed to talk him out of his reckless idea.

“I want to explore too,” she told him, though she didn’t expect him to believe her. “But we can’t explore if we’re not prepared. Like you said, we don’t know what could be down there. We'd get flattened if there were boss Pokémon,” This only elicited another groan out of Silas.

“I know,” he whined as they finally exited the dungeon. “Where are we gonna get the gear, though? We haven’t seen a town in weeks,” Liv perked up, her ears standing up more than usual. The place she’d seen to the west might be their answer!

“Come look over here,” she urged, trotting to the edge of the cliff. Silas followed behind her and surveyed the land below them.

“All I see is a forest. That’s where we came from,” he grumbled.

“No, no, not there,” Liv said, using her nose to push his head in the direction she was looking in. “See all those domes? I think that might be a town,” Silas craned his body forward and squinted, trying to get a better view.

“You mean those little specks in the distance? Are you sure they’re not just weird hills?”

“They might be,” she admitted. “But we won’t know what they are unless we check it out, right?”

“Now you’re starting to sound like me,” Silas teased, his grin finally returning. “I guess it couldn’t hurt. After all, we’ve come this far. Let’s go!”

Climbing down the cliffs had been no easy task. In fact, Liv was convinced that climbing down the cliffs had been harder than scaling them. The paths that led down the cliff side had been even narrower than before. Still, she had managed to get down to flat land with Silas in tow. In fact, it was often Silas who helped her push on down the cliff, despite being on her back the entire time. He had a better idea of what rocks looked less reliable and which avenues she should take to get down faster. Once they had reached the bottom of the cliff, they resumed traveling as usual. Only this time, the mountainous and craggy landscape didn’t offer them much food. The berries they found were often overripe and small. For the first time in their lives, they were hungry.

After venturing west for a week, they came upon the place Liv had spotted—a settlement. Much to the duo’s delight, the place had turned out to be a thriving settlement. Pokémon of all kinds were roaming around, chatting, and bargaining. It was a much bigger place than either of them had ever been. Silas was star-struck. Liv was anxious as always. Still, they were both grateful to see civilization after traversing the wild for so long.

“Check this place out,” Silas gawked, breathless. “I’ve never seen so many Pokémon in one place at a time!” Liv, who carried him upon her back, surveyed the area as well. It was true, Liv hadn’t ever seen this many Pokémon at once. Their village was tiny, with at most five families living in one small clearing.

“I wonder if there’s anywhere we can eat,” Liv mused to herself. It had been a while since they had come across some food, so her first thought was to fill their bellies. As Silas stood up to get a better view, he found Pokémon migrating towards a Skuntank shaped stand. It looked like some sort of kitchen to him. He tapped on Liv’s head and pointed towards said stand.

“Let’s try over there,” he suggested. Liv nodded and trotted in the direction he pointed. As they approached the stand, the aroma of soup wafted towards them. Their stomachs rumbled in unison. The Deerling sped up, almost tripping over her hooves as she entered the line. She noticed that a lot of these Pokémon were wearing colorful scarves and carried bags with them. What could those mean?

“How can I help you?” a heavily accented voice asked. Liv looked up at the source of the voice—a Skuntank. Before she could open her mouth to say anything, Silas answered for her.

“Two bowls of soup, please!” The Skuntank nodded and dipped his ladle into a large metal pot with one paw while his other grabbed two bowls.

“Haven’t seen you two around here,” he commented. “Are you new to a guild or something?” Liv and Silas raised their brows.

“A guild?” Silas asked. “Dunno what that is. We’re just here to eat up and get some adventuring supplies! We found this cool cave a few weeks ago that turned out to be a Mystery Dungeon, and we wanna explore it!” The Skuntank chuckled and started to fill their bowls with soup.

“You should look into a guild if that’s what you’re after,” he told them. “The Adventurers sound like a good fit for you. I hear you get to do all kinds of exploring there,” Silas’s eyes grew wide and gleamed with excitement. Liv hummed to herself. That did sound exciting, but she wasn’t too sure about it. She didn’t know anything about guilds. What if they weren’t good enough to join? What if the Pokémon there thought they were a big joke?

“Where do we sign up?” Silas blurted out as he took the bowls of soup.

“Adventurers’ base is the Joltik shaped building. You probably saw it when you walked in. I’d suggest talking to the Guildmasters there,” the Skuntank said.

“We will!” Silas exclaimed. “Oh, and thanks for the grub!”

“Any time,” the Skuntank replied, a grin on his face as the duo made their way to a table. Silas climbed off of Liv and onto the table, where he sat the soup in front of her.

“Adventurers. Even the name sounds exciting, don’t you think?” the Chimchar sighed as he took the spoon from his bowl and started eating. Liv craned her neck down and began lapping up her own meal, but she didn’t feel quite as enthusiastic as Silas. Her doubts still clouded her vision. “Liv?”

“Yeah…but are you sure about this?” the Deerling asked. “We don’t know anything about what a guild is. And what about these guildmasters? What if they’re mean, or they laugh at us when we try to join?”

“You’re overthinking again,” Silas sighed. “This is like when we were first leaving. You’ve got to at least try. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just buy some supplies and do it on our own!” Despite all her misgivings, Silas was right. She would have to try before condemning the idea altogether.

“All right. We’ll check it out after we’re done eating,”

After their bellies were full, the two thanked the Skuntank once more before heading off. Liv felt her anxiety grow as the Joltik shaped building grew nearer and nearer. All the ways that their interaction with the guildmasters could go wrong began to crop up in her mind. Silas leapt off of Liv’s back to rush towards the building. This resulted in the Deerling sprinting towards him to try and keep up. In the end, they ended up practically falling through the front door.

“Oh goodness, are you two all right?” a small voice piped up. Liv, who had collapsed with all four of her limbs splayed out, gazed downwards to see a Joltik. Silas, who had fallen on top of Liv, perked up immediately.

“Are you one of the Adventurers’ guildmasters?” he blurted out. “We wanna join!”

“Silas!” Liv cried, scrambling up from her place on the floor. “I’m sorry about my friend, he’s just a little reckless,” The Joltik looked up at the two.

“Oh gracious, you get right to the point, don’t you?” he chortled. “No need to apologize, miss. I am one of the guildmasters here. My name is Canopus,”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Canopus,” Liv greeted, her voice becoming meeker. “My name is—“

“I’m Silas!” the Chimchar interrupted. “And she’s Liv. So, what do you say? Can we join?” Liv swallowed, terrified that they were being too upfront about their approach.

“U-Um, what he means is that we’d like to join your guild,” she stammered. “We would work hard to earn our keep, but we understand if you aren’t looking for new applicants at the moment,”

“Liv, was it?” Canopus asked. “There’s no need to be so nervous. I promise I don’t bite!” The Joltik paused to laugh a little bit at their wildly juxtaposing personalities. “We’d be more than happy to have you. Of course, you’d have to fill out some forms first. Official rules, you know. If you’ll just follow me, we’ll get you two signed up,” Liv nodded, following him as instructed.

The duo followed the Joltik further into the building. Eventually, they arrived in the guildmasters' office. Standing behind the desk was a towering Flygon. His presence caused Liv to shrink in fear and Silas to stretch up to get a better view of him.

“Something wrong?” Canopus asked, noticing Liv’s fearful reaction. “Ezekial! We have two new Pokémon who want to join our guild!” The Flygon turned to look down at the three of them.

“Hmm?” he spoke, sizing up the two friends. “All right. Let me get the forms,” He ducked underneath the desk and rose to plop a stack of papers there along with a pen. “Be sure to fill everything out as thoroughly as you can,” Liv looked up at Silas and inched closer to the desk.

“You’ll have to fill this stuff out,” she whispered. “You know…hooves,”

“I know, no sweat!” Silas exclaimed, grabbing the pen and starting to fill out the various parts of the form. After about sixteen minutes of writing, the form was completely filled out. The guildmasters began to read over the form, checking to see if all the proper areas had been filled out. A little while later, Canopus beamed up at the two of them.

“Well, Team Fraxinella, welcome to the Adventurers!” he chirped cheerfully.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Team Name | Team Fraxinella
Guild Affiliation | Adventurers
Rank | Beedrill

FIRST TEAMMATE
Liv | Deerling
Female | Serene Grace
Timid | Quick to flee
Double Kick | Leech Seed | Sand-Attack | Faint Attack
Red Bandana

SECOND TEAMMATE
Silas | Chimchar
Male | Blaze
Bold | Proud of its’ power
Flame Wheel | Leer | Fury Swipes | Ember
Green Bandana

“Come on, Liv, you’re falling behind!”

“I-I’m doing my best, Silas!” the Deerling called out, her lanky limbs sprinting towards the Chimchar. Silas flashed his trademark grin at his friend’s attempts to keep up with him.

“If you don’t hurry, you’re gonna stay stuck in the village forever!” he teased, dashing up the first of what he assumed to be many grassy green hills in their path. It was the marker of where the tiny civilization ended and where the wilderness began. Try as he might, though, Silas was no match for Liv’s sprint, and she caught up to him quickly. The Deerling beamed at him.

“What was that about getting stuck in the village forever?” she giggled. Silas huffed and rolled his eyes at his friend’s faux haughtiness. He couldn’t resist poking fun at her, so it was only fair that he got a taste of his own medicine on an occasion. The two friends scaled the hill, and upon reaching the top. Their reactions mirrored each other.

“Wow…” Silas whispered, gazing at the landscape that lay before them. Hills, valleys, even craggy rocks and caves lay all within their view. Was this all just within a few steps of their village? It was breathtaking. The whole world was out there, and it was theirs to explore. Silas couldn’t wait to see what the world held for them. As such, he began to dash down the hill and into the valley below. “Liv, hurry up! We’re not getting any younger!”

Though Liv felt excited, much like Silas, fear gripped her heart in its’ icy claws. They had never left the confines of their village before. Now here they were, thrusting themselves into an unfamiliar world. Liv knew that the world that stretched ahead of them wouldn’t be safe. Feral Pokémon roamed everywhere these days. The likelihood they would survive an attack unscathed was slim. She began to question her decision to travel with Silas as she ambled down the hill after him. Was this really a good idea?

“Liv!” Silas shouted, snapping the Deerling out of her thoughts. “What’s the hold up? You’re taking forever!”

“I-I’m coming!” Liv stammered as her clumsy hooves struggled to find proper footing on the slope. Finally, the two reached the bottom of the valley, where the grass and wildflowers grew wild. The grass tickled their legs, and many of the flowers were the same ones that grew in the outskirts of the village. But these flowers grew in enormous clumps, carpeting the valley in blue, violet, and red. It was beautiful, Silas thought, but Liv still seemed preoccupied with something. Silas looked up at his taller friend, his brow raised. Was she reconsidering her decision? If she did, he wasn’t sure he could stick with his decision either. Sure, he could be reckless and a little thick-headed, but Silas wasn’t stupid. Even though he was strong on his own, he couldn’t make it without Liv. She wasn’t strong by herself, but she could see around corners that he couldn't see himself. The wilderness wasn’t a place for stupid folks.

“Are you thinking of going back?” Silas asked, a hint of concern in his voice. He had gone through a lot to convince their parents to go on this journey. The last thing he wanted was to waste this golden opportunity, but he couldn’t force her to go along with him. Liv chewed on her bottom lip, a telltale sign she was anxious.

“Kind of…” she admitted sheepishly. “I don’t think we thought this through before we did it,”

Silas sighed. He hated when she was right. They were both so excited that they hadn’t really planned on how long they would be gone or where they were going. They didn’t even have a map. It wouldn’t be hard to get lost. “You’re right,” he agreed begrudgingly. “We didn’t really think it through, but why should we stop now?” He began to perk up for his friend’s sake. Maybe she would feel more enthusiastic if he was enthusiastic too. “We’ve already passed the first hill. If we went back now, we’d look like a bunch of cowards. You wanna see the world just as much as I do, right?”

“Well, yes, but—“

“So don’t worry about it!” Silas interrupted. “If other Pokémon can do it, then so can we,”

“But Silas, I am a coward,” Liv sighed. “And we’re not other Pokémon. Maybe you can do this, but I don’t think I’m cut out for it,”

“Oh, don’t give me that crap!” Silas shouted. Nothing made him more furious than when Liv put herself down. “You’re not a coward! You only think you are! I’ve seen what you can do. You were brave enough to rescue me from that huge tree when we were little, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but—“

“You were brave enough to take the fall for me when I ate a big chunk of the village’s crops, weren’t you?”

“I was, but—“

“And you were brave enough to fight off those bullies with me, weren’t you?”

“Yes, Silas, but I—“

“So that proves my point!” Silas exclaimed. “You’re braver than you think you are, and besides, how do you know that you can’t do this unless you try? Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me to try new things, even if I think they’re stupid?”

“I…I guess so…” Liv mumbled, looking down at her hooves. Silas was right, but she still didn’t think she was brave enough to go on a journey as big as this. The only way she could be brave was if Silas was there to support her…but Silas was with her. He was the reason she had agreed to leave home. If Silas was by her side, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she was making it out to be. “Maybe you’re right…maybe I’m just being paranoid for no reason,”

“Of course I’m right!” the Chimchar beamed, puffing his chest out. “Now quit overthinking things and come on!” He began to amble away from the Deerling, when suddenly, he felt the scruff of his neck caught between a set of teeth. Liv dragged him back to her and plopped him at her feet.

“Hold on, mister,” she huffed when she finally relinquished him. “I know I might be overthinking things, but don’t you think we should at least think about where to go first?” Silas huffed and sat on the ground, his elbow resting on his knee so his hand could act as a rest for his chin. He pouted—again, he hated it when she was right. He wasn’t really sure where they should go. They’d never gone outside of the village before, so he wasn’t sure what was close by. Were there any other towns outside their village? Or would they be walking aimlessly for miles, unsure of where they were?

“I don’t really know,” he groaned, rolling his eyes up to look at his friend. “Do you know if there are any other towns around here?” Liv thought about it for a moment, only to come to the conclusion that she was just as stumped as he was.

“I don’t know either,” she admitted. “I did see some caves on the horizon, though. Maybe we’ll find some civilized folks there who could point us in the right direction?” Silas hopped up on his feet.

“It’s better than nothing, I guess,” he agreed. “To the caves we go!”

It had been weeks since the two friends had seen their home. Together, they had traversed the hilly grasslands, surviving off of wild berries. With Liv's intelligence and Silas's confidence, the duo finally reached the caves. When they finally reached the plateaus, they had searched for some fellow travelers. Sadly, it seemed as if few travelers came up this way. Thankfully, Silas’s confidence kept Liv from giving up.

“So, we made it up here,” Liv remarked, gazing at the land from the top of the cliffs. “But it looks like it was a total bust…”

“I wouldn’t say that!” Silas assured her as he poked his head into the mouth of a cave. “We didn’t come up here for nothing. Check out this kooky cave!”

“You’ve said that about every cave we’ve seen so far,” she chuckled. Her dark eyes scanned the lower lands. After gazing down at a carpet of evergreen trees, Liv was beginning to feel quite discouraged. Had her guidance only gotten them more lost? If that was the case, how were they going to make it back? Just as she was about to turn to ask Silas if they should turn back, an unusual sight caught her eye. Those strange domes further to the west…were they tents or buildings of some sort? Could that be a civilization? Oh, she had to tell Silas—

“No, I mean it this time,” Silas huffed, interrupting Liv’s train of thought again. “It’s like it’s pulling me in. I wanna take a look inside,”

“Wait, I just—“

“Aw, come on!” the Chimchar whined. “It’s only a cave. It couldn’t hurt to just take a peek,” Liv sighed. He was right, it couldn’t hurt to take just a short look inside. Then he would be satisfied, and she could tell him about the civilization she thought she saw.

“Okay, okay, just a peek,” she sighed, submitting to her friend’s will. Almost immediately, Silas lit up with joy and began to scramble his way into the cave. Liv cautiously followed behind, relying on the light from his tail to illuminate her way. He hadn’t been wrong, that was certain. There was a certain quality to this cave that pulled her in. More than that was the strange feeling she got walking further inside. For some reason, everything about the cave felt off in a way she couldn’t describe. It felt as if she was in a dream. Finally, they reached a more open space as opposed to the narrow passageway they had entered. Still unable to shake the dream-like feeling, Liv stepped to the side of Silas.

“Do you feel kind of…weird?” he asked her in a soft voice, which was unusual for him. He hasn’t ever been one for inside voices. If he was whispering, something was up.
“Yeah, I do,” Liv replied, looking around the room they’d entered. “I don’t think it’s just us, though. Look at the ground…don’t you think there should be some stalagmites?”

“Stalag-a-whats?”

“Stalagmites. They’re the pillars of rock that stick up out of a cave floor,”

“Yeah, the floor looks flat, like a lot of Pokémon have been here before us,” Silas agreed. “Here I thought all that reading was useless,” Liv frowned at his comment, but shook it off. He wasn't interested in reading anyways. Liv learned a lot without any kind of formal education thanks to the books her parents kept. Silas moved forward to find two different passages leading deeper into the cave. “Which one do you want to take?”

“Neither!” Liv exclaimed. “You said that we were just going to peek! We’ve peeked, now let’s get out of here. This place is starting to mess with me,”

“Just a little further…” Silas mumbled to himself, as he walked on without her. Even though she wanted to leave, she couldn’t just abandon her friend. She bolted after him, stumbling over a few stray rocks.

“Silas, we can’t stay here,” she hissed, leaning close so he could hear her better.

“I know, I know,” he groaned. “But it’s not like we’re going much farther from the entrance. I just want to see what this place is,” Liv sighed heavily, looking around at the walls that were lit up by his fire. The geometry of this cave was rigid, she thought. Usually, caves were lumpy and oddly shaped. This place felt more like a building. When they reached the next room, Silas and Liv gazed around, puzzled. They were both thinking it—This place is too building like for it to be a normal cave. What’s wrong with this place? Then, finally, Liv figured out what felt so wrong. Yelping a little when the flat ground gave way to a step, Liv gazed down and realized that she was standing on stairs.

“Silas!” she gasped, retracting from the stairs. “We have to get out of here!” Silas jolted at the sound of his friend’s panic and rushed over to her.

“Why, what’s wrong? What happened?” he asked frantically.

“This is a Mystery Dungeon!” Liv stammered, trying to back towards the way they had come.

“A Mystery Dungeon?” Silas asked, his eyes growing wide with excitement. “You mean one of those places that changes every time you enter it? The ones that could be chock full of treasures and mysteries?!” His gaze shifted towards the stairs. “We can’t pass up an opportunity like this! We’ve gotta explore it! Who knows what we’ll find down there!”

“Exactly!” Liv cried. “That’s why we have to leave right now!”

“Liv, think about it—we could be the first Pokémon to ever see this place! We could discover things that nobody’s ever seen before. We have to see what’s down there!” Silas cried back. Liv knew that if she didn’t say something convincing that Silas would talk her into it anyway. She had to think about the situation from his point of view and talk him out of it. Her panicked demeanor relaxed and faded into a more anxious one.

“W-Well, maybe…but we don’t know how many floors this place is,” she started. That caught Silas's attention. Was she interested in exploring this place too?

“Yeah, but—“

“Hear me out,” Liv interrupted. “We don’t know how deep this goes. We’re totally unprepared. We don’t even have a map to mark this place down on. How could anybody ever believe we discovered this place if we can’t point it out to them?” The Chimchar’s excited demeanor began to droop. Again, she was right. They would definitely need adventuring supplies to get further into the dungeon. He crossed his arms and frowned.

“You’re right,” he groaned. “At least, we’d need a way to haul any treasures we find out of here,” he grumbled. He started trotting towards the way they had come. “Man, this sucks. I wanted to explore…” Silas whined. Liv followed behind him, relieved she’d managed to talk him out of his reckless idea.

“I want to explore too,” she told him, though she didn’t expect him to believe her. “But we can’t explore if we’re not prepared. Like you said, we don’t know what could be down there. We'd get flattened if there were boss Pokémon,” This only elicited another groan out of Silas.

“I know,” he whined as they finally exited the dungeon. “Where are we gonna get the gear, though? We haven’t seen a town in weeks,” Liv perked up, her ears standing up more than usual. The place she’d seen to the west might be their answer!

“Come look over here,” she urged, trotting to the edge of the cliff. Silas followed behind her and surveyed the land below them.

“All I see is a forest. That’s where we came from,” he grumbled.

“No, no, not there,” Liv said, using her nose to push his head in the direction she was looking in. “See all those domes? I think that might be a town,” Silas craned his body forward and squinted, trying to get a better view.

“You mean those little specks in the distance? Are you sure they’re not just weird hills?”

“They might be,” she admitted. “But we won’t know what they are unless we check it out, right?”

“Now you’re starting to sound like me,” Silas teased, his grin finally returning. “I guess it couldn’t hurt. After all, we’ve come this far. Let’s go!”

Climbing down the cliffs had been no easy task. In fact, Liv was convinced that climbing down the cliffs had been harder than scaling them. The paths that led down the cliff side had been even narrower than before. Still, she had managed to get down to flat land with Silas in tow. In fact, it was often Silas who helped her push on down the cliff, despite being on her back the entire time. He had a better idea of what rocks looked less reliable and which avenues she should take to get down faster. Once they had reached the bottom of the cliff, they resumed traveling as usual. Only this time, the mountainous and craggy landscape didn’t offer them much food. The berries they found were often overripe and small. For the first time in their lives, they were hungry.

After venturing west for a week, they came upon the place Liv had spotted—a settlement. Much to the duo’s delight, the place had turned out to be a thriving settlement. Pokémon of all kinds were roaming around, chatting, and bargaining. It was a much bigger place than either of them had ever been. Silas was star-struck. Liv was anxious as always. Still, they were both grateful to see civilization after traversing the wild for so long.

“Check this place out,” Silas gawked, breathless. “I’ve never seen so many Pokémon in one place at a time!” Liv, who carried him upon her back, surveyed the area as well. It was true, Liv hadn’t ever seen this many Pokémon at once. Their village was tiny, with at most five families living in one small clearing.

“I wonder if there’s anywhere we can eat,” Liv mused to herself. It had been a while since they had come across some food, so her first thought was to fill their bellies. As Silas stood up to get a better view, he found Pokémon migrating towards a Skuntank shaped stand. It looked like some sort of kitchen to him. He tapped on Liv’s head and pointed towards said stand.

“Let’s try over there,” he suggested. Liv nodded and trotted in the direction he pointed. As they approached the stand, the aroma of soup wafted towards them. Their stomachs rumbled in unison. The Deerling sped up, almost tripping over her hooves as she entered the line. She noticed that a lot of these Pokémon were wearing colorful scarves and carried bags with them. What could those mean?

“How can I help you?” a heavily accented voice asked. Liv looked up at the source of the voice—a Skuntank. Before she could open her mouth to say anything, Silas answered for her.

“Two bowls of soup, please!” The Skuntank nodded and dipped his ladle into a large metal pot with one paw while his other grabbed two bowls.

“Haven’t seen you two around here,” he commented. “Are you new to a guild or something?” Liv and Silas raised their brows.

“A guild?” Silas asked. “Dunno what that is. We’re just here to eat up and get some adventuring supplies! We found this cool cave a few weeks ago that turned out to be a Mystery Dungeon, and we wanna explore it!” The Skuntank chuckled and started to fill their bowls with soup.

“You should look into a guild if that’s what you’re after,” he told them. “The Adventurers sound like a good fit for you. I hear you get to do all kinds of exploring there,” Silas’s eyes grew wide and gleamed with excitement. Liv hummed to herself. That did sound exciting, but she wasn’t too sure about it. She didn’t know anything about guilds. What if they weren’t good enough to join? What if the Pokémon there thought they were a big joke?

“Where do we sign up?” Silas blurted out as he took the bowls of soup.

“Adventurers’ base is the Joltik shaped building. You probably saw it when you walked in. I’d suggest talking to the Guildmasters there,” the Skuntank said.

“We will!” Silas exclaimed. “Oh, and thanks for the grub!”

“Any time,” the Skuntank replied, a grin on his face as the duo made their way to a table. Silas climbed off of Liv and onto the table, where he sat the soup in front of her.

“Adventurers. Even the name sounds exciting, don’t you think?” the Chimchar sighed as he took the spoon from his bowl and started eating. Liv craned her neck down and began lapping up her own meal, but she didn’t feel quite as enthusiastic as Silas. Her doubts still clouded her vision. “Liv?”

“Yeah…but are you sure about this?” the Deerling asked. “We don’t know anything about what a guild is. And what about these guildmasters? What if they’re mean, or they laugh at us when we try to join?”

“You’re overthinking again,” Silas sighed. “This is like when we were first leaving. You’ve got to at least try. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just buy some supplies and do it on our own!” Despite all her misgivings, Silas was right. She would have to try before condemning the idea altogether.

“All right. We’ll check it out after we’re done eating,”

After their bellies were full, the two thanked the Skuntank once more before heading off. Liv felt her anxiety grow as the Joltik shaped building grew nearer and nearer. All the ways that their interaction with the guildmasters could go wrong began to crop up in her mind. Silas leapt off of Liv’s back to rush towards the building. This resulted in the Deerling sprinting towards him to try and keep up. In the end, they ended up practically falling through the front door.

“Oh goodness, are you two all right?” a small voice piped up. Liv, who had collapsed with all four of her limbs splayed out, gazed downwards to see a Joltik. Silas, who had fallen on top of Liv, perked up immediately.

“Are you one of the Adventurers’ guildmasters?” he blurted out. “We wanna join!”

“Silas!” Liv cried, scrambling up from her place on the floor. “I’m sorry about my friend, he’s just a little reckless,” The Joltik looked up at the two.

“Oh gracious, you get right to the point, don’t you?” he chortled. “No need to apologize, miss. I am one of the guildmasters here. My name is Canopus,”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Canopus,” Liv greeted, her voice becoming meeker. “My name is—“

“I’m Silas!” the Chimchar interrupted. “And she’s Liv. So, what do you say? Can we join?” Liv swallowed, terrified that they were being too upfront about their approach.

“U-Um, what he means is that we’d like to join your guild,” she stammered. “We would work hard to earn our keep, but we understand if you aren’t looking for new applicants at the moment,”

“Liv, was it?” Canopus asked. “There’s no need to be so nervous. I promise I don’t bite!” The Joltik paused to laugh a little bit at their wildly juxtaposing personalities. “We’d be more than happy to have you. Of course, you’d have to fill out some forms first. Official rules, you know. If you’ll just follow me, we’ll get you two signed up,” Liv nodded, following him as instructed.

The duo followed the Joltik further into the building. Eventually, they arrived in the guildmasters' office. Standing behind the desk was a towering Flygon. His presence caused Liv to shrink in fear and Silas to stretch up to get a better view of him.

“Something wrong?” Canopus asked, noticing Liv’s fearful reaction. “Ezekial! We have two new Pokémon who want to join our guild!” The Flygon turned to look down at the three of them.

“Hmm?” he spoke, sizing up the two friends. “All right. Let me get the forms,” He ducked underneath the desk and rose to plop a stack of papers there along with a pen. “Be sure to fill everything out as thoroughly as you can,” Liv looked up at Silas and inched closer to the desk.

“You’ll have to fill this stuff out,” she whispered. “You know…hooves,”

“I know, no sweat!” Silas exclaimed, grabbing the pen and starting to fill out the various parts of the form. After about sixteen minutes of writing, the form was completely filled out. The guildmasters began to read over the form, checking to see if all the proper areas had been filled out. A little while later, Canopus beamed up at the two of them.

“Well, Team Fraxinella, welcome to the Adventurers!” he chirped cheerfully.