Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was raining.

Not a gentle patter of raindrops misting the air, nor a proper storm, rain punctuated with flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder.

It was heavy, unending rainfall, beating down upon the earth. The marshes seemed to tremble beneath the weight of the heavens. Branches cracked and fell under the onslaught, blades of grass flattened, letting the pouring rain press them to the ground.

The sort of rain that beat you down into the dirt, then kept on until the dirt had turned to mud and any hope of escape had been dashed into the ground.

A girl ran through the downpour, backpack bumping with every step she took, ineffectively attempting to shield her face using a sodden hood. She slipped and fell, and for a moment just lay spread-eagle in the mud, contemplating giving up. With no shelter in sight, food a distant memory, and herself soaked to the bone, mud soaking her clothes and hair, staining her skin with reddish soil, continuing on just seemed so difficult. 

She sighed, pushed herself to her feet. Choking on mud seems an unpleasant way to die. Keep going. Go on. Even you should be able to do that. She kept going, not knowing where to, but anywhere out of the rain would do. Limbs trembling, soaked to the bone, and only able to tell if she was going in a straight line by rapidly filling footsteps in the mud trailing behind her, it seemed impossible.

She ran onwards. Head down, she stumbled forwards beneath a cloudy sky.

The marshy ground turned, gradually, to something harder. Continuing forwards, she stared downward, attempting to identify the strange new footing, and her head met rock. 

She recoiled, stumbling backwards with a sharp cry, before cutting it off. There were predators everywhere, and she had the wounds to prove it. Peering up at the obstacle through half shut eyelids, eyelashes glued together beneath the weight of the rain, she dimly recognized it as a pillar of pale stone, possibly engraved, but she couldn’t tell in the poor conditions. Feeling the pillar, if any carvings had been there, they had long since been worn down by the elements. Focus. 

Turning her attention to behind the pillar, she saw perhaps the greatest sight of her young life. 

A cave. 

And if, perhaps, some of the raindrops coursing down her face tasted of salt, then she didn’t register it.

She blinked once, then again, not quite trusting her eyes. Stumbling forwards, she ran, slipped, recovered, all the while staring fixatedly at the opening as if it would vanish the second she looked away, and somehow managed to make it into the cavern, before realizing it was, in fact, not really a cavern at all.

She stood, instead, within a rather large room. The room was made entirely from rough stone, sapping what little heat her body still possessed away. She shivered, blowing into her hands before tucking them into her still wet hoodie pocket. It was unadorned to the point of being somewhat empty, the only decoration-if one could call it that-was in the form of carvings etched deeply into a section of the wall. They looked like writing, and she almost wandered over to have a look.

If, of course, she hadn’t just noticed an elderly woman in unusual clothing-why did she think it unusual?-, beaver-Bibarel-Bibarel, and enormous bear-Ursaluna-Ursaluna-how did she know those names?-all sat around a campfire, staring at the sopping wet child who’d just barged into their area. 

She shrunk back, ducking her head and fidgeting with a sleeve of her drenched hoodie. Perhaps, she thought, if she stayed very, very still, then she’d go unnoticed. 

The old woman muttered something to the Ursaluna, lowered her backpack gently to the floor, broad leaf atop it swaying with the sudden motion, and started to hobble over, the sharp eyes set in her tanned face stern and unyielding.

The girl didn’t move. She didn’t dare to breathe, pressing her blue lips together until they turned white and keeping the stale air trapped inside her lungs until they burned and threatened to burst. Her heartbeat quickened, the sound pounding like a jackhammer.

The woman sighed. “Girl. Who are you? What’s your clan?”. She massaged her temples, unyielding face showing deepening wrinkles and displeased facial expression. 

“I-I’m Akari. I think,” she said. Registering the second question, she quickly replied. “C-clan?” she stuttered, swallowing the great lump in her throat. Her eyes darted about the room. “What… what does that mean?”

The old woman’s nostrils flared. She took a step back, gesturing to the Bibarel and pulling a knife from some hidden sheath. It gleamed in the firelight, reflecting dappled light onto the walls.

The Bibarel stepped forward and chittered, baring enormous incisors and slapping its flat tail against the ground, noise echoing off the walls.

Flinching back, Akari drew in a sharp breath. Eff.

The woman scowled, face pulled into harsh wrinkles and lines. “You think you can fool me? Everyone knows the clans. Get back, Zoroark. Back, you hear me?” She held the knife with shaky hands, but her face was certain and sure.

Akari scuttled back, pressing against the wall and crouching down. “Zoroark? I-I’m not a Zoroark! I’m real! I-I swear I’m real…” Eyes wide, she held her hands up as she frantically tried to defend herself. “P-please, it’s raining so hard. I’ll be out of here as soon as the rain stops, I swear!”

The woman suddenly jerked forwards, jabbing the knife threateningly towards her. “I won’t be fooled by your tricks. Out, now.” 

The Ursaluna nosed the old woman’s pack before plodding forwards, going at such a different pace than the confrontation occurring that Akari huffed out a surprised laugh. They froze, all intently watching the massive bear slowly make its lumbering way towards them, claws clicking menacingly against the stone floor, enormous size casting a shadow across the group as Akari gaped in terror.

The flames crackled.

A small rustling noise came from the pack, and Akari glanced over before her attention fixated once again on the shining blade pointed directly towards her.

Once it had reached them, it lumbered to a halt before shoving its great wet nose into her chest and snuffling a few times. Akari froze, going still as a statue. Seemingly satisfied by something, it huffed before lying down directly next to her.

Her breath caught at the sudden proximity to the massive predator, and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Akari started to edge further away, eyeing the enormous claws topping the equally sized paws, spittle dripping from gaping jaws, and said jaws containing ivory teeth the size of her finger. 

Oh god oh no-she quashed the thought before it could spiral into a full panic attack, quickening her escape, teeth biting into her cheek in her attempt not to scream. She inched away one excruciating moment at a time, wishing desperately to be anywhere else. Her thoughts raced, and her body seemed to move slower than ever before. 

The woman sighed, scowling at Akari before begrudgingly sheathing her knife. “Move much more and you’ll wake him,” she said. 

Akari froze, her body locked in an awkward crouch. She quirked an eyebrow, surprised at the sudden change in tone. 

The old woman gestured to the Bibarel, calming it with a word. “I still think you’re a Zoroark. But… well, Ursaluna seems to accept you. And he’s not one to be easily fooled. Hmph.” She smoothed her pale pink kimono, sharp eyes staring in disapproval. “I’m Calaba. Warden Calaba to you.” 

Warden Calaba turned to the opening, peering out into the pouring rain. “Be on your way as soon as this lets up,” she declared before trudging back to her previous corner of the room and hefting her backpack again, murmuring soft words to it.

Akari shuddered at the near escape, slumping against the nearby wall in relief. Her backpack cushioned the blow, keeping her from slamming into the hard rock. Her breathing slowed, some tension leaving her body. Now, all she had to do was get farther away from the massive creature asleep a few feet away. Pokémon. It’s a Pokémon. Fine then, the Pokémon asleep a few feet away. Taking a moment or few to gather her courage-wait. What if it bites me? What if it kills-Akari started to crawl away, all the while under the intense scrutiny of the warden.

After getting about an arm’s length away, Akari started moving faster, before freezing in terror as she accidentally kicked a small pebble. The Ursaluna’s eyes opened, eying her with mild exasperation before adjusting his position, claws scraping against the stone, and returning to slumber. She let out a sigh of relief, nearly collapsing to the stone. 

Continuing to move, she eventually made her way to an unoccupied corner before huddling in it and taking stock of the situation. She slipped her bag off her shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. 

All right. She was in a cave. There was a woman with a knife, a beaver with disturbingly sharp teeth, and an enormous bear in the cave with her. Everything was fine. Akari eyed the others, nervously biting the inside of her cheek. 

She shivered, and suddenly became aware of the absolute state she was in. Clothes sodden, hoodie, pants, hair, and skin all stained reddish brown with streaks of muck. Mud, wet and slimy against her skin, almost dried patches chalky and grainy, the texture disgusting against her skin. Hair changed from its natural grey to the same brownish colour, dripping rivulets of water down her back and face. Oh, god. Look on the bright side, Akari, at least it’s short and isn’t getting in your face? No, no no no. No bright side. 

Her heartbeat quickened, the frantic thumping rattling her ribs, and she began to hyperventilate, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to ignore the horrible sensation. She shrank back against the wall, not wanting to draw attention to herself but 

She started trying to scrape the grime off of herself, but to no avail. In the heat of the campfire, more and more mud began to dry, the slimy texture replaced with dust and grit, rubbing at her skin. Dried mud was far harder to remove, and all Akari’s efforts accomplished was getting the dried clay into her lungs. 

Doubling over as hacking coughs racked her body, Akari’s harsh breathing rattled her body, hands trembling. Right. That’s absolutely it-get this off get it off getitoff-Akari began to rip her clothing frantically off, only remembering not to remove the shirt and pants at the scandalized gasp of Warden Calaba. 

Picking the clothes up, she rushed into the rain, scrubbing furiously at her hair, her skin, her clothing, making sure to keep anything from touching the marshy ground. The rain pounded down on her, hard enough to hurt a little, but the water washed away the filth that clung to her body. Rubbing away the muck to reveal pale skin, Akari grimaced at the inability to remove it from her clothing, now stained a permanent brownish red.

Running back into the shelter, Akari ignored Warden Calaba’s muttering and slunk to her corner. She squeezed out her damp clothing before walking slowly closer to the warden’s campfire, clothing bundled under one arm and hands held open. Akari wordlessly gestured to her sodden bundle, and Calaba sighed before patting the ground next to her. After depositing the hoodie Akari retreated to her corner and pack, unable to dry her boots or other clothing and both unwilling and unable to rest near the campfire.

Crouching down to rest her legs next to the puddle her clothes had left, she carefully observed the other inhabitants, particularly wary of Warden Calaba, who’d already pulled a knife on her once. Akari wouldn’t let her do it again.

The warden had sat down with her Bibarel and backpack, keeping a close eye on Akari while murmuring soft words to them. Ursaluna had rolled over yet again, proving to be quite a light sleeper.

Akari sat back against her backpack, periodically pinching her thigh to keep herself awake. She’d run through the night, and everyone knew that was extremely helpful when one wanted to stay awake because one was stuck in a room with a massive bear. 

Unfortunately, although the room was cold and it wasn’t helped by her current lack of hoodie or any dry clothing, Akari’s eyes drifted shut against her will, and she fell asleep to the curious sight of Warden Calaba’s backpack seeming to tip over by itself.

Akari didn’t know if she liked waking up or not. What she did know, however, was that she quite disliked waking up to being prodded insistently with a strangely squishy stick. The stick was furry and soft, with little sharp bits on the end which kept poking Akari in the stomach. 

Cracking open an eyelid, she remembered the events of the previous day and jolted awake, banging her head against the wall as she did so. As she yelped and cradled her head in her hands, she blinked away the sleep from her eyes and stared at the object of her irritation.

It was, in fact, not a squishy stick. 

Orange fur, thick and creamy, covered small paws which held her still damp, but drastically improved clothing. A softly glowing crescent moon marking adorned the rounded face of a Teddiursa cub, claws pricking through the fabric of Akari’s clothing as it patiently continued to hold it out for her.

Chapter Text

Akari squinted at the glowing mark, knowing something was missing, but she didn’t quite know what. Her gaze fell to the cub’s face, a small stain of honey around its muzzle. Oh. If it finds honey, its crescent mark glows. It alwa-Her head pounded. She ignored it, glancing between the clothes in her hands, the Teddiursa, crescent mark still faintly glowing, and back again. 

Akari chuckled, held her hands out to accept the clothing. “It’s not honey. I know that you know that.” 

The Teddiursa chuffed, smiling coyly and hiding its mouth behind one dainty paw. 

She smiled, pleased to find something welcoming in the inhospitable place. Pulling the hoodie on, she luxuriated in the marvelous feeling of warmth, cotton fleece soft against her skin. Even the inability to get the new reddish brown colour out of the fabric wasn’t quite as bad as it had seemed the previous day.

Looking around at her surroundings, the warden’s campfire had been burnt down to ashes, and all of the others either had fallen or were still asleep. Akari let out a sigh of relief. It looked like she’d be able to get out before they awoke, which she absolutely intended to do. 

Calaba’s backpack was still open, and upon further inspection by way of standing up and jumping a few times, just to get a glimpse in, Akari deduced that the pack was filled with plants, with a conspicuously bear-shaped dent in the centre. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be in there?” she asked, pointing to the pack sitting on the floor. “If she wakes up, she’ll think I’ve stolen you-or something like that,” she said. “And she’s got a knife. I am in very real danger of being stabbed here, and-hey. Stop laughing, you’re just laughing at me! It's rude to laugh at victims, you know.”

Indeed, the Teddiursa was quietly smirking, the smile creeping out from behind a solemn facade. It looked her up and down before pointing at her pack and cocking its head. 

“I’m not sure what’s in there, sorry. I can check now if you want?” She flipped the top open and took a peek inside, dismayed by there only being a single item within.

It was a strange white rectangle, on a gold ring, emerald green button beneath a black screen. Akari picked it up, holding it away from her face as a defensive measure against potential spontaneous combustion. She inspected it carefully, not quite sure what it-arc phone-was. She moaned, head racked with waves of dizzying pain. Akari curled up into a ball, gently cradling her head with her free hand until the throbbing ceased.

The Teddiursa laid its paw on her arm. It was soft, the experience much better when she wasn’t waking from sleep. She looked up, the small bear seeming to tower over her from her position on the floor. It met her gaze, looking solemnly back as it continued to gently pat her on the arm. The bear cub hissed at the… arc phone still clutched in her right hand, trying to bat at it before she pulled it away.

It stared at her balefully, huffing a short breath.

Akari shrugged. “It wasn’t the phone’s fault, it was mine. Besides, it might do something useful.”

It grunted, before suddenly its face went carefully blank. Wordlessly holding its paws out for the arc phone, it whined a little.

Akari considered it. Well, it had seemed to accept her statement that the phone hadn’t done anything wrong. Considering it a moment more, she eventually handed it over.

Once the Teddiursa got its paws on the phone, it solemnly knelt before her, crescent mark glowing, presenting it like a knight might present something to their liege lord. Offering it up, it cracked a faint smile, unable to hide the facial expression with both paws occupied.

Akari gave a small smile, the most she could muster at the moment.

“You do know you’re a bear, right? How are you apparently unable to know what is and what isn’t honey?” 

It just pointed to the golden ring the phone was set on, poking it and having its marking start to glow. Hiding its mouth behind a paw, it was free to crack all the smiles it wanted with Akari none the wiser. 

Well, she could always guess that it was doing that, but innocent until proven guilty, Akari supposed.

She sat up, the Teddiursa’s paw in one hand, and the arc phone in the other. She paused. “I’m sorry, I’ve just realized I’ve just been thinking of you as ‘the Teddiursa’. I’m Akari, and you?”

It rolled its eyes, dropped her hand, and trotted casually towards the warden, claws clicking gently against the stone. 

Akari held in a small gasp, one hand fidgeting in her lap as she stared, unable to look away. She watched it clamber into the pack before emerging with its prize, a knobbly little brown thing, so small that the Teddiursa could hold it in just one paw. 

Waddling over to her, it held the brown thing out and dropped it into her hand, seemingly waiting for some sort of revelation. 

Akari smelt it, crumbling a little bit off and bringing it to her nose. Earthy, savoury, woodsy with a hint of musk-a truffle? “Truffle?” She impatiently waited for an answer, constantly aware of the time ticking away until the warden awoke.

The Teddiursa-Truffle, apparently-nodded, clapping their paws together and making a rumbling purr at the correct answer.

“Right, then. I’m Akari. Good to meet you, Truffle. Quick question because I’ve got to leave now-are you a girl or a boy?” she asked, already stowing away her arc phone into her backpack and flipping the top shut. 

Truffle cocked their head, whining a little at the question.

“Oh. Erm, I’m a girl, and so is the warden over there. I think she called that Ursaluna Lord, so he’s a boy, but I’m not sure,” she said, gesturing to each person in turn. “Does that answer your question?”

Truffle nodded, running over to the Ursaluna and, to Akari’s extreme horror, quickly whacking it directly on the snout before trotting back and smiling up at her, the image of perfect innocence. 

Akari watched the great bear like a hawk, noting every twitch, blink, and yawn. After around five minutes of staying stock still, she slumped into a more relaxed sitting position and glared at the little bear, who’d started grooming himself while she composed herself. 

She sighed. “…a boy, huh?”

Truffle, having finished the section of his fur he’d been grooming whilst waiting for her to calm down, nodded, seriously not seeming to comprehend why she might be frightened. 

“Okay. It was nice to meet you, Truffle,” said Akari, biting her lip to keep the tears from spilling down her cheeks. “Goodbye.”

Truffle’s slight smile dropped right off his face, and he whined a little, before starting to trudge away, back towards the warden’s pack. 

Akari knew if she called out to him, she’d never leave. 

Instead, she got to her feet and started walking to the opening to check if the pouring rain had stopped, leaving her pack behind in her little corner of the room. 

Peeking out into the wilderness, she noted the lack of any rainfall. Good. The place was wet enough without it already. Fallen branches littered the ground, and the river she could just about make out in the distance seemed about to burst its banks. Grass types-oh, that was a new word-had sprung up like mushrooms-in Paras’ case, quite literally-after the rain. 

Akari scanned the surroundings, seeing no real dangers within eyeshot other than a single Carnivine who’d likely leave soon anyways. With every new species she laid eyes on, the information just seemed to pop into her head. The headache was still there, but it seemed to be getting easier with every one. 

Still, it wasn’t exactly pleasant, so, satisfied with the lack of danger, Akari returned to grab her pack. She sighed, realizing the absence of the young Teddiursa. Unfortunately, she supposed he must’ve returned to Warden Calaba’s backpack. Still, she’d wanted to part with the first friendly person she’d met on better terms.

Hefting her pack, she paused for a moment, knowing something wasn’t quite right. After a quick double check, Akari still wasn’t quite sure what was wrong. She was wearing all of her clothing and it was mostly dry, her hair and skin had been returned to their natural colours, her boots were tied and the laces showed no sign of fraying. She knew she’d packed the arc phone already, and she didn’t own anything else. 

Akari wanted to do another go-over, but rays of sunlight were already trying to permeate the dark room, and the warden would probably awaken soon. Akari didn’t even want to think about what might happen if the warden found her still there after the rain had long since stopped.

So, adjusting her backpack, pulling her hood up, and taking a deep breath, Akari stepped back into the wilds.

Akari sat slumped on a stump, head between her legs and breathing heavily. She’d pushed herself hard, wanting to get as much distance between her and the potentially hostile Warden Calaba as possible. 

It was midmorning now, and her legs were burning, her throat hurt, and every breath was a struggle. She flopped backwards, stared up at blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds, and just breathed.

In, and out. 

In, and out.

Okay. Everything was fine. 

She sighed. Her mouth was dry, and her tongue felt fat and unwieldy. 

Stumbling to her feet, she wiped the sweat from her brow before making the arduous trek to a tree a few yards away. Making it, she reached up and bent a branch down, happy that the tree was so young and short that even she could reach one of the branches. 

Hearing rustling behind her, she turned to find nothing but a half eaten yellow berry dropped into a puddle of mud and her pack. After unfortunately realizing that eating random berries out of mud puddles would probably be rather detrimental to her health, Akari turned back to the tree. 

Tearing a particularly concave leaf off, she shook the branch above it, collecting a few mouthfuls of water, although much of it had trickled away. Akari looked upwards, exhaling in exhaustion as she realized she’d have to jump for the next branch. 

Leaping once, twice, again, she eventually snagged another branch. Being more careful that time, she managed to extract enough water that she felt comfortable going onwards again. Dropping her water leaf to the ground, she strode back to her pack, hefting it onto her shoulders once more. 

She paused once again, having heard a high pitched yelp. Surveying the surrounding copse and muddy pools in the distance, she didn’t see anything upon a cursory inspection.

Akari decided to press onwards, as she’d be leaving the area soon anyways-far too close to the warden for her liking-and so anything threatening wouldn’t be bothering her soon enough. 

Sure, Warden Calaba had backed down-eventually. Before that-oh yes, the Lord Ursaluna interrupted, though, she’d been ready to gut Akari like a fish. Even after that, her acceptance had been begrudging and she’d wanted Akari out of there as soon as possible.

Hmph. Well, Akari was far away from her now. 

She continued onwards through the marsh, taking care not to slip and fall. The marshes were treacherous, and failure was not an option.

It was the next day, and Akari was hungry.

So very hungry, pains gnawing at her stomach.

She’d bedded down in a thicket of tall grass, but stayed up half the night trying to ignore the eerie wailing of ghosts which seemed obligated to release a bloodcurdling scream around every five seconds when one was trying to sleep.

That hadn’t been fun, but the worst part was truly the pangs of hunger clawing at her constantly, like her stomach was trying to eat itself.

She ignored it, trying to press onwards in the afternoon heat, navigating around pits of mud and the occasional wild Pokémon. Thankfully, they were mostly quite communal species, so after quick assurances of peace and the occasional submissive gesture, they normally let Akari pass in peace. If they didn’t.. well, there was a reason people had legs, and it wasn’t for standing around while some territorial Croagunk lobbed some sort of sticky acid directly at your face.

She lasted another few minutes, before throwing her hands into the air at yet another rumble from the protesting organ. “Fine! Fine! You hear that, stomach? Fine.” 

Looking around, the only even vaguely food-like object Akari could see were some brown nuts hanging from the boughs of trees, arranged in a small grove. 

A small grove, on the other side of a river.

She sighed, turned away. 

Her stomach grumbled again.

“…dammit,” she swore, and turned back to the river. She stood on the bank, peering into the water for any signs of a Pokémon she wouldn’t want to crush. Seeing none, she breathed in, closed her eyes, and leapt into the river.

Her meeting with the water was announced by a screech and her backpack suddenly becoming infested with some sort of demon, kicking and writhing all the way across. 

She gritted her teeth and kept swimming, cutting smoothly through the chilly water.

Reaching the other shore, she encountered a predicament. The bank was too steep and muddy, with no good hand or footholds. She floundered, seeing that the other bank was too far to swim back to.

Suddenly, her wet clothes all seemed heavier and more restrictive, writhing backpack a greater restraint. She breathed heavily, water going into her nose and mouth, coughing violently and searching frantically for something, anything to grab onto.

Her vision obscured by the froth she’d been kicking up, Akari barely saw it. 

A root, sticking out the side of the bank. She clutched onto it, thankful for the rough surface-words she never thought she’d say-and braced her feet against the bank, slowly walking herself up the bank.

Even paying careful attention to where her feet went, in the end, wasn’t enough. A particularly painful kick from the thrashing bag nailed her in the stomach just when she was about to make it, causing her to lose her footing and slip down the muddy bank.

Clinging to the root with only her hands, Akari mustered all of her meagre strength, the adrenaline allowing her to gradually drag herself, hand over hand, up the bank. 

Reaching dry land, she shrugged her bag off and rolled onto her back, sopping wet and trembling like a leaf in a storm.

Calm down, Akari. 

Calm down.

You’re all right.

Eventually, her breathing slowed.

The sun shining down on her warmed her body, and her clothes were just a little bit closer to dry.

Akari sat up.

Staring at the suddenly motionless bag, she pulled it closer, unfastened the buckle, and flipped it open. 

There was a bear in her bag. He looked sheepishly up at her, waving his paws in a celebratory gesture,

She groaned, dropping her head into her hands.

Her stomach rumbled, pleading for food.

“…shut up.”

Chapter Text

Akari frowned at the little brown fruit-she was pretty sure it was called an ‘apricorn’. The apricorn sat on the ground, its smooth shell stubbornly resisting all efforts to pry it open. Her fingertips felt raw from the repeated attempts, whilst the apricorn still remained completely unscathed.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she turned to see Truffle earnestly offering a sharp rock, almost half the small bear’s size.

“Thanks, Truffle,” she said, having decided to put the conversation of him returning to the warden off until after food had been acquired. “That’s really nice of you.”

Taking the rock, she raised it high before plunging it down-completely missing the apricorn and burying the rock deep into the earth.

Truffle sighed, poking at her until she shuffled to the side. Once she’d moved away, he raised one paw into the air.

Akari squinted, not believing her eyes. 

Around Truffle’s claws, some sort of white energy was gathering, flickering at first, but growing thicker, brighter with every moment, until it had grown to the extent that his claws were completely enveloped, shining brightly with the radiant energy. 

Swiftly, he lashed out, gouging a deep hole into the apricorn.

Akari inhaled sharply, staring at the cracks in the apricorn whose hard shell she’d been unable to penetrate. Pausing, something bubbled up from within the depths of her mind. Scratch. That was Scratch.

Truffle picked the fruit up and pried the cracked shell completely open, revealing the nut-like flesh within. Cracking it in half, he offered one half to her, crescent marking faintly glowing. She accepted it, barely registering the joke, the… move usage still occupying her mind.

“Was that-was that Scratch?” she asked, staring down at the nut in her hand.

Truffle, having already shoved the entire nut into his mouth, paused to chew and swallow before the small bear answered. He woofed, nodding, before cocking his head quizzically to one side. 

Akari shrugged, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “Sorry. You know I don’t remember much of anything, is it really that hard to think I didn’t remember moves until one was used right in front of me?”

Truffle shrugged, jumping up before trotting back over to her pack and hopping in, clearly waiting for her to pick it up and keep going.

She smirked, rolling her eyes at the presumption, before pausing to remember the topic they had yet to cover. She gritted her teeth, not wanting to talk about it, but she knew she had to.

Truffle couldn’t exactly stay with her, now could he?

“Y-you know,” she said, voice stumbling over the difficult topic, “you need to go back to the warden, don’t you?”

Truffle emerged from the pack, solemn expression on his round face. He shook his head, crossing his front legs.

“She’ll think I’ve stolen you! And-and she could come after us, and she can protect you, and feed you, and she’d just be so much better for you!” She panted, the outburst having gotten rather heated.

Calming herself, she focused on her breathing for a few seconds. The way her lungs expanded and contracted, the movement of her ribs as they were pushed outwards by the force.

Finally feeling calm enough to continue. “…why can’t you just see that? I’m no good for you. You deserve someone who can take care of you! And sure, I’d love it if you came along. But-," her chest tightened painfully, hard lump in her throat cutting the sentence off. Hot teardrops rolled freely down her cheeks.

She didn’t know when she had started to cry.

Wiping the tears away with trembling hands, she gave it up as a lost cause as more only came running down her face. “But-“

She was cut off, Truffle’s small furry body jumping up to envelop her in a hug. The first one she could remember. 

Akari froze and dropped the apricorn she’d been holding, surprised by the unexpected weight of his tiny body, but Truffle was unphased, continuing to cling tightly to her torso.

It was warm, comforting as she continued to cry. “I-I’m sorry,” she managed to say, “I’m getting you all wet, aren’t I?”

Truffle shook his head, the small bear only holding her tighter.

“I-I guess I can’t convince you, can I?” Akari sniffled. “Guess you’re stuck with me,” she added, forcing a weak smile.

Truffle purred, a soft rumbling noise escaping his small body.

It was comforting.

“Okay,” she decided, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. He smelled good, sweet. Like honey. “I’m okay with this.”

Akari strolled between water puddles, Truffle trotting along by her side. She glanced around, scanning for threats, even though she’d not seen anything threatening since she’d crossed the river. Just Petilil, and the occasional Goomy, although those tended to slither out of sight as soon as she saw them, only leaving behind a trail of slime when she checked the places they had been.

She looked around. There were heaps of dried grass turned yellow in the sun, a large variety of different sized pools, and a large tree, offering tempting shade to the weary travelers. 

Well, she was weary. Truffle’d been in her pack for most of it, living the good life. 

Pausing, she adjusted the straps of her backpack. The grass was soft underfoot, a stark contrast to the dead grass piled in heaps or the muddy bogs she’d trekked through to get there. A cool breeze blew through, rustling the leaves on the trees and sending a few dead ones drifting to the ground.

She breathed out, enjoying the slight breeze ruffling her curly hair. It was peaceful here. Quiet. Maybe that was exactly what they needed.

Looking back at the large tree, she made her decision. “Hey, Truffle,” she said.

Truffle paused, turning to look up at her.

“How would you like to stick around here? The Pokémon seem pretty peaceful, and there are those apricorn trees.  I know there isn’t a cave, or anything, but maybe there’s one nearby. So?”

Truffle shrugged, clearly unbothered by their choice of abode. Instead, he toddled over and held his paw out, wanting another apricorn but too polite to take it for himself.

Akari smiled. “Is that all you think about? Food? I see how it is,” she chuckled, already swinging the backpack around to get at their little stash of apricorns they’d collected.

The small bear solemnly nodded, apparently quite pleased with her assessment of his mental state, only the smallest smirk giving the joke away.

Passing him an apricorn, Akari left him to it as she strode over to the tree.

Placing her bag at the foot of the tree, she sat down and called Truffle over.

He came running, and upon realizing she didn’t want him to do anything and she wasn’t going to give him another apricorn, sat beside her.

They leaned into each other, looking out over the place they would call home for now.

Akari looked at the ground, head bowed as she placated the angered alpha.

An alpha Sliggoo, apparently the ruler of the little patch of land they’d settled, had taken offense to them settling down without so much as a warning.

When exploring, they’d come across an island with a strange metal object in the centre of a large pond. Upon inspection, the alpha Sliggoo had awoken, forcing Akari to retreat back across the water. 

Goomy clustered protectively around it, on top of it, and even squeezed into its shell.

The Sliggoo roared, extending fully from its metallic shell to undulate about in what Akari assumed were threat displays.

“We’re sorry,” she said, hoping that the tremble in her hands didn’t show in her voice. “We didn’t know that you were in charge here, but now we do. We won’t disturb you, and we’ll leave all of your,” she paused, trying to ascertain the small Goomies relationship with the Sliggoo. “family? Alone. I have some nuts, if you want something for it?”

Truffle, by her side, nodded before starting to gesture and grunt, looking up at the Sliggoo with sad eyes.

Some of the Goomy perked up at the mention of food, nudging the Sliggoo and chirping softly. The alpha nudged them in return, before apparently remembering that it was in the middle of a negotiation and returning its attention to Akari.

Somehow, it seemed a little bit less threatening than before.

Noting that the alpha seemed interested, Akari slowly unslung her backpack and dumped their stash of apricorns out onto the ground, then backed away.

There was a moment of awkward silence, as they both realized that with its enormous metal shell, the Sliggoo was barely able to move itself, let alone cross over the water to retrieve the nuts.

Walking slowly forwards, Akari picked up the nuts, and began to slowly lob them over to the island in the centre of the pond. 

The Sliggoo chirped in acceptance and began to feed each Goomy a piece of nut, the noise such a different sound from the previous roar that Akari huffed out a slight laugh.

Seeing the alpha gently caring for its fellows, making sure each one got its fair share, Akari almost couldn’t remember why she’d ever been afraid.

Almost.

Akari gathered leeks, yanking them up by the root one by one.

Passing them to Truffle, who was already holding quite a large amount, she looked around for the next one, only to find that she’d collected them all.

They sat down and began ripping the roots off and reburying them in the hole’s they’d left. Akari couldn’t remember if the leeks could grow back from that, but it couldn’t hurt. Patting the soil down, they walked back to their camp, each carrying a bundle of leeks.

Their camp had changed-well, not a lot, in the past few days. They’d heaped dry grass into vaguely bed-shaped mounds. In the tree, there were a few bundles of food tied to the branches as a rudimentary protection from theft, and Akari’s hoodie was hanging from a bough. She’d had to wash it after a Goomy got a little clingy, getting slime all over Akari’s hoodie, and it still hadn’t dried.

As they arrived and started to pack away the leeks they’d gathered, a group of Goomy arrived, looking dolefully up at Akari.

The Goomy had taken a bit of a liking to her, or at least the food she doled out as part of the the payment for staying in the area. 

Holding the leeks above her head, she quickly finished tying them together with a stray vine before chucking them into the tree and smirking at the disappointed blobs of goo.

“All right, all right,” she said. “One piece each, you hear me?” 

She jumped up, grabbing a few yellow berries from where they were hoisted into the branches. The blue ones she wouldn’t give, because she’d found that when eaten, they helped to heal wounds. Not a lot, but it was something. The yellow berries seemed like they didn’t do anything, or if they did, she couldn’t tell. 

Ripping pieces off, she distributed them among the throng. The group of Goomy-what was that called? She couldn’t remember-slid off, all except for one.

Akari didn’t notice the lone straggler, too busy laughing at Truffle’s solemn face, crescent mark softly glowing as he bit into the yellow berry, paws covered in the sticky juice. 

Upon noticing it, she jumped backwards, not having realized there was still a Goomy left.

“O-oh, hello. You can’t have any more food, you know. Why don’t you go and join back up with the group?”

The Goomy shook its… body, seemingly quite content to stay right where it was. It looked curiously at them, antennae wiggling around, sensing everything it possibly could.

Akari turned to Truffle, the tiny bear shrugging in response.

She looked back at the Goomy, who seemed ecstatic at being paid any attention. “Right. You can stay, if you want to. Mind helping wash those leeks up there? I’m pretty sure you learn Water Gun.”

The Goomy quivered with excitement, practically bouncing in place with enthusiasm.

Akari fetched the leeks down and held them up one by one, letting the Goomy spray them down with water. 

When done, it looked at her longingly, or no. It was looking at the leek still in her hand. 

Well, it had helped her out. Packing the rest of the leeks away again, she offered it to the little Goomy, who looked taken aback at the present. 

Emitting a high pitched squeal at the gift, the Goomy lunged forwards, clamping onto the leek with a toothless mouth and ferociously gumming at it. 

The leek began to wither before Akari’s eyes, the Goomy only growing in enthusiasm as it continued to suck at it.

Absorb. Goomy can learn Absorb. Oh, so that was it. Akari smiled down at the little goober, who’d finished draining the leek of vital energies, the once vibrant greens now dulled to a brittle brown.

Looking at the position of the sun, she sighed. “We’ve got to get to bed, now. Can’t let the ghosts catch you up at night. See you later?” She quietly hoped for a positive answer, biting her lip in anticipation. Sure, she had Truffle, but it was a little lonely with only the two of them.

The Goomy, having no knowledge of anything that was going on in her head, cheerfully nodded, wiggling with glee at the prospect of seeing them again.

With that, it slid off into the grass, leaving only a trail of slime and the flattened grass to mark its presence.

Akari and Truffle bedded down for the night, the stars emerging as they slept beneath a darkened sky.

Chapter Text

Goomy was back, yet again.

Akari greeted her absentmindedly, too focused on the task at hand to do more than an abrupt how-do-you-do. She was scanning the surrounding area from high in a tree, Truffle by her side. 

Holding onto an overhead branch, her grip tightened as the tree swayed in the wind, knuckles whitening with the force. The leaves rustled, crisp breeze chilly against her pale face.

Sighing, still unable to spot anywhere that still had berries on the trees after a solid amount of time spent searching, she carefully descended from the tree, envying Truffle his easy descent to the ground as she climbed. Finally reaching the bottom, she smiled at the clear excitement that Goomy was displaying at being a part of the group.

Truffle was poking at her soft flesh and seeing how it bounced back, the strange game apparently quite appealing to the both of them.

“Hello there, little one,” she said, crouching down. “For what reason have we been graced with your presence?”

Goomy wiggled with delight at the praise, antennae reaching forwards to try and feel the fabric of Akari’s hoodie. 

Akari grinned, reaching out to pat Goomy gently between her two antennae.

Goomy seemed to melt into a delighted puddle, squeaking happily from time to time. After a few moments of unadulterated bliss, Akari accidentally bumped into one of her antennae and jerked back, knowing what was about to happen.

Goomy froze, pulling herself into a collected blob from the previous puddle and pulling her antennae into her mouth to protect them from more stimulation.

Her body tensed, goo beginning to be produced in mass amounts.

Screwing her eyes up, Goomy began to cry. 

At first, small, trembling sobs as she sucked gently on her antennae, the sobs trailing off as Goomy successfully self-soothed, and Akari blew a sigh of relief. It would probably be a short one, then. 

Goomy fell silent, still heaving with the silent cries.

Akari wanted to comfort her, but knew from past experience that any sort of stimuli was quite upsetting to her in this state.

She and Truffle stayed perfectly still, not wanting to agitate Goomy any further.

Still unmoving, she scanned the area without moving her head, wanting to confirm that there was nothing around to upset Goomy. 

She couldn’t see anything, but-

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the grass.

A Petilil, having stumbled across their campsite by chance. Akari signaled frantically to Truffle, trying to remove the unfamiliar face before it got worse. 

Unfortunately, for all his best efforts, Truffle was too late.

Akari flinched, already knowing what was about to happen.

Having opened her mouth and released her antennae, Goomy was still sensitive to any stimulation and upon hearing the sound, shoved her antennae back into her mouth and started to bawl.

Big, gasping wails, the tears dripping a salty stream down her body and flowing down into the dirt. They mixed with the goo she’d produced, pooling around Goomy, the size of the puddle only growing as she continued to sob. She trembled, seeming to shrink ever smaller every moment as she compressed her gooey body into a tight ball.

The Petilil, frightened by the sudden noises, ran off into the undergrowth.

They stayed still, waiting as morning turned to noon and clouds began to cover the sun.

Goomy slowly settled, progressing from wails, to plaintive cries, to quiet sobs, and finally to gentle rocking back and forth in her puddle.

She slipped the antennae out of her mouth, regaining the vast majority of her senses. Waving them about and sensing nothing out of the ordinary, she opened an eye.

Akari quirked an eyebrow, silently asking permission to move again. At Goomy’s sheepish nod, the two unfroze and stretched, Akari flinching at the pops her spine made as she did so.

After stretching, Akari ran over and scooped Goomy up, holding her below the shoulders so as not to allow the goo to run down her arms. “Wonderful job, Goomy. Really great. Even after that Petili came over, you still pulled through in a pretty short amount of time. It’s a lot of progress from when we’d just met, and that was only a month ago. I’m really proud of the progress you’ve made.” Akari made an effort to speak quietly, knowing that Goomy’s antennae would still be sensitive.

By her side, Truffle nodded before realizing that Goomy couldn’t see him from where she was melting into a puddle of goo in Akari’s hands. Even being held below the shoulders on quite a small person was enough to lift her high above Truffle’s head height. 

Poking Akari’s side, he gestured for Goomy to be brought a little lower before offering his congratulations for the achievement in quiet growls and woofs.

Goomy trembled happily at all the praise, previous meltdown completely forgotten.

Akari watched her bouncing about and sighed, feeling a little wrung out from the emotional rollercoaster.

Truffle seemed either ignorant or uncaring of her woes, instead returning to the previous game they’d been playing where Truffle would poke her and they’d both see how the hole filled slowly up.

Akari slumped to the ground before remembering that the ground was quite muddy and sprung up. Dusting herself off, she moved to a nearby rock and sat on it, watching the leaves sway in the wind and trying not to think about what she’d seen-or, in fact, not seen-from the treetops.

“Hello, hello, all of you! Hey, Circus, I saw that. Get back in the queue,” Akari chided as she doled out bits of berry to the ever increasing Goomy population. She was a bit worried about their stores getting low, but they had quite a large stockpile and she’d prefer going hungry with the favour and protection of the local alpha over a full stomach and no backer.

After she’d named the one who kept showing up at her campsite on account of her being jealous of Truffle and Akari, all the rest had demanded names as well. With the first name given, a plethora of similar words had come flooding back, resulting in names like Festival, Circus, Fair, and a few eccentric ones as she’d run out of names, like Carousel or Ferris Wheel. 

Akari wasn’t quite sure what all of them meant, but they sounded nice, and the Goomy all seemed quite happy with the names. 

Hopping up on a rock to get a better vantage point-and possibly to get away from the crowd, Akari scanned the group for the one who’d kept showing up to her campsite, looking through the masses of purple bodies.

Noting a strangely coloured one, she stopped to inspect it. 

It was a pale yellow, rather like a paler version of the yellow berries Akari had identified as “hopos”, and seemed a bit smaller than the others. Tossing it a few extra pieces of berry, Akari squinted in curiosity. A-a shiny. Shinies are strangely coloured-she winced, turning her eyes away and continuing to look into the crowd.

Names, moves, types, most of those were alright. Anything else tended to induce pounding headaches, but nothing was like the one-and only-time she’d tried to remember what had led to her fall.

Searching through a group of Goomy was a difficult task, she realized, watching their slimy bodies slip and slither over, under, and between each other, before realizing that if her Goomy was in there, she’d be crying up a storm by now as others constantly touched-or even slid over-her antennae.

Instead, Akari turned her attention to the edges, checking for the larger-than average shape of her friend.

Oh, there she was. Akari crouched atop the rock, judging the distance before jumping over the now sluggish horde-she’d realized that the berries seemed to calm them down a lot, but it didn’t seem to hurt them-and landing deftly on open grass.

Smiling down at her-well, really quite large, now-friend who’d been trying to get to her though the mob, Akari tapped her on the head and watched the happiness spread across her face like sun across the sky.

Truffle arrived, having fought through the horde on account of not being able to jump it. He smiled, happy to see their friend, whose exuberance only intensified upon noticing that he’d come as well.

Akari smirked, patting her on the head in greeting, said head now about waist level. She’d grown a lot over the last month and a half. Akari wasn’t particularly tall, but it was still quite impressive.

Akari greeted her friend, the new name coming easily to her lips. “It’s good to see you, Jubilee.”

They were out on a trip, just the three of them.

The food supplies were well and truly running low now, and though they’d be alright for a few more weeks Akari had been too worried to leave it for long.

Thus, the trip. 

They tramped through the bog, searching for anything they could bring back to the camp. Akari searched each tree one by one, heart only sinking further as with each one, she came up empty. Glancing over at Jubi, the Goomy was cheerfully sliding about, inspecting this or that. 

Looking pointedly down at Truffle, he gave a long suffering sigh before trudging off to make sure she didn’t get into something she shouldn’t. He’d grown a lot as well, just a tad bit taller than Jubi when he stood up straight. The two of them still only came up to around Akari’s waist, however, which meant that she was still superior in practically every way.

Distracted by the two of them, Akari jumped in fright when she absentmindedly walked into vines hanging from the branch of a tree, swaying the bough they were draped on. 

A few russet leaves drifted to the ground. 

Gritting her teeth at having failed to stay attentive, she brushed a few of the orange leaves off of her hoodie before examining the vines, curious to see if they were edible.

They were strangely coloured, bright green and vibrant red, and they didn’t seem as if they’d grown there. Instead, they lay flung carelessly over the branch, no roots or larger stem in sight.

A sweet, almost floral scent permeated the air, and she turned to see more of the vines all over the ground and draped over the trees. It looked almost like when Truffle had shed all over the place a while back. 

Shuddering at the memory of the hair getting absolutely everywhere, Akari almost didn’t notice when Truffle stopped dead, yanking Jubi backwards and away. 

She arched a brow, curious as to why he’d frozen, when she saw it.

On a tree, one with autumn leaves and a thick trunk with a knot in it.

One of the vines twitched.

Barely a twitch, even. 

She stared, heart racing, until she could almost say she’d imagined it.

Truffle growled, the sound deeper than she remembered it being.

Jubi seemed to have latched on, expanding to her fullest proportions and bubbling angrily at the tree.

It moved again.

And again.

And again, til all of the vine-tentacles were alive with motion, undulating like some eldritch creature of the deep.

Until they unlatched from the tree, dropping to the ground in entirely too quick a motion for anything to execute.

The pile lay still for a moment, motionless upon the ground.

Akari breathed out, stomach collapsing from the force.

And then it began to stand. 

It slowly straightened, and now Akari could see a gaping maw, filled to the brim with teeth-like thorns.

They were cruelly sharp. Akari couldn’t look away.

Two arm-like leaves snapped out.

A fuchsia petal emerged from the mouth, leaking a slow stream of spittle towards the earth. 

It fell, and the grass sizzled and died.

The world was frozen.

Akari’s heartbeat pounded furiously in her ears. She didn’t think she was breathing.

It felt like everything was far away, like they were all deep underwater and Akari was only watching from the surface.

It-a flash of memory tore through her brain-Carnivine opened its eyes.

And roared, flecks of spittle burning the grass away as they flew from its unhinged jaw.

Chapter Text

The spell was broken, and Akari flinched back, stumbling over her feet before turning to run, gesturing to the other two as she did so.

She’d have picked them up, but they were so big now that they’d all be caught. As she began to run, she stopped dead, still acutely aware of the predator already-or nearly in-hot pursuit. 

Jubilee couldn’t run. 

Grimacing, she ducked quickly behind a tree and gestured them both over, only to look over and see them still in the clearing. Jubi cowered behind Truffle, the Teddiursa taking a stand against the larger predator.

Akari’s heart sank, afraid she was about to see the loss of her dearest companions.

She couldn’t move, legs locked and arms clinging to the tree like it was the only thing keeping her alive. Her breath came in sharp gasps, almost painful, each inhale so fast it hurt her stomach as she tried desperately to breathe.

She clenched her fingers as she saw the Carnivine score a hit, saw Truffle sprawl across Jubi to shield her with his body, saw the bruises the cuts the way that they looked for her but she wasn’t there she was cowering like an effing coward-and she knew.

She knew she couldn’t leave them-leave them to die.

Rushing out into the clearing, she inwardly berated herself for the lack of a plan, even as she knew there hadn’t been time. Yelling wildly, her eyes darted frantically about, looking for something, anything to distract it. 

Stupid. Who runs into a clearing with an enemy and doesn’t even take the time to come up with a plan? You, that’s who. She killed the unhelpful train of thought, knowing it wouldn’t be helpful at the moment and needing every bit of brainpower.

Spotting a loose rock, she snatched it up before chucking it at the Carnivine’s head. It glanced off, but Akari barely registered it. Already collecting more, she screamed for her partners to run, to get out however they could.

Scrabbling in the dirt as she slipped on the wet ground, she reached for stone after stone after stone, barely noticing the dirt collecting under her fingernails as she shoved her hands into the mud again and again.

Trying not to notice the Carnivine shrugging the rocks off with barely a bruise, she reached for the next rock, fingers scraping through the mud, catching on a root, and finding nothing.

She swallowed.

Scrambling backwards, she turned to run.

She never saw it coming.

Nothing malicious, just an innocent tree root, a knobbly little thing sticking out of the ground-

-right-

-where-

-her-

-foot-

-fell.

Falling forwards, she tumbled clumsily to the ground, mind blank with terror.

The Carnivine slithered closer, vines sliding across the marshy earth with nary a whisper to mark its passing. 

It loomed above her, the tongue-petal slipping out of its slavering jaws as it hissed.

Rearing back, it made to strike-

Akari’s mind raced, frantically thinking how to get out-get up get up run-can’t too big-oh god poison right there climb-crawl-runrunrun-

And then Truffle was there, swiping his claws across the face of the creature and knocking it backwards, green sap oozing from the gashes he’d left.

He stood between them, a guttural bark emerging from his throat, filling the clearing with his voice.

Akari leapt to her feet and skittered backwards, her back meeting the trunk of a tree. She called for Jubilee, making sure that the Goomy began to slide her way over to relative safety. Quickly, she returned her attention to the-battle-at hand-and kicked herself for ever looking away.

Truffle was entangled in vines, the Teddiursa thrashing in an attempt to escape, but the effort was futile.

The Carnivine seemed to drain him of vitality with every moment he spent in its clutches, Akari noticed. Oh, Absorb.

The thin vines fattened and constricted ever further, Truffle almost completely covered in the fleshy tendrils. 

Akari knew she had to do something. Fight-no. that’s stupid-throw a rock-useless-wait—

-and a flash of memory tore through her brain.

Ignoring the piercing pain, Akari screamed-“Truffle-use Scratch!”

But it was too late.

His head was covered, ears unable to hear her screams.

With every moment, his motions slowed and weakened, limbs that once thrashed furiously barely twitching.

She sank to her knees, unable to care about the muddy ground or the decaying leaf litter.

And then something happened.

She felt it before she heard it.

A thrum, pulsing through the clearing.

She turned-and stopped-and stared.

Jubi roared, red eyes flaring with rage as she puffed up to her full size.

A gout of purple flame-Dragon Breath-erupted from her throat, the heat warming Akari’s face.

She hadn’t realized how cold it had gotten.

The Carnivine buckled, and it was only now that Akari realized just how thin it was. It seemed wrong, somehow. Like it wasn’t meant to be that way. Like it was malnourished, or starved. Something strange. Dismissing the train of thought, Akari thought fast, remembering what she’d tried to do with Truffle. “Jubi! Use Absorb!”

Jubi shrunk down and plopped her antennae into her mouth before exploding forwards, leaping with a vengeance onto the Carnivine. She stuck to one leaf and made her way down towards the vines, gnawing at them with a passion.

They started to wither, the once vibrant colours turning to grey. A few fell to the ground.

Truffle emerged, eyes wild and teeth bared.

Forgetting to use a move, he began to savage one of the Carnivine’s leaf-arms-but wasn’t able to do much damage with just his claws and teeth.

It snapped its head around to face him, jaws wide and began to cough, a gurgling noise coming from within its throat. 

Akari frowned, unsure what was going-Acid Spray-on. She flinched back at the new information, and knew she had to make a split second decision. “Jubi! Cover Truffle!”

Truffle didn’t register it, but Jubi looked up, startled at the strange request. Nevertheless, she completed the task. Leaping up from her position attacking the vines, she landed atop the Teddiursa before starting to cover his body, careful not to obstruct his breathing.

Truffle began to fall backwards, surprised at the sudden sensation, but was barely able to keep his balance by clinging to the leaf.

The acid sprayed down, vibrant purple and sizzling as it met the air.

It hit Jubi’s mucous membrane-and slid right off, landing in the mud.

Jubi collected herself from where she’d oozed over Truffle, restoring his senses before he could lose his balance again.

The Carnivine screeched in anger, and Akari bit her lip. She wasn’t sure if it had some sort of hidden trump card, and one could never be too careful.

It opened its cavernous maw, revealing the pink insides and pulsating throat. Before Jubi could react, it snapped viciously down, concealing her completely from view. Closing its mouth, and tilting its head upwards to avoid anything spilling out, it looked entirely too satisfied with itself as it started to digest. 

It started to wither from within, but slowly. Too slowly.

Akari felt a tear trickling down her cheek. She let it fall. She-she’d started to believe that they could do it. She really had. And now-and now that?

No. 

She couldn’t let that happen. 

But, she wondered, but what to do? Scratch wouldn’t be enough, and her own efforts were pitifully weak. Jubi was already doing everything she could, and Truffle-Truffle was staring silently at the plant as it continued to digest.

His stare was cold as stone, muzzle wrinkled with anger. He clenched a paw tight-

-and Akari remembered. 

She knew what they had to do. “Payback,” she said, and her voice was mild as milk as Truffle beat the creature into a pulp. 

Its jaws locked shut, a final, petty, action, and Akari only scoffed before prying them open and lifting her partner out.

Jubi was more puddle than blob in her hands, lacking the strength to pull herself back together.

Akari held them both with trembling hands, murmuring soft words of reassurance as Truffle’s crescent mark began to glow, softly illuminating the clearing beneath the cloud-covered sky.

They trudged through the marsh, legs weary. At least Akari had brought berries, kept in her hoodie pocket. After the fight, she’d distributed some oran berries, knowing that they’d needed them.

Scanning the undergrowth to look for potential enemies, a thought occurred to Akari. “Hey,” she said, drawing the other two’s attention. “Does anyone actually know which way is home?”

Truffle shook his head, so Akari turned to Jubi, hoping for an answer. Alas, the wish went unanswered as the Goomy shook her body from side to side before continuing to bounce cheerfully along.

Wanting to get at least one useful answer from the conversation, Akari remembered something from the battle. “So. Jubilee. How long have you been an alpha, might I ask?” 

Jubi looked back, did a full body shrug, and continued on her merry way. 

Akari facepalmed, vaguely irritated but too tired to feel anything stronger. She found a fallen log and brushed it off before sitting down. 

The other two stopped, or Truffle stopped and tapped Jubi before she could get too far away. They looked at her curiously, eyes reflecting flashes of light from Truffle’s marking. 

“Well, we don’t exactly know where home is, so it’s probably better to stay here for a bit. We’ll have a better understanding of the situation in the morning.” 

Accepting her reasoning as fact, they all started to bed down for the night. 

Akari curled her legs up into her brown hoodie, grateful that the article of clothing was baggy enough to fit her entire body inside.

Truffle lay down beside her, and Jubilee found somewhere the sun’s rays wouldn’t touch and relaxed her hold on her body, collapsing into a pile of goo.

Even though the ground was filthy and their bellies were empty, they were all okay.

And that was something, wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

Akari rose-unwillingly-with the dawn, and just lay in her hoodie for a moment. The fleece was soft and warm, and from what she could feel from the outside, she knew it was damp and chilly.

She tried to go back to sleep, but soon became unpleasantly aware of the cold, hard ground she was lying on. Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to return to slumber, she uncurled and stood. Akari stretched luxuriously before looking around, wary of the long shadows and rustling leaves.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Truffle was still asleep by her feet, and Jubilee seemed alright as well, gooey body expanding and contracting in her sleep. 

Everything was quiet. Just how Akari liked it. She sat on a stump, hands tucked inside her hoodie pocket, and watched over her team until the first rays of sunshine broke through the clouds and spread over them, illuminating the travelers with golden light.

She lifted her face to the sun, bathing in the mild warmth. Turning to check on her team, she saw that Truffle had awoken and begun to prod at Jubi. She nodded in thanks before going over to assist him in his task.

After getting Jubi up, they had to make a decision. “So,” Akari said, “We’ve got a decision to make. Do we want to try and head back, or press on to find food like we were before?” 

She observed them carefully, trying to discern their opinions. “I say we try to head back. Yesterday was bad… I don’t want that to happen again.”

Truffle frowned.

Realizing no answer was coming, Akari left him alone after asking a brief question. “Tell me when you decide, alright?” 

Turning to Jubi, the Goomy spent practically no time on thought before happily nodding.

Akari arched an eyebrow. “So, you want to keep going?” 

Jubi started to bounce up and down, cheerfully squeaking with glee.

Akari shook her head. “You do realize you were almost eaten yesterday, right? Are you sure?”

Jubi nodded again before noticing a sunbeam a bit too close for comfort and sliding off back to her spot under the bush.

Akari sighed. “Alright then… One vote for continuing on.”

Truffle made an exaggerated cough, trying to get her attention. 

“…yes?” Akari sighed. “What is it?”

He pointed forwards, down the shaded trail they’d been traveling down the night before. 

Akari groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. “Have none of you got the smallest little bit of self preservation? We almost died yesterday! Yesterday!” 

Jubilee seemed entirely unconcerned, bouncing about in the shadows. 

Giving her up as a lost cause, Akari turned to Truffle. “Are you sure? I-I’ll go, if you want to, but are you sure?” 

He solemnly nodded, before beginning to gesture. Walking back along the path, he got to a pile of leaves and lay down in it, before beginning to rub his stomach and then collapse, unmoving. 

“Alright,” said Akari, “I get it, we need food. We’ll keep going.”

She cocked her head to one side, noting a strange beeping noise coming from her pack.

Checking her possessions, she made sure everything was still there. A few shed vines from that Carnivine in case they needed a rope, and the leaves she’d stored her berries in. While she’d still had berries, of course. She stowed them away again in her backpack, almost flipping it shut again before her hand felt something vibrating against it.

Pulling out the source, she looked curiously at the arc phone in her hand. She had a pretty solid amount of knowledge on phones after first seeing it back on the first-second?-day, but the phone hadn’t seemed to do anything, so she had let it be.

Now, it was vibrating in her hand. Upon pressing the green button, the black screen flickered to life. On the screen, there was a map of the places she’d been, complete with names previously unknown to her. A flashing symbol on the map drew her attention, the circle in a diamond in yet another circle placed in a portion of the map that wasn’t filled out yet. 

A red arrow was also shown, pointing away from the flashing symbol. When Akari turned to show the others her new find, the red arrow turned with her. She paused. Turning slowly to the left, then the right, she observed as the arrow turned as she did. Walking forwards a few steps, she noticed the arrow following her on the map. 

She tapped at the screen, for a few moments, figuring out how to move her point of view, zoom in and out, and, probably the most useful ability, to place down markings on the map. 

Akari immediately found where her camp was and placed a marking, sighing with relief as the yellow mark appeared on the screen. It felt safer, knowing where her home was. 

She trotted over to the others before showing them the map. “I found out that the phone can make a map, so we know where home is now. Also, I’m quite sure that the blinking one-see, that one that looks like a circle in a diamond in another circle, is trying to show us where the food is, because,” she said, pausing to point the symbol out, “remember when I said we needed food?” She had to pause again as the beeping intensified, quickly tapping at the screen to try and turn it off, “it started beeping, and that symbol was flashing. Oh, come on, turn off-.” 

Akari had to stop talking, too busy with the phone. It kept emitting those high pitched beeps, piercing and shrill. Unable to get it to stop, she put it in her hoodie pocket, flipped her hood up, and pressed her hands over her ears, rocking back and forth whilst humming softly to herself. 

Akari hummed tunelessly, or at least she thought she did. Maybe it was a song, it wasn't like she would know.

She looked over at Jubi, concerned about the Goomy’s response to the loud beeping. 

Jubi seemed mostly okay. She was tense, body a little smaller and denser than usual, but she seemed to have gotten her antennae into her mouth before too long.

The sound quieted, and she lifted her hands cautiously away from her ears, ready to replace them at any moment. When she stopped rocking, the sound quickly started up again. Too curious to ignore the strange coincidence, she took the arc phone out and started to rock it to and fro, humming quietly to it as she did so. 

It stopped beeping, the sound replaced with soft, bell-like chimes which were pleasant to the ear.

Akari pressed the green button and started the map up again, then waited with bated breath. When the phone obediently complied, they all let out a sigh of relief into the sudden silence of the marsh.

“Well,” said Akari, “I suppose we had better get going, then.”

As they walked, Akari periodically checking on the map of the arc phone, she struggled with how to phrase a question. Could you tell me your moves? Pushy. I think we could battle better if I knew all of your moves? Condescending. She frowned, unable to find a satisfactory solution to her problem. 

A few minutes passed.

She sighed, and ignoring the pit in her stomach, decided to take the leap. Getting her team’s attention, she took a deep breath and clasped her hands before launching into it. “S-so. I was thinking,” she said, trying not to fixate on every aspect of their facial expressions, “maybe it would be good i-if I knew all of your moves? Because when we’re in battles then you can’t see everything, like when that Carnivine wanted to-to Acid Spray Truffle. So I saw, and got Jubi to help. Remember? And-and I think I remember something,” she continued, “something about training. Training, so that we can be strong, and protect ourselves from things. Like that Carnivine.” She looked down at her boots, pressing her lips together. “But. Um, but if you don’t want to share, that’s okay too.”

She swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat wouldn’t go away. 

Akari felt a paw on her arm, warm and comforting. She looked up, saw her team through blurry eyes. 

They were nodding.

“…thank you,” she managed, “I promise that we’ll be a team, a proper one, not-I mean, I won’t try to order-oh, just forget it.” 

Truffle smirked, accidentally-on-purpose forgetting to hide the coy smile behind one paw. 

Akari laughed through the tears, laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe and started to cough violently. “Honestly, you’re horrible. Only Jubi supports me. You understand me, don’t you Jubi?” she asked, still quietly chuckling.

Jubi seemed oblivious to whatever was going on, nodding enthusiastically and smiling with her entire body. 

“See?” continued Akari, “She understands me!” 

Truffle rolled his eyes before deciding to continue on rather than engage in the increasingly ridiculous conversation.

Akari chased after him, making sure to navigate around anything that could cause her to trip or make a loud noise when she stepped on it. After making sure Jubi had caught up, she resumed the conversation. “Alright, seriously now. What can the two of you do?”

Truffle picked up a rock, holding it out to Akari before making his marking glow.

Akari raised an eyebrow. “Truffle. I know what you’re trying to do. It’s not going to work.”

Truffle held the straight face for a few moments more before cracking a smile and hefting the rock again, serious look on his face. Black energy spread across the rock, leaching the colour from it-if grey could even be considered a colour in the first place. The surface of the stone looked smooth now, slick like oil. He panted for a second, looking winded by the effort, before winding up and lobbing the rock at a nearby tree.

Akari watched it fly through the air, still trying to determine the name-Fling-as it continued on its path.

It seemed to glow as it hurtled through the air and hit the tree, barely making contact before it exploded into a flash of white light.

Akari cried out, flinging herself away from the blast and tumbling to the ground. Colourful spots danced behind her closed eyelids, and her ears were ringing. Oh my god. 

Cracking an eye open, she realized that the explosion was over. As she got to her feet, she checked to make sure the others were alright.

Truffle looked okay, but Jubi had had her antennae out and-oh. Dammit.

After they had dealt with that situation, they were finally able to get on with the original task. By way of pantomime, or actual demonstration when they assured Akari that it was safe, she was able to ascertain the moves her partners knew.

Truffle clearly had Fling, she’d already known about Scratch and Payback, but apparently the Teddiursa also had Covet, Baby-Doll Eyes, Lick, and Fury Swipes.

As for Jubilee, Akari had already known Absorb, Water Gun, and Dragon Breath. However, the Goomy was also in possession of the moves Tackle-and most curiously, Acid Armour. Akari couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something just seemed off about that. 

She put it out of mind after making a mental note of it, knowing it wasn’t likely she’d come up with the answer by worrying about it.

They practiced quietly as they walked. Technically, only Jubilee and Truffle were practicing at the moment, as Akari had to keep her attention on the arc phone. Thankfully, it hadn’t gone back to creating those piercing beeps again. 

She and Truffle swapped off every so often, giving the Teddiursa a break from move practicing- which was really quite a tiring activity, and it had the happy coincidence of allowing Akari to keep an eye out for potential enemies.

As she scanned the area, it occurred to her that it seemed quite a bit darker than it had been a few hours ago. Looking up through the leaves, she sighed in exasperation as she noted that it was dusk, bordering on night. 

Turning to the others, she was about to announce that they had to bed down for the night, when she noticed that they weren’t there. 

Just an empty forest, the shadows lengthening and the wind rustling the leaves.

In the distance, some sort of bird crowed.

She swallowed.

Before she could panic too much, the bushes before her parted and Truffle emerged. Taking her by the hand, he led her between the bushes and into a small clearing. In the centre, there was a stout little apricorn tree. The ground beneath it was carpeted with russet leaves, and Jubilee had already snuggled beneath them and fallen asleep.

Akari started walking to the tree, wanting to collect the food as soon as possible, but Truffle barred her path. 

He pointed to the night sky, then to the already slumbering Jubilee. Crossing his arms, he stared her down.

Akari sighed. “…fine.” She padded over to a nearby patch of grass, and, after inspecting it for any sticks or mud, lay down to sleep.

Truffle curled up beside her, and Jubilee was just a little bit away. 

It felt nice, knowing that they were there beside her.

Chapter Text

Akari woke early and spent a few hours collecting all of the apricorns on the scrawny little tree. There weren’t very many, and some of them were spoiled, but there were enough for a few days. As long as they ate the bare minimum, of course. 

Akari eyed the spoiled apricorns, wondering if the food poisoning would be worth the food. Picking up a rock, she cracked one open to find the nut within more or less intact. If they hadn’t been so desperately needing food, she never would have considered it, but. Well. Grimacing, she picked all the spoiled ones up off of the ground and started cracking them open, placing them in the pile.

She couldn’t get the healthy ones open without Truffle’s help, but he was asleep and she didn’t want to wake him. They could open them later.

They were getting thirsty as well as hungry, and she knew that drinking from Jubi’s Water Gun was wrong, somehow. Frowning, she puzzled over it for a while as she collected morning dew from the leaves and tried to scrape together enough for a few mouthfuls. 

She shook the others awake and they each swallowed a mouthful of water. Akari looked mournfully at the leaf she’d collected it in. An hour or so of work, gone in an instant.

After seeing her sigh, Jubi began to “help” by trying to move the nuts into a slightly smaller pile, accidentally destabilizing it as she did so.

Akari winced, the urge to go over and fix the problem wrestling with her desire not to upset the young Goomy, who was really just trying to help. Gritting her teeth, she tried to look away. 

“Right, that’s it,” she decided upon seeing a few nuts start rolling away. 

Akari began to march over, only slowing just before she ran Jubi over. Giving a small smile, she tried to convince Jubi that her talents might be better suited for another task. “Hey, Jubi. Do you think you could…” she looked frantically about for anything a Goomy could do, thoughts racing to find another task, “go and keep a lookout for anything that wants to attack us?”

She bit her lip, hoping that the Goomy would accept her offer. Her eyes kept darting between Jubi and the increasingly unstable mound of nuts.

Another one started to roll.

Maddeningly slowly, Jubi thought it over before cheerfully agreeing to her new task. She bounced away to go sit on a rock, attentively scanning the surroundings for enemies.

Akari blew a sigh of relief and rushed forwards, hands outstretched to stabilize the toppling pile.

She was too late. The stack collapsed before her eyes, nuts going every which way. 

Akari started to rub her fingers together, rocking back and forth. She took a deep breath, then another, before starting to collect the nuts up again. 

Once she finally had all of them in a nice, neat little pile again, Akari could finally relax. She adjusted her backpack, tipped her head back and closed her eyes, breathing slowly.

God. Who freaked out over a pile of nuts falling? Why couldn’t she just leave it alone? Honestly.

Huffing at her own stupidity, she opened her eyes.

The world was dewy and clean, the sun only barely peeking above the horizon. It was still dark, and from what she could hear, the nocturnal species had yet to return to slumber.

Truffle came over, woofing in greeting. He meandered over to the recently assembled stack, looking like he was about to touch it.

“D-don’t!” Akari snapped, the loud noise disturbing the quiet of the clearing. She flinched back, surprised at how loud she’d been.

Truffle jumped, flinching back before looking at her in surprise.

Jubi looked over, no doubt curious about the mess Akari’d made of things.

Akari felt her eyes begin to well up. She wiped them, not wanting to cry over such a little thing.

“I-I’m sorry, Truffle. I didn’t mean to startle you. I don’t know why I yelled, I-I guess I was just frustrated.” She turned away, not wanting them to see her in the state she was in. 

Akari flipped her hood up, staring at the ground and beginning to fidget with a sleeve of her hoodie. She blinked rapidly, not wanting to let the tears out that she knew were waiting to stream down her face. “Look,” she mumbled, “can we just let it go? I’m sorry I snapped, it won’t happen again. Alright?” 

Truffle nodded before edging closer and placing a paw on her hand. 

She smiled, happy that he hadn’t judged her for the outburst. 

Feeling a nudge from behind, she whirled around to find not an attacker, but Jubilee having abandoned her post to come over and offer support.

She bit her lip, knowing that what she was about to say was foolish. “P-please could you two not mess with anything that I’ve cleaned up,” she blurted out before she could work herself up too much to say anything at all, “I-I’d really ap-appreciate it…” she trailed awkwardly off, the only noise the faint cawing of Murkrows in the distance.

Jubi happily burbled an agreement, looking completely unaware of any negative emotions which might’ve been expressed.

Akari and Truffle shared an amused glance before he agreed and the little group dissolved, each going off to do their own separate activities.

Or they would’ve, if a Murkrow hadn’t hopped into the clearing.

Jubi began to bounce over to greet it before Akari stopped her, pulling the Goomy behind her and carefully watching the unwanted intruder.

Truffle stood beside her, growling at the little bird.

It hopped closer, midnight tail feathers swaying from side to side as it moved. The Murkrow’s sharp talons left little marks in the ground where it had stepped. 

The Murkrow cocked its head to one side, inspecting the group before apparently deciding that they weren’t very interesting and turning its attention to what lay behind them.

Just a scrawny tree, a few bushes, and-oh, dear. And their pile of apricorns.

Its beady eyes fixated on the food. Cawing, it launched itself into the air before starting to circle above, cawing all the while.

More and more began to gather, until there were about thirty in total, creating a horrible screeching noise. Akari plugged her ears and made sure Jubi had her feelers in her mouth, frantically preparing for the imminent assault.

They dove, looking like a wave of fierce black feathers and razor-sharp talons as they hurtled towards the stash of apricorns. Individual birds darted about, snatching at any nuts they could get their hands on. Akari whirled about, barely able to focus on a single bird before it disappeared into the fray.

Seeing two fight over one particularly large nut, she rushed forwards and grabbed it as well. They immediately turned their attention to Akari, scratching and tearing at her body.

Jubi, seeing the attack, began to posture and puff herself up, flaring her red eyes in a threat display. Roaring, she sent out a thrum through the clearing, shocking the aggressive murder. They faltered, a few skittish ones turning to flee. The others watched them fly away, their confidence faltering.

Akari took advantage of the sudden pause, running to Truffle’s side and whispering a command into his ear.

He smirked.

Akari picked up a fallen branch and began to menace the flock, knowing that she only had to buy some time. She yelled for Jubi to mouth her antennae, knowing what was about to happen.

Behind her, Truffle had picked up a stray pebble. He began to charge it, oily black slowly spreading across its surface.

One Murkrow had caught on to the fact that Akari was barely a threat, swooping down to attack yet again. It lashed out, scratching at her face, opening a bloody gash.

Akari felt a stream of blood begin to stream down her face.

The Murkrows made for the depleted pile-there was barely anything left, now-but it was too late.

Akari threw herself to the ground, covering her ears.

The pebble flew through the air-and hit.

It exploded, the murder instantly dispatched in a flash of white light. Black bodies lay motionless on the ground. Singed feathers drifted through the air, filling it with the scent of ash.The few Murkrows still conscious-or alive-oh god she couldn’t think about that right now-scattered to the winds.

Akari got to her feet. She hurt all over, and she knew the others wouldn’t be much better. But they had to leave. It wasn’t safe out here, as evidenced by the murder of Murkrows and terrifying Carnivine-no. No, there wasn’t time to spiral, they had to go.

She quickly collected as many apricorns as she could, picking through the fallen Murkrow to find them. She tried not to think about how still they were, hoping that they hadn’t-hadn’t died. She stuffed the paltry amount of apricorns she’d found into her pack and they set out at as brisk a pace as they could manage, her arc phone leading the way.

Akari spread out their enormous haul from the expedition on a rock, a measly eight apricorns. Lovely. 

Sighing, she got Truffle’s assistance with cracking them open before divvying them out to her team. Three for Truffle, three for Jubi, and she turned away to quickly eat her two before they caught on to the fact that she had one less than them.

They were small. Dry, earthy, and a little sweet as well. She gulped them down and prodded at her stomach, noticing that she’d lost weight. Lifting her shirt up, she could count her ribs. She dropped the shirt and let it cover her up again, unsettled by what she’d seen.

Feeling her wounds sting, she checked herself over. A few scratches on her arms, but the real problem was her face. From what she could feel, she had a gash about the size of a finger across her right cheek. It’d stopped leaking blood a while back, but now it was swollen and aching.

“Jubi, give us a Water Gun?” she said, cupping the chilly water in her hands and gently washing her face, then her teammates. They were mostly unscathed, but each did have a few scratches in awkward places, so she had to help wash the wounds.

They stayed at camp for the rest of the day. And if perhaps they were a little jumpier than before, and if when the Goomy came for food they were turned away, no one commented.

Chapter Text

They began to train, and train hard.

In the mornings, they scavenged for any food they could find. Struggling to find enough food to keep themselves alive, feeding the other Goomy quickly became a thing of the past.

But in the afternoons, they trained.

Akari flipped her backpack closed, securing their meagre stash of food. There wasn’t enough to be worth keeping at the tree anymore, so she’d started carrying their supplies with her at all times.

She looked up at the sky, noting the position of the sun before whistling sharply, signaling to the other two that it was time to head back to camp.

They quickly returned, their familiarity with the area as well as Akari’s arc phone cutting down their travel time.

Upon their return, they did a quick check of their surroundings before heading over to a flat patch of land where the ground was relatively dry.

Akari carefully placed her backpack down on the ground before running over to join her team in training. They had already started running, so she joined up with them once they’d completed their current set.

Each of them took turns running between two fallen branches, doing their best to execute a quick u-turn and make it back as quickly as possible. Akari did her best not to slip on the yellowing grass, her feet digging deep furrows into the soft soil with each sharp turn.

Truffle had stopped trying to run on two legs after the first few practices, instead shifting to a four-legged stance whenever he had to run. He had made a lot of progress in the week or so that they’d been training, but his top speed was still more of a lumber than a gallop. Akari was able to leave him in the dust on a daily basis, but even she wasn’t faster than a Carnivine or a Murkrow. Besides, in nearly everything else, Akari fell short in comparison to a Pokémon.

Jubilee wasn’t able to run at all, but rather slithered back and forth between her own markers. When she had run with them, the slippery trail she left had quickly rendered the track impossible for the others to traverse, and Akari had had to move their practice area a few times before giving up and just giving Jubilee her own.

As Akari waited for her turn to run, she kept an eye on Jubi, just to make sure she was doing alright. The Goomy was stretched further than she’d ever seen her before, base still moving forwards ever so slowly as her upper half strained for the finish line. She looked practically diagonal, but her sticky “foot” kept her stable and upright. She seemed alright, happily squelching her way across the grass.

Akari kept watching for a moment before she felt a tap on her back. Quickly whirling around, she realized that it was her turn to run, and she’d been making Truffle wait. Muttering a quick apology, she set out on her run. 

Head down and breathing steady from practice, her feet pounded down on the earth as she sprinted forwards. The air was dry and pained her throat as she gasped for air. The dried grass crackled beneath her feet as she spun, panting at the physical exertion. 

Spying the finish line, she forced another burst of energy out of her aching muscles. The way back was always harder, with the finish line so close but out of reach. Sweat dripped into her eyes, and her legs were burning.

With one final push, she made it over the finish line, before doubling over, her breath coming in short, sharp pants and her throat sore. Her heart thumped in her chest like a drum, and sweat was dripping down her face. She winced as a droplet stung the tender gash across her cheek, the nearly healed wound still sensitive and the salt only making it worse. Wiping her face before pulling out her arc phone, she checked the time and smiled in relief with the realization that the runs were over. 

She clapped twice, unable to speak, but her team knew what she meant. They started move practice, each having their own exercises that they’d developed together.

After recovering from the shuttle runs, Akari started to walk around and try to help the others with their exercises.

“Truffle, that’s great. You can charge up a Scratch much more quickly now, but does it need to glow that brightly? Try making it dimmer and maybe that’ll make it easier or faster?”

Truffle huffed in acknowledgement, already trying out the suggestion. His furry face wrinkled in concentration, eyes staring intently at his glowing paws.

Moving on, Akari watched Jubi practice for a while. Jubi was working on her accuracy, since most of her moves worked best from a distance and she hadn’t grown her metallic shell just yet. The Goomy was trying to hit a small rock from quite a distance away. Looking at the rock, the dirt around it was muddy and churned up, but the rock itself seemed fine. 

Akari jogged over and offered a word of advice. “Hey, Jubi,” she said, getting the Goomy’s attention. “Could you move a little closer to that rock? Try and hit it when it’s pretty close first, then work your way up to far away. Last week’s distance seemed good. Maybe go back to that?” 

About to move away, Akari remembered something. “And-just remember to stay hydrated, alright? You know how bad it can be when a Goomy dries out.”

Jubilee burbled in affirmation before moving closer to the stone, seemingly unaffected by both the earlier training and her multiple misses. Her soft, translucent skin glistened in the sunlight as she bounced forward, making sure to spray herself with water before getting back to practice.

Akari watched for a while to make sure that the new distance was alright before going over to pick her pack back up again, groaning at the minor burden as her legs protested the added weight. Still, it was better than it being carried away by scavengers.

They’d all made a lot of progress in the past few weeks. By using the arc phone to time their runs, Akari knew that they were advancing. Even if it didn’t feel like it. Truffle had gotten all of his moves to at least a basic level of competence, and Jubi had been able to use a ranged version of Absorb. Once, but it had still happened. Still, it felt like they hadn’t gotten much better. 

Akari scoffed at herself. Honestly, she should know better than to expect massive improvement in a couple of weeks. They had improved. Even Jubi had lowered her sky-high expectations from-oh. Dammit.

Akari sighed, massaging her temples in an attempt to relieve the oncoming headache.

She started jogging over, shouting as she ran. “Jubi! Just because you hit it once doesn’t mean you can hit it from double the distance!”

They trailed after Truffle, the Teddiursa following a scent trail which he had assured Akari was important. They picked their way through bushes and across knobbly tree roots, around a hole and, in Akari’s case, over a small stream. 

Akari’s legs burned. She jogged ahead to catch up to Truffle, almost tripping over a fallen branch as she did so. “T-Truffle,” she panted, “are you sure you’ve found something? We’ve been walking for hours…”

He nodded and, nose to the ground, continued on.

Akari rolled her eyes and looked back to make sure that Jubi was keeping up. For a second, she didn’t see her, and began to panic. When a curious chirp came from behind her, she spun around to see that Jubi had overtaken her, the Goomy now hot on Truffle’s heels.

She barked out a laugh and rushed to catch up, relieved that she hadn’t lost a teammate.

They continued on.

Akari stumbled after Truffle, dripping wet and miserable. Seeing a flattened rock, she called for a halt. 

Truffle looked back from his singleminded pursuit of the interesting scent, woofing at the sudden stop. He paused, taking in everyone’s sodden states. Looking quite sheepish, he trundled over and sat down beside Akari with Jubi on her other side.

Akari glared at him. “…the river? Why! What’s so amazing that we’ve got to cross a river?” She slumped back, letting out a sigh. “Honestly, I’m not that mad. Promise. But, come on.”

Truffle nodded, patting her hand before hopping to his feet again. 

Akari groaned, looking incredulously at the determined Teddiursa. Turning to Jubi for assistance, she was met with an unfair amount of positivity and cheer. She groaned again and turned over, almost falling off of the rock before springing up to prevent said fall. She turned to Truffle. “…after we get back, you’re washing everything for a week.”

Truffle shrugged before dropping to all fours again and continuing on his way.

Akari, grumbling at the injustice of the world in general and Truffle in particular, followed in his tracks with Jubi close behind.

Akari tripped.

She fell forwards, only quick reflexes allowing her to quickly grab at a nearby branch and keep her from touching the muddy ground. Holding tightly to the branch, she regained her balance and looked down for the thing which had tripped her up.

It was Truffle. 

To be specific, it was Truffle’s hind leg, which she’d tripped over whilst he was in the process of digging a hole. 

She arched an eyebrow, knowing that he couldn’t see her but doing it anyways. “Truffle?” Akari asked. “Why, may I ask, are you digging a hole? I thought you were trying to find something! Isn’t that why we’ve been walking for, oh, a couple of hours?” Beginning to work herself up, she didn’t notice that he’d emerged from the hole until he tapped her knee in a polite request for attention.

Cut off mid sentence, she looked down to find his crescent marking aglow, and a small pile of tubers by her feet. “…oh,” she said. “Sorry, I didn’t realize. Thank you?”

Truffle smirked a little at her sheepish apology, but accepted it after a few moments of drawing out the tension.

Jubi was already trying to eat one of the things she identified as sootfoot roots, and so Akari had to hold her back alongside congratulating Trouble on his bountiful haul.

She would have embraced him, but that would have to wait for later. After he’d had a bath. Quickly scooping the sootfoots up and out of Jubi’s reach, she held them above her head and waited until the Goomy stopped salivating before she made her request. “Jubi, Water Gun these, please? Gently.”

Jubi puffed herself up, gathering water in her mouth before releasing it in a spray of mist across the muddy roots.

“…a little less gently.” Akari’s arm was starting to hurt from holding it out for so long, so she switched arms. Holding them out again, she waited for Jubi to be ready.

That time, Jubi successfully washed the sootfoots and Akari patted them dry before storing them in her backpack.

Her stomach growled. She looked at the other two, noticing the strands of drool hanging from their jaws and the sorrowful look in their eyes.

“Well,” she allowed, “just one.” Picking out the smallest tuber, she gave it to Truffle for him to split into three before taking the smallest piece.

Biting in, she pulled a face. It… wasn’t very nice, to say the least. Bland yet bitter, with a crunchy and tough texture that made it hard to choke down. Grimacing, she coughed a few times. “Jubi. Just-just use Absorb.” 

Continuing to eat, she finally choked down the final bit. Coughing a few times, she wiped her mouth. She wanted to spit, but she knew that that wouldn’t get the flavour out of her mouth and besides, it was disgusting.

Sighing at the inability to get the flavour out, she stood and hoisted her backpack. Making sure that the other two were ready to go, she adjusted the straps of her pack one last time before getting her arc phone out and opening the map. “Right,” she said, “Off we go.”

They tramped through the marsh, the muddy ground sticking to Akari’s boots and making an irritating sucking noise when it released her shoe. 

Truffle had shifted to two legs now that he didn’t have to be low to the ground to track a scent, his paws caked with dried mud. 

Jubi, of course, looked perfectly all right, the mud just sliding off of her mucous membrane instead of sticking to her.

In the process of looking enviously at Jubi, Akari almost missed the two people conversing just a little bit away. She cut off her gasp, grabbing her teammates and ducking behind a tree.

They froze, hidden only by the poor covering of a rather crooked tree.

Akari listened past the rustling of the leaves, the chirping of birds, and the gusts of wind, to try and catch the words of the strange people dressed all in blue.

“Oh, do stop dawdling,” one snapped at the other. “We’ve an important mission to complete, and you know-.”

“Yes, yes, time wasted is lost, et cetera et cetera et cetera! I get it, you’re obsessed with it, but some of us like to enjoy our time instead of rushing through it like some unsophisticated brute.” the other retorted, before being interrupted mid sentence.

“Well, right now time is of the essence, we cannot enjoy it! A lord’s son is stolen! We’ve simply got to find him, and you are not helping!” The first person continued to berate the other.

Akari’s eyes widened. Lord-the warden called that Ursaluna Lord, I got Truffle from there-oh. Oh, eff.