Another half week was spent on the roads of Agate Province. Despite the growing pain in George and Blitzer’s feet, Skal and Terez had been demanding they speed up ever since that close call on the crossroads. Any further setbacks would come back to haunt them later, they said.

So the trek continued at as exhausting of a pace as George imagined possible. Bypassing every settlement, mistrusting every Pokemon they encountered, and stopping only to sleep. Even eating had to take place on the move. Skal in particular would crash down on any suggestion to stop for that reason, which irritated George to no end. Of course it wasn’t a problem for him, with his mouth big enough to cram boulders through. He had it easy.

George’s exhaustion grew as the days went by. Not just physically, mentally as well. Neither of the two black scarves were encouraging. They were dictating, not saving, no matter how much they liked to pretend otherwise.

But Blitzer fared worse. He had gotten grumpier since the crossroads, to the point he wouldn’t say anything to George. Neither would he respond to Terez’ orders, until Skal forced him to. George had to keep an eye on him these few days. He always frowned, always had his fist clenched, always seemed to be looking out for something. Something had gotten into him, but what? George didn’t dare ask.

As they moved on, forests turned to grasslands, and those grasslands turned into a piping hot mess. Eventually, a long stretch of gravel appeared ahead. It covered the entirity of a small hill in the distance. There were few trees on the way there, and the sun beamed down harshly on the path. No comment was made by the blackscarves, until the top of the hill was reached some time later.

“Well lads, ‘ere we are. Kronn Province.”

Grinning like a fool, Skal presented the landscape ahead to the two boys. Calling it unwelcoming was being charitable. Gravel and sand as far as the eye could see, with almost nothing in between. Long stretches of flat nothing, chopped up by rising slopes of gravel and grass that had gotten lost, under constant pressure from the sun. The air felt very warm here, thanks to the lack of shade. George gazed up at the clear skies with an exasperated sigh. Were it not for the breeze, he’d be panting like a Herdier already.

“Ya like it?”

“No, not at all,” George said. “Where is everything? Where’s the trees, the grass, the-”

“Welcome to the Kronn, kid! Enjoy yer stay, ‘cause it ain’t gettin’ much better than this.” Skal’s far too jovial tone made George frown the moment he heard it.

“What are you laughing about? There’s not even any water here!” George slapped his tail into the sandy path, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. “How are we supposed to get through here without- hack!”

Skal shrugged as he watched George cough up a lung. “Ain’t so bad, kid. Just gotta know where to look for it.”

“He’s right to be concerned,” Terez said. “Do we know where the capsules are?”

“Eh? Thought you’d know,” Skal said.

Terez smacked a hand against her forehead. “Please tell me you are joking.”

“Nah? I really don’t know. Not ‘till Spice Hills at least. You’re better at rememberin’ this stuff than I am,” the Aggron said with folded arms.

Terez’ facial expression bittered by the second, as if she’d been cheated. George knew it better than anyone; he had made that same face plenty of times himself back when there was no white fur growing from it.

“But you told me beforehand that you…” Terez suddenly lashed out beside her. A loud shattering sound filled the air, causing George and Blitzer both to jump away, the former gasping, the latter growling. A chunk of gravel had been blown upwards with explosive force, and rained back down to the earth.

“In fact, let me recite it to you in your own stupid voice! ‘Oh, don worry ‘bout it, Tereez! Ah know duh kronn laik ah know mah bodeh! Ya can trust me no problom!’” she said, mimicking Skal’s voice and rather expressive body language, complete with wild hand gestures, even. She may not have had a tail, but it was uncannily accurate for George’s tastes, especially given how peculiar he found Skal to be.

“Hey now, what’s that all about, huh? I don’t sound like that!” Skal growled. It sounded like he was trying to surpress his accent, to little avail.

“That’s what you said alright, don’t try and Quilava your way out of this one! We’re about to go through the Kronn with nothing! No spare food or water, all because you said you’d-”

“Oi! Ye don’t know nothin’!”

“Calm down, for the love of god!” George shouted. Skal flicked his armoured head around to him for a second. Time enough to smirk.

“Yeah, what he said!”

Skal put his hands on his sides, head tilted upwards. He went from being ready to start a fight to acting like he’d won it already. Terez looked like she had a five o’clock shadow cast over her.

“Well, go on then. Do explain how we’re going to get out of this one.”

As a warm wind blew past him, the smirk on Skal’s face grew wider. “Ever heard of these things called Mystery Dungeons?” he said, his attention devoted to Blitzer all of a sudden.

“Yeah, duh,” the Charmeleon groaned. “Of course we know, I’ve been exploring them all my life, and George’s been with me since he got here. I can handle them alright… the ones back home, I mean.”

“For the love of… Skal, is this some kind of joke? Are you seriously suggesting we take them through those damned dungeons?” Terez clenched her fists; there were a few rocks hovering behind her. All the Aggron did in response was throw his arms out in as wide and casual a shrug as he was capable of. Given his size however, George still shivered from that, dreading the day he’d encounter Skal in a bad mood.

“Yeh. No problem with that, right? No feral or Anomaly is gonna get ‘em with us around. Plenty of water there, good amount of food too. No need to worry about dyin’ out here, right?”

Terez shook her head. “You’ve really lost your mind… what little of it you had,” she sighed. “Fine then. We don’t have much choice. Turning back isn’t possible, not with Soldiers on our tails, and we’ve got to train the Othersider anyhow.”

“Uh, ‘Anomaly’? What’s that?” Blitzer asked.

“Now now. Let’s go.” Terez began to walk down the hill.

“But we-”

“Ye heard her, c’mon.”

Blitzer sighed. “Alright, then…”

They unceremoniously continued down the path, into the sun scorched lands of the Kronn Province. Even as the heat pressed into his fur, George’s mind was dwelling someplace else.

‘Anomalies. That… doesn’t sound good. Is that what those shadowy Pokemon were?’

‘We’ve beaten some before… well, Blitzer and I. But there were so many. Is that normal?’

‘...Does Blitzer even want to help out now? He looks like he could rip someone in half if provoked. He doesn’t talk, either.’

‘...No one here’s saying anything. We’re supposedly in danger, yet we’ve all accepted it. I’m not saying anything either… well yeah, there’s no point, is there. We’re not getting out of this anytime soon, might as well accept it for what it is.’

‘Just got to stay focused, that’s all. Yeah.’

And so the thoughts continued on, through thirst and hunger, through heat and wind, through pain and exhaustion. Overwhelmed, outnumbered, but never outclassed. They were going to reach that safe haven. George was determined to get there. Even if it’s just for bragging rights.

* * *

The afternoon hours went by, and the group pushed on. Much as they may struggle to cross the sands and rocks after the path bended away, they had to press on. They had seen little on the way here: No signs of civilisation aside from the remnants of houses that never saw glory before, and the few ferals they did find scurried away the second they were spotted.

By now, George was panting through his dry throat. He tried freshening up with his own energy a few times, stopping only after Terez caught him. George didn’t understand why, until his throat began drying out faster and faster with each wash. Had he continued, he would’ve dehydrated even quicker. He had to persist off a trickle of stream water, just like the rest.

The sun was halfway to the western horizon, when they came face to face with a slope leading downwards, a canyon of some kind. Upon spotting it, Skal roared into laughter.

“Look what we have here! Sandstone Trench!”

“What?” George looked down the slope. It led down into a long stretch with some grasses.

“That’s what we’ve been waitin’ for, kid!” Skal patted himself on the sjoulder.

George leaned forward. An odd mist hung over the canyon, covering the lands past it. Nothing in the canyon itself demarked it as a Mystery Dungeon, yet that mist gave off an otherwordly energy. A spectre of a presence that could make the bravest shiver with second thoughts.

George’s stomach then growled. “Ngh, yeah, sure am too,” he whispered.

“Yep. Don’t worry kid, I know just how to cook the ferals here,” Skal grumbled with glee. George’s ears twitched back against his head.

‘He’s been looking forward to this for a long time, hasn’t he.’

Terez stepped forward, and turned to the rest of the group, her black scarf wavering in the wind. “Before we go in, Othersider, do you know how to use water attacks?”

George nodded. “I’ve had some practice, yeah.”

Terez smiled for the first time in a few days. “Excellent. There’s a ton of groundlings ahead, so this is an excellent opportunity. I’m curious to see how you’ll perform against them.”

“Told ya to not worry,” Skal chortled. Terez scowled back at him.

“Just this once, I’ll admit your idiocy has come in handy. Don’t get used to it.” She cleared her throat. “Blitzer, how good are you at using your fire?”

“Like any Charizard should be,” he replied, clutching onto one arm with the other.

Terez ran a finger through her hair. “...if you say so. In any case, there are a few grasslings in here. You must protect your friend, the Othersider-”

“On it!” Blitzer shouted. “Nothing’s touching George. Nothing.” He spoke with a vigor he hadn’t shown in a long time. George’s mouth opened a little.

‘He isn’t messing around, is he?’

Terez calmly nodded. “Alright then. Let’s not waste anymore time here. Before someone spots us out here.”

A bird screeched overhead moments thereafter. All eyes were drawn skyward; a Fearow was flying away from them. It didn’t appear to be civilised; there were no garbs or any kind of apparel to be seen. The bird crowed again as it descended back to Eravate. George felt squeamish just looking at it.

Skal shrugged. “Eh, just a Fearow. Those live around these parts, alright. Got sharp eyesight, ‘s good for snatching up prey. Nothin’ for us to worry about, though.”

George gulped. ‘I’m pretty sure I fall under prey here, though...’

“Eh? ‘S the matter, kiddo?”

“Ah!”

George jumped as Skal’s face suddenly appeared inches in front of his face. He hadn’t even noticed the Aggron lumbering towards him. There was a certain glare in the steel beast’s eyes that was unsettling in spite of how he composed himself otherwise. ‘Darn it! Doesn’t he know how intimidating he is?’

“Somethin’ wrong?”

“N-no, I just didn’t feel too well for a moment,” George said. The wind blew through his fur from the left, causing his eyes to shift back and forth between the wide open sands and Skal. Neither was pleasant to look at.

“‘Tis the Fearow, ain’t it?”

George almost bit his own tongue. “Y-yes, actually. I don’t know what it is, but it’s kind of frightening for me to look at.”

Skal leaned over on one knee, and rubbed George’s cheek with the back of a claw, much to the Oshawott’s discomfort. “Flight instinct, boy. Dunno if ye humans have it, but we Pokemon do, ‘specially the small fry like ye. No worries though, ye get used to it. Ye are who ye are, remember? Some trainin’ and ye’d chop that Fearow up like mincemeat if it tried anythin’ funny.”

George sighed. “If you say so,” he said. Blitzer’s warm presence came up next to him; he gazed up to see the Charmeleon next to him with a confident smile. No words needed to be exchanged; Blitzer had George’s back, no matter what.

The smiles suddenly faded as a psychic pressure tapped them all on the back of the head. Terez was forcing her way in. “Let’s get a move on already. I’m not confident that Fearow’s as harmless as you think it is.”

“Didn’t I just-”

“Quiet already, Skal.”

Terez forced the Aggron’s mouth shut. He obeyed like he was her pet, all over a psychic signal. George bit his lip. It wasn’t a strong signal, either; he could tell. Concerned though he might be, it wasn’t the time to dawdle; the group got moving again, down the slope and into the Mystery Dungeon.