Tiny Treats
The sun shone bright rays to beam down upon the surface of the ground. It was just how this young Pokemon who was strolling down would like it as it rippled across her fur.
It was then that she approached what she was looking for.
“Alright!” she boasted to nobody, sitting up a little bit straighter, “Getting in and out should be a breeze. Dunno what my parents are going on about these places being bad are for. They went in them all the time, and I’m more than prepped!”
This was a young Seel, a pinniped with bluish-white fur covering her body. Despite her frame being more suited for the aquatic shoreline of the continent she now inhabited, at best; she would happily pounce forward on the ground as if she’d been dirt-bound her entire life. Bless her soul, for it didn’t show on her gleeful cheeks if she was bothered.
“I know we only just moved in,” she was talking to nobody, and the place was barren. Who in this dungeon would hear her besides the ferals? “But isn’t the point of these escapades to get better?” she drooped, despite that nobody was listening, hanging her head closer to the ground, “Not like I’ll ever be able to join a guild, anyway...”
She was out in the dungeon known as Mystifying Forest, a shrouded dungeon with puny puddles dotting the landscape of the shrouded trees and dirt patches. The hues would long for the small licking of sun they would be allowed to receive under the canvas of the canopy above.
Such a prospect would have one worrying; after all, many Grass and Poison types frequented this dungeon, and therefore the scope of the endeavour should have one frightful for the Seel, or at the very least apathetic. She’d contribute yet more to the generous, thankless work of those who’d have to chase after her should she fail.
But the forestry for some reason calmed the pinniped, as did its surroundings. Her first encounter were some pink eggs caught in a group, each of their tiny growls as menacing as each other.
“Oh go away!” the Seel complained, lurching her head downward. From her horn elicited a long-reaching purple beam that seemed to vibrate the air around it. The eggs were left spinning, but they still shambled towards her, only to receive her noggin as a reward before vacating this world.
“Rude,” she mused afterwards, and then continued bouncing on her merry way.
A typical Seel on land would be inclined to drag their body across the ground, the speed only varying due to the fact their bodies were more adept for swimming. But this one appeared to move much more actively; mirroring those she’d seen move in this manner like quadrupeds. She didn’t solely move like that, as that would be exhausting, but she was used to the idea of carrying her weight around. She was a bit of a runt, she’d been made certain of that and so there was less to haul around in general.
A couple of floors and some more ferals disposed of; she encountered one particular blockade that stood out.
A purple fluffy puffball, with large red eyes and a chittering mouth; its appearance through which would remind one more of Butterfree than the evolution that Arceus had assigned it in this world, sneered and hissed at the Seel.
She prepared herself to use her move again, but found no energy willed to come up top. Oh alright, there was a need to bring out the reserves after all.
From her horn flashed yet another beam, this one freezing cold as it glimmered in all the colours of the rainbow. It wasn’t long before the bug received yet another bang on the head if the chill hadn’t been enough to ward off its visage, smoke puttering towards the sky in a haste to retreat the quirky Water-type.
Once she’d finished dealing with the Venonat, emphasised by brushing her flippers together, she shortly looked around, only to find something peculiar.
At first, she thought it was another feral, preparing her stores to have to freeze it to death should she have to. The move didn’t exactly ‘freeze’ anyone, it wasn’t cold enough for that (not that she could will that much energy even if she wanted to), but it would deter most Normal-types, of which this Pokemon definitely was if she’d gotten it right.
It was one of the ones that was supposed to frequent this dungeon, right? A small bear with honey-brown fur laid on its back, asleep. It looked exposed, as if it had been dropped there just now, and dirt only began occupying its underside where its tail was rammed into the dirt. By all appearances, it may as well have just been dunked straight from nowhere, and the Seel would be none-the-wiser.
A Teddiursa, the Seel was reminded. She wandered closer, and noticed a rather weird detail; its front paws, the ones with claws on them gave the impression of being burnt in appearance. The fur around the end of the paws was somewhat tinted darker in appearance than the rest of it, giving off an odd highlighted appearance. Was that normal for Teddiursa? Maybe it stuck its hands in a Combee-hive and they got swollen, but they didn’t look to be in any pain, nor did such a visual look like it was painful. An odd smell also radiated from the creature, one very meaty and salty from what little the Seel had whiffed.
The Seel quickly scanned the area in case any more ferals were going to find her out here. The worst it could be was that it was simply a feral and she could go on with the rest of the dungeon. But she’d be a terrible explorer if she didn’t investigate this oddity.
“Hello...?”
Was that a voice? It sounded like a girl’s voice.
“Are you a feral? What’s that on your paws?”
Her... paws? Was this some kind of furry or something? Who would ask that question-
“Are you okay? I mean, we’re in a Mystery Dungeon. Are you, like, hungry or something?”
In a what?
Suddenly she shot up, into an unsteady seat as sensations foreign and bizarre wormed their way into her consciousness. Her eyes met a white seal, with a brown bag slung around the centre portion of its torso. It was staring at her with a hint of a lopped tongue, its cheeks bearing tusks that protruded from its lower jaw.
“Aahhh!!!” she screamed, waving her pawed arms that were suddenly much rounder and shorter, “D-Don’t... don’t eat... me...”
“Whoa, so you’re not a dungeon feral!” the seal spoke, as if in surprise, “That’s... huh, what’re you doing out here?”
The seal spoke.
What in the world- was this some kind of dream or something?
“Um... helloo?” the seal probed, “You okay there?”
She then took to looking at her body. Her body was covered in fur all over, warm and rippling as it brushed in the wind and the breaths the two Pokemon contributed to said wind. It was an odd orangey-brown hue, and the large claws on both her front paws and her miniature feet, of which she noticed her legs had shrunk, suggested to her something truly extraordinary had happened.
“N-No... what...” the bear stammered, in shock and disbelief, “H-How... how did...”
How in the world did she become a bear?! Was she just a meal for this seal here and now?!
“Hello!”
The seal shouted again, grabbing the bear’s attention.
“I’m not gonna eat you,” the seal mentioned much more genuinely, “But, seriously, what’re you doing out here?”
What was she doing? Good question. Maybe it could be answered once the reception for such answers wasn’t being held up by the dozen other questions that took its place.
Especially when it seemed that no answer would surface. All the bear recalled before this were longer, lankier limbs and that she was a human. For all that might’ve been worth, she may as well have been born in the forest, and none would have any means of contesting her.
“I don’t... remember...” the bear answered honestly, hanging her head. It was like a void of black had taken everything personal to her in that moment.
“You don’t remember?” the seal repeated, tilting her head, “Well that’s odd. Do you remember your name, at least? I’m Parora,” she introduced, happily wagging her tail briefly.
No, unfortunately, came the bear’s reason in amidst her frazzled mindstorm, her name wasn’t remembered. It started with a B.... maybe that’s because she was a bear, though? That felt silly.
If she didn’t have a name, she could just name herself whatever came to mind.
“I don’t... remember my name...”
“Okay, then I can just call you Teddiursa!”
Teddiursa?
From Pokemon?
Oh, that memory hadn’t been blocked.
Oh, oh god, several memories from that side of her brain hadn’t been blocked. Square rooms and colourful little buddies setting out on adventures in teams together...
That was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, wasn’t it? She was in the PMD world somehow, as the talking seal had punctured into her brain with its metaphorical horn... never mind the real one on its head.
“Teddiursa?!” she replied in astonishment.
“Yeah! Cause you’re a Teddiursa, I think. That okay with you?”
It was then that the Teddiursa’s gaze fell upon her paw, a deeper orange hue than the rest of her body. A smell was being produced from it, a familiar scent, but the words weren’t coming to mind right now.
She licked at it, tentatively while the Seel-Parora, scanned her down.
It tasted salty and savoury, the paste showing as a miniscule dollop on her tongue in its black hue, jolting even Parora back starkly.
“Wh-what is that?!” she balked, “B-Black h-honey?!”
“’s not honey,” the Teddiursa answered, “It’s Vegemite...” chills went up her spine, “I was.... human... I used to eat this all the time...”
Now she was producing it. That part went unsaid; it was self-explanatory in the shivers that wracked her frame.
“You... you were...” the Seel was backing up now, and the Teddiursa feared much concerning herself then, but the Seel kept smiling. “Wow, that’s cool! Like those old explorer stories my parents talked about?!”
The Teddiursa’s brain fumbled as she tried thinking of her name, and in formulating a response that would make sense for the pinniped in front of her.
“I think... I’ll call myself Beda,” she answered, “My name started with B... I think... I’m... a... bear now,” that still felt odd to say out loud, “and I’m edible,” she held her paw up that still bored its dark hue, “I... I think I was human, and this is... you’re a Pokemon?”
“Bead-ah?” Parora enunciated to confirm, before nodding firmly, “Alright, well, Beda, we’re in the middle of a Mystery Dungeon. They shift and change and I dunno if I wanna get caught in here when they do.”
She turned to face an entrance, “For you to be talking, even if you’re not human, you definitely need help,” the Seel concurred, “So how’s about I rescue you, huh?”
“That’d... be appreciated...”
Beda picked herself up on shaky feet, luckily still a biped despite having turned into a bear; maybe this was the world taking mercy on her. That tail above her no-zone however would continue to get the better of her, but she slowly plodded behind Parora, and the two would continue through the dungeon.
They would keep on at a leisurely pace. Parora would bind ahead at remarkable speed to the slow-plodding bear who was simply getting her bearings towards walking like this. It seemed as if the Water-type had been doing this all her life, that not exactly an incorrect observation, either.
“So what’s, uh...” Parora was trying to remember the word, “Vemebemit, or whatever you called it?”
“Vegemite,” Beda calmly answered. She’d been panicky for all of several minutes while she’d tripped on her paws trying to walk. No matter how far they walked, she still had it coating her paws, “It’s a spread where I used to live. We’d put it on bread, and other things too.”
“So it’s deeeeefinitely not honey?”
“No,” Beda recoiled, “I don’t even like honey. Honey’s better as a flavour, not by itself.”
Parora hummed sceptically, but didn’t seem to make any further moves.
“Well, the smell of it’s kinda weird,” Parora admitted, “I haven’t seen practically any dungeon Pokemon since I met you. Maybe they don’t like it.”
“I used to eat it a lot as a human,” Beda recalled, “It’s like my memory’s blocked, but... only... parts of it?” she didn’t honestly know why she was saying this to a stranger. Maybe it’s because part of her was optimistically hoping for this to be a dream, and she just played along. The sensation of wind and dirt and fur and claws felt too real to be just a dream but... what harm was there in believing?
Parora had lasered anything out of sight with multi-coloured beams from the horn atop her head, which at first had caught Beda slightly off guard, but then she was a Pokemon. It only made sense that her friend would have kooky magic powers.
Did that mean that she also had crazy powers? The bear was already producing Vegemite for crying out loud, there had to be something she could do that was weird and wacky besides that.
“Hey, Beda,” Parora grabbed of her attention, “Wanna battle a bit? There’s two of ‘em.”
Parora was quickly flopping towards what looked like a teal bear of some kind, while next to it stood a short grey squirrel-like Pokemon who was angrily gnashing its teeth and bulbous cheeks in the direction of the former human.
Beda had never used a Pokemon move before; what were Teddiursa capable of again?
Her breathing accelerated, the squirrel darting close enough with a force that practically barrelled her over. Her vision blurred, staring off into the distance. The squirrel jolted up and back, twitching its head erratically, but that didn’t seem to-
Then Parora thwacked her large skull into it, melting it into the floor.
“You alright?”
“I-I...” Beda felt bad for not being able to contribute, but the Seel was looking at her with concern.
“I saw you use Baby-Doll Eyes,” the Seel informed of her, “Next time, try using those claws of yours,” she recommended, pointing with a flipper, “I’ll handle the rest; you don’t need to worry about me, okay?”
It was then that they encountered a staircase leading upwards. Parora looked pleased by this, but Beda had to stare at it for several seconds.
Staircases in the forest that simply lead up and out into nowhere.
One wouldn’t be remiss for wondering if she’d suddenly stepped into an Alice-in-Wonderland-esque nightmare the way the bear tried to comprehend what she was seeing with scrutinised brows and a gaping mouth.
“Uhh- why’re they just stairs?”
“Mystery Dungeons are weird,” was the reply she got, “C’mon; we gotta go on them to go towards the next floor!”
“Uhhh...”
“If we find an Escape Orb, we’ll use it right away,” Parora stipulated, “But there’s none here. So let’s get going!”
The seal happily bounced up the stairs, leaving the bear to hurriedly scramble after her.
“Oh booo!” Parora shouted in exasperation.
Beda didn’t understand her concern, until her eyes blearily opened. For some reason, after they’d gone up the stairs, everything had gotten all dizzy and she’d simply closed her eyes. She wasn’t standing on stairs anymore, in a dirt room surrounded by trees like the last. Parora was glaring at what looked like a large river that blocked passage to the stairs on the other end of the room.
“So just... swim across? You’re a seal, aren’t you?” Beda insinuated, but Parora sighed, wearily. Beda half worried if she’d offended her companion with that statement, but the Seel shook her head.
“No, I get it. Nobody said all disabilities had to be seen, after all,” she grumbled, turning her way, “I, um... can’t.”
“Why?”
“I was born weird,” Parora wasn’t looking directly at Beda, and the bear was nervous already, but it had accelerated from getting potentially too personal at the simple act of asking a question, “When I hatched, the muscles in my tail weren’t fully formed. So I can swim but... not for very long.”
“Oh... I’m sorry for even asking...”
“Plus, I don’t want to leave you behind,” Parora pointed out, “I said I’d rescue you, and I meant it. I can’t exactly ‘rescue’ you if you end up drowning and I can’t pick you up, you know?”
“No, yeah, that makes sense, forget I asked,” the bear excused, blushing. It was so wide that her entire muzzle may as well have been as red as her paws.
“Oh you don’t have to feel sorry for me at all!” Parora insisted, smiling wider at her notice to that factoid, “How could you have known, anyway? But this is why I’m so quick,” the Seel replied, prancing over to the other end behind them to a hallway, “If I can’t swim, well, why bother getting better at that? I can be the best land Seel! Bet nobody ever thought of that one, huh?”
“It really doesn’t bother you that you can’t swim that well?” Beda wondered. That was like a human being unable to walk, if she got the equivalency right, and being forced to sit in a wheelchair. Nobody ever said those stuck to wheelchairs didn’t want to walk.
“I mean, I can swim but it’s just not what I’m good at,” Parora told her, “If we lost an item or something, I can retrieve it, but I can’t ferry other Pokemon. So we gotta go the long way.”
It was silence after that as Beda mulled more on how she got here to be casually chatting with a stranger she’d literally just met. Part of her should be more anxious; after all, what was that seal thinking underneath her cheery exterior?
At one point, however, the Seel would pad on top of a square that blipped her out of existence. What Beda hadn’t known until she glanced at it was that it had simply teleported the Water-type into an entirely separate location, blinking for a few seconds as if she’d departed this world.
Worse yet, there was a feral fox-like brown creature staring back at her who’d appeared across the room.
Oh god that was an Eevee.
It bared its fangs, snarling as it padded on quick-footed steps.
Beda yelped out, her eyes watering as pain surged through her stomach from the Eevee’s slam into it. She angrily indignantly swiped at it with her claws, repeatedly, throwing them every which way. She wasn’t even seeing where she was swiping.
She landed face first in the dirt, completely unused to her balance. She didn’t wake until a familiar voice roused her.
“Bedaaaa...”
It was Parora.
“You didn’t fall asleep, did you?”
Slowly the bear picked herself up, sluggishly, as the Seel held in its flipper a large blue fruit-like sphere.
“Take it for me, I dealt with the menace.”
Beda pouted, taking it. Now it felt like the dungeon was taunting her; Eevee was one of her favourite Pokemon. Of course it had to slam her upside by making it her enemy.
She took the Oran Berry, taking a tentative bite out of it. Surprisingly, it was drier than she expected, but also quite savoury and sweet. It was actually a mix of flavours, the kind that invigorated the usually picky tongue that she had, eventually finding energy to consume the rest.
“All better, now?”
“Y-Yeah, that... that’s definitely magic,” Beda muttered, picking herself up. She was getting used to this; it almost played out like the games she once played.
She resumed plodding along behind Parora, who was a lot more alert after that incident. While the Seel was aware of Beda knowing Fury Swipes since she’d come by in the nick of time, she was certainly also attentive of how slow the Teddiursa walked. Even taking into account how little she knew about the species, Parora knew that there had to be some truth to Beda’s confession to being human with how she carried herself and how oddly she spoke. There was an odd accent to her speech that certainly wasn’t incomprehensible, but it did make her stick out a little compared to regular native Pokemon around here.
Meanwhile, Beda was busy chiding herself in her head.
‘You’re not helping enough...’
‘Why’re you letting her do all the work?’
They’d entered a room almost halfway on the turn to finding a way around the river from earlier. It was in said room that Beda noticed an apple on the ground, and went to go pick it up.
Since her paws were mildly coated in the stuff, all the good that brushing off the dirt did was make the apple taste a little funny when Beda went to eat it. The room was luckily empty, and Parora really was beginning to ponder what about Beda’s scent was so off-putting to the ferals; she’d gotten used to it already. It was a little pungent, but it wasn’t that awful in her opinion.
Shortly after, a purple skunk showed, one of the Poison-types, a Stunky. Beda was frozen in her corner, and Parora tried to angle her beams towards it, missing and hitting the trees.
Beda found herself gazing at the floor while her heart raced.
‘She’s going to abandon you, you know.’
‘What good have you contributed so far?’
The skunk was right in front of her face. Parora was yelling something, but it went right over the Teddiursa’s round ears.
She growled, though it came out a meek little thing, though this time it was accompanied with tears that made the Stunky wince, shivering as the Teddiursa once again entered a flurry of slashing swipes. After a few rakes of the air, it was back again to face the dirt.
“Beda?” Parora questioned, “You’re... okay, right?”
“I... wanted to help, but I know nothing about Teddiursa and I’m-”
“You sure helped alright!” Parora told her, “But don’t worry about having to do everything on your own. You helped me out, and here I am helping you out! It’s only natural!”
Further on did they crunch through the forest, until they entered another large room. Parora happily bounced over to a brightly glowing sphere.
“Oh goody!” she bubbled, procuring it in her flippers, “This is it! Let’s get out of here!”
Beda wandered closer to look at it, before Parora shattered it into the floor, and all went black.
“So, Beda,” Parora asked of her once they were out and far away from the dungeon. It looked a lot more natural out here than in there, more resemblant of an actual forest as opposed to some weird labyrinthine construct, “What’re you going to do now?”
Beda had to ruminate on that for a second. Now that she was transformed into a Pokemon, she literally had no friends, and was completely on her own. Where should she even start? What should she even do?
“If you don’t know what to do, I can probably suggest this then,” Parora said almost with a hint of a giggle, “There’s this guild in town near where I live, and it’s supposedly filled to the brim with former humans. Maybe being amongst your own might... help you, a bit?”
The former human had a vague recollection of the games having a guild, and how those often meant going into these dungeons to perform simple tasks. Assuming she were going to make herself better, she could probably help out somewhere. She was always more of a thinker than an initiator, a reactor moreso than a powerhouse. That could work.
She then realised, sniffing nearby and looking at her paws, that the odd deep shade had completely vanished, the smell having entirely eradicated. Licking it met warm fur that she spat out almost immediately.
“It’s... gone.”
“Yeah, your paws all healed up. Funny that,” Parora noticed, scrutinising.
“Uh... huh...” Beda seemed satisfied, smiling. At least she didn’t have to smell like a pig when she got to this guild; if she was worried about that before, there’d certainly be no worries now.
“Then let’s go to this guild,” Beda exacted, nodding and proudly putting her paws to her sides, “Why not?”
“Okay, sure!” Parora clapped, before quickly yelping.
“Something... wrong?”
“I can sign you up, but...” Parora hung her head, “I’m... gonna have to see if they accept that I’ve gotta go home after this is done. I won’t be able to stay with you.”
“Why... not?”
“Well...” they’d started walking towards it to get on to it, “Mum and Dad are really overprotective of me. I keep telling them not to worry, I’m an adult and all but...” she frowned, “I literally just met you, and you seem really nice but,” she appended, “I don’t wanna make them think the wrong way about all this. Apparently the guild’s got a sorta bad reception for some reason; I don’t know, I just moved in around here,” she emphasised, “So I have no idea what other Pokemon in town don’t like them for, but if I don’t show up home by the end of the day... I don’t wanna have to make it your problem if they come chasing me up, you know?”
Beda supposed that made sense, but only made hums of contentment in response.
“D-Don’t take this the wrong way! I love exploring, so I want to sign up to this guild, but...”
“You don’t want to disappoint your parents at the same time,” Beda affirmed, “Makes sense. I’m sure... if they are other humans, they can’t be that bad.”
A cautionary tale, indeed...
The sun was beginning to set in the ocean ahead, its orange beams rippling across the waves that blew wind from the coast, passing the light onto weary eyes. Tree stumps serving as households and platforms all at once punctured the landscape, with wooden bridges connecting some.
They approached a particularly large tree-stump that might as well have been as tall as an actual tree sans the branches. The arched entrypoint met the two Pokemon comfortably, a soft murmur emanating from inside. A sign above read “Clover Guild” in two languages, English and some other kind that Beda couldn’t read but assumed it said the same thing regardless.
Upon entering, they were greeted with a wooden spiral staircase that went both up and down directly ahead, an entrance towards the left where smells wafted, sounds hummed from those who had entered, and job postings on a wall that swerved to their right. Despite this, it seemed a little run-down, but nothing crazy; it was cleaner than expected given the nature of who was being dealt with here.
“Oooh! “ Parora awed, “They sure have a lot of jobs here!”
Beda noticed, however, besides the large crowd that was present chattering amongst themselves, some of the scribbles belonging to scattered notes under her feet. Some had written words such as ‘kino’ and ‘based’ alongside images ranging from extremely crude to recognisable.
These were humans alright, or at least related to them, when she picked them up and studied them.
“B-Beda?” the Seel asked, having observed her slowly fearful face, “You okay?”
‘This is... that website isn’t it? 4chan?’ her mind echoed back to her senses.
‘You know what the rules are...’
‘No girls on 4chan unless you show tits’
Beda frowned. She’d lost their prominence (thankfully) upon entering this world and becoming a baby ursine, but she became increasingly self-conscious about entering what came off as a male-dominated space. Small factoids brushed at her mind, such as the fact that half of the population couldn’t all be expected to go through such a harrowing ritual, and given the nature of the culture it only made sense that some of the jokes were just in jest, surely they wouldn’t mean that in actuality.
Maybe someone just needed to-
“Haven’t seen your faces around here! Thought that was Percy’s gig but guess he’s out today.”
Both turned towards the entrance, now being occupied by some sort of teal bipedal weasel creature with sharp claws on both its arms and legs. Jewels decorated its body, alongside feathers extending from its ears and tail. It wore around its torso a large belt with two pouches for each hip, alongside various bands that adorned its body. Atop its head rode a tiny yellow and white insect, seemingly admiring the sights below as its partner strolled along to meet the newcomers, a cheeky smile forming on her toothy face.
“Oh, hello!” Parora waved cheerily with a flipper, “I’m Parora, and this is-!”
“B-Beda,” the bear shyly mimicked her partner with less energetic movements, but still made out to be an innocent greeting. Her breath was shallow; it wasn’t easy to talk to strangers, but she had to give her best.
“Are you o-okay? Is s-something the matter?” a voice piped from atop the weasels head. The bug was watching Beda inquisitively, his voice serene albeit small in its presence. Had he sensed her emotions somehow? Beda smiled wider, insides warming at the emotion being shown.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine!” Beda spoke more peppily. She hoped he’d understand even if there was some weird magic going on that it was simply trivial matters. She didn’t want her soul or whatever was being read to reveal anything greater than simply the misgivings of a normal amount of anxiety. How would one quantify that anyways?
"What's there to be afraid of?" the weasel suggested, eyeing Beda suspiciously, "You scared of me or something?"
"N-No!" Beda hastily waved her paws in front to dissuade the notion, but her wide eyes and innocent posture only seemed to double it down for the taller Pokemon.
“I can get scary if you want,” the weasel confidently teased, flashing her claws in such a manner that they glinted light in the Teddiursa’s direction. Beda’s eyes went quite wide, Parora gaped a little as she lurched forward, and even the bug atop her head seemed a little taken aback by the course of action.
“Sneasel!” the bug yelped, “D-Don’t aggravate her!”
She giggled a bit before laying them down, “I wasn’t gonna actually do anything!” she assured him.
“You suuuure?” Parora insinuated. She wasn’t afraid to get dirty if the Sneasel was about to go on, but she appeared to calm down at her partner’s insistence.
“If I did, Booker here would probably get on my case,” she assured them, “I promise I ain't gonna hurt you. At least, not outta the blue like that; but if you wanna spar with me sometime, I'd be down,” she grinned their way, encouragingly in a manner that oddly put the Teddiursa in a bit more ease; they were both clawed after all.
Booker sighed, “She’s normally really nice, ho-honest. We’re Team Brave, and if you’re joining the guild, I hope we s-see each other more sometime!”
“We are!” Parora smiled up at Booker, “We’ll totally get better enough to spar with you one day, right, Beda?”
Beda nodded. It came out less confident than she liked, she only hoped that her emotions on the inside would make up for it. Sneasel seemed to eye the room to the left longingly, where it smelled like food was being prepared. After some further talks the teams eventually parted, with a hopeful note from Booker that it was nice talking to them and he hoped they’d meet again as they strolled off to dinner.
“Well, uh, that didn’t seem too bad, right?” Parora posited of her partner, who nodded happily; thank god Sneasel’s little display hadn’t actually scarred her for life or anything. She could get used to that, if she were allowed her own pace at things.
Multiple teams were heading off in that direction; a large white cat-ferret with red stripes accompanied by a long serpent like snake with various patterns across its body, a small white-and-blue otter, alongside a bipedal rodent with spikes atop its green shell and a fish-like thing with no arms, a large tail and gills extending out its sides.
“We should probably ask where the guildmaster is,” Parora suggested, “This place is huge, who knows where they could be!”
“Oh, yeah, we should go get ourselves signed up,” Beda realised, clacking her paws together. She glanced at the stairs but she didn’t want to annoy anyone by accident...
A trio of Pokemon scrambled in. The first Pokemon to hop in was a small pink kitty cat with a blue band around her neck and squinted eyes, the second a green round toad-like creature with a bulb on its back and a red scarf tied around her neck, and the third was a black-furred puppy dog with big brown eyes and a yellow flower on her left ear.
“Hello!” Parora called out to them, “Are you members of this guild too?”
“We are!” the cat called out, “we’re Team Petal-Purr!”
“Are you lost?” the toad next to her asked in a calm, relaxed voice. The dog said nothing, but a wide smile took over her muzzle as she watched the new members with fascination.
“We wanna sign up but no idea where the guildmaster is!” Parora took charge with a confident tone, “You know where he is?”
“He's usually in his office with his paperwork. It's on the third floor, up those big stairs. There's a room with two huge doors at the very top. Would you like us to show you the way?” the toad answered.
“You can’t miss it!” her cat companion insisted, “You joining up too?”
“Oh, we can probably find it ourselves!” Parora shouted, clapping affirmatively to dig it in, “You’re good!” Beda was a lot quieter but she nodded firmly alongside her partner’s declaration; she appreciated the sentiment even if they had their own direction to choose.
“Sweet, can’t wait to see you all!” she cried, “I’m Shelby, this is Blossom,” she gestured to her green companion, “and that’s Heidi!” she pointed of her puppy partner, who looked a little taken aback by the attention but was still smiling. Beda had to make a conscious effort not to stare; maybe they were kindred spirits in an esoteric sense.
After a moment, the trio eventually went to go get dinner, and the Teddiursa and the Seel had the confidence to ascend the stairs towards the joining of this guild.
Parora still beat the bear who had actual legs up towards the tippy top step, in an odd turn of events. Up the spiral and into the confidence of starting a new team together.
The Seel was almost ecstatic the way she’d bounce up and down. The doors were somewhat large and imposing, so the Seel slapped with a flipper.
“Come iiin~” a voice encouraged from within. They opened the door to a cat-like figure who was navy-blue primarily, sporting bits of white fur atop his head and on his angled ears.
“Hi! I’m Parora,”
“H-Hello. Beda,” Beda nervously spoke.
“My name is Lliam, and I am the Guldmaster,” he introduced with sweeping motions of his paws, “Are you two signing up to become new members of our Clover Guild?” he supposed of them.
“Yeah!” Parora confirmed, “How’d you know?”
The cat’s eyes blinked knowingly, “You both seem to look the type, especially~!” he complimented, glancing especially at Beda, “You would fit right in, after all!”
“Me?” Beda questioned. Was he staring into her soul?
“You’re definitely a transformed human, I can ascertain that much,” he informed of the bear, “You and your partner will fit right in~!”
“It’s... a little weird but also a little exciting,” Parora admitted, “Mum and Dad were explorers, and they did all sorts of cool things. So we’re in?”
“As long as you have a team name, you’re more than welcome to join our guild. I’m sure our... eccentricities will grow familiar soon enough.”
Beda was caught for a loss. This was her last chance to back out, but while she didn’t necessarily want to, she didn’t want to have to be expected to constantly dash in daring like a hero all the time. She wanted to get better at her own pace, get used to life as a bear now, grow used to the happenings, all that fun jazz.
“Something up?” Parora asked her.
She attempted voicing her concerns, but the cat caught on quickly.
“Oh you wouldn’t have to be expected to work that hard!” the cat assured them, “We have plenty of members who just do a little bit here and there. You’ll fit right in if you work at it in your own way!”
“Well, Beda?” Parora smiled with glittering eyes, “What do you think?”
There wasn’t any improvement to happen from indecision, the former human would muse internally. She came to a quick decision.
“I’m in,” she acccepted, but quickly blushed and shied away, “But... uh... I don’t have a name for us.”
“I do, I do!” Parora clapped, “Wanna hear?”
“What’s your idea, then?” the cat requested of the Seel.
“Punipawa!” she shouted loudly, “Cause we’re small, but we’ve got a lot of powa!” she emphasised this with a bit of oomph to her voice, “That sound good?”
For some reason, it sounded familiar to something Beda had thought of. In her past life, maybe? Whatever the case, she certainly wasn’t opposed to it now.
“So you’ll register yourselves as Team Punipawa?” he verified.
“Yeah,” Beda smiled, “I’m happy with that.”
“Um, Lliam, sir?” Parora inquired.
“You can just call me Lliam if you’d like, but what’s your question, Parora?”
“Do you have to stay at the guild if you’re a part of it?” she asked, “Cause I wanna join, but, like, Mum and Dad will probably worry about me if I don’t come home for today.”
“That’s understandable,” he nodded along, “So long as you contribute your due diligence to the guild, I don’t think it matters where you stay. I would suggest~” his face seemed to contort into a an odd shape, “that you speak with them about it though. I understand our reputation is... rather wild around these parts.”
“I just don’t wanna make it your problem if they come chasing after me,” Parora conferred of him, “Beda needs a place to stay, and I wanna join up, but... it’s a big decision.”
“That’s quite alright,” he assured her, “I’m sure our members would be happy to assist if they came to badger us about you. But if it really does concern you, then you can head on back for tonight.”
It wasn’t long before he signed them on, providing them badges of a four-leafed plant, the lucky stars joined up to a guild of hopes and surprises.
Beda didn’t mind the loneliness that night; it gave her time to think about the future, after all.
What more would await would be up to fate itself in the end under the night of glimmering stars.
A bear and a seal, together on a mission to better themselves in the world of Pokemon.