Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explores of Another Story

This is a remake of the first chapter that I did then didn't like then deleted because why not? MOAR shall be made! Even if you don't like it... I don't care...! ok... maybe a little.

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And if you're wandering why first is disabled and previous is not, it's because this and the prologue in my opinion are the "first" pages and I don't really know which should take the first position. In later chapters, they'll all lead to this page though, since you don't really need to read the prologue to understand the lore.

Chapter 1:
Fright at First Sight

The sun shines down on this quiet forest. Not much ever really happens here, but still does have some bandits that lurk about in refugee from the pursuers that chase them and prey on the less fortunate. Nevertheless, despite being a small holding ground for bottom feeders, the area has a particular beauty to it. Having luscious apples and berries that hang from trees and bushes and dense forestry, calm rivers, and middling hills, this is a place that one wouldn’t want to forget.

A two-foot tall light yellow figure walks through this forest. The sixteen-pound, bipedal Pokémon steps into a flat, cavity of the forest and inspects the area around her. Giving a long sigh, knowing that she’s been her for hours and still no luck with what she’s supposed to be doing. She reaches into her sky-blue bag hanging down to her side and pulls out a piece of paper as she looks around the area she’s in. Her eyes are differently colored from one another, being her right eye light-blue and her left eye green. This feature always made her look enigmatic, but on her face retains a parallel tripartite of scars on the middle of her face, her left eye, and farther left of that eye, all curving towards her cheek on the same side. Her fur has always been matted from lack of grooming. She was never really interested in it, since it only affected her head that has longer fur that resembled hair, and her chest that had tufts of fur that was likewise longer than the rest of her furry body.

Unaware of where she really is supposed to go, the Pikachu takes one last, exasperated look at the mission location. She drops the paper to her side and examines the area. “I swear, if this mission was any less specific…” Her body tenses up as some static finds its way off her cheek pouches and her paws forming into a fist, crumbling up the paper. “They’d a’ forgot to put which stupid forest they were even talking about!” Her shout ricochet’s off the vegetation then retreats to leave herself in her own silence.

A about three-foot tall Charmander from a distance away looks around with greyish-blue eyes and contemplates if he heard something or not, but goes back to his own business; looking at the scenery. The Charmander is your typical Mander, but besides scales for its skin, it has both scale and fur. This fur can be found on the top of his head that comes down in fringes, and on his cream-colored, fuzzy belly. Unlike normal Chars, the cream-colored part on his furry abdomen doesn’t end all the way at the end of his tail but instead at his tail base. He wears a dark-red scarf and a red collar under that. Totally unsure of what he really is doing in the first place and entirely oblivious to that the fact that the forest itself actually has some other Pokémon that wouldn’t mind taking his valuables or his life… or both. To this ignorance, he continues to walk around, enjoying himself and the area around him.

The Pikachu sighs, “I should stop talking to myself… I’ll just bring more attention to myself anyways… and then a monster house starts… and then I spend more time on this stupid mission… and then I continue to talk to myself then… Arceus…” The Pikachu shakes her head and walks deeper into the forest.

After a while, the Charmander takes a quick survey of the area and notices that he doesn’t remember of which way he came from. “Daww crap…” he looks up and notices that the sun is near setting. “Ahh crap!” The lizard frantically looks around to see if he can see an exit of the forest. Coming to conclusion that, no, he cannot see one, he contemplates to himself. “Alright… maybe if I go the way I think I came from… I’ll start remembering…” The Charmander heads in the absolute opposite direction that he came from and goes deeper into the forest… sigh…

Moments go by and the Pikachu stops and picks up an apple then places it in her bag, but when she looks back in front of her, she sees a Charmander looking around… in her eyes, looking around suspiciously... The mouse maneuvers around a couple of tree inconspicuously, inching closer to the fire-type without his notice.

The Charmander keeps walking but more and more slowly as he gets more and more lost in the woods. “Uhg… maybe it was this way…”

“Try right behind you…” The sly Pikachu says as she already made her way only a couple of inches away from the Charmander who now has his tail under the Pikachu’s foot. He tries to spin around to face her but can’t with his tail caught. “You’re not going to get very far with doing that…”

The Charmander, unable to even see that of what is behind him, now shivers as he believes he faces his end… well, theoretically. “Please!” He screams. “Don’t eat me! I don’t even have anything of value!” The terrified fire-lizard puts his arms over his head as if to brace for an impact.

The Pikachu’s eyes widen as she lifts her foot off the Charmander’s tail. “I’m sorry. I thought you were a bandit… Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you.” The Pikachu quickly switches her aggressiveness to a passive, kind-like manor, gesturing her hands to help in easing him.

“You’re… You’re not going to eat me?” He asks while turning around to finally face the believed assailant. “o-… or rob me?”

“Course not!” She says in a reassuring way. The Charmander slightly backs off and looks around. “So… uh… name? Or are you just called Charmander?” She asks while lifting her paw up to offer a handshake.

The Charmander looks at her doubtingly and takes a small step back. “Uhh… yo-… you first…” the orange and cream colored one stutters while looking away from her.

The mouse smiles and drops her hand back down to her side. “Name’s Clair. If you don’t want to tell me, I won’t force you.” The fire-type nods his head then remains silent, harboring awkwardness between the two. “So… umm… yea…” She begins to scratch her head. “I’m looking for a Joy seed. You wouldn’t have happened to of seen one, would you?”

The Charmander shakes his head. Clair looks around one last time out of lost hope then to her surprise hears something, making her ear twitch. “I haven’t seen a seed.” the Charmander states.

Clair raises her paw up and shushes the apparently oblivious Mander. “What? I don’t hear anything… Not even a Pidgey…” Clair shushes him again. “There isn’t anyone near but us, though.” He says. Clair starts to get agitated and sparks start to come off her pouches as she turns around to the suddenly talkative one and raises her fist. “Would you just stop tal-?!”

Clair abruptly stops as her ear suddenly twitches once more and sees a Persian suddenly jump out of some nearby bushes and tries to claw at the yellow mouse. She rolls out of the way and gets back to her feet to get hit by the following attack, knocking her light body into a tree. Her back hits the barky base of the tree and bounces off as her feet land back to ground. The petrified Charmander fell to his rump from the sudden assault and frantically looks back and forth at the two. The cat diverts his attention to the submissive fire-type and smirks then looks back at the mouse who now is three inches from slamming his face with her silver-streaked tail.

The cat’s eyes widen as he quickly feels a sharp pain, forcing him to close his eyes then see that he is now on his belly on the ground and milliseconds to taking another hit from the fast Pikachu. He shoves off the ground and dodges her attack, leaving her fist burrowing down into the ground. Lifting her paw out of the soil, she swiftly moves her tail around as her cheeks begin to discharge electric. The Persian surges forward at the smaller mouse, preparing for a defensive and offensive approach.

Clair rockets a bolt at the attacker. The bolt travels fast at him, nicking him in the side but not doing much at ceasing his attack. The three foot tall cat pounces at yellow individual, bringing her to down onto her back as he gets on top of her. Displaying his claws, he taunts the trapped mouse by running his claw around her neck, making her violently thrash about. “That hurt, sheriff! Now you get to see what happens when you disrespect a Persian!” The Persian brings his raised claws down at Clair, but stops short when he staggers backwards from an incision right under his eye.

The Charmander who was watching idly by at the sidelines jumped in at the last second and clawed right at the Persian. The cat grabs hold of his bleeding face, yelps out a curse and stares down the orange aggressor, giving Clair her opportunity to dash then duck down low at the cat and rocket her paw right into the unwary Persian’s jaw, lifting him up and landing on his back. The electric-type lands on her fours as she looks at the downed cat.

A seed flies up in the air from the cat’s bag strapped around his sides and lands next to the Mander. Clair stands in a fighting stance and stares down the Persian, who slowly gets up and looks at the two, noticing that the fire-type now has the seed. The cat gives a long, seething look at him and notices something. Something in particular about that fire-type that leaves a smirk on his bleeding face then turns to Clair.

“Fine… I see that I’m bested here… but I’ll have the last laugh.” He says as he spits out some blood from the uppercut. He turns around fast and begins to make a hastily retreat.

“Oh, no you don’t!” The electric-type retorts as she suddenly gets back to a bipedal stage and fires another bolt at him. The shot fires just a couple of inches of hitting him and hits a tree instead, making bark fly as he runs away behind the now singed tree.

Clair grits her teeth as he runs away. The adrenaline rushed Charmander slowly walks up to the Pikachu and hands her the seed she wanted. The mouse gives a half smile and puts the seed in her bag. “Nice job back there, by the way.”

He looks at Clair then looks at the ground and sighs. “I hardly did anything, though…” The ashamed Pokémon scratches his head and kicks a small rock as he continues to look at the ground.

“Nonsense, you got him off of me before he could’ve seriously injured me, or even kill me!” She places her hand on the timid one’s shoulder. His shoulders balk as her hand unexpectedly touches him, but relaxes as he obtains a new sense of trust towards her.

“N-N-Ninto…” he says quietly as he shyly looks back up to Clair. Her ears flick upright and she gives him a confused look. “My name is Ninto.”

Clair gives him a smile, knowing that she gained enough of his trust for him to say his name. “Well, Ninto. It was nice meeting you.” They pause there for a moment then Clair turns around and starts to walk away.

Ninto quickly looks around and back at Clair “W-w-wait!” The Pikachu stops and turns around to face him. Knowing that he doesn’t have a clue of where he’s at and can tell that she can fight well. He hesitates on the thought, “Could I… would it…” He gives a sheepish sigh, “Never mind…” Clair turns to him and gives a warm smile, making the fire-type less reluctant to say what’s on his mind. He takes in a deep breath and clenches his fist, “Would it be fine… if I could travel with you for a bit?”

“I’d see no harm in it… sure!” she turns back around and retains her direction from before. “Plus,” she says, “it’d be better to stay together since it’s a lot more dangerous at night.” She turns a corner and leaves Ninto’s line of sight.

Ninto gives an uneasy laugh, “Yea, good one.” Ninto notices the “un-kidding” silence between the two and that the mouse is still walking away. “H-hey! Wait up!” He runs as he tries to catch up with Clair

Walking in silence together through the forest, a couple of questions start to boil up inside the electric-type. “So… you’re not from around here I’m guessing?” Ninto shakes his head. “Well, what brought you to this forest?”

“I just… I… I’m not sure, honestly” after a long pause, Clair turns her head towards him out of inquisitiveness. “I’m here because… I’m looking for where I’m supposed to fit in, or whatever… I’ve always have been told I’m the useless one… or clumsy… and I don’t know… maybe there IS something out here for me…”

They remain in a quiet stupor for moments. Finally, Clair looks at Ninto dead in the face, “You’re oddly timid, aren’t cha?” She chuckles and looks back forward. The Mander lets out a soft whine and laughs lightly with her.

A couple of minutes later, the sky turned into an orange-ish color as the sun set over the horizon. Clair looks at the sun’s position and turns to the lizard, “Best we’d stop here and set up camp, before is too dark.” The mouse looks at a nearby apple tree, “I’ll get the food if you get the sticks, alright?”

Acquiring a sudden boost of excitement to help her with something, he gives no thought and answers almost immediately. “S-sure! I’m sure I can do that!” Clair smiles and starts to make her way up the tree, skillfully jumping from branch to branch on occasion. Ninto looks at Clair climbing then shakes his head, wanting to get back to the task at paw. He looks around the ground and notices a few amount of stick scattered around. “Well, I guess I could get the sticks off the ground, but that might take too long.” Ninto looks at a tree then down at his claws. “Dad always said it was faster…” He looks back at the tree and gulps. He slowly walks up to the tree, raises his claw, closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and strikes down at the tree. He looks up and notices that it still remains stands but with his claws mark on it, letting out a sigh and continuing the process.

Clair arrives at a branch that occupies two apples. She treads softly towards the apples on her fours. When she’s just above the apples, she notices the fire-type trying to cut down an entire tree other than getting a few sticks. Her eyes widen as she takes the apples and darts down the tree. By the time she reaches the ground, Ninto has already made most of his way of cutting down the tree. “We need only a couple sticks! Not an entire tree!”

Her voice throws him off and claws at it once more, causing a splinter to make its way into his paw. His eyes open wide as he flails his paw around in pain. A sudden CRACK comes from the tree that freezes the lizard in place then falls down right next to him, almost landing right on top of him and forcing a yelp out of him. “T-that was close…” He then looks at Clair, “Uh… I mean… all according to plan!”

The mouse facepaws then shakes her head, “That… works, too.” She moves her paw from her face and looks at Ninto, “I got two apples and other stuff in my bag to chow on. I’ll get some rocks for the fireplace. You get some sticks, alright?”

Ninto nods his head starts to get some sticks from the fallen tree as Clair heads off to get some rocks. They meet back up and Clair places down the rocks to form a circle then Ninto places the sticks in the middle of it. “Now we need a fire.” Ninto says as he gets back to a standing position.

Clair looks at Ninto with opacity and sits down, “You can handle that, right?” she asks.

“Of course!” He takes a deep breath and makes an effort to create fire from his maw but fluffs. He gives a timid laugh, “J-just a warm up…” He flicks his tail around nervously. Clair motions her hand towards the pile of sticks as she becomes a bit impatient. Ninto tries once more and fails again. The mouse looks at him and raises a brow at the Mander as he laughs sheepishly. The lizard takes in a larger inhale then holds it as Clair starts to stand up. She puts her paw up to his maw then exhales through his nose. The electric-type grabs his tail and puts it on the sticks as they kindle almost immediately. “O-oh… That works, too…” he says embarrassed.

She lets out a soft chuckle as she places her bag down on the ground, “You’re fine. I knew a couple of Chars like you that didn’t know how to use their fire abilities yet.” The two of them take a seat on the ground next to the warm fire. “I think they’re dea-.” She stops herself, not wanting to risk what Ninto’s reaction.

“What?” Ninto asks.

“Uhh… Never mind, it’s nothing.” Clair replies. The fire-type tilts his head out of curiosity then stops thinking about it. Moments later, the sun falls over the horizon and the area becomes twilit and fire-lit. Clair turns to Ninto and asks, “So… Which shift do you want, the first or second one?” He looks at her confused.

“S-shift? O-oh, Right!” He considers it to himself then thinks that he could show how he can be brave if he takes the first shift. “I’ll take the first one!”

Clair smiles, “Good. Kinda tired anyways. Today has been a little hectic, but if you get hungry, there’s food inside my bag,” she points towards her bag as Ninto turns to face it then back to the mouse and nods his head to show he understands, “and if you see anything and I don’t wake up from it. Wake me up. Ok?”

“Mhmm.” He replies.

Clair lies down then sits back up, “Let me rephrase that, anything dangerous. Got it?”

Ninto smiles and says calmly, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered!”

Clair lies back down. “Just don’t forget to wake me when you start to feel tired and I’ll take the next shift… alright?” Clair states and begins to fall asleep.

Ninto looks back at Clair and smiles. “All right… my time to shine…”