Chapter 7
Treasure


A few minutes into our walk through the dungeon, Snivy stops us. "Hey Mudkip, look at that!" they say, pointing at a dirt wall that leads up to an elevated platform.

I groan as I follow their gaze. "My name is Jamie. Huh?" On the elevated platform, I spot... something. "What's that?"

"I'm pretty sure it's a treasure chest!" Snivy says.

It's tough to tell from the angle, but I guess it could be some kind of treasure chest. "There are treasure chests in mystery dungeons?"

"Yeah. They usually hold a bunch of random stuff that can appear in the dungeon, like berries or scarves. We should try to get it!"

"Well, yeah, but..." I look at the wall before us. It's way too steep to climb, and definitely too high to jump over. "How do we get to it?"

Snivy opens their mouth to speak, then closes it again and thinks for a moment. "Oh! Look up there, at the ceiling above the chest!" I look and notice one of the dark holes that have littered the dungeon so far. "Maybe if we climb through a hole down here, it'll lead up to the chest!"

I look around and see plenty of the same holes around the room, and a good number of them are on the ground, or low enough on the walls for us to climb into. Still... "Are you sure these holes are safe to climb into?"

"Of course not, silly! We don't know where they'll lead to until we go in. That's what exploring is all about!"

Amazing; I'm partners with an idiot. Snivy runs over to a hole on the wall, and I follow to watch what happens. The hole is dark, unlike the rest of the glowing dirt in the dungeon. There must be something special about them... Snivy crawls in and disappears into the darkness.

A few seconds later, I hear Snivy scream and their voice gets more distant; they're falling! Then I hear their voice... behind me? I turn around just in time to see Snivy fall down in front of me from above.

"W-whoa! Are you okay?" I ask, equal amounts surprised and concerned.

"Huh? Wait, Mudkip? How are you down here? Wait..." Snivy takes a moment to look around the room. "I'm back here? But I fell down!" Snivy looks up, and I notice a familiar dark hole right above them. Did they drop from it? "Wait a second..." Snivy runs over to the hole on the wall they just went through. They reach a vine into the hole, then turn around to look at the hole in the ceiling. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Snivy's vine emerges from the hole. I turn back to Snivy and see their eyes light up.

"Wow wow wow wow wow! Mudkip, this is incredible!" Snivy retracts their vine, then runs over to me and grabs me by the shoulders. "When I was in that hole, I only moved a little ways, but I fell down through that hole all the way up there! Do you know what this means?!" Snivy shakes me in excitement as they talk.

I'm a bit too shaken up to see what Snivy's getting at. "Um, no? What does it mean?"

"It means these holes can TELEPORT STUFF!!"

I pause and think for a moment. Huh, yeah, that explains what's happened so far. Wait, WHAT?! "Wait, what do you mean they can teleport stuff? How does that even work?!"

Snivy pauses, surprised, then laughs. "How does it work? Well, they aren't called 'mystery dungeons' for nothing. If we knew how everything worked, it wouldn't be any fun! But more importantly, do you know what we can do now?"

Huh..? "Oh! One of these holes probably leads up to that treasure chest!"

"Bingo! We just need to find which one leads to the hole up there."

Snivy and I get to work searching the holes. I approach a hole on the floor and wonder how to test where it goes. I could jump in, but unlike Snivy, I value my own safety. I try spraying some water into the hole, and I see water splash out of a hole on the wall a few meters away. I run over to a different hole on the wall and shoot a water gun into it. Immediately I hear a yelp in sync with water splashing! I turn around to see an unamused Snivy staring at me, their face dripping water.

I try to hold back my laughter, and I fail. I hadn't realized that this could happen if I checked the holes with water gun, but it's so obvious now! Snivy's unamused start turns to a glare as I laugh. I manage to partly calm my laughter. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, I just-"

"No, no, it's fine. Laugh all you want," Snivy says, their frown turning to a sly smile. I'm confused for a moment before I feet something start tickling my side. I start to giggle and I turn to see a vine coming from the hole.

Before I can get away, the vine pushes me over and starts ticking my belly! I can't get up, nor can I stop laughing! This goes on for about 10 seconds before Snivy stops and retracts their vine.

"And that's your punishment!" Snivy says, smiling at me from across the room.

"Sheesh, I said I was sorry," I say, but I'm not mad. In fact, I'm still smiling. It was only fair, after all, and it was a creative way of getting back at me. We both get back to checking the holes, and soon enough, Snivy calls out to me.

"Hey, I found it!" they say, pointing up to the hole above the treasure chest. Sure enough, a vine is poking out from the hole, waving about.

"Great!" I run over to Snivy. "So, what, are you gonna grab the chest with your vine?"

"Nope, I can't reach far enough. Hmm... Maybe I can lower you down from here, and you'll only need to drop a little bit."

"Yeah, that'll work."

Snivy wraps two vines around me, and I climb into the hole. Once the hole starts leading down, Snivy slowly lowers me down out of the hole. I come out and I can see the treasure from above. Soon, Snivy stops lowering me.

"This is as far as I can reach!" they shout to me from down below.

I look down, and it doesn't look too far to the ground. "Okay, you can drop me," I say. The vines release me, and I drop onto the elevated platform unharmed. I walk over to the chest. It isn't locked, but it takes some effort to open it without proper hands. I look inside and see a collection of berries and other fruits.

We decide to have me toss our loot down to Snivy one piece at a time. Soon enough, all our berries and fruits are in a pile down on the lower floor, with the exception of a splatted pecha berry that Snivy couldn't quite catch. Snivy and I cheer at our successful mission, but as we get ready to move on, I suddenly realize.

"Uh, Snivy? How do I get down?"

"Oh, um... huh." The drop from the platform is too high to be safe, and Snivy can't reach me down here from the hole. There's no other holes up here, so there doesn't seem to be any way to get down.

"Just jump down!" Snivy says. "I'll catch you, I promise!"

Well, that is an option, I guess. "Are you sure you can catch me?"

"Of course! Just trust me!" Snivy says, giving a reassuring smile.

"Well, okay." I pause and take a deep breath. Pokemon bodies seem pretty durable. I can probably survive a fall from this height, but I could get hurt pretty bad... Still, I don't have any other options. "On three," I say. "Ready?" Snivy nods. "One... Two...

"Three!" I jump off, and I suddenly feel like I'm moving in slow motion. I see Snivy's vines stretch out below, ready to catch me. I fall into them perfectly. They slow my fall, but not enough, and I see Snivy's expression turn to panic moments before I fall onto them.

Next thing I know, I'm laying on top of Snivy, surprisingly unharmed. Apparently they were soft enough to cushion my fall. I hear them groan in pain, and I get off as quick as I can. "Are you okay?" I ask.

"Ow... yeah, just pain..." Snivy gets up and checks their body for injuries. They turn to me and give a pained smile. "See? I promised I'd catch you."

I sigh, relieved. "You sure did. Need an oran berry?"

"Yeah, thanks."

We stop for a while and have a snack break, since we were both getting hungry. The fruits from the chest are surprisingly tasty for having spontaneously materialized in a dungeon. After we finish, we pack away the rest of our loot in the bag and continue on.

Lesson learned: Always have an escape plan.




Thanks for reading. Comments, questions, and criticisms are encouraged.