Chapter 18
Outside


As we exit the town and enter a nearby grove, we quickly find a bush of berries and start picking and filling up our bags. After a few seconds, Snivy sighs with relief. "I think I've had about enough of villages and towns lately. It's nice to be out in the wilderness again, even if just for a while."

"I don't know. I kinda like having a real bed to sleep in."

"Yeah, of course that's good, but... all the walls and buildings and noise get kinda tiring after a while, don't you think?"

"Yeah, good point. And it sorta has a nice style to it. Being outside, I mean. Camping out and gathering our own food. It's sorta... cool. Relying on no one but ourselves."

"You mean no one but each other, right?"

"Right! We are partners, after all."

"Yeah! And I agree with you about the style part; the independence, and the natural feel of it all, it's part of what made me want to be an explorer! The total solitude was a bit much, though."

We get everything we can from the bush and look for another. We find a really huge bush with a bunch of berries, so we spread out and start picking. But as we start to pick, we find that most of them are overripe and mushy. We keep trying to find good ones, until Snivy grabs a berry and it bursts in their hand. "Argh! What are these mushy things even good for?!"

Snivy keeps picking, but I suddenly get a very... immature idea. I carefully pick up a berry with my stubby Mudkip arm. It's big and squishy. Definitely overripe. I prepare the berry in my arm, and with perfect precision...

I throw it right at Snivy's face!

The berry splatters against Snivy's face, leaving a big splat of juice on their cheek. Snivy turns to me in shock, and I burst out laughing! The whole moment was just too perfect, and I'm laughing so hard I can't keep my eyes open! But then I realize I don't hear Snivy laughing. I try to stop laughing so I can apologize; I didn't mean to-

SPLAT!

I suddenly feel an impact on my face, and I open my eyes to see Snivy smirking at me, their arm extended from the berry they just threw. They reach over to the bush to grab another one, and I'm just barely able to duck under it in time when they throw it.

I try to grab and throw another berry from the bush, but it's too hard without proper hands, and in my haste it ends up bursting in my grasp. Meanwhile, Snivy hits me with another berry, and I start to run away to another part of the bush. I manage to grab another berry, and I turn and throw it at Snivy just in time to see Snivy throwing a berry at me! Both our berries hit, and I flinch as the berry splats across my face.

I run a bit further down the bush and grab another berry. I almost drop it for a moment, but I manage to keep hold of it. I turn to throw it at Snivy, and I see a terrifying sight; Snivy is holding four berries, one in each hand and each vine! I throw my berry at them, and they jump over it, and once in the air, they bombard me with a brutal barrage of bursting berries!

As the berries hit their mark, I clutch at the spots they hit me, crying out in agony! I stumble forward, reaching out in front of me before dramatically collapsing at Snivy's feet...

Silence falls over the grove like a blanket as I lay there, killed in cold blood by my own partner. Our wonderful tale of adventure and friendship ended in an instant of betrayal and tragedy. Finally, the silence is broken... as I start to giggle. It starts small, as I try to keep quiet, but I can't hold it in for long, and my giggles turn to full laughter. Snivy starts laughing along with me, and we spend a good 30 seconds just lying there laughing together on the forest floor.

When we finally calm down, I look at myself and at Snivy; we're really messy after all that. "Heh, that was, uh... pretty immature, huh?" I say with a smile.

Snivy smiles back at me. "Immature and childish are just dumb words that people use to make having fun sound like a bad thing."

"... Huh. I never thought about it like that."

Eventually, we get up and find a pond that we use to wash all the berry juice off. My Joy Scarf got messy too, and I have to take it off to clean it. I've been wearing it almost since I first came to this world; it's almost as familiar to me as this Mudkip body. After I clean it off, Snivy helps me put it back on, as this body still doesn't have much dexterity.

Soon enough, we get back to picking berries and fill up our bag. It's just starting to get dark, we head back to the gateway we came out through to get back to Mightyena's house, but when we get to the gateway, we're stopped by the Croagunk from before.

"Hey! What do you two think you're doing?!"

"Um, going back in?" I say.

"No," the Lucario says. "Outsiders are not allowed to enter the town."

"What?!" Snivy says. "But we were just inside earlier!"

"Too bad, brats!" the Croagunk says. "Now you're out, and you ain't getting back in, so scram!"

"But wait!" I say. "What about the people disappearing? It's not safe for us to be out here!"

"As I said, too bad!"

"This is stupid!" Snivy says. "Let us talk to Mightyena, they'll tell you that you can trust us!"

"My deepest apologies," the Lucario says sarcastically, "but we're not allowed to leave our posts. And regardless, we have no reason to believe that you came in with Mightyena!"

"Now as I said, SCRAM!" the Croagunk repeats.

"Fine!" Snivy says, walking away. "C'mon, let's go find another way in."

But as much as we search, all we find are more guarded gateways, and no one is willing to let two outsiders in. At this point, the sun has set, and the curfew is in effect; if Mightyena has realized we aren't back yet, it's too late for them to come looking for us now. We decide to camp out in the grove and sleep in shifts. Maybe we'll be okay; all the people who have disappeared so far have been inside the town, so maybe it isn't any more dangerous out here, right?

Luckily, we brought all our bags, so we have our tent and supplies. We eat dinner and set up the tent, then Snivy takes first watch; they got some extra sleep on the ride here, so they're the less tired of the two of us.

It's hard to fall asleep; I'm scared. It totally IS more dangerous out here, and even though only one person has disappeared per night, that still means either me or Snivy is going to vanish! Might vanish, at least. Every time I almost drift off, I'm startled awake by the smallest sound. Finally, I give up.

"Hey Snivy?" I whisper, hearing a small yelp outside the tent, followed by a sigh of relief.

"Y-yeah Mudkip?"

"I can't sleep. I'm coming out to keep watch with you."

"Oh. Okay."

I exit the tent and walk out into the grove. It's really dark; it's almost hard to see Snivy, right in front of me. "So, how's your night going?" I ask, taking a seat next to Snivy.

"Awful. I can't stand being out here, alone, in the dark, with SOMETHING out there that wants to- I'm glad you're here, is what I mean."

"Yeah, it's nice to have someone to talk to. Only one person has disappeared at a time, so maybe we'll be safe together?"

"Right. I don't even feel very tired. After staying up last night and sleeping 'til noon, I think our sleeping schedule is busted."

"Heh, yeah."

"... Oh!" Snivy suddenly stands up and takes a few steps forward. "Follow me, I want to show you something."

"Are you sure? I don't think it's safe to be wandering around at night..."

"We'll be fine as long as we stick together. It'll be fun! Do you want to come?"

I hesitantly accept; it'll get pretty boring just staying awake all night, so I follow Snivy out of the grove. Once we're out from the cover of the trees, Snivy flops down on their back and looks at me.

"C'mon, lay down and look at the stars with me!"

"You just wanted to go stargazing?"

"Well yeah! With everything happening lately, I haven't had a good chance to look at the stars since... since I met you, actually! It's really been a while, huh?"

"Heh, yeah, it has." I lay down on my back next to Snivy. It's a clear, cloudless night, and the starry sky is beautiful. I never paid much attention to constellations and stuff, so it looks pretty much the same as the sky back home, but it's still beautiful. It feels... peaceful, just silently staring at the stars with Snivy. Then something grabs my hand.

I pull away with a quiet yelp before realizing it was just Snivy.

"Sorry!" Snivy says. "It's just that without us talking, I... needed to know you were still there."

"Oh, yeah, that's a good idea." We continue to lay there, holding hands. It feels weird, especially because of my weird Mudkip stub hands, but it's nice to have a reminder that Snivy's still there. Soon, Snivy starts talking again.

"I used to do this all the time back home. I would sneak out alone at night and just lay down on a nice hilltop, staring at the stars. It's nice to be able to do this again, although this is my first time stargazing with someone else. It's nice, right?"

"Yeah, it's beautiful. I can see why you wanted to do this."

We fall silent again for a while.

"... Hey partner," Snivy says, "I..."

"... Yeah?"

"Uh, sorry, I just... I'm glad I'm not alone out here anymore."

"Oh. Well, you're welcome."

Our silence resumes, and we lay there for about 10 minutes more. Once again, Snivy is the one to break the silence.

"Hey... do you hear footsteps?" they whisper.

"What?" I listen closely, and sure enough, I hear slow footsteps, somewhere in the distance. I sit up, and Snivy sits up with me. Looking for the source of the sound, we see a shadowy figure... stumbling forward?

We get up and go to check it out from a distance. It looks like they're sleepwalking. They look bipedal, and as we get closer, we find... the Croagunk from the gateway? What is going on?? They're walking towards a small cave entrance. We call out to them, but they don't react. Finally, Snivy runs over and grabs their arm.

"Hey! Are you awake?"

"Uhhh... Huh?" The Croagunk looks around. "Huh?? HUH?!? Where am I, what's going- wait, you're the kid from earlier! You tell me what's going on right now!"

"I don't know! We saw you walking towards that cave. You looked like you were sleepwalking."

"Yeah, likely story! And what's this about a ca-" Croagunk stops as they turn and see the cave. "GAH! What am I doing HERE?!"

"Wait," I say, "is there something special about that cave?"

"That's the Violet Void! No one's allowed to even be NEAR that place! I gotta get outta here!" The Croagunk runs off back towards the town in a panic. I turn back towards the cave, and I get a familiar feeling.

"Hey Snivy, that cave's a..."

"Mystery dungeon, yeah. Do you think that's where..."

'Where everyone disappeared to, maybe?"

"Yeah..."

"... Think we should go in there? If that is where everyone's gone, then maybe that daze Croagunk was in is how they got here."

"And since we're fully conscious, we should be fine, and we might be able to rescue them, right?'

"Right."

We head back to the tent and grab our stuff, then we return and enter the mystery dungeon.




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