Chapter 4
My New Partner


After a bit of awkward running, I catch up to Snivy and catch my breath outside the room that's glowing with yellow light. But something's off; Snivy's standing just inside the room, seemingly in a trance.

I enter the room, but the light is blinding after so long in a poorly lit cave, and I cover my eyes. But even without sight, this room feels different; the whole dungeon has felt strange, but this room amps that feeling up to 11. It's definitely special, and when I can finally open my eyes, I see why.

The yellow glowing lines that were present throughout the dungeon are everywhere along the walls in this room. Before, they were wild and random, curving and zig-zagging aimlessly, but in this room, they look... perfect. They're perfectly straight lines, and they turn in 90 degree angles as they form orderly patterns on the walls, like a robot's abstract art. The lines eventually converge at the center of the ceiling, into a yellow square of light.

"Take a good look Mudkip," Snivy says from beside me. "This is the best part of exploring mystery dungeons."

"This is... amazing. It's beautiful! Why is this room so different?"

"This is the deepest part of the dungeon, like the heart and soul of the whole place. This room is at the center of all the weirdness and magic of the dungeon, so there's always awesome stuff in these places."

"Yeah. It really feels different..." Looking away from the perfect shining square on the ceiling, I notice something on the ground; a faint sphere of pink light at the center of the room, not seeming to have any source. The ground beneath it is normal, and the color is out of place in such a yellow room. "Hey Snivy, what's that?" I ask, pointing to the pink sphere.

"Um, what's what? What are you pointing at?"

I walk over to the sphere. "This thing, right here. The pink sphere thingy."

Snivy approaches. "What are you talking about? There's nothing there," they say, waving their arm right through the sphere of light.

"What do you mean? You can't see it..?" As Snivy just demonstrated, it seems safe to touch, so I reach out my arm to-

A light.

A shining star that radiates a strange energy. Other stars are off in the distance, woven together by strands of light. From one of the strands, far off in the distance, a familiar feeling calls out across the vast space. It feels like... home. Following the strand leads to another star-

A forest.

A forest of pink and purple flora, filled with that same, strange energy. It shifts and breathes, creatures wandering about inside-

"Ow!"

I rub my head as I rise to my feet. "What happened..?"

"You reached out your arm and then just froze. I asked you what was up, but you didn't respond, so I tried shaking you awake, and then, uh, and then you fell over."

"... You pushed me over, didn't you?"

"I-it was an accident! Besides, I should be the one asking what happened."

I turn back to the sphere of pink light to see it still sitting there, innocently. I remember the past few moments like a far off dream. "I... I touched that thing, and then I saw... stars? And then I noticed a feeling like- HOME! I felt Earth, I mean, my planet Earth, it was somewhere far off-"

"Hang on hang on, slow down. You 'felt' your planet? How do you know that? I'm actually curious what a planet even feels like."

"Well I- It wasn't- I don't know, I could just tell it was my home! I followed it and I saw a... pink forest?"

"Your planet has pink forests?"

"No, I-"

"Wait a sec!" Snivy fishes around in their bag and pulls out a map. "You said a pink forest? Like, with pink and purple trees?"

"Purple? Yeah actually, how did-"

"Bingo! Check it out!" Snivy flips over the map to show me. It's a beautifully drawn map, with writing in an unfamiliar alphabet. Snivy points to an icon showing pink and purple trees, just like I'd seen. "It's a mystery dungeon nearby called the Enchanted Forest. At first I though you just had another wacky hallucination, but it looks like that place you saw might be real."

It's real! I'm not hallucinating! I need to go there, but... "You said it's a mystery dungeon, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"So it's got lots of wild pokemon like here..." That place might be my only way home, but I don't know if I can fight my way through it. Snivy's been doing all the fighting here, while I can barely use water gun. Still, I've got no choice but to-

"Hey, um, you want to go there, right? To the forest?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"Well, if you don't mind, I- Er, I mean, you'd want some help, right? Exploring dungeons alone is tough, and I want to explore as many dungeons as possible anyway, so maybe we could... team up?"

"Wait, really? That'd be perfect!" I think back to the vision and point toward where the dungeon was. "The forest is that way."

Snivy looks where I'm pointing. Toward a wall. "... What? How do you even- No, never mind, let me just get my compass. Let's see, the map says it's to the northwest, and northwest is in that... direction... You're pointing northwest. How are you doing that without a compass?"

"Because... that's the direction it was in? Look, I have no idea what's going on, I just touched that pink thing and-"

"There is no pink thing!" Snivy once again waves their hands through the pink sphere to demonstrate.

I sigh; this is just too much right now. "Look, I'm tired. Can we just get out of this dungeon first? I need some time to think, and I also just wanna get out already."

Snivy sighs. "Yeah, okay. C'mon, follow me; at the heart of each dungeon, there's a straight path to the outside."

"Why not just take that path in the first place to get here faster?"

"Because it doesn't exist until someone gets to the heart."

"... Right."

We leave the glowing room for another poorly lit tunnel, and I end up stumbling for a while as my eyes adjust. The long walk out gives me time to think, and I've got all sorts of thoughts buzzing around my head; why couldn't Snivy see that pink sphere? Why did it show me that vision? How did I get here, and why am I a Mudkip? Instead of finding answers, I just keep finding more questions!

Well, I might be able to figure out one thing. "Hey Snivy, is it really true that humans don't exist at all here?"

Snivy rolls their eyes. "Yes Mudkip, for the third time, humans are fake."

"... You really don't believe me at all..."

I see confusion in Snivy's face before I turn away. It really sucks to have to team up with someone so annoying and mean. Still, if I got transported to another world, and there's no such thing as humans here, maybe I got turned into a Mudkip because humans can't exist here? That'd be weird, but everything is weird here, so it-

"Well, I guess it's possible."

"Huh?"

"I mean, you being a human alien from a different planet. You somehow knew about oran berries, but not mystery dungeons, and I still don't get how you knew what direction to point back there. You're really weird; ignorance or memory loss don't seem likely, and it doesn't make sense to assume you're lying, so... maybe you're telling the truth. Maybe. At this point it'd just be one more weird thing to add to the list."

Well that was unexpected. We turn a corner, and there's what looks like an exit up ahead.

"Hey partner, race you there?" Snivy crouches down and prepares to sprint.

I roll my eyes at Snivy's continued immaturity, but I'm eager to finally get out of here. That, and... "Sure." I try to find a good stance to sprint from, but like everything today, it's awkward with four legs.

"Okay, on three. One... Two... Three!"



One sprint later, and I'm lying on my back, gasping for breath. Snivy sits beside me, far less worn out.

"That was a good race, partner."

"... thanks..."

"Well, since I lost, that means I'll be setting up camp for tonight."

When did we agree to that? Well whatever; I'm exhausted, so I'm glad they're handling it. I'm still surprised I won. Snivy walks away, audibly messing around with some bags or something. I roll onto my side, and I'm greeted by the sunset, bathing the world in orange and red. Convenient that it's almost night; it's been a long day, and I don't want it to get any longer.

"Oh, Mudkip!"

I sigh as I roll to face Snivy. "My name is Jamie."

Snivy holds out a pink scarf, just like the one they wear.

"What's that for?" I ask.

"It's called a Joy Scarf. They're made of an unknown material, and they're only found in mystery dungeons. They're really rare, so they're considered good luck charms. I was lucky enough to find one in my first dungeon, but I already had one, so I just held on to it."

"But why are you giving it to me?"

"Why..? I dunno, I just thought I should give it to you. As a gift."

"Oh. Well-"

"Plus since we're on a team, it'll be really cool for us to have matching scarves, right?"

"Uh, sure?" They seem really enthusiastic about this whole team up thing; it's just until we check out the Enchanted Forest, right?

"Awesome! Now put it on."

I reach out and grab the scarf, which is harder than it sounds without proper fingers. Much harder is actually tying it around my neck. I fumble around with it awhile, until Snivy walks up and puts it on for me.

I huff. "I didn't ask for your help."

"Sorry, I just wanted you to put it on some time today."

For a moment I think about protesting, but yeah, they're totally right. At least the scarf feels really nice against my skin. For being randomly created in a dungeon, it's very comfortable.

"Alright, these scarves make it official; from this day forth, we shall be partners!"




Thanks for reading! Comments, questions, and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated! (note: I'm considering changing the title of the story to something less generic, so don't be surprised if the next update has a different name)