Chapter 14
Cloud Palace



I wake up in a... wet sleeping bag? Why is... Oh yeah, it rained last night, and I had to wait outside because... oh. Oh yeah. Today is going to be awkward.

I leave the tent to find Snivy eating breakfast. They glance up at me for an instant before turning back to their food. I grab some food and sit down to eat. The meal is silent; I don't dare to speak, of course, and I make sure every bite I take is as quiet as possible. Anything to avoid drawing attention. Eventually, I notice that Snivy is doing the same thing.

Eventually, we finish and pack up the campsite. Snivy sets the course with their compass and we get moving. After a few quiet minutes of walking, I get the feeling I should... say something. We can't keep acting like this forever. But every time I open my mouth, I just don't know what I could say. I just keep remembering how... intense things got. Maybe it's best to just wait a bit longer. Or a lot longer. Gosh, this is so awkward.

I turn my thoughts elsewhere, noticing the wet grass beneath my feet. It feels... oddly pleasant. A lot of things are oddly pleasant as a Mudkip. I let my thoughts drift away, desperate for relief from the boredom minutes turn to hours. Usually we chat to fill the time. I keep feeling the need to talk, but awkwardness is stronger than boredom.

Finally, after at least two hours of walking (with a few breaks), I get the familiar feeling of a mystery dungeon. As we keep moving, the feeling gets stronger, but then starts to get weaker; we passed it. And now I need to tell Snivy. Okay. I open and close my mouth a few times before I finally manage "Hey Snivy? Um, I felt the dungeon that way."

Somehow I must have messed it up, because Snivy frowns as they turn to follow where I pointed. Soon, we reach a wall, and Snivy pushes aside some foliage to reveal a dark cave. Like, really dark. Are cave dungeons supposed to be that dark? I'd ask Snivy, but...

Snivy heads inside, disappearing into the darkness. Seriously, how is it that dark during the daytime? Suddenly, Snivy gasps from inside!

"Snivy?! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just- just hurry up already!"

Sheesh, no need to be angry... I brace myself and step into the pitch-black cave. The darkness gradually fades to reveal that I'm... suddenly standing on clouds? The whole dungeon is made of pink clouds! "Whoa..." I say, before remembering Snivy is right next to me and promptly shutting up.

We begin our journey through the... cloud tunnel? Cloud cave? Anyway, the dungeon's corridors are bigger than usual. It's... pretty. A nice light shade of pink. The color matches Snivy's- wait, where's Snivy's pink Joy Scarf? I didn't notice before, but it's been missing all morning. Weird.

After a minute, Snivy stops to investigate some... wind? Floating through the air before us are little pink sparkles, pulled along by wind and leaving a trail of light behind them. Snivy steps into the strange wind, and immediately gets swept off their feet. They flail around as the wind pulls them to the wall, where they just sort of lie there sideways, stunned. It takes all my willpower not to laugh.

Snivy manages to maneuver out of the wind, and they drop to the ground. Interesting... I take off my bag and hold it inside the wind. It suddenly feels weightless, and gets pulled sideways. I put it back on and step inside to check, and I float off the ground and get pulled toward the wall. I land on my feet and carefully step out of the wind and onto the ground. "Huh. It seems like this weird wind changes gravity."

We continue through the dungeon, spotting more wind zones. They seem able to go in any direction, and they look like they'd be fun to play with, but now's not the time.

Suddenly, a shrill cry comes from around the corner, and a Spearow and a Pidgey swoop down to attack us! We split up as we dodge out of the way, and I'm facing the Spearow. It hovers out of reach, swooping down to strike before retreating to the air again.

After receiving one too many pecks, I get angry enough to try something. When it swoops down, I tackle and crash right into it! We're both knocked down, but I get up first. As it tries to take flight again, I blast it with a water gun, landing a clean finishing blow!

Snivy seems to be having trouble; with grass against flying, that's no surprise. While Snivy tries to jump up and whack the Pidgey, it uses those openings to land gust and peck attacks. As Snivy misses a swing and falls to the ground, the Pidgey winds up to launch a gust...

Before the Pidgey can strike, I use a water gun to knock it to the ground. I lunge toward the helpless Pidgey, landing a clean headbutt and sending it flying! The birds evaporate, and we're alone once again.

"Way to steal my win," Snivy complains.

"Steal your win? I helped you!"

"I can handle myself. You didn't need to butt in."

If you can handle yourself, then why are we even partners? Jerk. We continue through the dungeon quietly for a few minutes. With how noisy Snivy usually is, I often wished for some peace and quiet, but not like this.

At least the dungeon is nice; the clouds are soft and gentle to walk on, and the light pink color is pretty. It's like being inside cotton candy! And I can't help but imagine floating around in those weird pink winds, bouncing off clouds, maybe even playing a game of zero-gravity tag with Snivy!

Snivy... I hope they cool off soon. Why are they so angry? I didn't do anything to them... Well, I guess I did get a bit... aggressive yesterday. I got carried away, and let my anger control me. How could I be so immature? I just wish we could go back to how things were... Should I apologize? I should probably apologize. I'll apologize now.

I turn to Snivy and open my mouth to apologize... and nothing comes out. Okay, try again... Come on... Say it... Just do it you coward! Wait, is that a- I grab Snivy and pull them around a corner, covering their mouth with my foreleg.

Snivy shoves my leg away. "What?!" they whisper.

I peak around the corner and motion them to do the same. We've come to a fork in the road, and guarding the right path is a Corviknight. Fortunately, it's turned away from us. I signal Snivy to stay quiet and start to tiptoe toward the left path. The clouds soften our footsteps, letting us stay stealthy as we-

"HEY BIRD-BRAIN!"

My heart stops as the Corviknight turns to face us.

"You want a piece of me!? Come and get some!" Snivy gets into a battle stance, as if a grass-type could fight a flying/steel-type and not discover at least 6 new ways to feel pain.

The Corviknight takes flight, and I drag Snivy down the left path as fast as possible! The Corviknight screeches as it chases after us, its wingbeats audibly approaching.

"Hey, what gives?!" Snivy says. "We can totally take it!"

"No! We can't!"

We race through the tunnel, and Snivy fortunately runs with me. Corviknight's wingbeats are right behind us, but as we turn a corner, it's momentum sends it crashing into the wall, buying us time. We turn another corner, and just around the corner is a pink wind rising upward. I pull Snivy into it and cover their mouth again as we rise to the ceiling.

Corviknight turns the corner and flies right past us, its eyes scanning the ground as we hide on the ceiling. It keeps flying forward, deeper into the dungeon. I let out a sigh of relief... But my sigh turns to a yelp as Snivy drags me out of the wind and we fall to the ground.

"Snivy, what the heck was that about?!"

"What? It's fun to fight powerful enemies, remember? Or are you a weakling all of a sudden?"

"The Tentacruel was different; we agreed that we both wanted to fight it, and the type matchups were more in our favor! And even then we almost lost! This would be nearly impossible, and I'm not looking to get beaten up today!"

"Sheesh, you sound so pretentious. Who the heck says 'type matchups'? Nerd."

"Shut up already! Let's go back and take the other path; continuing this way will just make us run into the Corviknight again."

Okay, yeah, no, I have nothing to apologize for. Snivy just won't let go of last night and doesn't like that I'm not a masochist. At this point, I don't even care WHY they're acting so stupid, I just wish they'd stop being so immature!




Thanks for reading! Comments, questions, and critiques are encouraged and appreciated!