Mission 1: Wisdom to Thrive - Part 1

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Part 1: The Visitor

Knock knock knock!

"Ryoshi? Can I come in? It's me...Amy."

"Amy?"

The Mawile set up in his bed where he had been laying. It wasn't terribly late, but the sun had set some time ago. Ryoshi knew very well his Jigglypuff friend’s fascination with the moon and the stars, but she would've told him if she had wanted to do something that night. And none the less, it was a new moon, meaning it wasn't visible.

Another knock on the door alerted him that he still had made no movements towards opening the door. Carefully, he picked up the candle dish sitting by his bedside and unlocked the door.

"What are you doing out by yourself so late, Amy-sama? It could be dangerous," he warned the pink puffball standing at his doorstep.

As soon as Ryoshi had said that, Amy slipped into the doorway and flattened herself against the wall, breathing heavily, with a look on her face almost as if she were running away from something and had just found shelter.

"I, uh...I should've told you this sooner, sorry...but..." She gulped. "...It's a new moon out tonight."

"Um...yes, it is." Ryoshi wasn't quite sure what to say; he was torn between the shock of Amy's despaired expression and the quite obvious statement she had said. "I'm sorry, but...am I missing something? Are you alright, mi'lady?"

"I...wha...?" For a second, Amy just stared at Ryoshi like he was nuts, until she slapped herself in the face. "Oh wait, I forgot, this isn't my tribe anymore...yeah...so, well, um...you see..."

She then tried to explain it in a way he would understand. "We all know—I mean, from the stories that I was always told, um...nothing good ever happens on the night of a new moon. We're told that that's when Cresselia's powers are at their weakest, and that the forces of evil and darkness that she fights against are at their strongest..."

"Oh? Now how is it that you know about Cresselia, my dear lass?"

Amy immediately turned to the doorway to see who said that...and recoiled at the sight of a shiny Absol who seemed as the he appeared out of nowhere. He had a laurel wreath around his head, and even more frighteningly, a strange demonic-looking tail comprised of a bunch of orbs with a sharp stinger at the tip. His skin's hue of red where there would normally be black only served to heighten Absol's the terrifying appearance.

Of course, the four-foot-tall quadruped was barely even fitting in the door as is, and had to lower himself in order to even be able to peer into the house, but that didn't diminish the creepy effect. In fact, it only seemed to magnify the sense of claustrophobia, since there was no way out.

The Jigglypuff immediately shrank back to hide behind Ryoshi, but at the same time, tried to put on a brave face and glare at the Absol. "What's it to YOU?" she growled.

In stark contrast to the upset Jigglypuff, the Absol seemed to look bored. "Dear me, I was just taking my leave from your king when I happened to overhear your little conversation. You know, you really shouldn't leave doors open like that if you do not wish to invite any trouble in. Even if they are quite small..." he added with a chuckle.

"My door being open for a mere minute is not an invitation for anyone to waltz in!" In a swift movement, Ryoshi's sword had been swiped from its wall rack and now rested in Ryoshi's hand. "Sir, I demand to know what makes you feel entitled to burst in other's houses like you own the place! And what's all this you're going on about?"

"Oh come now, young man, don't be so gauche," the Absol replied in a rather mocking manner. "As you can clearly see, I am not technically IN your house, according to its actual defined boundaries. Though it is wise of you to be on your guard, I shall admit."

That still didn't excuse the fact that he was still practically in Ryoshi's doorway, or so thought Amy.

"Nevertheless, you shall show me the proper respect. I am Pausanius, king of Artiphron." He glared at them for a second before resuming his usual carefree attitude. "As for why I am here, well now. I suppose even though your king will surely relay this information to you by tomorrow morning, I can tell you. You see, as I happened to overhear your little pink fluffball saying, even someone like me can foresee terrible things to come in this kingdom on future nights of new moons."

"What!?" Amy shouted, not just because this Pausanius happened to validate what she just said, but that such horrible things could happen right here.

"And I have also just told your king that in order for you all to continue living here, citizens of his will have to prove yourselves come the next new moon at the Trial of Wisdom." He winked. "That includes the two of you as well."

"What do you mean, continue?" Ryoshi had actually remained fairly level over the course of the intrusion, but something about the remark just made put him on edge and brought out a scowl and a growl. "Even if you are royalty, you aren't the king HERE. You have no say here. Amy and I have been here for more than a month, working endlessly on assisting the repairs of the kingdom, even donating most of the money we've earned towards other improvements. What makes you think you can come toss us out?!"

"Yeah! What Ryoshi said!" Amy was too furious to catch the fact that Ryoshi didn't refer to her as 'Amy-sama' in that sentence. Not that she would have cared, as there were far more important things happening here.

"Amy and Ryoshi...interesting names. Not that I care," Pausanius muttered to himself before scoffing and looked them back in the eyes.

"It is not I that will, as you say, 'toss you out', but the disastrous string of events that is to come, triggered by when you and your king first came here. This test is merely to prove whether or not you are all capable of handling it when it comes."

Amy was getting frustrated now. "WHAT disaster!? Is a bunch of meteors, like, going to fall from the sky or something!? Spit it out already!"

The shiny Absol still maintained the same stoic, cold expression. "If I were to tell you, you would run away so fast that this kingdom would stand even less of a chance of surviving. No, it is better you do not know, especially for a young woman such as yourself who apparently seems to know of Cresselia. Which I can now see plain as day that it would be impossible at this point to ask how you have such knowledge. Very well."

He then turned to leave, but not before turning to them both one last time. "If you two were wise, you would listen to what your king has to say to you tomorrow about the Trial of Wisdom, and if you even so much as value the new lives and friendships you two have cultivated here, you would then volunteer for it." He gave a sly smirk. "I would especially hope to see you there, little fluffball. For your own sake, as well as your Mawile's."

That was all Amy could tolerate. "GET OUT!" she shouted, shooting a Hyper Voice right where he was standing.

He leapt out of the way, landing several feet away, and then cooed, "I knew you were going to do that too."

SLAM!

As he was turning to leave, Amy slammed the new door in his face anyway.

With that, she angrily marched to the shelves where Ryoshi kept a few spare makeshift bedsheets that she had made for him a couple weeks back and yanked them off, plopping herself down on the ground and wrapping herself with them several times over. "Jeez, what a JERK!" she fumed. "Come on, Ryoshi, let's get some rest before a bunch of meteors really DOES start raining down on our heads. At least you've got a roof here and everything."

She then curled herself up like a pill bug, muttering, "Stupid freaking new moons..." before attempting to fall asleep. She knew it would take a while for her to do so when she was so angry, but at least she had to try.

"I..."

Ryoshi stopped his sentence there. He knew he probably couldn't say anything to make Amy feel better. The Mawile had never seen the puffball so upset, not even when she had to recall all her hard times on the Vision Quest. Instead, he patted her back as he walked back to his bed and blew out the candle.

Normally, such a gesture would have made Amy shiver, but she knew it was Ryosh, and the tiniest of smiles crawled on her face. At least he was definitely a kind, trustworthy young man, unlike a CERTAIN stuck-up presumptuous Absol.

NEXT PART >>>

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This is a prose-with-picture collab for Mission 1 of #Pokemon-of-Avalon.

Featuring *Amy-the-Jigglypuff's Amy Apirana the Jigglypuff and =ChicoChikorita's Ryoshi Sumiura the Mawile:



Table of Contents for Amy Apirana: fav.me/d61kc40

*Amy-the-Jigglypuff's comments:

And it begins! As I was helping write this with Cecil, it occurred to me that since Cresselia is one of the three major deities that Amy's tribe worships, it would make sense that they'd have superstitions regarding the nights of new moons. And since the Trial of Wisdom and this Absol ruler happen to be on nights of new moons, it only serves to make things more distressing for her this time around. I know that Pausanius is supposed to be this super-serious, fatalistic, whatever happens will happen and there's nothing we can do about it, blah blah blah kind of guy, but I couldn't help but make him a bit of a jerk to Amy and Ryoshi in my interpretation of him...kind of like Callahan the Ninetales from PMD-E, in a way. He was practically coming out of nowhere and threatening the people of this new kingdom with eviction anyway, so there's a logical basis behind it. Stay tuned, everyone, because there's two more parts to this introduction before the main event!

=ChicoChikorita's Comments:

Alright, we're getting started! We've actually had this part written for... a couple of weeks, but we were waiting for Amy to finish with finals so that she could begin to draw up the illustrations for each part, like you see here. Worth the wait, I'd say. Amy did a good job showing off something I hadn't really considered. Ryoshi's only 2'4"; his house doesn't need to be super tall for him. But when taller pokemon, say... Kingsly over there waltzes by, welllllll... He can't even fit through the door. Ah, but I'm rambeling. Enjoy part 1, and look forward to the other parts!

Story by both of us!
Art by *Amy-the-Jigglypuff, unless otherwise specified.

Pausanius the Absol is an official NPC belonging to #Pokemon-of-Avalon.

Word count for this part: 1,519 words = 1,500 Cressents.