FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Renny and Delrin enter the cave, lit by sunlight reflected off the beach and its water.

"If anything, I'll bet they're in the pit," Delrin says, "There's no other entrance to the cave."

"mmm," Renny hums.

"Are..." Delrin begins. He lets his sentence die and a silence hangs in the air for a second or two.

"huh?" Renny asks.

"Oh. I just.... you're not angry are you?"

"No."

"... really?"

"Yeah. Going naked is just really embarrassing to me. Also, I'm not very talkative anyway. I think."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Renny crunches his brow.

"for?" he asks.

"Oh. I... I dunno. I'm sorry to make you go naked..."

".... Okay," Renny replies.

A volley of subjects to change to slings through Renny's head at once. He decides upon one in haste and out his mouth it goes, without any time for refinement.

"How do names work?" Renny asks.

Delrin pauses and straightens, squinting his eyes and furrowing his brow.

"What?" He asks.

"I mean... okay. Do all pokémon have names?"

"Well, yeah."

"Well yeah I guess they... but what I meant was do they all have their own names? How many go by their species name?"

"Oh! Well most pokémon go by their species name. Only a few get their own names."

"Oh. So when a pokémon gets its own name is it weird, or special?"

"Well, it's rare but it isn't really paid much attention. In fact, I think some pokémon find it relieving when another pokémon has their own name."

"Okay. So, how do you distinguish between pokémon with the same name?"

"That one's kinda tough. But, usually, you differ between pokémon by their distinguishing features. Usually there's at least some small difference between the pokémon you can pick out. Imagine if my name were Chimchar, like loads of other chimchar. Pokémon would distinguish me from other Chimchars by my fur color," Delrin says, pinching a bit of his fur in between his thumb and finger, "So, if they were confused about Chimchars, they might refer to me as 'the darker Chimchar'. "

"Ah."

Delrin stops for a second as they see stair-like drop-off that leads significantly deeper into the cave.

"Is that the pit?" Renny asks.

Delrin squints and looks down into the slightly darker area of the cave after the drop-off.

"No..." He responds, "I looks like it's just another level of the cave."

"How deep's this cave supposed to be?"

"Not too deep. At least shallow enough for some amount of light to hit the pit."

Renny looks back behind him.

'I see light coming from... somewhere. But I don't see the entrance.'

"Do you remember how we got here? I don't remember where we came in," Renny asks?

"Huh?"

"I mean, it seemed like a pretty straightforward trek to get here but I can't see the entrance..."

"Oh," Delrin pauses, "We're probably in a mystery dungeon then."

"A mystery dungeon?"

"Yeah. They're dungeons with inconsistent layouts. There's been a lot more of them recently. Nobody seems sure why."

'That's weird...' Renny thinks, 'This is all weird. This whole situation is just plain- How'd I get here? I can't tell if I belong here or not.'

"Well, come on. We need to catch up to them," Delrin says, heading down. Renny follows suit as they hop deeper into the cave. They continue walking.

"So how do we get out?" Renny asks.

"Well, you can only exit under certain conditions. I don't know what they all are, but reaching the end of a dungeon is one of them."

"So we'll be able to leave when we reach the end?"

"Yeah."

"So could those pokémon have left already?"

Delrin pauses and looks at the floor.

"Maybe."

Renny pauses as well. He looks at Delrin.

'Seems to have bummed him out.'

"Well, uh... we should see anyways," Renny suggests as he continues into a corridor.

They continue to walk in silence until they come across a shellos. Renny keeps walking but Delrin puts an arm out.

"Hold on, We can't tell if they're hostile or not."

They hold still for a bit before Delrin moves forward.

"Hello?" He greets.

The shellos turns around and slaps mud into Delrin's eyes. Delrin reels back and wipes the mud off his face. He runs behind Renny.

'Whoa! What do I do in this situation?.... Well,I mean... I guess I could just kick it. Yeah. It's pretty small compared to me.'

Renny steps forward to kick the shellos but is met with the same mud technique as Delrin faced.

"Fuck," Renny grunts, wiping mud from his own eyes. His condition doesn't improve much however; the mud sticks to his eyes.

'This prick,' Renny thinks coldly.

Renny leaps forward, brings his leg up behind him, and snaps it forward. This solidly shoves the ball of his foot into the shellos' frame, sending it into a nearby wall. The shellos curls a bit, quivers, and stops moving.

Renny looks over to Delrin.

"You alright?" he asks. Delrin nods.

"Okay."

Renny looks at the collapsed shellos. He sniffles.

'Crap, this stings!'

"Did I kill it?" Renny asks.

"Uh..."

Delrin wipes his eyes and nose. He observes the shellos for a few seconds.

"No," Delrin answers, "They just fainted. They'll be fine later. That is, if no one else bothers them."

"Oh. Should we uh... keep going?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, hey," Renny calls.

"What is it?'

Renny sniffles and wipes tears from his face.

"How do we get this stuff out of our eyes?" he asks.

"We need to find a wonder tile, or it'll just come out in a while."

"A what?"

"They're tiles that... well I guess they just get you back to normal."

"How do they work?"

"I don't know," Delrin says, moving past Renny, "but we can also give it some time. That shellos used Mud Slap. It's gonna stick around a bit."

"I can practically feel how red my eyes are," Renny says. He rubs his eyes again as he follows Delrin.

"Yeah, me too," Delrin says, relying on placing his hand on the wall in order to walk in a straight path.

Renny blinks repeatedly and swipes away some grime from one eye with his thumb. He sniffles.

"Delrin, look!" Renny points toward another sharp drop into the cave.

"What?" Delrin asks. He looks at Renny then in the direction Renny's pointing.

"I can't see what you're pointing at," Delrin says.

"It's another... stair-ramp thing, that leads deeper into the cave."

"Alright. Lead the way to it so I can follow you."

In such a fashion suggested, the two head down to the next floor of the cave.

The grime in the eyes of Delrin and Renny, both of whom had been working to get the stuff out of their eyes, finally comes out with their irritated tears onto their hands. Though their eyes are still teary and bloodshot, they demonstrate the ability to see well again.

'Ugh. Finally. Now the only problem is the stinging.'

"Alright! We got the mud out of our eyes," Delrin exclaims. Delrin looks around.

"Renny, look, the descent into the pit's just right there!" Delrin, gesturing to another steep slope, just a few metres away from them, "The pit should be right down there!"

Delrin gains a fierce look, "That's probably where those bullies are."

'There's still the matter of: what can I do against pokémon? What can I do that isn't kicking, anyway.'

"Let's go get my treasure back!" Delrin says.

Delrin heads over to the descent.

"Hold on," Renny says, looking to the wall where an small dark blue spherical object lay.

"What? What is it?"

Renny points at what he's looking toward, "an Oran Berry."

Delrin says. He rushes over to it to and swipes it up. He inspects the berry.

"Alright! It's not a look-alike."

"Look-alike."

"Yeah. They... Well, they look like other objects but, aren't."

'Oh yeah, that's right,' Renny thinks. He becomes aware of his inexplicable knowledge of the situation, 'Wait, how do I know this stuff? ... eh, I'll figure out later.'

"You ready?" Renny asks.

Delrin nods. He turns toward the descent and takes a deep breath.

"Okay, let's go," Delrin states.

Renny and Delrin head forward, stepping down into the pit of beach cave.

In the pit, the zubat and the koffing from earlier bicker about how to leave the cave.

"... can't you even come up with something that's not stupid?" The koffing shouts.

"Well, let's see, I'm blind," The zubat snaps back.

"You're a zubat, you're supposed to be able to navigate caves!"

Delrin steps forward.

"Hey!" Delrin shouts, interrupting the Zubat.

"Oh? Quo-hoh-hoh-hoooo! Look who it is," The koffing mocks.

"Well well, it's the wimp, innit? And that weird creature."

"Yeah. What... what is that?" the koffing says, giving Renny a look up and down. Renny covers himself.

"I'm a human," Renny responds.

"Yeah, but what is-"

"Shut up!" Renny blurts at the koffing.

"Give-" Delrin begins. He swallows his spit, "Give me back what you stole from me!"

The koffing-zubat duo chuckles.

"Whoa! Looks like the little pansy thinks he's tough," the koffing mocks.

"Heh-heh."

"You want it back so bad?" the koffing asks, "Then why don't you take it from us?"

Renny takes a brief break from covering himself to raise his fists.

'Uh, hey Koffing,' the zubat whispers to its partner.

'What is it?'

'We don't know what that... human can do.'

'Relax, Zubat. Humans are fragile. They're terrible at defending themselves.'

'How do you know that? No one's ever seen a human before.'

'Well. I'm just assuming, but... just look at him. I bet you could bite right through his arm.'

'Y'think so?'

'Yeah. You take him and I'll poison the wuss.'

"Go!" Shouts Koffing.

Koffing blasts poison gas at Delrin. Delrin tries to escape the cloud but takes in a mouthful of it, and comes out of it on all fours. From the sound of his coughing, one would assume his throat is tearing itself apart.

In the same instance, the zubat flies at Renny and sinks his teeth into Renny's forearm. Renny yells and flings his arm out, but Zubat doesn't move from Renny's flesh.

Renny grabs Zubat by the wings and yanks with full force. Zubat yelps about Renny "nearly ripping his wings off", allowing Renny to get Zubat off of his arm.

Renny throws Zubat to the floor and stomps on him. He stomps twice. He kicks the Zubat into the wall across from him.

"Zubat!" Koffing shouts.

Renny locks onto Koffing. He picks a palm-sized rock from the ground.

Koffing sprays poison gas at Renny. Renny holds his breath and hurls the rock at Koffing, which connects with the Koffing's face-body.

Renny steps out of the cloud of poison, to be met with a stream of sludge just as he exhales. Renny gags on the mire as some of it introduces itself to his throat. He hacks up and spits some out.

Renny reaches down for sand and flings it into Koffing's face. Koffing reels back a bit and shakes himself. In the moment, Renny runs toward and grabs Koffing. He raises his knee and slams Koffing's face into it. After he lets go, Koffing falls to the ground.

Koffing groans in pain.

Renny holds out a slightly quivering hand.

"The item," he commands in a cold monotone.

"Fine," Zubat says, "Take it."

Zubat drops the stone from seemingly nowhere but that topic shall go ignored from now on.

Delrin's eyes light up but he still lays on the ground in a fit off coughing and, now, shaking. Instead, Renny picks up the object. Koffing and Zubat manage to lift themselves into the air.

"Let's get outta here!" Zubat exclaims. Koffing and Zubat high-tail it past Renny and flee the scene.

Renny, beginning to shiver and sweat, walks over to Delrin. Delrin sits upright and pops the Oran Berry into his mouth.

"Think you can make it?" Renny asks.

"Maybe. This Oran Berry gave my strength back, but I'm still poisoned."

"Yeah. I'm starting to feel it, too. We need attention."

"There's *cough*, a town not too far from here. I hope we have enough time..."

"How do we leave?"

"Just... go up. The dungeon will let you out."

"Alright."

"Renny, wait! My... My treasure."

Renny fetches the rock and gives it to Delrin, who stores it.

Renny nods and picks Delrin up.

"Renny, I can move by myself."

"The poison will spread faster if you do. This is better."

"But, you're poisoned too."

"Yeah, but I'm bigger. I've got more time to run out."

'That's probably not true,' Renny thinks 'I took a mouthful of pure poison back there... Still, at least the poison won't spread through him any faster. And if I die then at least one of us might be able to get out alive. might.'

Renny puts Delrin on his shoulders and treks up the cave. On the way out, he picks up another stray oran berry. The conviniece is not lost on him.

By the time he reaches the exit, Renny is shivering without cessation, complimented well by cold sweat and a slightly staggering gait.

"Renny," Delrin starts. He pauses for a long-winded fit of coughing while Renny walks across the beach.

"Renny, eat the Oran Berry."

"Not.... not yet."

"Renny-"

"I can go longer."

'Looks like I was right. This poison is acting quickly. Wonder just how virulent what I swallowed was.'

Delrin remains silent as Renny finishes his increasingly-unstable walk off the beach and reaches a road that curves north.

Renny makes it to the bottom of a steep set of stairs and falls to his knees. Delrin climbs off of Renny.

'I can hardly see ahead of me. Everything's blurry... I think I'm dying'

Renny collapses on his side and shivers meekly, coated in his own sweat.

Delrin grabs the oran berry and puts it to Renny's lips.

"Renny, please, eat it."

"Cant," Renny stutters.

Delrin gains a hard expression and breaks the Oran Berry into tiny pieces.

"Then you're just going to have to eat it bit by bit."

Delrin, in between coughing fits, feeds Oran bits to Renny.

About halfway through the Berry, Renny manages to sit up. Delrin suffers through more coughing and then prepares to rip another piece off.

"I think I can manage the rest by now," he says.

Delrin looks at Renny and hands him the other half of the Oran Berry.

After eating it, Renny slowly stands up. Delrin, however, collapses himself, coughing ceaselessely.

Renny picks up Delrin with both arms and hikes up the stairs. As luck would have it, at the crossroads the stairs lead to, a pokémon is headed south into the centre of the crossroads: a chimeco.

The chimeco looks in bafflement at Renny.

"Please help us," Renny says, interrupting the chimeco's visible bewilderment. The chimeco takes a second to look at Renny, whose shivers are returning, and at Delrin, who can't catch a break for breathing.

"Oh, no! You guys are poisoned, aren't you?!" the chimeco exclaims.

"Yes. We really need help."

"Here, hold still," The chimeco tells them.

'I really don't have much of a choice...'

"Heal Bell!" the chimecho shouts. It waggles it's flesh-ribbon and produces a soothing ringing sound.

The sound echoes and tapers out in a few seconds. After it ends, Renny' shivering stops progressing and his sweating slows down. Delrin can finally get some air in between coughs.

'Huh. I don't feel like I'm dying anymore... As a matter of fact, I feel the opposite. I feel like I'm un-dying maybe?'

"Thank you," Delrin says after he stops coughing, "I can finally breathe again."

"Oh, you're welcome! Always happy to help other pokémon as a member of Wigglytuff's Guild!" the chimeco cheers.

"A guild?" Renny asks.

"Yes! We help pokémon and explore the unknown parts of the world! Actually, I'm on a job as it were, so I've got to to be going. It was nice that I could help you two!" the chimeco says, and heads west into a town.

Delrin gasps.

"That's right!" He exclaims.

"What? What is it?" Renny asks.

Delrin hops out of Renny's arms.

"Well, I was thinking... you did a great job of handling those bullies back in the cave."

"Yeah... I don't know how I did all that."

"Really? You were great! You must really be awesome!"

"I. Um... I don't know."

"Oh.... So there's something I want to ask you... I know we just met but, you make me feel like I'm, well, less of a coward. And for the longest time, I've wanted to join Wigglytuff's Guild and become an explorer."

Renny remains silent.

"So, I was thinking... since you make me feel more confident and you don't even know who you are, would you like to maybe.... form an exploration team with me?"

'... what? What is an exploration team? I don't even know what an that is, and, all things considered, I hardly know Delrin at all.'

"Who knows? Maybe you could find out who you are," Delrin says.

Renny yet again remains silent.

'Yes...' He thinks, 'come to think of it I don't have any other options. I could be in a worse situation.'

".... okay." Renny answers.

"Wh- Really?" Delrin exclaims.

"Yeah. I don't really have many options right now."

"Oh wow! I didn't think you'd actually say yes!"

"Delrin-"

"What is it?"

"There's a town next to us, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think we could get something for me to cover up?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah. You really don't like being naked, huh?"

Renny stares ahead and gives a swift "no".

"Well... Let's uh, go into town and try to find something then," Delrin says, leading the way into the town to the west.