Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: A Blessing Too Good [ENG]

Prologue: The Child in the River's Grip

She was going to die here.

Despite being barely sentient, the small creature could figure out that much. Her flailing did nothing against the current's crushing strength, dragging her body down, mocking her pathetic attempts at resurfacing. Her cries for help echoed through the night. The feral Pokémon nesting on the trees or swimming against the tide, her only audience, ignored her. Her life was of no matter to them, after all.

Water flooded her mouth and nose. Murky mud covered her eyes. Her lungs, her throat, even her chest ached. Then her head was slammed under the surface once again.

Bubbles escaped her lips as she let out one last, garbled cry.

Then there was silence.

The tarts! The muffins! The mascarpone! The cookies! The pies! AND THE CAKES! Ooooh, the cakes! So sweet! So creamy! Slowly, she picked up a slice from the whitest and fluffiest of those creamy delights floating all around her in the kitchen, licking her lips, before bringing it to her mouth and-.

h̸̨̨̛e̡̨̕l̷̡̀p̴͏

The Lucario was catapulted from her sweet dream into her soot-filled cave. Cobalt jumped to her feet, banging her head against the wall. She let out a groan as she rubbed the base of her Aura feelers.

What the hell was that? Was she starting to feel voices?! Was the isolation finally getting to her?!

h́͜e̴͠l̷̶̛͡͠p̶̴͞

Ah, there it was again.

Before she could even question the situation, she felt herself being pulled towards the exit of her cave, her step-tep-teps muffled by the grass as the full moon's light slithered on her chest pike.

...She was afraid of what she would find. She recalled the first -and up to then, only- time she had been pulled like this. The burning sensation crawling through her body still haunted her dreams.

Suddenly, something poked at her feelers. It was faint, but the Lucario screeched to a halt. The pull was coming from that Aura. An Aura so small, so distant, so... fleeting. She rushed towards it, heart racing in her chest as she started crossing the forest, for she knew all too well the feeling of life escaping a creature.

She was close now. She could hear the murmuring river, she was so close. So close, in fact, that she could clearly sense a second aura, one that was very much powerful and very much hungry with feral desire for sustenance.

A glowing, bone-shaped staff appeared in her left paw as she summoned a Bone Rush, which she then proceeded to inflate and flatten, until it turned into a thick, rectangular shield with two metal straps to put her arm in. With that, she barged through the last few trees, literally uprooting them, until she was out of the forest and into the clearing.

There was a Luxray near the river, a feral one, judging by its aura. And right next to it lay a... Stufful; wet, tiny, drenched in water. Unmoving. Cobalt's eyes widened: was that a BABY?!. Why was there a baby so close to her cave?! Questions for later; the Stufful's Aura was very much fading, and the Luxray looked very much ready to eat them.

With no hesitation whatsoever, the Lucario sprinted towards the Gleam Eyes Pokémon, muttered a quick "Sorry", and unceremoniously smacked its face with her shield, sending it flying in the sky. No mon and nothing in a three-miles radius would hear it land.

Now that the main threat was out of the way, Cobalt could deal with the Stufful. They were laying on their back, no sound or breath escaping their mouth.

"Hey". The Lucario gave them a few light taps on the shoulder. "Hey, can you hear me?".

No response. Cobalt put two of her fingers on the Stufful's breastbone and compressed the chest one-and-a-half inches in depth one time, two times, three times, fou-.

HPFFFFFTRRRLLLLHRGRRRHH!

A drizzle of water erupted from the Pokémon's mouth with a soft gargle. Cobalt let out a sigh of relief; the kid was going to live to see the sunrise of tomorrow! The Stufful began to cry, and Cobalt wondered what she was going to do with them. She had NO idea how to care for a baby. She didn't trust herself enough with caring for a baby. But... really, what else was she supposed to do? Bring them to Sackegen? Would they actually be safer there?

Cobalt shivered. She hadn't visited Groveleigh in over a decade or so, and the innkeeper whose face she had punched in a booze-driven rampage was probably out for her blood.

The baby was still crying. Poor thing.... Cobalt cradled them in her arms. Fear, like a merciless wave, kept washing over her through her Aura feelers. She could only imagine how terrible it must've been for them; to find themselves drowning in a cold, raging river; to have water fill their lungs; to meet a hungry feral and a stranger; to be so far away from home.

h̴elp ̵̵͢h̵̛e̸l͠p͝ ̷҉h̷èl̛p͞ hé͟lp̕ ͏̨śt̕ąy̸̴̛ ̨͡aw͢͞a̡͟y̵͠ ́h̡͟e̸͢l̴̛͢p ͢ḩ͞e͘l̸͜͝ṕ̕͟ ͘͟͠w̷̛ho̷͠ ̶a̢̧r͘͝e͘͝ ͞y͘͠o̵u̸̡ ̶̡h͡҉ȩ̛l̶̢p̨̢̕ ̵̨͟h̡͞e̴l̨p҉ ̵h̶̛͘e͏̴̵lṕ͢ h̀el̡p̵͠ ̷͞m̛͟o̴͝m̷ ̴he͘lp

Again.

A light pull. A fleeting tug at her mind. Cobalt stared at the Stufful intensively; was this their doing? But how? How could they pull her like that?

"Well, well", she said to herself... damn, was her voice always that raspy? Then again, she wasn't exactly used to hearing it; she seldom had somemon to talk to. "You really are a peculiar one...". She tilted her head at the baby; how old could they be? Two months? "...I'll be honest with you; I have absolutely no idea how to care for a baby". She slumped the still crying baby on her shoulder, trying to comfort them as she .

And with that, she began to walk back home.

Cobalt would eventually feel their 'pull' fading by the time she reached the entrance to her cave. She gave them a quick glance, panicking, only to let out a sigh of relief upon seeing their closed eyes and dopey face.

They had fallen asleep.

She couldn't help but smile at the adorable sight.

Well, at least she would have time to think now that her ears weren't being annihilated by their constant screaming. She had too many questions; who was this child? Where were they from? What was their name - did they even have one? And most importantly, how were they pulling her?

An image of w̨ h͟ ̵̕i͡ t̷ ̀͜͏e flashed through her head. Cobalt felt like she was supposed to know what it was, but she had no idea, which was just deeply unsettling. It did nothing but remind her of the first time she had been pulled like that, only bringing up more questions than answers.

The Lucario shook her head. Questions could wait. For now, she would bring this child back to her den and figure things out after a good night's sleep.

She then disappeared into the darkness of her den.