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Chapter 3: Town Called Starstone

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Chapter 3

Town Called Starstone

The town was illuminated by the setting sun. There weren't many people within the area. All of which were probably indoors preparing to stay in the night. Lake took to holding her brother's hands. Never letting go of one or the other. She had to be holding one of them. Ingo could feel it through her hands. She was shaking, she was scared.

This bothered Emmet greatly. Even though he apologized and explained himself he still felt that there was a weight on Lakes shoulders now. He was pretty sure it was his fault. He could guess what it was too, being an orphan himself he was sure it had something to do with them throwing her away. Or rather, her thinking they would.

At least the writing there was the same. The sign over a door displayed 'Acorn Inn.' Above the building was a huge acorn tree. They must have built the building around the huge tree. Lakes' shoes crunched the ground as they walked in. There were leaves everywhere.

Emmet grunted as Lake hugged his middle looking at the person standing behind the counter. In his hands was a glass cup, nothing unusual at least until you looked at his bottom area.

"Is that a..." Emmet asked. Ingo turned and shook his head. Indeed though, this person was half human, half pokemon. He looked up and smiled motioning them inside.

"Come on in, strangers. Always open for the weary traveler." Ingo suddenly realized he wasn't sure if they had any money this person would take.

Lake looked up at Ingo as he motioned to Emmet.

Emmet took it as Ingo just being unsure of the structure so walked forward.

"Uh hey we need a room for the night. Possibly something to eat for the girl." The innkeeper turned to the side more and Ingo could see the pokemon the person was half off. A Luxio. He even had the gold bands around his wrists. His ears were human though. The cat-like tail with a star at the end waved back and forth.

"I see...you got money though right?" The man held up a key. Emmet put a few coins onto the table. The man looked at them and his eyes grew wide.

"Out of towners huh? Looks like you might be from the city. This is city money, and your body ain't like ours." He motioned to himself, patting his rump. "It's okay though, as long as you pay and you don't cause problems we don't care." He looked at Lake and gave her a small wave.

Lake didn't like this man, he was way too accepting of everything way too soon.

"Come on. Looks like your dads got you some f..."

"Brothers. We're her brothers." dads? Oh yeah wait, pokemon always looked the same so that means he thought they were...

"Brothers? Does your variant have a difference from girl to guy?" The man already thought of them as pokemon. Might as well let him think that.

"Yes." Ingo told them. Lake didn't like this, they were walking themselves into a wall. She hated to lie because of that. It was best to tell the truth now or else they'd spend the rest of their day covering it up with even more lies.

Lake tasted the chowder and smiled at it. She liked it, maybe it would help her throat a bit.

"Hey Bard!" A female walked into the inn. She had a golden piece on her forehead, her hands were paws, and her tail curled around. A Meowth. "Oh lookit, you got customers today."

"From the city they are. Lookit, they even have a cub!" The woman smiled and sat down near them.

"Well yeah they do. A small little thing too, best feed her good Bard. Who knows when the next time they're going to get a good square out there." She looked around at Ingo, who took the piece of bread from Lake's plate and started to butter it. "But why ain't her ma taking care of her?"

"Died...both of our parents." Emmet said as he filled the cup Lake had begun to drink from. The innkeeper realized just how much more drawn in they were becoming around the woman.

"She ain't yours...is she?" Ingo looked upset.

"She is perfectly well ours, adopted squarely. Her parents died, and we took care of her as was our duty. Now if you do not mind forgoing anymore of these questions as you are..."

Lake pushed the bowl away, and she climbed down from the stool and walked toward the door. She stood beside it, The look on Lakes face didn't go unnoticed by the others. Emmet watched her run her fingers over the rim of her shirt. She was incredibly uncomfortable now.

Lake felt bad, she felt horribly bad. Her situation was going to get her brothers into trouble.

"Oh, we're sorry. Prying the way we have. It's only because of the odd goings on of late."

"Odd goings on?" Emmet asked as Ingo walked over and picked up Lake. She practically melted into his arms. To Emmet it looked as if she was trying to hide from them.

"Yeah, you ain't heard?"

"Well we have been out in the woods all day." Ingo told them. That was true, they had mostly been walking.

"Yeah, so we've been having uh...cracks...showing up."

"Cracks?" Emmet asked, sipping the tea that was just placed down in front of them.

"Yeah cracks, but not just any cracks." The Meowth woman said. She slowly leaned over and whispered. "Like cracks...in reality...we had two people walk over and touch them...and they disappeared." Both Ingo and Emmet knew what that meant. They fell into another dimension.

"Brother?" Emmet looked up at his brother. Ingo shook his head and motioned for him to follow. They had a job to do now. At least they had a clue.