Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Search of a Soul

Chapter 3

"Here we are," Raven announced, "Team Solarflare's campsite!"

The whole field was filled with tents of various sizes. Pokémon were everywhere, bustling about doing various things. I had always dreamed of seeing a bunch of these Pokémon up close, but this camp was somethings else. We wove in between the tents until we came upon the biggest one in the field. Multiple Pokémon greeted Raven as we went by and there were two Pokémon were posted outside. I recognized them as Pawniard.

"Master Raven, you've returned!" they exclaimed at the same time.

"What have I told you two about calling me Master?" Raven asked sternly.

"Never to do it, apologies," they said, saluting.

"Where's your boss?" Raven asked impatiently.

"Inside the tent ma'am," they responded, gesturing.

"Thank you gentlemen, you may go," Raven ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" they exclaimed as they ran off.

"Well that was certainly interesting," I said amused.

"Can it and go inside," Raven said, moving the flap aside.

"If you insist... Master," I said slowly with a smile.

She seemed more irritated than amused as I passed her and entered the tent. It was surprisingly detailed for a scrap of cloth over a bunch of metal poles. The whole thing was colored red and orange on the inside. There was a cot in the far corner that looked like it hadn't been used for quite some time. A massive table stood imposingly in the middle with a similarly sized map laid out across it. A single Pokémon stood examining the map who looked up upon my entering. It was a Bisharp, which made sense considering the Pawniard outside. This must be their boss.

"So you've finally returned, I was on the verge of sending out a search party for you," he said as Raven entered, "how was your... 'vacation'?"

"Unsuccessful," she replied solemnly, "dead end again, but I did manage to pick up a couple of rookies."

"Rookies huh?" The Bisharp examined Riri and me, "They sure don't look like much."

"Could say the same for you," I said boldly, "you look like a giant axe suddenly sprouted arms and legs."

"This one has quite the mouth, too," he observed.

"Unfortunately," Raven said, rolling her eyes, "but he shows promise in the heat of battle. He took on Avalanche by himself and won."

"This loud-mouth beat Avalanche?" he asked, surprised. New admiration shone in his eyes, "That is certainly promising."

"And this one just tagged along 'cause she wants to learn how to fight," she explained, gesturing to Riri.

"Less promising..." Bisharp said, examining Riri, "but I guess she shows some potential."

"So, do we get to know what his name is?" I asked suddenly, "Or shall I continue to call him axe with arms?"

"My name is Bartholomew, you can call me Bart for short," he replied.

"Bart huh," I said, "cool, that makes things a heck of a lot easier."

"Anyway, you two should find a tent to sleep in temporarily, we'll probably start packing in the morning," Raven stated.

"Packing up?" Riri asked quizzically.

"For what?" I asked.

"We're moving back to base," Raven replied simply.

"This isn't even the real base?" I asked, the campsite is so sophisticated already I can't even imagine what the base of operations looks like!

"Of course not," Bart said, sounding puzzled, "we aren't barbarians waiting out here for our next victim. We are a sophisticated society."

I figured this time I'd keep my mouth shut. There seemed to be a whole other side of the Pokémon world that I'd never even considered before. I knew that Pokémon were more sophisticated, but these tents were already impressive enough with how detailed they were. I couldn't even begin to imagine what the base of operations looked like. I was intrigued and wanted to know more. Maybe this won't be as bad as I originally thought.

We were just about to leave the tent when I heard Bart whisper, "So, another dead end huh?"

Raven sighed, a sigh filled with sadness and pain, "Another dead end. I was so sure this was the break I was looking for, but I ended up disappointed again."

"Raven, maybe you have to..." Bart started.

"I'm not giving up!" she exclaimed angrily, "He never gave up on me so I'm not giving up on him!"

"Raven, think about this logically," he insisted, "you've scoured almost the entire continent and still haven't found a trace of him."

At this point, I had moved outside and snuck around behind the tent in order to eavesdrop. Was it entirely ethical to listen to this conversation? Probably not, but for some reason I couldn't move away. My curiosity was getting the better of me. Who were they talking about? What happened to him? Obviously something really bad had happened and he had disappeared, but what? Were they talking about Raven's partner? Based on how depressed she had been when mentioning her partner, even if it had only been for a split second, that was the only hypothesis that could possibly become a theory in this situation. Since when did I use the words ''hypothesis'' or ''theory''? Honestly, I feel like the next Detective Pikachu. Something was definitely up.

Raven let out an exasperated sigh, "You really think he's gone for good?"

"Unfortunately, that is the only logical explanation," Bart replied sadly.

And a fox breathing fire is more logical somehow? I thought to myself, Nevermind, that's actually normal for them.

They were both silent for quite some time. I took a chance and peaked back into the tent. Raven had collapsed onto her cot and Bart was folding up the map. I decided I had eavesdropped enough for one night and went to look for an empty tent. Some of the Pokémon were already busy packing, while others were closing their tents to sleep for the night. At the very edge of the campsite, a small tent with a blue and white color scheme sat abandoned. I looked around and noticed that no one else had a tent within ten feet of this one. I analyzed it and the surrounding area, but noticed nothing wrong other than the faded color and the frayed edges. This one was extremely old. I felt my limbs start to grow heavy and realized finally how tired I was. At this point, I didn't care enough to think about it anymore. I threw myself into the tent and fell asleep on the worn out cot.