Explorers of Origin: A Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Fanfiction, Volume 1

Chapter 2: They Meet By Chance

Those who plant a seed, knowing they will never see it bloom, understand the concept of life itself.

"It seems this town's been torn apart. Who knows what happened here? Maybe I could find him somewhere in this area. It's weird that I haven't found any other humans yet, though..."

Speaking to herself, an unnamed figure searches through Neo Treasure Town from the highest point of a nearby tree in hopes of finding her missing treasure.

Her quest began on a quiet Saturday morning. Reported missing at an undisclosed date, her neighbors had allegedly last seen her son going to a convenience store the day before to pick up a fountain drink, where a car violently crashed head-on into the store's entrance. From there, no one knew what happened to the young man after the accident, and since then any possible details of his location remained unknown. It is for this reason that she decided to search for him herself. During her search, she unknowingly stepped into a portal, taking her into a different world.

She wandered her new surroundings for five days, arriving at one of the entrances of Neo Treasure Town on the last of those days. Concerned that someone or something might cause harm to her, she searched for a place to hide, one that is void of light. Unsuccessful in this endeavor, she decided to climb the tree she currently stands, but not before checking a reflection of herself in a puddle of water.

"Oh my. I was wondering why I felt something was different. I don't remember having two blue twintails and a forehead that looks like three bunched-up icicles... My ears look similar to the twintails, too. And since when did I have an actual tail? How am I walking on all fours? This is quite a mystery. I do look somewhat good-looking, though. Heh."

This description of her findings matches that to part of a Glaceon's anatomy. To her surprise, the human female adopted the body of a Glaceon, although she was not completely aware of the concept of Pokémon biology yet. Putting her curiosity aside, Glaceon uses her newly-discovered anatomy to climb towards the treetop. She carefully looks over the tents of Neo Treasure Town, hoping for any clues to where her beloved son might have disappeared into.

"Damn. No sign of him anywhere. But those tents might give me something to work with. There are residents here, and they must have made camp for the night since that town looks to be as good as gone. Surely, he has to be among them. If not, then where could my baby be..."

Knowing that staring at the town for the night would not give her any benefit, Glaceon decides to make a hole big enough to sleep inside of it. She unknowingly activates an Iron Tail, and upon noticing how strong her tail becomes, Glaceon uses it to gouge the hole she needed onto the trunk. When finished, she steps inside her shelter and snoozes off.

Seven hours pass, and the sun arises once more to unveil its warm light.

Audino is the first to wake up among the campers in Neo Treasure Town. Inspecting the territory, she finds no suspicious activity, so she begins to awaken the other campers. One by one, she knocks on a wooden pole next to each of the tent openings to grab everyone's attention. Albeit somewhat slow due to how much they slept, the volunteers rise from their tents and look towards the sky.

"The clouds are more populous than usual. I've never seen cloud cover that thick."

"It could be some sort of omen."