Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Quenched Torch

Chapter 26: Out and About

"Fascinating..." Arcanine whispered, staring thoughtfully at the yellowed pages before him.

As lantern-light from the ceiling shone off the hundreds of trinkets along the walls of his office, the Guildmaster delicately closed the fragile book and nudged it back into the safe from where it had come, nodding respectfully as he closed the container. Glancing up from his small study area, he considered what he had just read: a classical Galarian play, perhaps 17th-century in the human calendar if the faded and somewhat tattered opening pages were to be believed, detailing a young human prince and his Litleo seeking revenge against his uncle, who had killed the prince's father for the throne. Alas, he could not determine how the tale ended, as a decent portion of the work's fifth act was missing or indecipherable when Team Apex had found the safe. Disappointing, yes, but this left just that little more incentive to explore the world left behind, he supposed. Perhaps with enough digging, the account of that fencing match could be found...

Adding yet another entry to his list of items yet to be added to his collection, Arcanine got to his paws and started for his living quarters. One of his assistants would arrive with his dinner shortly, so he decided that it would be best to wind down from his research for a while before they arrived. As he considered curling up by his brazer, he paused to glance at the human skeleton hanging from its stand by his quarters' entrance. Bleached from years of sitting in the sun, it persistently cast a ghastly grin at him as it seemingly judged him with its empty eye sockets. Arcanine had long since grown used to this, as was evident by a small humored smirk appearing on his muzzle. There was a scene in the work he had just read involving a human skull, he recalled. He couldn't resist.

Casting a quick look at the entrance hall to check if it was still empty, he stared into the skeleton's eyes, his face becoming etched with mock sullenness.

"Alas... poor Yorick," he recited softly, looking over to an imaginary partner. "I knew him, Klu-"

"SIR!" a voice yelled from the entrance.

Arcanine jumped and stumbled back as he whipped his head around to meet the source of the voice: Arden sprinting into his office, his eyes wide and flames periodically spurting from his back. As the Quilava tried to slow himself down, he slipped on the polished wooden floor and ran headlong into one of the columns of artifacts along the walls. The pile wobbled haphazardly before the top of it gave way, spilling several of its priceless contents onto the floor with a crash. Arcanine glared at him as he sat up, looking around himself in a daze.

"I, uh... s-sorry, sir," he muttered.

"You had best have a good reason for this, Arden," Arcanine said coldly as he walked over to begin the cleanup. Getting to his back paws, Arden handed him a rusted, long-deactivated Pokéball, joining in picking the mess off the floor. As Arden hastily looked over some yellowed plastic machine for damage, Arcanine looked up at him, his annoyance still clear.

"Why come to my office unannounced in such a hurry? And at such an hour?" he asked as he picked another old Pokéball off the floor. Arden clenched his teeth as he balanced the lightly dented machine onto the top of the stack.

"It's... it's the Oshawott, Guildmaster," he said. Arcanine's expression quickly shifted as he paused, choosing to drop the Pokéball from his jaws.

"Go on," he said.

"I talked with Audino about his stay, and the medical report said he..."

Arden stopped as if still trying to fully process what he had heard.

"...it said he believed he was human," he said, pausing to think for a bit. "Erm, besides that, there was what you noticed before and, uh, they asked us about human writing at one point. They're too early on to really worry about that, it... sir?"