Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Quenched Torch

Chapter 28: Visions

"Alright, just hold still, this'll hurt," Rye warned.

"Rye, neh," I pleaded one last time. I couldn't add to this, as my pleas came out as yelps of pain as Rye started pulling the shard of orb out of my back. We had decided we could go without patching ourselves up, though quickly found that was optimistic at best. Thankfully, we had found an Oran tree along the road, and less so, Rye had determined that now that we had something to help heal, it was a good time to get the orb-stuff out of ourselves. As I had learned back at Amber Meadow, Rye couldn't exactly be trusted with healing, though with two and a half hours to go, I didn't have much choice in the matter.

'Still, though, does he have to wiggle- agh! Like that...!'

With a final loud noise of protest from me, Rye held up a glassy blue shard, his fingers covered in my blood as he held a juice-soaked cloth against the wound. As I winced from the juice doing its work, Rye gritted his teeth.

"Ugh, alright. My turn, I guess," he said. Handing me a clean cloth as he lied down on his belly, he gave me a last pleading look.

"Please never make an orb go off again," he requested. I gave him a quick look as I examined the damage: three blue shards embedded between his scales where he had been hit by the orb's detonation. Guilt coursed through me as I recalled that Rye had seemingly taken the brunt of the blast, receiving most of the fragments in the process. I couldn't tear my eyes away with the thought that Rye was right, that this was my fault, that I had been a damn coward and nearly gotten us killed.

"...Rye, am... am sahry," I eventually said. Rye looked up at me.

"Hm?" he asked. Hanging my head in shame, I pointed at his wounds.

"Oh, i-it's okay, just don't do it again," he said, giving a reassuring nod. Though this didn't help ease my woes very much, I swallowed them back for the time being and took a quick look at the cloth in my paws, realizing my nubs for fingers weren't optimal for this kind of work. I briefly considered trying to pick them out with my scalchop before biting my lip.

"Sahry," I said in advance before getting a shard between my paws and starting to tug.

"Ow- aagh! Beck, stop pulling it so h- ah!" Rye protested. As his protests became more and more colorful, I decidedly turned my frustration back towards Impetus Town. I didn't know who this Team Whatstheirname was, but regardless of if all this was my fault, they had a bit of explaining to do.

---

No one stopped to gawk at us as we headed back into Impetus Town. Explorers getting hurt on the job was a common sight, it seemed, and a couple novices like us weren't really cause for alarm. Apart from the occasional odd look from the village kids at the blood we hadn't washed off, we didn't really draw much attention as Rye asked around for directions to the town's inn.

As we started away from the town square, I couldn't help but notice the gradual change in architecture. Buildings gradually shifted from small log cabins to proper wood-and-stone structures and homes became larger as we headed further from the square. When I pointed this out to Rye with a questioning gesture, he gave a little shrug.

"Uh, the town started as a frontier outpost. I guess as the wanderers moved on and more Pokémon decided to stay, they started making their houses more like that? I dunno, I don't really know that kind of stuff," he said.

Soon enough, we found ourselves in front of a large building just at the edge of the town. Indistinct conversation, a sickly sweet smell, and a single staggering Pokémon came from through the doors as we hesitated, unsure if this was a good idea. Soon enough, I swallowed back my nervousness and headed into the inn, clutching Rye's hand as to not lose him.