Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Quenched Torch

Chapter 30: Straitside Getaway

Arden could only wish he was having a good day.

As May followed him out of the mess hall, a weight hung on the Quilava's shoulders that was most definitely not the sack of food he was lugging along. It'd been over a week since he'd found out about Beck's true nature, and the uncertainty of what this entailed still lingered like a bad odor. He had always been confident that he had things under control and that if anything were to go wrong, Team Apex would be able to drop everything and stamp it out before it escalated. However, with Beck now outed as human, he knew this wouldn't be an option now. What was wrong was unknown to him, and he guessed only Team Reach would know for sure.

So now the future was both unclear and quite possibly in the paws of Team Reach. Neither of those sounded particularly enticing, but both of them at once?

'Well, that's that. We're all fucked. Isn't that-'

"Arden?" May asked, watching the Quilava concernedly. Arden jumped and spun his head to meet May's gaze.

"You're doing it again. You're whispering to yourself," she said. Arden let out something between a sigh and a growl, though chose not to argue with the Leafeon. So what if he was talking to himself? That was a perfectly reasonable thing to do in times of stress, he figured, and May should know as well as any that that was the case for him.

Then again, she didn't know anything about what might be wrong. His oath of secrecy to Guildmaster Arcanine still held firm, and despite the recent developments and the vision he'd had that had nearly burned down the base, he had chosen to not break it. Maybe if he-

"Arden...!"

Before he could pull himself out of his stupor, Arden suddenly found himself on the ground with the food he had been carrying scattered in front of him. The Espurr he had tripped over sent a glare as it dusted itself off, not helping Arden's embarrassment as May stared in shock. As the Espurr continued on its way, Arden pushed himself up and started picking up the dirtied food.

"Arden, what even-" May began.

"It's Basculin, May. No one at base eats it anyways," Arden said. May shot him a patented Look, shutting him up as she continued.

"You know what I mean, Arden. Now tell me, what is going on?" she demanded. Arden opened his mouth to retort, though as he looked into May's eyes, he hesitated. Past the anger, there was pleading and concern that begged him to say something, anything. After a moment of hesitation, he sighed.

"I-I can't tell. The old dog's got me under oath," he said between clenched teeth. May's face softened as she considered his words. After a minute, she silently nodded. She knew that Arcanine's word was not to be challenged, so any sort of confession would be risky for both of them. Besides, she had at least gotten confirmation that something was up. She was at least happy with that.

As Arden picked the last of the Basculin off the ground, a pair of familiar voices met his ears. He looked behind him, his face souring as he saw the source.

'Of fucking course.'

"I-I still can't believe those two tried to do that! We aren't doing anything to them, why'd they pull that?" Rye complained as he and Beck skimmed over the boards. Beck gave a quick snort.

"Eh, shee-dyets," the Oshawott tried to enunciate before scrunching his face up and sticking out a paw. "A-sheh-sheeh. Shyeegh," he said in a rough exaggeration of Mustie's annoying voice. As the two shared a laugh, May stifled her own chortle.

"Well, he's not far off. That is pretty damn close to Mustie," she joked. Arden gave no reply, only watching the two as they looked up at the board before them. Shuddering, he tore his gaze from the two and continued on his way.