Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Forest Temple (Ch1)

	In a clearing deep within the woodland called Fair Forest, a trio of Pokémon stood filled with uncertainty as an ominous silence fell all around. It was a drastic change from the way the woods had been before, when the air was filled with forest sounds: wind rustling tree branches, water flowing through rivers and brooks, avian Pokémon calling to each other in their own languages. The sudden onset of silence overrode any sense of tranquility it may have otherwise brought, and only served to make it clear that there was something wrong about this clearing.

    Regardless of their discomfort, however, they had all resignedly agreed that there was no going back. They had to be in the clearing, foreboding as it was, as it was the location of their destination: the Forest Temple. This small shrine to the forest itself had been built long ago, deep within Fair Forest, and the trio had spent most of the morning hiking through the dense woods to reach it. At last, they had arrived at its entrance, and took in the sight. Across the clearing was a cliff face of rough grey stone that rose many stories above the grassy ground, and within it lay the Temple. The Temple was easy to miss, as the only sign of it from outside was a hole no more than five feet high carved into the cliff face, which was mostly covered by roots cascading down from an enormous tree that grew atop the cliff. The roots descended into the ground at the cliff's base, but there was a spot at the bottom where they parted, exposing the hole that led to the Forest Temple.

    “You know... If I didn’t need to be here, I wouldn’t,” Cyndaquil said with a frown, looking around the clearing nervously. “Something about this place seems spooky.”

    “I agree, but we can't turn back now,” Skitty told the Fire-type, a confident tone in her high-pitched voice. “We can’t abandon a mission that comes directly from the chief of the guild.”

    “I know,” Cyndaquil told his Normal-type partner, “but still, the sooner we can go back to Shukuba Village, the better. I don’t know what it is exactly, but something about this place makes me feel uneasy.” His raspy voice became a whisper. “I feel like the Temple’s giving off come kind of dark aura. Like it’s a place we really shouldn’t go. I can’t shake the feeling that this will end badly.”

    “You’ll be fine,” said the third Pokémon of the group, Clefairy. “The Forest Temple might appear a bit scary, but I’ve been here enough times to know that it’s not really too bad. Believe me: if there was anything creepy about the Forest Temple, I would’ve quit this job a long time ago.”

    “Well, I’m glad you haven’t quit yet, then,” Skitty said. “It’s good to have a guide with us, because we’ve never been out this way before. Thanks for agreeing to come with us.”

    “You’re welcome, but even if I didn’t agree to come with you, I would have been required to do it anyway,” said Clefairy with a shrug. “Remember what I told you when we left Azure Village: nobody’s allowed to go to a Temple without a Watcher escort. Especially now, when some of the Temples are turning into dangerous mystery dungeons. But I remember the two of you saying that you're Delvers earlier, right? So you should be used to exploring dungeons.”

	Skitty and Cyndaquil nodded. “Exactly, so if this place is a dungeon, we won't mind," Skitty said. "It's a real possibility, and we're prepared for it. After all, finding out if this Temple has become a dungeon is why we’re here. You remember that, right, Cyndaquil?”

    Her partner nodded. “Of course I do. Step one: investigate the temple for any signs of Abyssal corruption—which would make it become a mystery dungeon. Step two: find Celebi, who frequents this Temple, and find out if he’s doing alright, since apparently he’s gone AWOL lately.” He added, with a somewhat offended tone: “I’m not forgetful enough to forget our own mission objectives, Skitty.”

    Skitty looked at him sheepishly. “Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you’ve got it down, because it seems like sometimes you focus more on gathering items on the ground than completing whatever we’ve come to the dungeon to do, so it can’t hurt to remind you.”

    “Well, excuse me for wanting to get items!” Cyndaquil snapped, his raspy voice taking on a decidedly irritated tone. “Every time I try to collect anything in these dungeons, you try to drag me along to finish the mission as fast as possible. You know it’s better to find items for free in dungeons than buy them from the Kecleon Shops.”

    “Still, you act like such a kleptomaniac whenever we enter a dungeon,” Skitty said. “I only try to drag you along because you completely ignore the stairs and just look for as many items as possible. One of these days, something bad is going to happen to a client because we ignore them just so you can find more items.”

    Cyndaquil was about to retort, but Clefairy quickly hovered between the two of them, her wings glowing as she levitated. The Fairy-type looked back and forth between them, pleading with them. “Please settle down! Let’s not argue, please. If you both remain calm, you can find a peaceful solution to—”

    “Oh, don’t worry about it,” Skitty said, to Clefairy’s surprise. “It’s fine. We bicker like this sometimes, but we never really mean any of it.”

    Cyndaquil nodded. “She’s right. We’re partners, and we have been for years. If we didn’t like each other, we wouldn’t still be on this team together.”

    The hovering Clefairy drifted down to the ground, looking at her companions uncertainly. “Well... if you insist, then I’ll let it go.”

    “Good,” said the Fire-type, before turning to his partner. “Anyway, Skitty, that talk about items got me thinking: I want to take one last look at our bags. Could you open them up? I just want to make extra sure we’ve got everything we need, and check how much room we have left, in case we find a dungeon in the Temple and we decide to gather more items from it.”

    Skitty nodded and used her long tail to open the two saddlebags made of plain brown fabric slung over her back and hanging at her sides. Cyndaquil walked past Clefairy and peered inside the bags, examining their contents before giving his partner an affirmative nod.

    “Okay, it looks like we’ve got the essentials. Let’s head on in. Clefairy, lead the way.”

    “I sure hope you have what you need,” Clefairy noted as she started walking towards the cliff face that led to the Forest Temple. “I didn’t bring anything with me, so I’ll have to use your items if we run into any trouble. Is that okay?”

    “It’s fine,” Skitty said. “We won’t keep our items from you. Feel free to use them.”

    “Just don’t waste them,” Cyndaquil added. “Waste not, want not, as I always say.”

    Clefairy nodded, and after thanking her companions for agreeing to share their items, she made her way towards the opening in the cliff face, the two Delvers following her. As they walked across the clearing, she explained some details about the Temple.

    “The Forest Temple is quite small,” she began. “It only has a few rooms, so it shouldn’t be difficult to navigate. Once we enter it, we’ll be in a short hallway that leads to the first room. The first room is like a foyer, and contains a few decorations, but little of note except for a door leading deeper into the Temple. That door opens into another short hallway, and that hallway leads to a much larger room, the main room of the Temple. Three other rooms branch off of it: one is a library, another is a kind of sitting room for people to convene or rest in, and the third is the Shrine itself. If Celebi is here, he’ll almost certainly be in the Shrine.”

    As she finished her explanation, she and her companions reached and entered the hole in the cliff. As Clefairy had said, it led to a short corridor carved from stone. As they walked down it, a light suddenly and mysteriously appeared deeper in, illuminating a room at the end of the corridor, which had been concealed in darkness while they were outside. Now, they had a good look at the room as they stepped into it. It was mostly empty, its only furnishings being some tattered tapestries with arcane symbols resembling stylized leafy branches woven into them hanging on the walls, a few flat-topped rocks scattered about to act as seats, and a few torches on the walls for illumination. The room was about two dozen feet square, and a dozen feet tall. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were made of almost perfectly smooth grey stone, clearly carved by skilled Pokémon. Straight ahead, flush with the wall, stood a tall rectangular slab of slightly darker stone, which appeared to be the door Clefairy mentioned. It was a few feet wide, and reached up to the ceiling.

    As Skitty and Cyndaquil observed the room, Clefairy walked over to one of the tapestries, looking at it closely before reaching up and grabbing its bottom, which was just within her reach. She gave it a firm pull, then released it and made her way over to another tapestry, which she grabbed and pulled on like the last one, while the two Delvers looked on confusedly. Next, her wings began to glow, and she levitated up to a tapestry that hung out of her arm’s reach, its bottom being halfway up the wall. She grabbed the bottom of the tapestry with both hands and gave it a good yank, and then, to the surprise of the Delvers, the great stone door began to shudder and slide slowly downwards into the floor. The sound of stone scraping and grinding against stone echoed throughout the foyer, and Clefairy floated down to the ground, landing in front of Skitty and Cyndaquil.

    “Judging by your confused expressions, I guess you don't know about this: the Temple’s protected by a kind of code that controls that door,” Clefairy explained as her wings stopped glowing. She had to speak loudly in order to be heard over the sound of the door opening. “You could probably break that door down with enough strength, but otherwise, tugging these tapestries in the right order is the only way to open it. It’s not a perfect precaution, but it makes it difficult for bad Pokémon to get in and defile the place. Plus, pulling the tapestries in the wrong order springs a trap, so it’s really risky to try to sneak into the Temple without a Watcher escort.”

    “Um, Clefairy, don’t you think we should’ve looked away while you entered that code?” Skitty asked Clefairy, cocking her head to the side. “I mean, I know Cyndaquil and I have squinty eyes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t see well. We know the order you pulled those tapestries in. You’re not worried we’ll remember what we saw and tell people about the sequence to open the door?”

    “Not really,” the Fairy-type replied nonchalantly. “I trust you won't reveal it. Maybe you haven’t heard, but the Delvers and the Watchers have an agreement of trust. Both groups understand the importance of the Temples and their Shrines, as the Legendary and Mythical Pokémon rely on them for their power, so if any Delvers defile the Temples, they’ll be punished by both groups. It’s a good deterrent, and it’s an extremely rare occurrence for any Delvers to try anything funny. But anyway, the door’s open, so let’s get on our way?”

    The last few words trickled out slowly as Clefairy looked towards what the door had opened to reveal. Instead of the hallway that should have been there, there was a flight of stairs descending into darkness, going down an indeterminable distance.

    “Wait,” Clefairy said in alarm, stepping back from the stairs. “These stairs weren’t here before!”

    The two Delvers walked up to the side of their Watcher guide and looked down the stairs with her. “What do you mean they weren't here before?” Cyndaquil asked.

    “What else could I mean? I mean there aren't supposed to be stairs right here! This door is supposed to lead to a hallway! I've been a Watcher for many years, and I've spent a lot of time at this Temple. I know what its layout is.” She looked down the stairs, at the shadows concealing where they led, and shuddered. “This is creepy... What could this mean? And where do the stairs go, anyway?”

    “Only one way to find out,” Cyndaquil said as he stepped forward, towards the mysterious staircase. “Follow me!”

    “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Clefairy asked nervously, making the Fire-type pause and glance back at her. “Maybe we should just leave, and tell the other Watchers at the Steeple about this. Those stairs could lead anywhere. They could lead somewhere dangerous!”

    “Hey, they don’t call us Delvers for nothing,” Skitty said, with a hint of pride in her voice. “It’s our job to investigate things like this, delving into mysterious places and exploring them, even if they’re dangerous. If these stairs were never here before, then that’s a really good reason to take them and see where they lead.”

    Skitty walked forward, past Clefairy and Cyndaquil, and began to descend the stairs. Her partner followed close behind, but Clefairy stayed behind for a bit, taking deep breaths and thinking about what to do.

    “What if these stairs go to a dungeon?” she whispered, her voice shaky. “I don’t know if I could make it through something like that. I was hoping to never have to enter one of those." Clefairy paused, and gave a dejected sigh. “But at the same time, I can’t just let those two kids go down there alone! I have to do my job and accompany them, until they leave this place!”

    Clefairy hurried forward and carefully descended the stairs after the two Delvers, hoping not to find anything too terrible at the bottom.

    But in a blink of an eye, she found her fears confirmed.


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