Chapter Text
--
August 18
Under the care of our ancestors’ healing ways,
the visitor’s wounds mended. It shrank back in
fear if approached with open palms, so all kept
their hands closed in its presence.
Once it regained its full strength, the visitor
emitted a dazzling blue light that breathed life
back into our wilted fields, blessing them with
the promise of harvests once more. Perhaps this
was its way of showing its gratitude.
--
Even after Bhaltair declared their visitor “outta th’ danger of freezin’ t’ death”, it did not wake.
When asked why, the doctor had replied with a straight “Well, just ‘cause the chill in’t gonna get it doesn’t mean th’rest of it’s back to full health. Still got those injuries ‘n all that rot to think about, y’know?”
And that had been that.
With nothing for them to do but hover uselessly around the clinic, Glaudusa and Aildrid departed, each promising to stop by in the evening or, barring that, the next day. The farmer bid farewell as he trooped back to the Giant’s Bed fields - which made things awkward, being as the innkeeper had to make the trek down to the river again to refill her bucket.
The inn still had to get cleaned, after all!
On the way back, Beldum had to fend off a few of the braver wild Pokemon, which had started peeking back out of their hiding places in small waves. Curious. Before, there hadn’t been a single other creature in sight, and now it was as if that had never been the case. Something must have made them wary enough to take cover, but what, exactly?
…
...the only thing Glaudusa could think of was the odd Pokemon Aildrid had brought from the field, but how on earth could a Pokemon in such bad shape make even the wild Dragapult not want to come out? It didn’t make any sense.
Regardless, there wasn’t anything else she could do to help the doctor ease its ailments, so she opted to do what she always did when there was something she didn’t want to think too much about.
Clean.
Allie had bombarded her mother with questions the moment she returned to the Freeze Inn (“What took so long? Did something happen? Are you all right??”), which Glaudusa shrugged off without answering.
Instead, she’d replied with a dismissive “Alison, if you’d like to take the rest of the day off and investigate those odd temples, you may do so.”
Her daughter had hesitated, but ultimately left to do just that. Allie had always shown a great interest in the huge temples scattered about the tundra, and the bewildering dot-patterns embeveled into the walls. She always insisted that the dots meant something, and Glaudusa didn’t doubt it. Allie’s budding passion would eventually bloom into a discovery, she was certain of it. Perhaps she’d even figure out what they were for.
But the older woman’s interests had always been in housekeeping and domestic chores, not exploring.
So as soon as the young woman and her Zigzagoon departed from Freezington’s west gate, Glaudusa rolled up her sleeves, and spent the rest of the chilly spring day scrubbing the entire inn clean, top to bottom. The floors, the tables and chairs (and their legs), and counters and cupboards were all thoroughly washed with the wet rag. The bookshelves and books, the windowsills, the knick knacks, the crown molding - everything that could be dusted was dusted. All the linens were unfolded and examined for wrinkles or dust, refolded, and replaced.
By evening, there were practically no indoor chores left to do. When Allie returned, she’d looked around with wide eyes and commented that she’d “never seen the inn this clean in her life”. Which was an exaggeration; Glaudusa’d done this many times before. She’d done it while waiting for births and deaths. She’d done it after her husband had promised to find another civilization somewhere north and hadn’t returned. (A few times, actually.)
So it wasn’t a surprise that when the two of them (and Zigzagoon, and Beldum) sat down for dinner, Allie leveled her gaze at her mother and asked directly, “So, Mom. What’s wrong? You only get like this when you’ve got something you don’t want to think about.”
Her daughter knew her too well.
After a spoonful of stew, Glaudusa replied, “...one of the farmers. Aildrid. He brought a wild Pokemon to Bhaltair this afternoon. Injured and frostbitten, it was. And not well.”
“Oh no!” Allie began fiddling with her ponytail. “Frostbitten, though…? Is it not from the tundra, then? I can’t think of any Pokemon around here that get frostbite…”
She really was a sharp young lady. “We believe so. Neither Aildrid nor I could identify it. Bhaltair believes it to be Grass-type, as one of the afflictions supposedly resembled the leaf rot the local Gossifluer get, but even he wasn’t entirely certain. Even after we got it warm, it didn’t look good.”
“Oh…”
The rest of dinner continued in silence.
--
It took only an hour or so after washing the dinner dishes for Glaudusa to stand from her living room armchair and declare, “I’m heading over to the clinic. You’re welcome to come along, Alison.”
She agreed, of course.
The clinic was only a few paces from the inn. Clearly the doctor was awake, as the fireplace and candles lighting the small structure were still lit, so Glaudusa simply opened the door without fanfare (or knocking, for that matter) and went inside. Her daughter trailed behind her.
Bhaltair looked up at them for a moment, but quickly turned back to the small bed the Pokemon from before was now resting in. “Figured you’d be back t’night, Glaudy.” He was dabbing some brownish paste from a small bowl onto the black spots on its head with a small brush, leaving thin streaks across the smooth surface.
The cuts and scrapes were gone, replaced with strips of white fabric bound together with a tree-sap adhesive. Somehow, that almost made it look worse off than before. Beside her, Allie’s face softened and she hugged Zigzagoon a little tighter.
“Poor thing…” the young woman set her Pokemon down and crossed the room to crouch beside the doctor. The Pokemon looked tiny , still engulfed in the human-sized blanket. “Being like this can’t feel good, huh? Get well soon, little guy.” Her hand gently caressed the side of its face.
Its eyes sluggishly blinked open.
“...croow….??”
“Huh…?”
The Pokemon and the room’s occupants engaged in a brief staredown. And then…
The clinic suddenly erupted into chaos. The nearby table overturned, and Audino tried and failed to catch the bowl with the medicine, which fell and broke on the floor with a loud crash along with a few of the other medicine jars. Bhaltair and Alison both went flying backwards into the wall behind them (“Augh!!” “Ow!”). Riolu tipped off the edge of the bed.
And the bed itself turned sideways, leaning against the wall, the injured Pokemon scrambling to hide under it, completely out of sight. The upturned table and its chairs dragged themselves over, settling over the bed to make a makeshift fortress.
Oddly, Zigzagoon was completely fine, albeit lowered into an aggressive stance and swishing his spiky tail back and forth.
“Alison, Bhaltair, good gods, are you two all right?!” Glaudusa, having been standing closer to the door and thus being unharmed, hurried over to the two humans slumped against the wall in pain.
“I-I’m fine…” Allie groaned, “How about you, Bhal? Break your ancient back?”
“Oh, ha ha…” the doctor grumbled as he stood. He wearily eyed the broken pottery for a moment, but brought his attention to the pile of furniture in the corner. “...well, can’t say I didn’t expect it to react this poorly, but might not’ve taken it in here if I’d known it was Psychic-type…”
“How would one ever predict something like that?!” Glaudusa sputtered.
“Well,” the doctor murmured, a little quieter, as he examined the barricade, “for one thing, it’s a wild Pokemon - ‘s prolly not used to humans, so our presence by itself was prob’bly a bit startlin’. There’s also th’ abrupt change ‘n location - dunno about you, but somehow I doubt the place it fainted was anythin’ like this cabin. An’ that’s not even takin’ into account its injuries, which couldn’t’ve helped.”
“...” That did make sense, but seeing her daughter flung across the room like a ragdoll had struck her heart with the fear of the gods. If it had done this much damage as a knee-jerk reaction while injured and disoriented, what else could it do?
“That all makes sense, but…” Allie tiptoed over to the pile of furniture and laid down to look under it. “...do you still think we can help it? It’s scared and hurt. We’ve got to help somehow…”
“Well, ‘less we wanna go flying out the window next, let’s not just dismantle this and freak the fella out,” Bhaltair pointed out dryly.
“You’re right…” Allie sat up dejectedly.
It was quiet for a moment. The strange Pokemon hadn’t made a sound since its little outburst, so the only noise was the crackling of the fireplace while the three of them thought.
“...maybe we could ask Zigzagoon to negotiate on our behalf?” Glaudusa suggested. The Tiny Raccoon Pokemon’s ears perked up.
“Ah!” Allie exclaimed, “Right! Zigzagoon is Dark-type, so Psychic won’t work. Maybe he’ll have an easier time.” She leaned over to scratch behind her Pokemon’s ears. “What do you think, little buddy? Think you could try and convince it to let us help?”
“Zagzig!!” Zigzagoon barked, before wiggling its way under the stack of furniture.
…
“Rowwwwn?!?” The other Pokemon screeched.
There were a few shuffling sounds, and some barks from the Dark-type pokemon and quiet trills from the other, and the humans, Riolu, and Audino waited tensely as the two conversed.
The interaction eventually died down, and a few seconds later Zigzagoon emerged from the tangle of wood and fabric. “Well? How’d it go?” Allie asked.
“Zig-zizag!” Instead of a proper response (because how could it give one?), it grabbed onto one of the chairs with its front paws and started pulling. The chair made a quiet scraping sound as it dragged across the floor.
“Must’ve gotten the okay, eh? Let’s take this down,” the doctor said, before carefully lifting a chair of his own and carrying it over to the corner. The two innkeepers joined in, dismantling the pile and putting the table and its chairs back where they belonged. Last was the bed, but instead of moving it right away, Bhaltair carefully peered over the edge. “We’re gonna move yer little barrier, ‘aight? We’re not gonna hurt’cha, it’s all right,” he said soothingly.
There wasn’t a response, so the three humans and Riolu carefully slid the bed away and turned it right-side-up. The ‘fortress’’s former occupant was curled in a ball, warily eying the room’s occupants despite the reassurances.
Allie knelt down next to it, getting as low to the ground as she could. “Hey there,” she cooed, “Even with that blanket, being on the floor can’t be as comfy as the bed, huh? Want some help getting back up there?”
She reached out, but the Pokemon shrunk back fearfully. “H-hey, what’s wrong…? I won’t hurt-”
“Zagoo nom-” Suddenly, Zigzagoon lunged forward and clamped down on her fingers, stopping her hand short.
Glaudusa started, and began to scold it. “Hey, Zigzagoon, no biting!”
“Wait, Mom, he’s not biting me… He’s not using his teeth,” her daughter whispered incredulously. She relaxed her arm, and Zigzagoon let go, before rearing up on his back legs, grabbing her hand with his front paws, and clumsily but gently molding her fingers closed before getting down.
Bhaltair ‘hmm’ed. “Ah, I see. ‘S not afraid of us , per se, but maybe our open hands scare it. Look, it already looks less freaked.” Indeed, as soon as Zigzagoon had taken Allie’s hand, some of the tenseness in its body and the fear in its eyes had dissipated, replaced with wariness.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know, ‘lil guy. Can you forgive me?” Allie asked while slowly reaching forward again, fingers carefully closed over her palms. This time, the Pokemon didn’t react much as she slowly glided forward and gingerly gathered it, blanket and all, into her arms.
Glaudusa’s heart melted.
After Allie set the Pokemon back on the bed, the doctor knelt before it and looked it in the eye. “Hey there. I’ll let you rest inna minute, but there’s something you gotta do for me first. You got some leaf rot up on your noggin, ‘n I’m gonna need ya t’ tell me what parts hurt.” He shifted. “‘Cause if they don’t hurt, they’re dead ‘n they gotta come off. It’s real important; think you can do that fer me?”
The fireplace crackled as they waited for its answer.
Instead of answering, however, the Pokemon tipped its head towards him. Get it over with, was clearly the implied answer, so the two innkeepers watched as Bhaltair began gently probing the black-brown spots with his fingers, taking care not to open his hand. It didn’t take long, no more than a few minutes, and the doctor had only had to trim a minimal amount of greenery away with a pair of tiny scissors, but it was clearly agonizing.
“All done.”
Allie grinned. “You both did great! You especially, Little King; you’ve really earned some rest.”
“‘Little King’?” Glaudusa echoed, bewildered.
“I- well… I mean, I thought it was fitting?” her daughter fumbled over her words, embarrassed at being called out. “I mean, we live in the Crown Tundra, and it probably has a name already so I didn’t want to give it one but I thought maybe a nickname was...” she trailed off.
Bhaltair chuckled. “Well, we gotta to call it something , I guess. But should we continue this conversation by the fire instead? The lil’ king’s resting, after all.”
“A kind offer, but perhaps we should be returning home. It’s getting a bit late, after all,” Glaudusa politely turned him down.
Her daughter didn’t seem to agree. “I’m still worried about Little King, though… Could I stay a little longer? Like maybe one night? The inn’s right next door, after all...”
Hm.
“Well, I won’t say no if the lil’ lady wants to so much,” Bhaltair sighed amusedly. “Mind partin’ with your darlin’ daughter for a few hours, Glaudy? I can gett’er set up on the spare bed.”
Hm.
Allie’s desire to stay and the doctor’s easy agreement made Glaudusa a little suspicious of the real motivation for staying over, but Alison was an adult, so the older woman waved it off. None of her business. “Go ahead, Alison. I’ll see the two of you at the inn tomorrow morning for breakfast.”
And before either of them could agree or object, she closed the door behind her and stepped out into the night air.