FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As Team Storm left the carnival that is the Volcorona Guild Hall, the leader, Lucius the riolu, was almost sparking with energy. His aura, though none saw it, was turning a flashy red instead of the usual pale blue. Not that anyone wasn't exited, Lucius was just even more so than the rest of them. "Soon, we will all be in our second form, except for Fang, of course, and we will be heroes for bringing back that artifact! Heroes, I tell you!"

Fern smiled at him. "Yes, I suppose so. Heroes we will be, and a benefit to the Guild as well."

Lucius turned a light purple as blood rushed to his cheeks. Typhon and Fras just snickered, with Eve keeping Fang occupied. Fang was, after all, still just a hatchling, and Eve was the oldest. (Eve was a week older than Lucius, and although Fern is technically hundreds of years old, she is a month younger than Fras, and Fras a few days older than Typhon, and Typhon three weeks younger than Lucius. These Pokémon literally grew up together, with one not remembering a time without at least one other, with the exception of Fern of course, who hadn't been in this time before a few days ago), so naturally she got stuck with the chore taking care of him on the way by default. At the moment, Eve was an espeon, levitating Fang occasionally and teleporting him to keep him occupied. Fras was going to have no part of this 'Leave your son in a Daycare in town' business, not trusting anyone he doesn't know with Fang. He would have left the little axew with Team Hurricane, their parents but they were about to go back out, or Team Eon, the rest of Eve's family. Team Eon is composed of Asp, Eve's aunt on her mom's side, their leader and an umbreon, Umber, an espeon and Ember, a flareon and her father, who didn't get along with Zoe very well. Ember and Umber were twins. The Eon's newest members are Eve's younger brother, a jolteon named Volteer, and her twin sister Sarah, a glaceon. Tem Eon is the biggest team in the Guild, and the most exclusive, being that only family members can join. Eve quit because Sarah was expecting twins, and she wanted to avoid the baby duty now imposed on her by her new Team. There was also the fact that she wanted to stay an eevee forever (More or less. She didn't count using her powers). Eve didn't want to face her family at the moment, as they didn't know about her power, and she probably wouldn't be able to resist flaunting it in front of them, but her family would just freak out. Would serve them right for constantly asking when she would evolve, but each Pokémon kept that specific thought to themselves, not wanting to look mean in front of the others. Eve was an espeon at the moment, teleporting them out of the way of danger if it arose, and lifting objects psychokinetically (telekinetically for those of you without an obsession for sounding like you have an English degree) for Fang to laugh at, and moving large boulders and logs out of the way using the same power. Eve was carefully conserving her power, as occasionally, Typhon would still fall over. He got control of his body as a pupatar, but he was still occasionally losing his balance, the way you or I might "occasionally" trip on nothing. Eve can't transform back into an evolved form after she has used a certain amount of energy, a fact they discovered early on. That was why, when she couldn't control her transformations or was even aware of them, she changed back into an eevee almost immediately. She was a level seven, and after a long day, was just about ready to collapse. Anyways, the team just entered a clearing near the Basalt Foothills. Eve was turned back, just relaxing, and the rest of the team was playing with Fang. With the exception of Typhon, who, always the academic, was studying the map that Volcorona gave him. I was held in a tubular casing, with a strap on it, to be slung across his back. He slid the map out of it's casing it down on the ground, then used a miniature Rock Tomb to hold it down. The map was fairly simple: a map of the town, Forest Hall, and the surrounding woods. The Guild Hall was to the north of the town, on an old fairground from after Fern's time, but before their own. More towns were to the south and west, with mostly woods to the north and east, and even the south and west had little fringes of wilderness with roads running through them. To the east, mountains dominated the map. A huge range called "The Granite Hills" comprised about half of the map, but it was only a regional map. None of the larger towns were on it, but other Guilds' Halls were marked, which was basically the same thing, as guilds either sprang up near large cities, set up their base near a larger population, or towns grew among the guild, built by ex-guild members. The smaller towns where past missions took place were marked scattered throughout the plains to the south and on the shoreline to the west, and locations of Dungeon and Mystery Dungeon entrances were marked. Many had entrances in the woods near Forest Hall and the Granite Hills. Some had entrances on the shoreline. A few even had openings in the open water. One dungeon in particular was especially dangerous: The Dragon's Maze. The huge dungeon had may entrances, and once you entered into its lattice of vallys, cliffs, and canyons, it was hard to escape. It was a wonder that Fras survived exploring anywhere near the thing, even with the guild's top team backing him up. They were lucky to survive. "Alright guys," Typhon started as as the others gathered around to see. "This is where we are going. Mage's Hill." He dipped a bit, self conscious about his lack of limbs."We need to go from here," He dipped again, indicating their current location, "to there." He kind of hopped across the map, to show the route they should take. As the Team nodded, he stopped, satisfied, as they continued on the trail.

Later, in another clearing just before The Basalt Pass, the path into the mountains and towards Mage's Hill, Fern was looking through her pack while Fras, Typhon, and Eve plotted their course from there. As the three brainiacs discussed, Lucius was to watch over Fang. He walked up to Fern and started telling her a story. Soon, Fern stopped what she was doing, captivated. The story is as follows:

_ "Legend has it, the entire town of Forest Hall burned down once, causing a major forest fire hundreds of years ago. Back when the town was just a tiny village. Supposedly a witch lit it, and a blue energy, some say magic, was seen around the spot where the fire started. Right where Celibi's Grace stands now, in fact. The statue overlooks the main road into the forest in honor of the help Celibi, The Guardian of the Forest, gave us when the fire was finally contained. It regrew the woods around us, even made some more. Before that, it was mostly fields to the south and west. Now there is a generous stretch of trees there. When the fire struck, Mystery Dungeon were becoming a more and more common occurrence, and Pokémon were venturing out of them. Our town would surly have been destroyed without the forest, the inhabitants killed. Celibi helped us regrow after the catastrophe. It grew the forest to cover us up, and made the plants bloom year-round for decades afterwards."_ Lucius had a gleam in his eye by this point, and even the squabbling Fras, Eve, and Typhon listened in, a glassy look in their eyes as they got caught up in the past. "We at Volcorona Guild celebrate this every day. We use tents instead of buildings, use natural healing methods, and absolutely no fire outside of a pit, even to light the way at night. The Pokémon in Forest Hall also celebrate this. No pollution, all absorbed by Koffing and Wheezing, no litter, picked up by mincceno and swablu and garbodor. Only lampents whose job it is to light the way use fire at night, and we recycle as much wood as possible. This is how we preserve Celibi's gift to us." It was almost dark when the story ended. "Speaking of fire, we need one. we have sleeping bags and such, but we need to keep warm, too," Fern said. She organized them, setting Lucius and Typhon up to get some firewood, Fras was to protect the camp with illusion. She was to light the fire and keep Fang busy. Eve was to douse the fire if it got out of control, and was a vaporeon for the occasion. soon, they had a functional campsite set up, and were ready to go to bed. The last things that crossed his mind before Lucius fell asleep were two memories that he hadn't thought had any connection at the time. But they did. Looking back, he had scolded himself for not connecting earlier. But now, he was tired.

"Mage's Hill in the morning, everyone," Lucius murmured, already half asleep, "Mage's Hill in the morning."