Tunneling

Loop de Loop dug furiously in the ground, scraping away the dirt that had collected to reveal the stone surface beneath. Kyrie smiled at him. "I don't think we're gonna find anything like that," they said. "C'mon, let's go deeper."

The light from their headlamp reflected off Loop's eyes before Kyrie turned away and walked deeper into the cave. Loop snorted and padded after them.

The cave was well-frequented by other trainers, so Kyrie didn't expect to actually find anything. If they were lucky, they'd find a pretty chunk of quartz. If not, well, at least Loop got some exercise.

They weren't sure what Loop thought. Hopefully he would appreciate it.

They turned to find Loop scrabbling at the ground again. With a sigh, Kyrie picked him up, despite his protests. "If you're not gonna stick with me, I'll have to carry you," they said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

Loop growled until Kyrie put him on their shoulder, where he perked his ears up and nuzzled against their cheek. Kyrie laughed. "Not so bad, right?"

The two of them continued into the cave. Kyrie tried to pick the less-traveled paths, in the hopes they would find something the other trainers had missed, but after yet another dead end and "do not enter" sign, they started to lose hope. Loop de Loop fidgeted on their shoulder, lashing his tail.

"We should probably head back soon," Kyrie finally said. "Let's try one more path, okay?"

The path went down, deeper into the earth. Kyrie found a set of stairs carved out from the stone and carefully descended, looking around with both their headlamp and a flashlight. Loop de Loop dug his claws into their shoulder, just enough to keep his balance.

The stairs led to a wide, open cavern, with a flat floor covered in sand. Kyrie yelped as Loop dug his claws in harder right before jumping down and digging in the sand. Kyrie decided to let him.

While Loop busied himself, they looked around the room. Footprints in the sand confirmed that other trainers had been here before them, and it looked like there had been a lot of them. Chances were, all the shiny objects had been picked up already.

Loop de Loop barked, catching their attention. "Did you find something?" Kyrie asked, turning around. "What is it?"

His tail wagging, Loop ran to the edge of the cavern and pointed his nose at a dark crevice in the wall, half-buried in the sand.

"Absolutely not," Kyrie said immediately. "Don't give me that look! It's too small for me to fit, and I'm not gonna let you go in unattended, never mind that it's definitely not a maintained path."

Loop de Loop whined and took a towards it.

"No," they said, and they crossed the distance between them and Loop in a few large steps. Loop shrank down on himself, but, thankfully, did not run into the hole. Kyrie crouched down next to him. "I know it's cool, or something," they said, "but I don't want you to get hurt, and I have no way of getting you out if you get stuck in there. Okay?"

They glanced at the hole. The headlamp illuminated the inside, showing that it went a lot deeper than the light could reach. "See?" Kyrie said to Loop. "It's too dangerous."

Loop whined again and pointed at the hole again. Kyrie frowned. "Are you trying to tell me something?" they asked. "Is there something in there?"

They moved closer. Loop stepped out of the way to give them room to see.

Inside the hole, something orange reflected the light. Kyrie squinted, but they couldn't make it out. "Huh," they said. "It doesn't look too far back…"

They stuck their arm in. They could just barely touch the stone, but the motion pushed it farther back, and the hole was too small to fit. Kyrie retracted their arm and looked at the sand filling the bottom, then at Loop.

"Okay," they said, "I don't want you going in there, but we could use your digging skills."

Loop's eyes widened and he leapt into action, kicking up sand. Kyrie sneezed and stood up to let Loop do his work.

It didn't take long before Loop, covered in sand, had dug all he could. Kyrie crouched down again and brushed aside the little sand left. "Alright," they said. "Let's try…"

With most of their shoulder in the hole, they grabbed the stone easily. They took it out and immediately realized what it was.

"Loop!" they said, a grin creeping across their face. "You found a fire stone!"

Loop let out a delighted bark and started chasing his tail.

Kyrie smiled at him and put the stone in their bag. "You know what that means, right?" they said. "We're gonna have all the other eevee come to your evolution! It'll be a big event, just like you wanted. C'mon, I'm gonna get a fire-type TM just for you…"

They continued talking as they walked towards the exit, Loop trailing happily behind them.