Cozy Cottage Quests!

TW: BLOOD, FIGHT, VAMPIRE CHAOS

Arbor, Clove, and their new recruits Being and Sugar, all stared at the builletin board for a bit. They all wore different expressions to the help request. Big, bold letters on a yellow A4-sized sheet of paper, in the middle of the board. “NEED HELP URGENTLY: Vampires attacking Nomel Town!” Arbor looked worried and antsy; Clove looked a bit annoyed and done; Being uh… Being was looking at it, that was sure; Sugar shifted her weight from one side to the other nervously. 

“How many vampires does this place have? Like where did they even come from, how long do we have to deal w-”

Clove’s complaining was quickly shut down by a stern look from Arbor, to which she rolled her eyes with a huff, continuing to grumble under her breath. Sugar also gave a dirty glare, but it went unnoticed. It was hard to consider that such a cute looking Pokémon might harbor any anger. 

Arbor exhaled a quick sigh, the totodile taking the request paper and tearing it off the board, accepting the quest much to Clove’s dismay. “We’ve delt with vampires before, so we’ll deal with them again. It’s getting out of control, so let’s just get this over with. Alright?” It snapped towards Clove, who only threw her hands up and passive-aggressively and rolled her eyes before walking past Arbor, towards the town in need. Sugar followed, but gave Arbor a sympathetic rub on the cheek before continuing. It helped a little. Being followed suit, flying above and watching from afar, and the totodile ran to catch up as well. They were on their way to help.

As they came closer and closer to the town, it became disturbingly clear how dire the situation truly was. A shiver crawled up Cloves spine. Blood was everywhere, grass stained, the path becoming more and more scattered, desperate paws kicking up the gravel in attempts to escape. Hopefully they succeeded. Arbor repeated a tiny prayer to Arengato over and over, praying that luck would be on their side in this conflict. 

They passed a large archway into the town, the eerie silence becoming deafening. Blood everywhere. Some fresh. Some stale. The typically lively and colorful town, known for its many booths of food, seemed empty. It almost felt abandoned, only illuminated by the fleeting light of dusk and flickering lampposts. The team stayed silent as they walked deeper into the city, alert of any noise. 

Wings being frantically beat demanded their attention, as Being stared to the side, the slow and near silence flight turning loud and off-beat. A warning. Sugar hopped forth, immediately beginning to look for the source of danger. Head down low, they stalked forward, ready to pounce. But it pounced first.

A dewottt burst out of a building, the door making an audible crack from the force as the slick creature landed in a nearly feral stance. He stared Sugar down for a moment, looking them up and down before cracking a sneer and standing up on two paws. The motion was too smooth, too calculated. Unnerving was the only way to describe it. As if to contrast the controlled motion, he then violently grabbed the fabric of their head, claws scratching a rift onto the surface. Cotton scattered, and Sugar flinched to the vampire’s delight. Clove and Arbor ran to fight off the fiend, but before letting the leaking creature go, the dewott gave a sweet whisper.

“You don’t belong on their side, do you?”

With a simple whisper, Sugar snapped. As they were pushed back and released, taking only a second to collect themself, fabric and threads began bristling in fury. How could a Pokémon who knew nothing, nothing, about them and their pack even begin to draw assumptions? How dare he!?

The reaction was exactly what the dewott wanted, a sly grin widening, eyes squinted in amusement. It stood proudly on the flat rof of the building, crossing its arms for a moment. The cocky bastard. Clover leapt towards the filthy thing, claws out and ready to scratch, but he was faster, wings snapping out from his back with a bone-chilling crackling sound, and shooting him into the air and on top of a building. In one, smooth action, it tore off one of the shells on its side and threw it directly at Arbor. 

Arbor only barely ducked, the razor sharp shell tearing a rift in its tail, but the damage was minimal. No time to waste, it leapt up again, leaping and grasping hold onto the tired wooden wall with its claws, quickly scrambling upwards to reach the vampire. 

The dewott turned to deal with Arbor, but let out a surprised yelp as Being’s wings thrashed over his eyes, a momentary distraction. Those moments were taken advantage of. Sugar kicked themself off the wall and onto the roof, wasting no time in grasping onto the dewott. Long, dark tentacles slid through the seams of their body, quickly curling around the vampires neck, then tightening. Arbor slashed, and Clove slammed into his body. It didn’t take long once the being was cornered. He was done for.

The frantic sound of wings beating told them it wasn’t over yet. A sylveon stood tall, two pawmis by her side. Their red eyes were intense. Sylveon’s, however, were a vibrant, bright blue. Somehow it was even more disturbing than the red. It was as if their bodies froze when she looked at them. She began to hum. Sickly sweet tones, harmonizing within her voice, a gentle song. 

In different circumstances, it would have been alluring, something one could close their eyes and doze off to, a sweet hymn of comfort and safety. That was not the case. Adrenaline pumped through their bodies, from their paws to their snouts, a kind of terror that was distinctively hers. They could only watch as the sylveon took a step closer. Then another. Then stopped. She sat down on the edge of the roof, a bit away from them, continuing her sweet humming. 

After a moment of observation, she stopped. As if a tight grasp was let go of their lungs, the team collectively staggered. Once back in their bodies and right minds, the pawmis were unnervingly close. The two creatures leapt from the roof, one tackling Clove, the other tackling Sugar. Arbor scrambled to help, prying the snarling pawmi off Clove first. She began kicking and shouting curses at the being, thorned vines shooting from her palms in fury. She could handle that one herself. 

Being was biting and tearing the other to get off of Sugar, cotton stuffing scattering. Part of Arbor was relieved it was just stuffing, and not a more vile sight. The other part was horrified at the strength of these pawmis. Arbor snarled, catching the pawmis attention, then sweeped its legs. The friend-shaped fiend fell, and was immedialtely shoved off the roof by Sugar. They were panting, and looked very shaken, carefully putting a paw over the stuffing they lost. They spun around, tentacles thrashing, a loud crack being heard as the other pawmis neck snapped. Clove looked a little disturbed at the tentacle, but after catching Sugar’s eye and seeing their rough state, the hesitation went away. Yeah. It deserved it.

The sylvion atop the roof began another, more amused and eerily cheery hymn, but was quickly shut up by Arbor’s water gun, aimed maliciously at her mouth. She huffed, fangs lengthening in a sneer. “You filthy fucker.” She hopped up to her paws with grace, despite just being aggressively hosed in the face with water. Bright blue eyes pierced Arbor, the tension impossible not to notice. The totodile only gave a harsh glare back.

Behind the sylvion, Being stalked forth, low to the ground, wings barely making a sound as it creeped closer. That was the beauty of a team member like Being. Nobody payed much mind to it. Sure, it was clearly the scout of the team, but the use of an air-borne anorith was gravely underestimated. It’s pinsirs opened around the sylveons leg, then clamped together. Even with the far distance, the brief sound of air moving around it was audible. Then deafened by a shout. 

The sylvion slammed its foot up and down a few times, trying to shake off Being to no avail- the strength of its pinsirs shouldn’t be underestimated. Distracted with the creature, Clove took the opportunity to swing herself to their roof, remove the stick from her hair, and slam it into the sylvion like a slegdehammer. She stumbled, then was hit again. A few snarls and growls continued, but they became weaker. Finally, Clove let out a satisfied sigh, creating a a few leaves and vines, and using them to tie up the sylveon. Being let go of her leg, and picked up one of the vines, quietly lifting up the sylveon. The power of that creature was astounding. It flew off without casting a single glance back; the danger was gone. 

Clove leapt off the roof, waiting on the ground for the others. Arbor took a second before joining down to silently place some stuffing back into Sugar’s body, clumsily tying up some loosened threads of their fabric. It returned Sugar’s comforting cheek rub with a gentle smile, and nudged them to go back to Coldour with it. The toy Pokémon seemed hesitant to leave its cotton parts, but gave a nod, and quietly left the rooftop to walk home.

They really hoped they were done with those vampires.