Start of the Road

"This is big... right?" Wildfire looked down at the map that Rumble had carefully laid out on the table.

"To some yes." Rumble hummed as he took in the map. Nox glanced at the faces of his teammates. Aqua and Wildfire had taken the news of their discovery rather well. Both showed varying levels of excitement and interest but both were interested enough to come along. "This could be the greatest discovery of our time if we can actually find them..."

"Well is there really any doubt? We have a map now right?" Nox nudged Rumble with a paw.

"This is only step one." Rumble glared at Nox before turning back to the map. "In fact I wouldn't even call it step one. I'd call it step zero." He tapped the only marked location on the map. "I'd guess we need to start here."

"That's here in Firstbrush Fields, but it's kinda far from here..." Jewel hummed.

"It'll take a while to walk that but I don't mind a longer trip." Nox shrugged.

"If I might make a suggestion." Aqua spoke up. Everyone turned to look at her. "I know of a pokemon who offers transport services in the town over. If we hire them that would make the travel much faster."

"Hey not a bad idea." Nox nodded at Aqua. "You ok with that?" He looked over at Rumble.

The fuecoco was frowning but that was a normal expression for him. "It's fine." Rumble nodded stiffly. "As long as we know we can trust them."

"I've heard nothing but good things." Aqua reassured him. "Now, we should all get some rest to prepare for tomorrow alright?" Nox didn't really want to go to sleep yet but Aqua proved to be quite the persuasive force. She had the whole team down in record time. Nox dreamt of new adventure as he drifted off.

---

"I hear you're the mon to come to when you need a ride." Crocus looked over at the shiny rockruff that had walked up to him and spoke.

"You heard right." Crocus nodded. "Where to?"

The rockruff gave him a sheepish smile. "It's a bit out of the way, want to make sure that's cool."

"Not a problem." Crocus flicked an ear. He'd brought pokemon to all sorts of places off the beaten path. Nothing short of having to hike up a mountain without a path or needing to cross a large body of water would stop him.

"Great. Next question. How many can you handle?" The rockruff questioned.

"Depends." Crocus huffed. The kid sure did ask a lot of questions rather than just giving him the needed information. 

"Right." The rockruff nodded. "Would it work best to just introduce you to everyone?"

"Yes." Crocus nodded. The rockruff nodded back and led him to a group of pokemon nearby. Mostly pokemon on the smaller side, besides the feraligatr in the group. He could easily handle all of them though. "You're all good." He looked down at the rockruff, who grinned at him.

"Good to hear! Yo Rumble! You wanna let the man know where we're going?" The rockruff ran over to a fuecoco.

The fuecoco huffed but walked over to Crocus, map in hand. "We need to get here." The fuecoco pointed out an area on the map. It wasn't an area you typically saw anyone traveling to but who was he to really put his nose into business that wasn't his own. There were plenty of thrill seekers and explorers out there that liked to go places no one else did so in hindsight maybe the area wasn't so much of a weird one.

"Can do." Crocus nodded before looking at the whole group. "Follow me." Thankfully the group did as asked without any further prompting. He led them to where he kept his cart. The very thing that made his whole business really possible. He hooked himself up with the ease of practice and brought it out in front of the group. "Get in, and relax." He gestured to the cart with his head. After a moment the whole group piled in. He quickly tested the weight and confirmed that he could in fact handle it just fine.

He let the conversation of the group wash over him as he slowly brought them out of town. It was always better when there were multiple pokemon to transport. Made them less likely to try and strike up a conversation with him, and he much preferred to work quietly. Once they were fully out of town he picked up his pace significantly. It would take over a day to reach their destination, but it would have taken the group much longer without him. If he really wanted to he could probably travel into the night and have no need to camp with his clients. That would be the most preferable outcome.

The ride was peaceful for a while, they were making good pace and Crocus was optimistic that he wouldn't have to stay up too late to get them there. Of course the peace of the ride had to be ruined by the rockruff leaning on the front part of the cart and starting to talk to him. "Just realized I never introduced myself, or anyone else for that matter. Name's Nox. The angry fuecoco is Rumble, the fraxure is Jewel, the fletchinder is Wildfire, and the feraligatr is Aqua." Nox gestured to each person as he introduced them. Not that Crocus cared to learn their names, but he was stuck with the knowledge now. As Nox tapped his paws on the side of the cart, Crocus remained silent. Perhaps the rockruff would get the hint that he didn't want to talk if he stayed quiet long enough. Though despite only just meeting Nox he got the feeling that wouldn't be the case. 

Crocus would end up being right as Nox attempted to hold a one sided conversation with him the whole time. It was almost impressive just how determined the rockruff was to get him to talk. Honestly Crocus probably would have been impressed if he wasn't so annoyed. Thankfully though at some point the rockruff fell asleep leaving Crocus to peaceful silence. It wasn't much longer until they arrived at their destination. Most of the group had fallen asleep, save for Rumble the fuecoco. He still seemed alert despite the late hour. "We're here." Crocus turned his head and addressed Rumble. 

The fuecoco startled slightly before relaxing. He glanced at Crocus and nodded. "Right. I'll get everyone up then." Crocus immediately liked Rumble better than Nox. The fuecoco got straight to the point. Something he could respect. Crocus waited patiently as Rumble woke up the rest of his group and ushered them off the cart. 

He got several mumbled thanks as the pokemon in the group passed him. Much to his disappointment Nox was the last one. At first the rockruff didn't say anything, he was still blinking the grogginess out of his eyes, as he fished into a bag around his waist. "Alright friend. What do I owe ya?"

Crocus did some quick mental calculations in his head. "300 stamps." Technically it hadn't taken over a day so he wouldn't charge them for an extra day of travel time. Plus for the most part they'd been fine passengers.

"A steal." Nox nodded as he yawned. After a moment of fumbling the rockruff produced the owed amount. Crocus took them and quickly stashed them away.

"Thank you for your business." Crocus bowed his head in a show of appreciation.

As he started to turn around, intent on finding a place away from the group to rest for a few hours, Nox spoke up. "Hey why don't you stick with us for the night? It's pretty late you know?" 

Crocus debated how it would be perceived if he just walked off. He found some merit in sticking around, mostly being able to handle the exhaution permeating his entier being sooner. "Fine." He huffed finally before detaching himself. It wasn't that big of a deal, he could be gone before any of them woke up anyway.

---

As it turned out Crocus was not gone by the time the others woke up. He must have been more tired than he thought. Another surprise came in the form of him somehow getting roped into exploring the area alongside the rest of the group. Crocus was baffled and honestly not sure why he didn't just head back. None of them were forcing him to stay here, so why was he staying here?

Regardless of the whys and hows he was here now, swept up in the excited atmosphere that surrounded the group. What were they even doing out here? Currently they were all following Rumble, who had out a different map than the one that had been used to show Crocus where to go. Odd. At some point the feraligatr, Aqua, pulled him aside. "Are you sure you're alright with coming with us? It was put on you rather suddenly." Aqua looked at him, possibly trying to gauge his reaction.

"It's... fine." Was all Crocus could really manage. Mostly because he knew he could leave at any time but he didn't.

"If you're sure." Aqua hummed. "I might as well bring you up to speed on why we're here then." Crocus glanced over at her in mild interest. That would be nice, he still had no idea what any of them were doing here beyond just exploring. "Have you heard about the creation stones?" Crocus slowly nodded. He'd been told the story when he was little, like a lot of others in the region he'd expect. "Well we may have just found the key to tracking them down." Aqua nodded her head towards Rumble. "That map is leading us here and Rumble is certain whatever we find here will be the first step in located the stones."

Crocus' eyes widened slightly. "How..?"

"Rumble says he knows a lot about ancient history and such. Has been visiting old ruins and studying it most of his life." Aqua smiled. "The map they just so happened to stumble upon. I do really hope it's real. It would be crushing to them if it wasn't." Her smile faltered. "Though Rumble is confident, so I am too."

"That's... something." Crocus offered. It was a wild dream, to think the stones could be tracked down. One that he couldn't help but feel a bit excited about. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

---

"Everyone stop." Rumble carefully rolled the map back up and looked at the trees in front of him. The location marked on the map was here, so there had to be something around here. "Take a look around for anything out of place." There were several noises of agreement as the group spread out. Much to Rumble's surprise even the sawsbuck which had taken them here was helping in the search. 

Rumble carefully inspected everything, so far everything seemed to belong. That was until his hand brushed against smooth stone set into the ground. He grinned to himself. There it was. He brushed away the debris covering the stone and soon enough uncovered a rather large, rectangular stone. What was most important about it though were the carvings of dialga, palkia, giratina, and arceus that were on it. The carvings that were identical to the ones on the box that contained the map. 

By the time he'd finished uncovering the stone the others had wandered over. "Nice find. What do we do with this now?" Nox asked as he walked over. Thankfully refraining from stepping on the stone.

Rumble hummed as he scrutinized the stone. He noticed an odd rectangular shape carved into the middle. A shape that would be a perfect fit for... He carefully pulled out the map and laid it down on the rectangle. A perfect fit just like he'd thought. For a moment nothing happened, but then the carvings began to glow and soon the map did too. Rumble watched in awe as some of the others gasped. Once the light faded there was a new location marked on the map. A location in the Sunspray Coast. He tapped the new location on the map. "That's where we need to go next." He picked up the map and stored it.

"Should we be heading into a new area so soon?" Wildfire seemed concerned. Jewel nodded in agreement.

Rumble frowned. He didn't quite understand the hesitation. "I think what they wanna say is, we haven't had much time as a team right?" Nox walked over and put a paw in his shoulder. Rumble slowly nodded. "So before we go off and start chasing these things down for real we should get some more experience as a team. They've been wherever they are fro who knows how long now. They're not gonna go anywhere."

"I know you're eager Rumble." Aqua started. "But Nox is right. It would be better to wait and go once we've had more time to get used to each other."

"Plus we have to get used to the new guy." Nox gestured at Crocus.

"I never..." Crocus started, looking somewhat startled.

Nox turned to him. "Don't tell me you seriously wanna back out after seeing that." He chuckled as he gestured to the carved stone. "You could be part of the team that makes the discovery of a lifetime and you wanna go back to your normal life?"

"I-well." Crocus shuffled his feet. "I suppose not." He huffed. "You'll need someone to transport you anyway."

"That's the spirit!" Nox winked at Crocus. "So what do you say partner? Alright to take things slow for a bit?"

Rumble glanced at the carved stone and sighed. What they all were saying made sense. Plus it would give him time to learn if he could really trust them all. "Fine we'll play things slow for now. Once we're ready though we head to Sunspray Coast."

"Of course. For now let;s head back to a town. See if we can pick up some jobs there." Nox finally let go of Rumble's shoulder. 

The now team of six now had a goal in mind. It likely wouldn't be easy and it wouldn't be quick, but they knew where they were going. Today had just been their first proper step on that road.