A murky atmosphere filled the limestone caves, the only light coming from the faintest glimmer of bioluminescent mushrooms. Nature typically had its way with this place, given how people rarely traveled this deep underground, but not always. Screeching loud enough to echo through the cave, a Kabuto was sent hurtling through the air and slammed into the cavern wall shell-first. It landed on its feet and screeched at its opponent: a Munchlax with a satchel full of spilled treasures. "Stay back, you pest!" He demanded as he gathered up some of the herbs he dropped. The Kabuto made crazed clicking noises and fired an intense stream of pressurized saltwater at him, forcing their foe on the defensive. There was little in the way of cover, so the most the Munchlax could do was try to protect his face.

Then somebody shielded him. The Munchlax looked to see his protector, a short Mawile blocking the attack with her jaw-like horn. Her maw, she called it. Its size and durability significantly reduced the brine attack's effectiveness. "Are you OK, Remy?" She asked, hiding herself and the Munchlax behind the giant maw.

Remy quickly stuffed his findings into his trusty satchel, adjusted his scarf, and nodded in reply. He gave the Mawile a thumbs up. "You bet, Amelia!" exclaimed Remy as he stood up. His shell necklace rattled from the bells within, making a pleasant ring that made the Mawile smile. "Sorry for getting us all split up like that."

"It's alright." Amelia paused to note the attack had ceased and moved her maw aside to reveal the Kabuto on the floor in a heap, exhausted from its sustained assault. "The little guy wore itself out," said Amelia as she stood and reached to her back to grab at her cloak, wringing saltwater out of the velvety purple fabric. She also had to dust some dregs of saltwater off of her yellow dress skirt.

"It's about time, too. That thing would not stop bothering me," said Remy as he undid his scarf to begin wringing it out. His teal fur was unfortunately inundated with saltwater thanks to that skirmish, but he could at least keep his scarf relatively dry. "I ran through three different caverns trying to get it off my back." Remy took hold of Amelia's maw and inspected it for damage. Out of his satchel, he pulled out a container holding some blue, organic paste. Gingerly applying the medicine, Remy saw that the medicine healed the injury right away. "I didn't find any treasure in here, but I found some nice herbs I can use for potion-making!" He looked at the Kabuto and inspected it as well, seeing if it carried anything of value. His search turned up fruitless. "Good thing it hadn't been Pyren facing that guy; he'd probably have been knocked out in seconds."

A feeling of warmth crept up on Remy's back. The Munchlax turned around to see a poncho-wearing, orange-furred Monferno coming out of a tunnel. His clownish, brilliantly-colored eye mask showed brightly in the dim light of the cave thanks to his flaming tail. "Oh, come on, you guys." He said to them, an awkward smile on his face. "You know I would have been able to beat him." He paused before asking, "Beat what, exactly?"

The other two laughed.

Dawn would be coming in a few hours, so the three turned back for home. Along their trek towards the caves' exit, they took stock of their findings. "We found a pretty good haul, didn't we guys?" commented Remy, who was gleefully looking at all the seeds he held in his arms. Most of them were from fruit trees whose seed had useful medicinal properties. They were worth little more than pocket change on their own, but they could be made into medicinal potions with Remy's apothecary skills, earning the trio a lot of money. He also carried a clump of iron ore that Pyren planned to use in his father's forge for some tool-smithing.

Amelia, however, was of a different mindset. She looked at the seeds and sighed. "I'm a bit disappointed in our haul." She carried a few common berries in her hands, again useful for Remy's medicines. Almost every fruit, vegetable, and crop seed in the world had some healing property, and these berries were no exception. Plentiful food and medicine were not too valuable on their own, however, and Amelia had an eye for treasure. "I felt like we could have found more if we'd gotten in the caves earlier. I wish you guys wouldn't mess around so much." She remarked, a bit self-conscious about their finds. The Mawile was always the one to sell off the trio's treasures in the daytime, given her natural bargaining skills, after which she would either buy new supplies or save the money. She was never happy when they had little more than rocks and plants to show for their efforts.

"I thought our haul was alright," Pyren replied. He held only two items, but they had value: one was a small orb containing a magic spell, and the other a stick fashioned into a wand which also held magic power. Wizards frequently produced Orbs and Wands to sell to travelers who could not afford actual weapons. The three were such Pokemon, lacking the money to pay the egregious expense for proper arms and lacking the approval from their parents to carry such things around with them. The spells could be useful to the trio in a pinch but, since they didn't occur naturally, they were worth a fair sum of cash, and the three usually opted to sell them.

Remy, Pyren, and Amelia found items like these all the time on their adventures. The Tutela Mountain caves near their home were lucrative! They came out several nights every week to have mini-adventures in the ever-changing underground. School had taught them the very basics of dungeoneering in their childhood: skills like using traveling equipment, teamwork, and, of course, combat. On top of that, they learned various trades from their families. Remy was an apothecary, having learned the ways of herblore from his mother and taken up the art from a young age. Pyren learned to be a strong smithy like his father and had both the strength and precision that came from working at the forge. Amelia, being the daughter of a powerful merchant family, had learned the ways of moneymaking from her mother and bartering from her father. Most of all, the three had hands-on experience from their mini-adventures. The idea of being adventurers excited them ever since they'd been kids, and they were lucky enough to have the expertise to back their ambitions. What's more, they had all now graduated to the ages of adults by the standards of their homeland. As adults, they had a lot of proving to do and would need every advantage they could get to be recognized by society.

Their parents disagreed with their aspirations, believing them too young, inexperienced, and ill-suited to be going on adventures. The three only knew the most straightforward survival skills, and their experience was meager at best. Exploring a small cave was one matter, but trecking across the world was an entirely different ordeal! Plus, going on nightly explorations would take waking hours away from when they could be working to earn a living. Their parents had a strong argument against their adventurous desires, and the three of them had little choice but to agree with them: maybe they weren't ready to be grand adventurers quite yet. Regardless, they explored the caves several times every week and found plenty of loot, so, in many ways, they were already sating their adventurous hearts.

Continuing to defend her opinion, Amelia replied, "I'd have liked to find some treasure or some rare equipment. Berries and wands are pretty nice, but they're just resources. Imagine if we found gold or precursor artifacts or anything like that! We'd be super rich!" The caves outside their hometown were very frequently traveled, as they were the most straightforward route to town through the Tutela Mountain to the west. Because of this, one could always find treasures in the mountain's depths left behind by all manner of travelers. 

Pyren rolled his eyes. Amelia's statement was ironic, coming from the daughter of a wealthy merchant. As empathetic as the Mawile could be, Pyren often believed that she didn't appreciate the value of money as much as himself or Remy, both of whom were the children of common laborers (whose parents shared a household to save money). Though Amelia was the trader of the trio, Pyren and Remy kept most of the money she obtained since she was so well off. "Yeah, and imagine if..." Pyren began, ready to make a snarky comeback. 

"Are we going in circles, Pyren?" interrupted Remy, who realized that they'd just wound up back in the room where he had encountered the Kabuto from earlier.

Pausing to take a look around, Pyren realized that Remy was correct; he recognized the limestone formations from before, as well as a puddle of water formed beneath a stalactite. He sighed and started leading the group down another path. "You know how it is with these caves. They're always changing. Whenever you leave one place, it always changes if you come back to it later." This segment of the caves was entirely unfamiliar for the trio, despite having gone this direction before. Dungeoneering was difficult thanks to the world continually shifting around like a living organism. Backtracking always called for all new paths through all-new dungeons. It took a lot of effort to tame any region and set up shelter, meaning towns were distant. Dungeoneering was a difficult but necessary part of life.

"That's rarely the case if you wander in circles within the same area," Amelia argued, quoting one of the lessons they'd received as kids. "Do you want me to take the lead?"

Remy sighed in annoyance, knowing exactly where this conversation was headed; friends as they were, Pyren and Amelia were prone to arguments, especially when she called Pyren's leadership into question. "How about I take the lead?" Remy offered, pushing ahead of his friends and forcing them to walk side-by-side. He hoped to god that they would cool down while he looked for the correct path. Soon enough, Remy happened upon a different route down the very next corridor. "There we go! This place looks familiar." He pointed out a little sign sticking out of some rocks which bore a message: 

Tem'Cael this way. Backtrack for Tutela Hollow. 

"I knew I could find the way out! All it takes is a calm attitude. Get it, you guys?" Remy turned to look at his friends. Then he realized that they were missing. 

The two Pokemon were, in fact, ahead of Remy, currently racing away. "C'mon, Remy!" Pyren exclaimed back to his friend. "Try to keep up!" 

Remy gasped in surprise and raced to catch up. Being such a large Pokémon, Remy was naturally slower than the two of his friends. But it didn't take him long to catch up with the two of them; a big rock got in their way, specifically a feral Geodude. Most primitive Pokémon like this one were aggressive when intruding upon their territory. The Geodude began to lash out. Amelia, with her well-protected metallic skin, took a blow for Pyren before slamming her giant maw into the rock Pokémon's face. They became dazed. Pyren followed up with a burst of fire from one hand, followed by a punch at mach speed. Finally, Remy caught up and, taking a great leap, body-slammed the Geodude and knocked him out. The three of them shared a round of hi-fives before moving on down another corridor.

"I think I see the exit!" Pyren exclaimed, pointing out the light filtering into the caves up ahead. A bright lantern was hanging from a pole marking the entrance to the cave. "I told you guys I could get us out."

"I was the one leading the way," Remy teased. They all laughed once more as they passed the lantern. The moonlight greeted them to the surface. Their hometown stood in the distance: The port city of Tem'Cael. A place of wealthy nobles and merchants living alongside poor artisans and laborers. Despite the clear wage gap, it was a prosperous and more-or-less peaceful place. "I was thinking," Remy said before Amelia parted ways with them to return to her home, "we should come back tomorrow night too. We only explored one half of the cave today, and we could easily find plenty more stuff in there tomorrow."

"Sure!" replied Amelia, "but remember that we shouldn't go out two days in a row very often. Remember, the last time we did that, your parents got mad at you 'cause you were tired the next day, and you weren't allowed to come back out here for a week."

"Oh, it's fine! We'll sleep in today. Besides, haven't you noticed the caves shifting a lot recently? If the caves are getting twisted up, that means that it's less likely that other Pokemon will find the cool stuff before we do!" Remy was correct: there had been plenty of news of the world shifting radically. They had noticed it in their last few explorations: the rooms were massively varied, wild Pokemon were more sporadic in their appearances, and all sorts of oddities appeared within the caves. Changes to dungeons were typically minor, like a new tunnel opening one day, another closing the next, a corridor shifting three feet to the right the day after that. However, the caves had been getting more unpredictable recently. Today had been particularly challenging as whole areas of the dungeon were completely different compared to mere days ago. 

The three of them agreed that coming back tomorrow would be an ideal arrangement. "I'll see you then!" Amelia said to her friends, waving goodbye as they entered the town gates and parted ways.

Amelia calmly walked down the roadway to the south district, far away from the hustle and bustle of the river's edge or the main road. Lavish, expansive homes surrounded by elaborate gardens lined the twilight morning streets, illuminated only by the electric street lamps lining the paved walkways. Amelia paused in front of her house, looking upon the wrought iron fence surrounding the whole property, and sighed as she slipped her way through the bars. A lawn densely populated with topiaries enveloped the entire property, broken up only for a street view and a covered space to park their hovercar. She often asked her parents if they could grow fruits and vegetables on their lawn instead of worthless, fancy bushes, but her mother assured her that their garden was a status symbol.

When Amelia was young, she would explore her expansive house like it was one of the many dungeons beyond her hometown. Especially with the garden in the back, she would often get lost and need "rescue" by her mother or one of her servants. Two of them were on patrol now: A pair of Pawniard guards from which Amelia easily kept out of sight. She dared not go in the front door. It was too big and creaky and would certainly alert Amelia's mother of where she'd been. Instead, she would get back into her bedroom from the window. It was on the second floor, but her house had numerous trellises lining its outer walls. She waited until the guards were marching elsewhere, and then she made her break for it. Amelia grabbed hold of the trellis beside her window and climbed. She'd done this plenty of times before, so she was swift. Up the garden fixture, grab hold of the windowsill, slide the window open and slip on in without a single pause. Then, she slipped right into her plush bed without another thought.

Not a minute later, the lightswitch was flicked on. Amelia sat up and saw a tall Mawile standing in the door, her mother; Amelia's heart sank. "Hello, Amelia." They said to her with eyes half-lidded and lips pursed. They walked over to Amelia's bed to sit beside their daughter. 

"Hi, mom." Amelia groaned as she buried her head in her pillow to shield herself from the light, and from her mother.

Amelia's mother, Lady Tyrinn, was strict when it came to her interpretation of being "civil". She hailed from very minor nobility, so she wanted to maintain a degree of prestige. Tyrinn overtly wished for Amelia not to go on her adventures or associate with the "peasantry" like Remy and Pyren. She further disagreed with Amelia's lofty view of her father, whose experiences on the high seas as a trading captain made for popular stories amongst the townsfolk. Amelia often believed that her mother was the thing stopping her from going out on adventures like her father's all the time.

Tyrinn didn't say anything, opting to make a deafening silence. It lasted for minutes, and broke only when a Pawniard guard rushed in and exclaimed to Amelia's mother, "Lady Tyrinn, Lady Tyrinn! I saw her! I saw Amelia! She's come back! I saw her!" He paused when the younger Mawile sat up and shot him a death glare so sharp that the little soldier ran away in terror. What an effective guard he was, Amelia thought.

Amelia buried her head in her pillow again. Her mother stroked her head, trying to calm her down a little. "You can't hide from your mother, you know. I know you've been sneaking out." Tyrinn was a very intelligent Pokemon; she had experience with trading and managing her husband's fleet to thank for that. She made sneaking away tricky.

Amelia finally sat up, her face expressing desperation. "Mom, I'm not going to give up on being an adventurer. I've told you that a thousand times. I don't like sitting around in this dumb house and walking around this quiet town, trying to look smart and pretty all the time. I want to be more than just some noble!" Amelia replied, her voice growing more desperate as she spoke; this wasn't the first time her mother had caught her in these sorts of antics.

The older Mawile gave her a warm smile, one of forgiveness but not approval. "I know, honey. But it's too dangerous for you." Tyrinn embraced her daughter. "You're too young, and you're not strong enough. You're just not cut out for adventuring. Besides-"

Amelia slipped away from her mother's hug and said, "Am too, I'm strong enough, Mom! I can fight. I've fought lots of wild Pokemon, found lots of fantastic treasure, and gone on all sorts of adventures! I've-"

"Alright, alright! Calm down, sweety." her mother insisted, kissing Amelia on the forehead. "You're not in trouble. I'm just trying to ensure your safety; that's all." Tyrinn paused and thought about something. "I don't understand you sometimes. You live in a nice house where you can have everything you want, and yet you want to go and punch rocks and live in the dirt. Why?"

Amelia paused to think of a good reply. "Because it's more fun." She said.

"Do you know what it's like out there, in the real world? Not in those little dungeons around town, but the places very far away from here where danger lurks around every corner."

Amelia smiled. "I do know. Is this leading to one of Dad's stories?" Tyrinn often tried to use her father's antics to scare her away from sneaking out of the house, but Amelia loved hearing stories about her dad's adventures. He was so rarely at home, often for only a few days in a month. When he was, she would try to spend as much time with him as she could. Amelia's father was, in fact, at home at that very moment, sleeping in her parents' bedroom! He had a whole five days to spend with his family before he had to go back out to sea. Amelia, Tyrinn, and the entire town had already gotten a whole bunch of new stories.

"Yes." Her mother said, smiling and rubbing her daughter's neck tenderly. Amelia couldn't help but feel more relaxed by her touch. Despite her mother's strict side, she had a bit of tenderness in her heart. "Your father has fought all sorts of vicious monsters. My favorite story was the one where his ship faced off against-"

"An evil eel?" Amelia asked, guessing at which story she intended to tell.

"It's a real thing; trust me! It's huge, sharp, jagged teeth gnashing at you trying to rip your body apart, its ribbon-like arms flailing about with razor-thin crystals threatening to tear you right in half! Your father and his crew had so much trouble with it. They were desperate to land a single hit before it could dive into the water to leap at them again!"

"Boy, that would have been a fun adventure to be on, huh?" Amelia asked, bouncing on the mattress.

"No!" Her mother replied in shock, having failed to grasp the fact that her husband's stories were as exciting to Amelia as they were worrying to her. "I would have been terrified. I was terrified listening to him tell the story. I'm so relieved he's OK! But anyhow, do you see the point I'm trying to make? The monsters and marauders you'd see out there in the world make the ones you see around here pale in comparison. They could tear apart Pokemon like you and me. I don't want to see you leave only to be asked to write your obituary days later. It would break my heart!"

Amelia sighed. They didn't understand, she thought. Tyrinn didn't know how she and her friends fought so well as a team. Together, she figured they could do anything!

Tyrinn went on: "And another thing, you need to stop hanging out with those... those peasants." She said. "It's dreadful for your reputation. You are supposed to be a proper lady, not somebody who rolls around in the dirt with the ner-do-wells."

With a scowl, Amelia replied, "They don't roll around in the dirt! They keep clean!"

"You know what I mean, Amelia! Maybe when you're older, if you get stronger, you can learn to be a proper merchant. Then you can go on adventures with a group of strong soldiers who-"

Amelia slammed her fists onto the bed in rage. "I don't want just to be a merchant, though!" groaned Amelia, huffing and slamming her fist into her pillow. "I don't want to be stuck in this port town all of my life sitting on a dragon's hoard of money like you! I wanna be like dad: I wanna see the world, meet other people out there, I want to be something more than just some merchant in a port town."

Her mother smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "Don't we all?" She replied, standing up and going to the door. "But please, my love - my life - stop sneaking out of the house at night. You worry me to death." She turned out the lights and closed the door, leaving Amelia to herself.

Pyren arrived home a few hours before the sun rose. His family's residence, a small townhouse alongside the noisy main road, was easily recognizable by its dire need for a fresh paint coat. Immediately inside the door was a small living room populated by a side table beside the door, an aged coffee table centerpiece, and two loveseat couches along the front and side walls, upon one of which was his grandfather reclining while partially draped in bedsheets. On the other couch sat Pyren's father, currently fiddling with the old radio on the table to get it back into a decent enough condition to resume playing the news broadcast of his choice. Just past the living room was a combination dining room and kitchen, in which sat an old dining table and four chairs, one of which had a partially broken leg. It was designated as Pyren's chair, as he was the least likely to break it with his lower weight. The kitchen was stuffed with diverse cheap glassware, wooden plates, and utensils of many mismatched variants. The cabinets showed signs of damaged doors and hinges, one of which refused to remain fully closed. The electric stove and refrigerator were brand new, but their dishwasher was old. The towel sitting beneath it was damp again. Beside the kitchen was a staircase leading up, underneath which were several cabinets that housed their cooking ingredients and other things like home maintenance and cleaning equipment.

Pyren's mother was preparing breakfast, as his father would need to eat soon and get to work at the local smithy. Pyren's father, whose job was an unfortunate dead-end, needed any excuse to sell himself to his management and get promoted, and working early hours was as good as any other virtue. After all, there was fierce competition in the smithing industry, and his father's skills were average at best. Much better craftsmanship or prices (or sometimes both) could always be found in the great city of Caeltem, closer to the ports of trade and boasting such a vast population and robust economy that the entire region was named after the megalopolis.

Upon greeting his father and grandfather, Pyren proceeded to the dining room and climbed upstairs to his bedroom. He greeted his busy mother in passing. He briefly paused when he felt one of the staircase boards shift again, worrying that he would accidentally fall through. He called out the need to fix the stairs again and climbed the rest of the way. He chose to get a few more hours of shut-eye before the next day's chores would begin. 

As Pyren climbed into bed, he began to overhear the radio as his father finished getting it tuned up once again. A news broadcast echoed from downstairs. "-our top story for you this morning: Xorans continue to harass the Faenum region as the Alliance's forces remain adamant that troops cannot be spared from the Arcane Empire defensive front to relieve the regional guard." It had been a story repeated ad nauseam for the past decade: Xoran attacks in the northern regions of the Heartlands, which, over the past few years, had reduced several kingdoms to rubble. Faenum appeared to be next on the chopping block. There were rumors of similar happenings in other places, but Pyren and his family didn't care. Worrying about it wouldn't put fruit on the table.

"Officials from the Faenum Parliament have spoken out against the Alliance's continued hesitation." A scratchy recording was played: "If the Empire intends to invade us, then our allies will need us to provide for the Alliance when the time comes. Acting paranoid will only see more of us end up like the northern kingdoms." The newscaster continued: "Officials have warned that Xoran attacks may presage Amalgamation incursions. The official statement from the Faenum Parliment is, quote: As long as Faenum and its World Guardian continue to stand, the rest of the Messa continent will not see Amalgamations, which is all the more reason to send us troops. In other news, trade is..." The radio reduced in volume at that point after what sounded like Pyren's mother asking his family to turn it down for his sake.

The horizon began to glow with the warmth of sunrise as Remy finally made his way home. Winding his way through the city streets was difficult. At times, it was quicker to duck through alleyways to reach the waterway for which his hometown of Riverside was so-called. The river burbled calmly below the raised walkways lining it, though soon those serene echoes would be drowned out by the constant passing of ships traveling up and down the Centrist River, either bound for the Caeltem Delta to ply their goods or inland by the river towards Ravencrest and, ultimately, the Alliance capital: Fort Moonstone. There were so many ships that passed by Remy's residence that he might never see again, so many unknown faces that he would see once and never come to know. It made him glad to have friends close to home.

Remy's residence sat at the corner of a minor intersection, a full block away from a bridge over the river. The main floor was a shop, a modest apothecary that has nonetheless attracted a clientele from across the city. Their offerings were middle-of-the-road medications, quality enough that their merchandise could be trusted to work well but not so expensive that their store was labeled pretentious. At the same time, they didn't have the allure of the various pharmacies dotted along the river selling cheap, basic medicine along with other groceries nor could they call themselves a doctor's office with all the medical services that came with the designation. In truth, many of their clients were doctors or people requesting cures recommended by their doctors. They were very firmly stuck in the middle-class, occasionally wavering up and down otherwise nothing special. 

Remy and his family lived in the same building they worked out of. Before he went inside, the Munchlax quickly checked on the plants growing in the streetside planter boxes. Given the expense of potion ingredients, these extra planter boxes helped cut down on the most common ingredient costs. A much more substantial garden existed behind their home which Remy would inspect later. Inside, the store held everything important to his family's career: The shop floor, dressed with potions of all kinds for a browser to peruse, a sales counter which had a space for drawing up finances, and an alchemy lab with space for both potion mixing, alchemical brewing, material analysis, and magical artifice. It wasn't the best, but there was little that you could not get from Bear With Us Apothecaries. The shop wouldn't open until later, but Remy's father was downstairs preparing for the day's work. He greeted his son shortly. Remy replied in a much more cheerful greeting but left him alone knowing that his father's work required a lot of effort and care.

At the back of the shop were some stairs leading to the second floor, his family's living quarters. Much of the building was framed with sturdy stone, reinforced with metal, and otherwise constructed with tough hardwood. It was all necessary to support the weight of Snorlaxes, gigantic gluttonous bears that they were. Upstairs, Remy beheld his family's living room: nothing impressive, fairly middle-class furnishings. There were three couches around a coffee table, one for each member of the family. A stray plate was still sitting on the table with a bit of food left over; his family must have been in a hurry to get to work today. The fireplace still glowed with dormant embers, as well. At least the kitchen was clean, though it smelled of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. A quick trip to the fridge confirmed that his mother had saved him two rolls. The Munchlax eagerly pulled them out and began to snack on them, not minding the cold of the device clinging to the food. He was more than halfway through the first roll when he noticed something else hiding in the tin holding the treats: a little cup containing icing. Oops! Remy quickly pulled out the icing and a spoon to try and spread it on the remaining buns, only to find the icing too cold to spread properly. He choose to leave the icing out and finish the cinnamon rolls later when it was warm enough to make use of.

Remy marched back into his bedroom and climbed into bed, nearly throwing himself onto the mattress before he remembered his parents demanded he refrain from throwing himself around, lest he accidentally damage the house when he gets older and heavier. When Remy woke up in a few hours, he would go and run some errands around town for the family shop. Everything from making deliveries to picking up orders and more. Sometimes he would lament that he didn't have nearly as much freedom in his personal life as Amelia or Pyren, but that came with his family's longstanding career.