Rescuers Event 7: A Letter from the Past

PMD-Explorers Event 7 Part 3

Marston's letter

A shadow crept over Peter, hiding the setting sun from his sight.

"Hey, I was looking for you all over the village!"

The Pikachu shifted his gaze from the sky to the one in front of him, a large Sandslash vaguely reminded him of someone with a letter held between claws. "R-Rollie? You were looking for me?"

The grinning Sandslash nodded, before handing him the letter.

On the envelope, the Pikachu clearly read 'Peter'. Could it be Marston's letter? "Is that my letter? But where did you find it? I looked for it everywhere and when I thought I was finally going to get it from a Duskull called Peter as well, I still couldn't get it!"

"R-really?" Rollie asked. Her face reddened a little, but she immediately regained her composure. "I was going to my den earlier when some letter flew into my face. It was addressed to a certain Peter, but I guessed not to you because it was signed by some 'Tiny'. At the same time, I heard a Clefairy and a Duskull argue about some letter. This didn't really catch my attention until I heard them mention they had the same name; 'Peter'."

The Pikachu took the letter and stared at it for a while. The envelope looked old considering how the paper became yellow, and the ink had quite faded away though it was still legible.

"I observed the Clefairy for a while after the Duskull left and he began getting angry about how that Duskull couldn't make the distinction between 'Peter' and 'Pete'. Eventually, I followed the Duskull to the tenements where I took your letter. Don't worry about him though, I put the other letter in his letterbox."

Peter opened it and checked the named signed at the bottom. It was Marston all right. The sheet of paper barely had any space left, with everything that had been written on it and despite the handwriting being fairly small. His partner must have found someone to write it instead, Peter guessed, but it was still Marston's letter. He looked at Rollie without saying anything, or rather, not knowing how to thank her appropriately.

"So?" Rollie asked. "Is it the right one?"

Peter's body moved by itself and before he knew it, he had embraced Rollie. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes, rolling down his cheeks. "Thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done if I didn't get this letter." He felt Rollie's surprise, but ignored it; he was just so glad right now.

"A-ah! But let's simply say that we're even now," Rollie said, before gently pushing him away from her. "I also got something to attend to, so, if you excuse me?"

Peter wiped away his tears, smiled and nodded. "Thank you again!" He waved goodbye at her as she walked away. "It's getting dark, let's go home and see what Marston has for us."

Ariett who had been quiet so far didn't look satisfied, but followed Peter to the tenements. "I cannot believe you thanked her for that," she said when the two crossed the little bridge behind the Rescuer's club.

That made Peter nervous. He couldn't understand why Ariett was like that towards Rollie. Sure, she was in the rogues guild, but that wasn't a valid reason. "What do you mean?"

"If it wasn't for her, we would have got that letter earlier, from that Duskull, you know?"

Putting it like that, Peter began understanding Ariett's point of view, but right now, that did not matter. "What is important right now is that we have the letter, and she did that thinking she was helping, so it isn't her fault either. It's the intention that counts, and that's enough for me."

The two walked back along the corridors of the tenements and up to room number 9, where Peter stopped and unlocked the door. He promptly put his bag beside his bed like he used to and opened the letter.

Dear Peter,

You probably would not ever believe it if I told you that I am hundreds of years in the past. I cannot believe it really myself, if not for seeing how different things are here. There is not as much variety among the plants here as we know it, but the few Sitrus berries here are simply too amazing for words. We managed to capture Shade, with Devonshire's help. He's not too scary if you know him better, you know? It's even a bit reassuring at times, to see him keep his cool even in distressing situations, except near some silvery flame, those apparently hurt him. But he's really quiet when he wants to and can give anyone a good scare. I found some of our friends here and we fought members of Dark Moon Clan. They were as bad as Shade but somehow tied her up. Could they be so mean that they don't even treat their kin good? Bit I don't know if it's really up to them. They seemed to be following some 'master'. I heard them mention some Dark Lord. Maybe this could help us learn something about them.

I met this Pokémon here, a Larvitar, She doesn't know how to talk yet, though she has learned two or three words since I met her. She might look young and small for her species, but she sure packs a punch! (and is incredibly heavy) She did not have a name yet, so we chose a name for her. She now goes by the name of Damyah. I wish I had more space to tell you more about her, but I've still got a lot to say.

Jasmine is safe! The rogues managed to save her and the next moment, I went through some sort of colourful tunnel. At the end of it, I found everyone there too and we were in the forest. We thought that we were back to the present but unfortunately, we were still ways in the past. Damyah wasn't brought with me though, and I don't know if I'll ever meet her again... Anyway, Tao Village here is different! There is no rescuers guild at all, nor any rogues guild! The Merchants however seem to have been around for quite some time. Jasmine doesn't seem well; maybe she spent too much energy trying to bring us here? I don't know. Then I saw Mike, he's evolved into a Charmeleon! I couldn't recognise him at first because he didn't have his hat. I wonder where it is right now....

I got to find a bunch of other friends as well here and aside from our anxiety, we are all doing good and longing for when we'll be back. Right now, you might have realised that this letter was well written. Well, I'm speaking while Worbel is writing it down. He just finished his own letter and accepted to help writing mine. I already had to throw away the first letter as my writing was too big to fit all I had to tell you.

In any case, things are not looking too good here. We met this Micle, who calls himself Grand Kec and PK seems to know him. Could he be some kind of ancestor to her? I believe he is. He told us some pretty interesting stories and he was the one to come up with the idea of writing letters. I just hope that it works out. I would have got into that time box to come back, but they wouldn't let me, I don't understand....

Tomorrow night will be the new moon and apparently, the Zoroark will come to destroy the village. There is Brooke though, a mighty Haxorus who will help defend the village, and Grand Kec too will be helping, with some magical suit of something. We will be going to the Tree of Life as soon as possible too. As I understand it right now, it might be unsafe to just leave the village tomorrow morning, so we'll probably leave after the attack. The Tree of Life is some place where we will hopefully get the medicine to heal Jasmine for sure. It just worries me a bit, after hearing how Micle described the path to reach it. It sounds difficult but I'm sure we'll succeed somehow.

I don't know how things are going back in the present, or whether the forest is keeping up without Jasmine's powers to revive it. We'll sure do our best to get back as soon as possible.

Missing you loads,
Marston

"That's it?"

"Yes, thank you again for helping me out! Now, let's just get this into the time box before Micle locks it for good."

Marston folded the sheet of paper carefully and put it in an envelope, on which Worbel wrote 'Peter'. The Mudkip didn't lose any more time and rushed across the merchant hut towards Micle. "Wait! Don't close it yet, I just finished my letter!"

He placed the letter in the time box and watched Micle lock it. It felt a bit like he was back home, the home where he was born and grew up, like the times when he would put the letters he asked either his dad or his mom to write and he would put them in bottles to send them across the oceans. This time however, it wasn't for someone very specific and the uncertainty of it reaching its destination was just as uncertain.

Brooke lifted the box from the floor and put it on top of a desk.

"We'll have it buried somewhere safe tomorrow morning," Micle announced. "In the meantime, you can all take a good rest. Tomorrow night will not be a pleasant night after all. Otherwise, for those who still think they can do some work, I believe you can help around. Chlora?"

A small Pokémon somewhat like a Caterpie but wrapped in green leaves and a large white flower on the head entered the merchants hut. "Yes Grand Kec?"

The green Kecleon pointed to it. "I have put some things on by to-do list board. Could you take charge of aiding anyone wishing to help and give them details about what is to be done? I'll be finding some— err sleep for tomorrow, yes that's it."

Marston let out a long yawn and looked at Rose. "I don't think I've got the strength to keep going. I'll find some place to sleep. Are you coming?"

"I'm tired as well," Rose said. "Let's have some rest. If tomorrow night is as dangerous as it sounds, I'd rather get some sleep too."

Marston and Rose moved towards the hut's exit, when Marston noticed Worbel exactly at the same spot as where they found him and stopped. "Hey Worbel, maybe you come sleep with us. I promised I'd do my best to keep you safe, and we could start now!"

The Oddish looked towards the time box and then back to Marston before making his mind by tagging along them out of the hut.

Rose found a spot large enough for the three of them relatively near to the big fireplace. The crackling fire would keep them warm for the night.

"Good night."