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Told in present tense. 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And just for good measure, a bit of sexy spicyness thrown in at the end!\n\nYes, Eliumi is still the hornball we last left him as.\n\nThe rest of Part 12 can be found [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k6QoP6mJdQ3pBl8vebIy1GGdNFVfUSLSrVeGzf6Yy8s/edit#]here[/url].\n\n[url=https://inkbunny.net/submissionsviewall.php?rid=c6a9fd4348&mode=pool&pool_id=59838&page=1&orderby=pool_order&random=no&success=]Also, obligatory link to the comic itself to which this is a fanfiction of.[/url]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "So we get a look at Anchor, an 'unused area' of the original IRON series. And just for good measure, a bit of sexy spicyness thrown in at the end!

Yes, Eliumi is still the hornball we last left him as.

The rest of Part 12 can be found here.

Also, obligatory link to the comic itself to which this is a fanfiction of.", "writing": "Act 78: Anchor\n\nWhen they get to the teleporter, the Ghost Bear Pack beam back up to their ship.\nOnce everyone is back on the ship, Spark speaks up. \"So, when are we going down there to this 'Anchor' place? Are we going when it's daytime or are we going to try to be stealthy when night comes?\" The Raichu asked his pack.\n\"I suppose it would be less likely for us to be seen if we beamed down at night.\" Veera comments on what the other electric type proposed.\n\nKhaun nods. \"I agree. It'd draw less attention if we came in during the night.\"\nLoona silently nods as well.\n\"Well, in that case.\" Eilumi gives a small shrug. \"We still have a quarter of a day left before nightfall on this planet. Sooo...\"\n\nThis would mean that the Ghost Bear pack has a good amount of time to prepare for when it was the time for them to go back down to the planet. When it was eventually time the pack beams back down to the planet, this time not the Black Isle, but to the island of Anchor on the center of the Oracle Sea. The Avali, Protogen and pokémon find themselves on a beach, it's currently night, the moon is high in the sky and they hear the sound of the waves crashing against the shore behind them.\nShia scouted their immediate vicinity, cutting through the darkness with his x-ray vision he discovered he had sometime after evolving into a Luxray. Though he doesn't see anything that could be alarming. \"...We are clear.\"\n\n\"Well, so far so good.\" He looks around, and sees a town not too far off. \"I'm guessing that's anchor\"\n\nIt's not much of a town as much as it is a city apparently, though it's not easy to tell from where they are as there it has quite a wall surrounding all but its shore. As they approach it they need to start thinking about how to get in there.\n\"Anchor is the island we are currently standing on. That's the town of Amber.\" Veera said to her packmate. \"But we gotta find a way to get in there now...\"\nShia ponders for a moment. \"It looks like quite a bit of pokémon live there. Would it be feasible to sneak in?\"\n\"Or maybe we could just head in as is?\" Spark tried to put forward an idea, even if it was a bit of an unusual one, he is just trying to be helpful. \"I know that in the Sands they were very picky about who could get in there...but maybe here it's not the same?\"\n\n\"hmmm.\" Eliumi thinks. \"I think we still have the badges in storage back from the old days if we need them.\" Eilumi suggests.\n\"I don't see any real reason as to why they wouldn't have the same badge system here as in the sands.\" Khaun suggests. \"Especially if that 'Iron King' originated from Black Isle, this would probably be one of the frist places he instilled it.\"\n\nVeera gives a nod to that. \"Yeah, it sounds like a good idea. It's only logical to think that they would still be using the badge system here.\"\n\"In storage, right? Back in the ship? I could get up there and get it.\" Their Raichu packmate volunteers.\nShia is currently counting how many guards he can see by the gates and up in the wall. \"Three...four...five...\"\n\n\"Yeah, that'd be best.\" EIlumi replies to Spark's proposition.\n\nSparks goes back the way they came, just so he is far enough for the flash of him beaming back up not getting spotted by any that shouldn't see it.\n\"That's six guards...\" Shia finished counting the amount of guards around that gate.\nA little bit later their Raichu packmate came back with those old badges they got a long time ago. \"Well, here they are. Hopefully everything goes as planned, right?\"\n\"Don't worry Spark, in case something goes wrong we can just go with a plan B.\" Veera says to the other electric type to reassure him.\n\n\"And what plan might that be?\" Loona asks.\n\n\"Sneaking, perhaps.\" Veera shrugs. \"You know, in case this doesn't work.\"\n\"Even so, I'm not sure about the odds of us just happening to find a silent way to get in there.\" Shia says to Jolteon as he looks at Amber's wall. \"It isn't anything high-tech but it looks like whoever build this look like they knew what they were doing. And the guards don't look like they are half-assing on the job either.\"\n\n\"Well, right.\" Eilumi says as he adjusts the 'guild badge' on his outfit. \"First we'll try the front door.\"\n\"And if that doesn't work... we sneak in.\" Loona says. \n\"Presuming they don't raise the alarm first.\" Nine adds in.\n\"Let's hope it doesn't come to that.\" Eilumi replies.\n\nThe the badges in their possession the ghost bear pack proceeds toward the gates. The guards in front of the gates, a couple of Ledian armed with flint spears, seemed to have gotten on guard as they approached.\n\"Huh? Who are you and what are you doing out here at this hour?\" One of the insectoid pokémon questions them.\n\n\"We're guild members\" Eilumi says as he shows them his badges. \"We were out on a mission out at sea and just got back a bit late.\"\nLoona nods along with this, the others keeping quiet and letting Eilumi do the talking.\n\nThe Ledian looks to Eilumi with suspicion. \"Really?\" At first it doesn't look like he is buying it.\nThe Electric types of the pack watch on in silence, not knowing what to expect but they are ready for whatever might happen...\nThe other guard approaches, looking to one that first approached the group. \"Is something wrong?\" He is also suspicious about them.\n\"...No. There is nothing wrong, let's let them through.\" The bug said to the other one before both of them flew over to the gates to open it.\nIt looks like this might have worked? However Shia is getting a bit of a bad feeling about this in his gut. This was...a bit too easy.\n\n\"That was easy.\" Nine comments softly. \n\"A little too easily.\" Loona whispers back under her breath as the group heads in.\n\nThe Ghost Bear Pack now finds themselves coming into the city of Amber. It might not be the most impressive thing for those that have seen worlds with better infrastructure and technology, but for some of them such as Veera it is worthy of note that this place makes Sandstone, the old Sandstone that they knew, look small by comparison. Though they already see that it's...a bit odd for a town of this world too, for starters the streets seem empty, and what at first looks like houses turns out to be smaller walls that seem to surround a property, these look all very closely together. There is also not a single pokémon out on the street right now, maybe it's because it's late.\n\"What's with these?\" Spark asked, a bit confused at what he was seeing. \"I can see the roof of some houses sticking out but why the walls?\"\nVeera notices that these walls have an open passage that allows one to head in. \"Perhaps we could go check one out? They do seem to be everywhere around here. It must be where the citizens live.\"\n\n\n\"Yeesh and I thought Miniknog towns were creepily monotone.\" Eilumi comments on the buildings and layout.\n\"I'm beginning to think they should rename this place to 'hive' instead of 'anchor.'\" Khaun remarks.\n\"Well, it couldn't hurt.\" Loona responds to Veera's inqury.\n\"This is a scoutting mission after all.\" Nine adds in.\n\nVeera nods and decides to go with them to one of hexagon that is closest to them, to their left, there is a wide open entrance that when they approach they see what's inside, it looks like a berry farm. She looks to the house and spots someone coming out through the front door, it's a humanoid pokémon that appears to be some sort of plant, with a 'dress' made of her own foliage, she also has several leaves and two olive fruits on top of her head.\nSpark sees that the pokémon had noticed them. \"Sooo what do we do now?\"\nShia decides to step forward to talk with her. \"Hello. Can we talk for a moment.\"\n\"Sure.\" The grass-type approaches them. \"Is there something I could help you with? People shouldn't really be out on curfews...\"\nThe Luxray thinks of something to try to make them not look suspicious. \"It's alright, we are guild members.\"\n\"Ah I see.\" That looks like it worked as she doesn't seem to suspect anything. But then she starts looking over each and everyone of them. The Protogen and the Avali, as unusual as they are, didn't looked like they got any suspicion from her; neither did Loona, Shia, Veera...but when she looked at Spark she tilted her head in confusion for some reason.\n\n\"Erm, something wrong?\" Eilumi asks as he notices... her? Looking over his Raichu packmate.\n\nThe Raichu also looks a bit confused as to why she is looking at him of all people like this. He isn't sure if he shouldn't say anything though in case he ends up making it worse.\nIt looks like this pokémon doesn't want to get in trouble with guild pokémon so she quickly drops the subject. \"N-no, nothing's wrong, sir.\"\nThat was a bit...strange, but Veera tries to keep the conversation going. \"So this is a farm?\" She asks.\n\"Well, yeah, we grow Rawst berries here.\" The citizen responded.\n\"Just...Rawst berries?\" The Jolteon is a bit confused by the lack of variety.\nThe grass-type looks like she is getting a little weirded out by these questions, like it's something they are supposed to know being part of Amber's guild but they are asking her anyway? She doesn't dare disobey them though. \"Yeah...? If you are looking for other kinds of berries you need to speak to our neighbors, they grow other kinds of berries.\" She explained to them.\n\n\"Well, alright.\" Loona says. She leans over to Eilumi and speaks in his ear. \"This is getting weird.\"\n\"I've seen weirder.\" Eilumi whispers back.\n\n\"I see.\" Veera is starting to formulate some patterns from what she is hearing from this pokémon. \"So do you live alone?\"\nThe grass-type nervously shakes her head. Reacting a bit spontaneously to the inquiry \"N-no, our community has all 6 members present! The others are just sleeping.\"\nThe Jolteon doesn't think that they are under the threat of suspicion, but she does feel a little sorry for making this civilian feel anxious like this. But she does think she has any other worthwhile questions for her. \"Alright, thank you for your time.\" She waves to the pokémon before coming back to the group. \"Well...that's that.\"\n\"What do you think?\" Spark questions her.\n\"She seemed afraid to talk, that was pretty obvious...\" The electric-type Eeveelution ponders, rubbing her chin. \"Now that I blame her, we are posing as guild members, and they can be quite unpleasant.\"\n\"What do we do next?\" Shia pipes up. He looks up at that big castle in the center of town, or well...more of its silhouette in the moonlight. \"I guess it's obvious where the leadership is.\"\n\"I say we can keep going further into this place, we might find something else of interest, or perhaps a spot where we can beam in and out of here without attracting attention.\" Their Raichu packmate said.\n\n\"The latter we should attempt to find first.\" Eilumi says. \"Because that conversation is starting to give me miniknog vibes already, and if Miniknog towns are anything to go by, having a place to move in and out without notice is definitely a priority.\"\nKhaun and Nine both nod at this notion.\n\nWith everyone in agreement to find a place to beam to and from, they set out to search deeper into the town, toward the center where they can see the castle more closely, they can see its towers above the hexagonal outer wall that surrounds it. So far they do not see any obvious place that they could duck down in, everywhere they look it's more of these 'communities', no abandoned buildings to make use of at all. \nShia looked back then and noticed a couple of Ledian who seem to be eyeing the Ghost Bear Pack, the Luxray assumes they are being followed. \"...I think we got a tail.\" \nSpark and Veera start to get a bit worried if that's the case. \"That's not good...what do we do?\" Veera asks.\n \"We could try to go around the castle to try to see if we can find a place to beam out.\" Spark suggests. \"I'm getting a bad feeling about this.\"\n\n\"Or it could draw them into action out of sight at least.\" Nine suggests.\n\"Yeah, let's try that.\" Eilumi nods, and leads the group around, as they look for some sort of beam out point, or at least some place out of sight...\n\nAs they try to go around the corner however...the Ghost bears come face to face with two more pokémon hovering their way, Two beedrills, they appear to be guards too and they don't look too friendly.\nSpark feels like his 'bad feeling' was on to something as it appears like they walked into some sort of ambush. \"Oh no...\"\nIf they were to try to take a third path however, there would be yet more guards coming from there, an Escavalier and a Scolipede. Suffice to say any path they can take to try to escape is cut off.\n\"How did they see through it so fast...?\" Veera exclaimed under her breath, thinking that their cover was somehow blown, but she doesn't know how.\n Shia has to admit that he didn't expect the town guard to be suspicious of them that much so quickly, he wonder's what it's up with that. \"Everyone, let's not do any sudden movements just yet...\" The Luxray whispered to his packmates as he watched bug-types approaching them.\n\n\"Can we... Help you?\" Eilumi asks them as they approach, still hoping to avoid a confrontation if at all possible. However, his talon twitches as it gets ready to draw his weapon at any moment. It appears that Khaun is doing much the same, with only Nine not preparing to go for his weapon, possiby being because being a cyborg he feels no need to so.\n\n\"Oooh ye can help us alright...\" The biggest bug of the bunch, the Scolipede, says to them as he begins pacing around them. They can see that this pokémon in particular seems heavily scarred, like he lived through multiple encounters with mons that used Iron against him, either through sheer luck or small blades just not being enough to reach anything vital, maybe both. \"Ye can start by surrendering, come quietly, pirates...\"\nSo that's what they think they are? Outlaws? Shia speaks up to try to defuse this situation. \"We are not Pirates, we are guild members.\"\n\"Hmpft, i'm afraid yer have one pair of hands too many to make that claim, laddie. Now, I'm gonna say it just one more time...last chance to surrender.\" He surrounds the supposed 'pirates' with the other five bug types. Things don't look good...\nSeeing that it looks like it's going to be a fight, everyone looks like they are waiting for someone to make the first move....\n\"Wait! Stop!\" Someone called out from behind the two Ledian, who looked back for a moment before someone came barging through the both of them. It's another pokémon, this one is a feline, a Liepard to be precise...seems to be dressed rather sharply too. This doesn't seem to be anyone in particular that the Ghost Bears are familiar with but what he says next might be unexpected. \"They are with me!\" he pointed to Shia and the others, much to the surprise of all the guards present.\n\n\"Erm, uhh... Yeah! We're with him!\" Eilumi wisely decides to play along with this.\n\"Yeah we've been looking all over for you!\" Khaun decides to similarly play along.\n\nShia, Veera and Spark nod along and listen in silence for the moment.\nThe Scolipede is definitively not amused, the 'bug-horse' paces over to the feline to lean it's head down to glare at him. \"Care to explain then? Are ye conspiring with these pirates?!\"\nThe cat shakes his head at that. \"They are not pirates, they are from the New Sands Republic, same as me. They are here to deliver a secret message to me.\" He explained like the other pokémon asked of him. \"They weren't supposed to make a ruckus, I am sorry about that.\"\nThis still leaves the bigger pokémon skeptical. \"A Secret message ye say? Yer quite bold try to pull this while within our walls...I don't know what yer are up to, but ye are lucky our lady wishes to talk with an ambassador from the 'Republic'.\"\n\"And I thank her for the hospitality.\"\n\"Ggrrr...What is this secret message anyways?\"\n\"If i told you, it would no longer be a secret now, would it?\" He gently retorts. \"You keep a lot of secrets yourselves, is it really wrong if we too keep a few?\"\n\"Hmpft, fine...ye and yer friends are off the hook this time, but you better not linger out of here for long or we are going to have trouble again.\" The Scolipede begrudgingly begins walking away from this whole thing, walking past a duo of the other bug types. \"Come you, yer lot...let's get out of here.\" And they all left, leaving the Ghost Bear Pack alone with this stranger.\nThe Liepard then approaches Eilumi and the others. According to that argument that just happened moments ago, apparently this feline is an ambassador from the New Sands Republic. \"I guess that went...well. Are you doing alright?\"\n\n\"Yeah we're doing alright.\" EIlumi says.\n\"Thanks for the save.\" Loona gives a small nod as she says this.\n\"So uh... You're the NSR agent, I presume?\" Nine asks matter of factly.\n\n\"How did you know we were here?\" Veera asks him. It kind of felt like he had a bit of good timing there, and the Avali back in the Black Isle told them nothing about someone waiting for them on the inside.\nHe looks around a little bit to make sure there was no one else watching them before continuing. \"I was told by our 'benefactors' that you would be arriving. I mean, not you. The 'humans'. Stic also trusts me enough to let me clue me in on what you are...Avali.\" He whispered that last part to them. \"My name's Urloi. And I wish I could talk more but this city has a curfew every night. And I'm already really pushing the guard's patience by just being out here, and with that little convincing too... I can explain more if you follow me to the visitor lodging they got me staying at for the moment, alright?\"\nShia thinks that this would help, maybe Urloi could be helpful to them, especially since Stic seems to trust him so much. Though he has to admit, the night curfew going on in this place does remind me a little more of Avali's main enemy by the second. The Luxray is really starting to think this place might be more 'controlling' than the Sands. \"Alright then, sounds good.\"\n\n\"Yeah, alright.\" Eilumi and crew follow Urloi back to where they are staying. If there is indeed a curfew going on, better there than out in the street after all, and far better than being confused for pirates.\n\nThe City of Amber certainly can look a bit 'samey' with how every community is inside hexagons, it looks like it's kind of easy to lose one's way here if they aren't used to it. Urloi even looks like he almost went the wrong way more than once and had to correct his path. But finally they get to another section of the city where the docs are, which is something different. The Ghost Bear pack is led to what is, for once, not a building surrounded by a hexagonal wall. With the Liepard vouching for them, the guards around the premise let them through. It looks like this is an inn, a bit more luxurious than others considering the standards of how such establishments in a world like this can be, it's likely that only those with money would be able to afford staying here. Urloi took them to his room, where it's finally private enough for them to talk.\n\"So what are you doing here exactly? Is the NSR trying to connect with the Oracle Sea?\" Veera goes ahead and asks the first question.\n\"Yeah pretty much, almost all of the sea traffic passes by here, and since NSR took over the sands the Oracle Sea has limited its interaction with us, it could pose a problem if they don't trust us so i'm here to try to make them open up for us.\" The Liepard answers her.\n\"And how's that been going so far?\"\nHe sighs. \"Well...a bit slower than I would like. Apparently there are some who are ahead of me in 'line' to talk with the leader of this city, the so-called 'Lady'. I have been waiting here for about two days now waiting for my turn.\"\n\n\"Let's start with the 'Lady'.\" Eilumi nods. \"What can you tell us about her?\"\n\"Was going to ask about the city first. And why it seems so much like the Miniknog trying to parody the Avali?\" Khaun says under his breath.\n\"We can come back to that later.\" Nine chides him.\n\n\"Right, the Lady. Haven't seen her in person yet, but I heard she is one of those bug type pokémon, from what I heard, she is 'regal'. I did hear that she wasn't the first to be given the title though, there were others before her, but apparently they weren't very different.\" The feline explained to them.\n\"Does the city always look so...empty at night?\" Shia asked another question.\n\"Oh yes. Like I said, there is a curfew. It happens every night. Makes things look quite eerie out there, doesn't it?\"\n\n\"Boy I'll say.\" Eilumi replies. \"Not to mention a bit dangerous for travelers who don't know better.\"\n\n\"Well, given that every traveler is supposed to come in by Amber's harbor, they should know about that.\" He says. \"The island itself was already explored thoroughly ages ago so there is not much reason to go out unless it's to get to some other establishments that are out there.\"\nSpark tilts his head. \"Like what?\"\n\"Digging for flint or gold.\" The feline answers that question as well.\nNext one to ask is Veera. \"What is it like around here when it's daytime?\"\n\"Oh it's quite lively as opposed to what you saw out there, everyone's transporting their goods to the harbor, some communities trade with each other. That sort of thing.\"\n\n\"So this 'curfew'...\" Eilumi begins to ask. \"Are pirates really that much of a threat around here, that they'd confuse any sort of traveler for them?\"\n\"Or is it mostly something being used for control?\" Khaun finishes the question. If there's one thing they'd learned from the miniknog, is that imagined threats often are better at controlling populations than real ones. Though the most effective ones are the latter if they had some grain of truth to them. Not a complete lie, but the truth told in a deceptive way as to manipulate and deceive.\n\n\"Well, I assume the word 'pirate' is just how 'bandit' is said around here. Apparently they are out there but I personally never saw them myself.\" The Liepard said.\n\"Hhhhmmm...you think they are so much of a threat that they would need so much security?\" Shia asked next.\n\"Honestly, the security here feels pretty...excessive if I do say so myself. Yet they do boast that no Wallbreakers or pirates have been able to take root in the city thanks to the rigid security.\"\n\"Those living spaces are strange, don't you think?\" Veera commented next, wanting to get a bit more information about that. Those hexagonal living spaces are surely noticeable as they seem to be pretty much everywhere.\n\"Yeah, those...i don't know what's the need for those 'communities', there are always 6 pokémon in each and every one of those.\"\n\n\"Sounds a bit like they're trying to emulate the Avali pack system, though ending up with the Miniknog system instead.\" Eilumi comments.\n\"Except that can't be right.\" Khaun retorts. \"As they've been around long before any concept of Avali packs, or even Avali themselves.\"\n\"I know.\" Eilumi gives an annoyed huff. \"I was making a small joke.\"\n\n\"We might need a place where we can teleport to and from Amber, preferably somewhere quiet where it's unlikely to have prying eyes on. Do you know any place that fit's that description?\" Shia enquiries. It would be pretty good to finally get a spot they can designate to beam in and out.\n\"Hhmmm...That is hard to find around the town itself, given that all the houses are inside those 'communities' and the roads are mostly barren otherwise. I guess the design of the town was made with leaving little place to hide.\" Urloi ponders a bit. \"Perhaps there should be a corner on the docks where one might find a quiet place.\"\n\n\"That is good to know.\" Nine comments.\n\"It would probably be better to beam out during the day when everyone is less on guard, than during the night when they are.\" Khaun suggests.\n\"A reversal of our normal procedures.\" Nine notes.\n\n\"A little less on guard I would say...\" Urloi admits. \"During the day the guards are just watchful, but the high traffic that happens during the day should even help you blend in somewhat if you are not standing out too much. Well in any case, I take it that you now need to stay here until the day just to be safe huh? I can try to ask for another room for you but I can't promise I will be as good as this one.\"\n\"That is alright, one night in a poor room shouldn't be too bad.\" Veera says to him, not really much phase by the prospect of being in a room of lesser quality, just need to push through it once...If they must.\n\"Yeah, can't possibly go wrong, right?\" Spark added.\n\n\"Don't jinx it.\" Eilumi half-jokingly chides Spark. In his experience, any time someone says 'what can possibly go wrong?' or something similar, there seems to be an unusually high chance of exactly that happening.\n\nUnfortunately it looks like Spark would have ended up Jinxing things somewhat.\nAfter Liepard went to ask for some new rooms for the Ghost Bear Pack and came back, he said that there are some rooms available and that he will take them there.\nThe slight problem is that unlike that well furnished room on the second floor, this one looks like it's in the basement. Looks like the 'beds' they will have to use are some cloth on the ground, at least there is enough space for all of them here.\nSpark is kind of regretting opening his mouth.\nVeera tries to cheer everyone up a bit so that the sight of this sorry room they will be in isn't going to damp their spirits too much. \"We can make it work, right? We got a few things in the Matter Manipulator that might make this a little more comfortable.\"\n\n\"Well, I always keep a few hammocks on hand. Just for such an occasion.\" Khaun offers.\n\n\"Yes, that would help.\" Shia comments before giving a less than pleased look down at the 'beds' that were provided for him and his pack. \"It's certainly leagues better than these. Come on, I can help you set them up.\"\n\n\"Alright.\" Khaun points the device at the ceiling, and with a few clicks of the button, the device spits out the shiny gold hammocks, complete with a pillow and blanket, all tied to the ceiling and ready to go, mostly, with only a few adjustments needed.\n\"Ah, gotta love old protectorate tech.\" Khaun remarks. \"Takes all the work out of setting up camp.\"\n\"Funny that they never really used it that way.\" Eilumi replies back.\n\nThis makes things better, the overall place is still a bit of a dump but that's a hundred times better than lie on the floor.\nShia smiles. \"Alright, that's much better. Thanks, Khaun.\" He said to the Avali.\n\"Real odd, this place...\" Veera sighs as she walks to Eilumi to talk with him a bit. \"I didn't think I would be getting that 'Miniknog vibe' here of all places. When I lived on this planet I used to think the Sands was the most oppressive place.\"\n\n\"Well, it's not like we had any frame of reference.\" Loona replies to her as she sets up her hammock, tying it to the roof securely. \"Before that whole thing with Rai and his... 'friends',\" She stops her work for a moment to look at Veera and make scare quotes with one of her paws before returning to her work, \"we never left our dungeon for any reason.\" She finishes attaching the hammock to the roof as she finishes the sentence.\n\n\"You are right about that.\" Though Veera has to admit that it was that journey out of the dungeon that eventually got them to where they are now. Perhaps they would not have met the Avali if all of that didn't happen...maybe. Though she does have a few regrets about the past, mostly concerning Brel...She has gotten over it mostly, sometimes she just kind of wonders if things could have gone differently.\nShia meanwhile is helping Spark set up another hammock. The mention of Rai left him eerily quite for a moment. When it was tied up securely to the roof the Raichu climbed on.\n\"Aaah, I love lying on these.\" The electric rat said as he relaxed on it, then looked to Shia. \"You feeling alright?\"\nThe Luxray blinks and nods. \"Yeah I'm fine.\" He then looked up, focused his eyes as they gained white shine to them. Shia could them see right through the ceiling with his natural X-ray vision, something he is glad he didn't skip on before acquiring his nanites as they would have prevented him from evolving. He can see Urloi is talking with the city guard again. \"I hope Urloi isn't going to be getting into too much crap for having helped us when he did.\"\n\nNine looks on with a little concern as Shia clams up for but a moment. He considers saying something, but decides against starting up a convo about something Shia would no doubt rather forget about. Unlike the others, he does not get himself a hammock. He goes into the corner, leans up against it, and closes his eyes, appearing to 'sleep' in place.\n\"Oh, what makes you say that?\" Eilumi asks Shia as he climbs into the hammock. But then he catches on, something confirmed as he looks over to his Luxray packmate and sees his eyes glowing. \"Ah you're doing the X-Ray thing. Any idea what's going on up there?\"\n\n\"HHhhmmm.\" Shia obviously can't make out what they are saying from this angle, but he analyzes their body language to get a bit of an idea. \"It looks like they are trying to pressure him to talk, not really getting physical or anything though. He looks like he is managing.\" Then the Luxray closes his eyes and rubs them.\nVeera get's herself comfortable on her hammock before looking at her packmate, Shia. \"Your eyes still hurt when you do that?\" She asks him.\nHaving stopped using his X-ray vision, he looks to her and shakes his head. \"No, not really. I think I'm getting used to it, it just makes my eyes feel a little strained.\" Then he goes to get on his own hammock to rest.\n\nWhile Eilumi and Khaun both have the temptation to listen in, they decide that getting more sleep is more important at the moment. And besides, they can always ask him tomorrow if it comes up. Loona appears to be out like a stone already, as she's not said a word since crawling into her hammock, and her eyes are already well closed. Nine is in his semi-shutdown 'sleep' mode.\nSoon, the two avali join them in quiet slumber...\n\nThe night made way for the day as the morning came. The hammocks helped the Ghost Bear pack have a nice sleep. Someone begins calming down the stars slowly so as to not wake them up, it is that Liepard, Urloi. He is trying not to wake them up as that would be rude. Perhaps the non-Avali member of the pack will likely not be awakened, but perhaps the Avali might be able to acknowledge the fact that they are no longer alone right now thanks to their hearing.\n\nIndeed, it is Eilumi that first awakens, with a twitch of his ear, and then a stretch of the arms and a yawn. He slowly looks up from his hammock at the source of the footsteps, as Khaun also starts to wake up...\n\nThe feline blinks in surprise for a moment before smirking. \"Just as Stic said...your sense of hearing is so strong that not one of the living can go around it.\" He commented before going down the last steps of the stairs. \"I hope I did not wake you up.\"\n\"It's fine...\" Shia, barely awake but aware of what's going on, gives a response to the other pokémon. He tries to savor the feeling of being on a hammock while it lasts, he has the feeling he and his pack are about to have a long day today...\n\nLoona likewise gives a long yawn as she slowly starts to wake.\nNIne simply flicks on, his 'face' flicking on and off for a split second before staying on.\n\n\"So do you have a way to go out into the sea?\" The Liepard asks.\n\"We have our ways. Why do you ask though?\" Shia raised a brow a little.\n\"I was just going to ask for a little favor if you had time, and if you are going out to check out the sea.\"\n\"Hhmmm, I see. Say, what about you, are you going to meet that 'Lady' we heard of before?\"\nHe nods. \"Yeah, hopefully. Oh and before I forget...it's day so the curfew has obviously been lifted for the time being, things are quite lively out there so try not to get lost if you wander around the place.\"\n\n\"So what's the favor?\" EIlumi asks as he crawls out of his hammock. He lands on the floor feet first gracefully, as Khaun does the same.\n\n\"Since you are checking around here, I would like to know if these sea bandits called 'pirates' are as dangerous as the authorities of Amber are making them out to be.\"\nShia think it's probably unlikely that they are given the technology around here. Proper ships are pretty much relics of the time of Iron King almost as much as Iron itself, the method of their production being hard to reliably achieve. So he thinks that such a city with tight security wouldn't have to worry about something such as pokémon in rafts. \"Sounds like they are really just overplaying it to make the citizens scared if you ask me.\" He shrugs.\n\"Could be, but apparently a ship was lost not too long ago, simply disappeared with seemingly no reason.\" Urloi explained.\n\"Could have been the weather, right? Maybe a storm happened?\" Spark speaks up, having heard the conversation that is going on.\nUrloi shakes his head. \"I don't really think that might have been the case, ships from old times are usually very capable of handling the sea even when it gets rough.\"\n\n\"Well, our mission was to find out more about this place.\" Eilumi explains. \"But I suppose doing this little favor couldn't really hurt. Especially if we have you doing that on this end too.\"\nKhaun and Nine both nod, while Loona lightly brushes her hair in preparation for whatever this morning might bring...\n\n\"I'm sure you got the time to find out more about this place, it's a good time to do so too, with the curfew not in effect.\" He said before starting to make his way back up the stairs. \"Then after that perhaps you can investigate the sea a little bit.\"\nShia, Veera and Spark are ready to get things going again. After they got the hammocks back into the matter manipulator it looks like it's time to get going.\n\"Okay then...let's go see how things are in this place during the day, shall we?\" the Luxray said to his packmates before heading up the stairs to leave the inn.\n\n\"Right-o!\" Eilumi cheers on lightly. He and the rest finish up putting their hammocks back into the device from whence they came, and follow Shia up the stairs, ready to start the day and see what this place is like in the busy of the day...\n\nOnce the Ghost Bear Pack steps outside, they see the City of Amber is quite lively indeed. The streets are full of mons going about their business, big or small. The communities are buying and selling to each other and to outsiders. While food is obviously one of the commodities being sold around, there are also many other things such as pottery, cloth and many other types of artisan goods. Suffice to say it is quite a contrast when compared to silence of the night thanks to the curfew. The Ghost Bears are also able to spot something curious leaving the castle in the center of the city, it looks like many bug-type pokémon, so much so that it is almost a cloud of them, they seem to resemble bees. They seem to be flying out of the castle and going in-land based on the direction they are going.\n\"Wow, it really is quite lively. It looks like business really goes around here huh?\" Veera comments on all that she is seeing, kind of surprised at how much is going on this early in the morning. \"I guess it isn't a surprise, with this being the middle point between all three of the continents.\"\n\"Almost makes you forget that at night things are a lot more...strict.\" Shia added as he remembers their first experience here at night.\nSpark raised a paw to say something. \"Perhaps the locals will be more willing to talk at this time of the day, right?\" He gives his pack a little suggestion, as they didn't had a good chance to talk with someone from around her proper, it's likely to go smoother now.\n\n\"Quite so.\" Eliumi says. He and Khaun look around, and see all of the people walking about and going about their daily lives.\n\"Question is...\" Khaun starts.\n\"Where to start?\" Eilumi fishes the question.\n\n\"Well, I suppose anyone will do.\" Shia says, reasoning that maybe the average citizen won't be scared to talk. He approaches a Heracross pulling an empty cart \"Hello? Excuse me? Can you help us?\"\nOnce he noticed that someone has calling him, the bug type stopped and looked in the Luxray's direction. \"Huh? You talking to me?\"\nHe nods and speaks again. \"Yes, we are not from around here and we would like to ask a few questions.\"\n\"Hhhhmmm, well, okay but not a whole lot, okay? I need to get back to my community soon.\"\nThat sounds good enough to Shia, this local seems to be reasonably open to them. \"I have been a bit curious about this 'lady' that lives in the castle. Is she very well known around here?\"\n\"Yes of course, everyone here is aware of Lady Vespi IV, she is our leader after all. Under her care Amber continues to prosper and remain relatively distant from all the conflict going on these days.\" The Heracross explains to him.\n\"There...was more than one Vespi?\" Shia thinks that this is a little bit unusual.\n\"Yes, she is a descendant of the past one, obviously. Only females of royal blood are allowed to evolve and take the throne.\"\nShia rubs his chin and nods. \"Alright...is it alright if I ask you exactly what kind of Pokémon is Lady Vespi?\"\n\"Well, I haven't seen her in the flesh. Rarely does any commoner is allowed in the castle, let alone anywhere near the lady. But I know she is a Vespiqueen.\"\n\nThe crew take a moment to gather their thoughts. So many questions they want to ask, but where to begin. Just when it looks like their Heracross guest might be getting bored and decide to move on, Eilumi breaks the silence with the next question:\n\"Soo are there any other nobles around here besides The Lady? Or is she the only one?\"\nIt admittedly isn't much of a start, but it is one nonetheless.\n\nWhile at it, Veera also decides to ask something. \"Hhmmm, Also...do you think living inside walled off communities is a bit...strange?\" It certainly is a bit strange to her.\n\"Just lady Vespi for the most part. And the communities keep everything very organized, every community works with its own specialty, you see? That way everyone has a job. \" The bug-type said.\nSpark hangs back and comments on what he is hearing, just whispering because he doesn't want to say something that might be insensitive to the Heracross or making him suspect them. \"Huh...just 'one' noble? That sounds quite a bit...different than what I thought. It seems less like the usual nobility and more like...\"\n\"A monarchy?\" Shia whispered back to the Raichu. \"Yeah, it certainly is not like the sands, that's for sure.\"\n\n\"Speaking of jobs\" Eliumi then asks, \"Are you guys having some sort of trouble with pirates?\"\nKhaun and Nine look like they have questions they want to ask too, but they decide to wait.\n\n\"Oh, yes those bad actors are always up to no good out there in the sea. Security on Ember is top notch though, they would never try to come cause trouble here.\" He says to them. \"But out there though? I heard stories of mons going to explore the islands in small numbers and having run-ins with pirates. The well prepared ones usually come back in one piece to tell the tale, the rest...not so much.\"\n\"And has the town deal with any wallbreaker before?\" Veera asked.\n\"I don't see much difference between the two, they just bring trouble to our doorstep.\" The bug-type sighs. \"That said, that doesn't mean they haven't tried before. But they can't blend well at all within our community system, it's easy to spot when someone is acting out of the ordinary.\"\n\n\"Speaking of the community system, are we keeping you from your job right now?\" Khaun suddenly asks. \"We wouldn't want you to get into trouble on the count of some visitors.\"\nThe rest of the pack nods slowly. While there are many more questions to ask, there are many others around to ask. And knowing how Miniknog towns usually are, that was always a real possibility. Even ignoring the fact that this whole thing is starting to sound suspiciously like them, there's always the possibility of them getting into trouble on their account. After all, almost never does 'I was giving some tourists some answers' ever seem to fly in the workplace. Khaun in particular thinks it might be worth it to ask a few people a few of the same questions, just to judge the consistency of the answers.\n\nThe Heracross realizes that they have a point, so he begins hurrying away with his cart. \"Yeah, you are right, i gotta go, sorry!\"\nShia begins wondering if this means that perhaps the guards of Amber might be keeping an eye on them in particular. After what happened last night it's safe to assume they would be interested in some sudden arrivals, even if Urloi vouched for them. He will keep an eye out if it looks like they are being followed. \"I guess that wasn't half-bad.\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Khaun replies. \"I did have other questions, but there are quite a few others to ask around here. Why don't we go see if we can find someone else? Preferably someone that looks a little less busy and less likely to get into trouble for taking time out to chat?\"\n\n\"That is a good point, but...\" Veera looks around at all the mons going about their business, it looks like everyone has somewhere to be so it is being quite hard to pin down someone who doesn't look busy already. \"Where?\"\nHowever they do manage to find someone who doesn't appear to be busy. There is this Boltund dressed in a simple gray cloth jacket. He looks like he is just there waiting for something, or someone.\n\nEilumi is the first one to spot them.\n\"There.\" He says pointing out the dog, one that looks much like a normal earth dog save for the coloration. \"That one doesn't look too busy.\"\n\n\"Yeah, it seems so...well, let's go talk with them?\" Spark said before him and his pack approached the other electric type.\nThe Boltund raises a brow when the group approaches him. \"Hhmmm? What do you want?\" He seems willing to talk, but is a little bit rude about it.\n\nHis rudeness gives Eilumi a brief pause, but only for a moment.\n\"Hello my good sir. We're kind of new in this area and we're wondering if you could answer a few questions for us?\" He asks. \"That is, if you aren't too busy right now.\"\n\n\"Well, I'm not really doing anything right now, so I could answer a few questions...\" He says to them.\n\"Are you from around here?\" Shia asks, just to be sure.\nThe Boltund shakes his head. \"No, I'm not from around here. I'm a merchant. I come here to Amber every once in a while to stock up. This place didn't get affected much, if at all, by the war that happened some time ago so the prices here are good.\"\nThe Luxray nods before asking something else. \"And why are you just standing around here exactly?\"\n\"Just waiting for an associate of mine who carries my load, I sent him off to buy a few things and he is taking his time...\" So that must be why this dog is in a bit of a bad mood.\n\n\"I see.\" Eliumi replies.\nHe then proceeds to ask a few of the same questions they asked the heracross before, just to check for consistency, and to see how much this person actually knows about Amber. Mostly about Lady Vespi, and the one about how bad the pirates are. He decides to ask these questions before moving onto new questions that he would have asked the large bug, but ran out of time to do so.\n\nAs far as answering the questions go, he is not quite sure about the whole 'community' thing, mostly because all these walls make it hard to get around all this and it is possible to get lost, but he admits that he is surprised that this way of life of theirs works so well somehow. He knows as much as everyone else about Lady Vespi, perhaps a bit less so, but he does mention a rumor of her having some 'unusual treasure' hidden within her castle. And as for the pirate question he says that there are definitely 'pirates' out there, he has seen them too but they are smart enough not to try anything when they know they won't stand a chance against a ship with a good number of mons that look like they can defend themselves.\n\nSo far, it seems like his answers were fairly consistent with the ones that the Heracross gave them. Time to move onto other topics.\n\"So speaking of pirates, have you heard any rumors relating to a place called 'The Black Isle?'\"\n\n\"That sounds a little bit familiar...Oh, right, that the legend about that one island shrouded in mystery that lures in a lot of pokémon to their deaths with the promise of treasure?\" It looks like he thinks of it as a legend at least, just a scary tale pokémon tells one another when they are bored.\n\n\"So you haven't heard any recent rumors about it?\" Eilumi asks to confirm.\n\n\"Not really. Can't say I look much into those sorts of things. As far as I know it's just some legend spread by the pirates to lure would-be-explorers into a trap.\"\n\nSo this mon at least seems none the wiser to the change in management over there? So far, that seems like a good sign. But then again, this is also an outsider, and just one mon. Eilumi mentally notes that they'll have to ask a couple more mons this too...\n\n\"If you are not from around here, where are you from?\" Veera throws in another question.\n\"I mostly work in Snow territory, used to sell on Grove lands too but things over there have been getting rather worse after they lost their battle with the Sands...\" He shrugs. \"Heard that some bad bunch of mons have shown up and are causing quite a bit of stir. And I thought the Sands was the rough one out of the three continents.\"\n\nOkay, so that was rather interesting to the bunch. \"Tell us more about this 'bad bunch of mons'.\" Nine, who had remained silent up until the point, decides to inquire.\n\n\"Well from what I heard...after the war with the Sands didn't go their way, the Grove has fallen on some tough times. So much so that Pokémon from the dungeons started causing trouble for them in their moment of weakness. And from what I know the Grove is having trouble dealing even with THAT of all things.\" The Boltund explains before chuckling. \"Can you imagine how embarrassing that must be? Failing to contain the likes of the mons from the dungeon from rising up?\"\n\n\"Hmmm...\" Eilumi thinks on this info. Is this their doing? Or something else? He'll have to ask the commander about that once he gets back to base.\nHe tries to think of something else to ask, but at the moment is drawing a blank.\n\nIt looks like the rest of his pack has nothing else to ask of this pokémon.\n\nJust as they're about to however, Nine has one more question to ask. \"So you said you are from the 'Snows'. What's going on up there, might we ask?\"\n\n\"Oh it's better than the Grove in regards to keeping the peace, even with the Slink still in the shadows. Really glad the war didn't affect the Snow too much, if at all.\" The merchant said. \"Honestly, I can't wait to go back, I miss the embrace of the cold already.\"\n\n\"Slink?\" Loona can't help but ask. Even during her time on this planet, she had never heard of such a thing.\n\n\"Huh, you haven't heard of that? Well I suppose the more correct term out here would be 'Wallbreakers', probably. I don't see much difference between the two. The Slinks are Pokémon that have made a dreaded name for themselves by killing Snow nobles and ending bloodlines.\" He explained to the Linoone.\n\nIn her more belligerent past, Loona might have responded with 'I fail to see the problem.' Now however, she knows better than to try and start a fight over this, so she simply nods her head instead. \"Anything else you can tell us about the Snows?\" She replies.\n\"Yeah, sounds like a nice place to visit.\" Eilumi remarks. \"Maybe they'll send us there next. It'd be nice to get out of this sauna of a place.\"\n\n\"What? Do I look like a guide to you or something?\" Seems like the Boltund doesn't wish to make any more small. A Marshtomp comes passing by struggling to pull a cart full of crates, the electric type seems to recognize him and goes to him. \"Finally, where the heck were you?!\" He berates his lackey as both of them walk away towards the harbor.\nShia watches the pokémon go, slightly annoyed at the tone he took with Loona just now, but at least that's done with. \"Well...all things considered, at least we learned some things.\n\n\"Quite so.\"\nAfter this , they look for another target to question, and they soon find one in the form of a passing vaporeon. She however mostly gives the same answers, at least in regards to the queen and the local town. Once they move onto the subject of the Black Isles however...\n\"So I've heard rumor of a place called the Black Isles.\" Loona begins. \"Tell me a little about it.\"\n\"We do not speak of it!\" The Vaporeon almost hisses. \"It is a cursed place from which none return.\"\nJust when they're about to move onto another topic, she suddenly adds.\n\"...Well... Untill...\"\n\"Yes?\" Eliumi right away asks.\n\"Look, you didn't hear it from me, but there's something of a small rumor going around that something... weird is going on there. Weirder than usual. It used to be that people went over there and never came back. Now rumor is people go there, but then end up back here with no memory of ever going there. There's also been some rumors of mons suddenly showing up here, with no clue who they are or how they got here. I haven't seen any myself, but still...\"\n\nShia raised a brow. \"Huh...\"\nHearing this sort of peaks Veera's interest too. So it would appear that some of the locals do happen to have noticed something different about the place since the Avali took over the Black Isle, but they still don't know the whole thing. Well it is certainly better than when any unwitting explorer went there and ended up getting killed. \"Hhmhmm, I see.\"\n\n\"Hmmm... Interesting. Very interesting.\" Nine comments. The others nod. He looks to Shia and Veera to see if either of them have anything to ask yet, or whether they can send this Vaporeon on her way.\n\nSpark does have one last question regarding the Black Isle before they move on. \"Since when has the whole Black Isle legend been a thing?\"\n\n\"For as long as I can remember\" The vaporeon recalls. \"Long since before I was an egg, that's for sure. No one really knows where the thing came from, or why. They say it just sort of appeared there one day, and that it's been gobbling up unfortunates and overeager guildies ever since. It's older than the Iron King if I recall.\"\n\nThe rest of the questions they ask her are pretty much par for the course by now, as are the answers. Nothing else of real interest comes from them, and soon she is on her way.\nThey continue this line of questioning with a few other citizens with nothing else new coming of it. In fact, they are starting to get bored of this. The pack begins to realize that soon it will be time to move onto other tasks.\n\nShia does take notice of something, something he was suspecting...They are being tailed by someone. With all the movement going on around then it took up until now for him to confirm it, but there is a particular Kecleon who just seems to linger some distance away from them. It seems like even though the guards of Amber are not gonna bother them, they still insist on keeping an eye on them. The Luxray informs his pack of this.\n\n\"So I think this has run its course. I think we should-\" Khaun's ears twitch as he stops mid-sentence. Eilumi's ears twitch as well, and he sees Shia looking off in a particular direction.\n\"... You notice it too, little buddy?\" He says to his packmate, who ironically is quite bigger than he is at this point.\n\nThe Luxray nods to the Avali. \"Yeah. Looks like they still want to keep an eye on us after last night. He must have been on our tail for a while now.\"\nVeera has not been paying much attention to that, so this comes as a bit of a surprise to her. \"Oh, i see...\" She sighs. \"What should we do then? If he knows he got noticed he might slip away in the crowd.\"\n\"Or...maybe we can just go to that spot in the harbor where there is no traffic so we can beam back to our ship?\" Spark suggested. \"It might work if we are quick about it.\"\nShia has another possible idea to deal with this though. \"Perhaps. If he really needs to lose that guy first though, we can play it smart. We split up and go different ways, it's easy for him to follow us because we are together, that won't be the case if we split up in every direction. Then we just need to meet up at the harbor.\"\n\n\"Are you sure it's them again?\" Khaun questions. \"For all we know it might be someone else.\"\n\"Since we don't know if they're spies or something else, splitting up might be a bad idea.\" Nine replies to Shia's suggestion. \"They might have buddies waiting to try to pick us off one by one if we do that. \"\n\"We could do what we did last time. Lead them into the back alleyways and try to confront them.\" Eilumi suggests in turn.\n\n\"That sounds like a much better idea.\" Veera comments on Eilumi's suggestion.\n\"Yeah, but...\" Shia says as he looks around, the layout of the city might prove to be a little problematic for that plan. These organized hexagon-shaped 'community' makes it so finding a something even close to an alleyway very difficult. \"I'm not really sure where we can find that here...\"\n\"Then...perhaps we can go back Urloi and try to figure something out?\" The pack's other electric type, Spark, says.\n\n\"Yeah... let's do that.\" Eliumi nods to Spark's suggestion.\n\nWith not much viable options, the pack goes back to the Liepard who is still in the inn.\n\"Oh, you are back already i see? So how was it?\" Urloi asks them.\nShia steps forward to explain their problem. \"It was alright, we learned much but we got an problem...We are being followed by one of the locals and we suspect that they are working with the local authorities. We need a safe, secluded place to continue our mission and we don't think we can shake them off our tail here.\"\n\"Oh, i see...so the guards are still on to you even after last night huh?\" The Dark-type sighs. \"You can't find any place to hide?\"\n\"No, there is simply no alleyways for us to use, the streets are just too exposed.\" Veera says to him.\n\"Hhhmmm, i see...so they have the advantage of having you in their turf, that is a bit of a problem indeed.\" He ponders for a moment. \"But i got a workaround. You say you need a place secluded enough from the eyes of Amber's guard, and i got just the thing. The city guard is quite nosy, but surely they would not risk overstepping their boundaries, so here is the plan: I take you to my ship, there it will be impossible for them to have eyes prying eyes on you and it won't really look suspicious at all. Simple and effective.\"\n\n\"Well, we think they're the guards.\" Eliumi replies to the Dark cat. \"We never confronted them, so we don't know for sure.\"\n\"I guess we'll know for sure once we board your ship.\" Khaun comments.\n\n\"Alright then, just follow me.\"\nThe Liepard leads them out of the inn and towards the harbor. There things are no busy than the rest of the city, with pokémon going back and forth to bring goods into the ships. And as expected...they are being followed from the moment they left the Inn.\nBut then they got to the ship, which has the flag of the New Sands Republic flying at the summit of it's mast. It also has a good number of crew currently on it, making sure everything is right. It seems like Urloi's idea worked, seeing that it has no way to follow them while unnoticed, and if they just hang around the in such an exposed place they would draw suspicion, the Keckleon that was pursuing then decides to turn around and head back the way they came.\n\"I suppose that's that then.\" Shia says as he looks at the pokémon leaving. \"Too bad we couldn't ask them a few questions.\"\n\n\"Well, that's that.\" Eilumi watches them walk away. \"I guess we'll never know what exactly their deal was. Ah well, no matter.\" He shrugs his fluffy shoulders.\n\"Well, now that that's solved, I propose we find an out of the way place to beam back.\" Nine says matter of factly. \"And after that?\"\n\"We go island hopping. And pirate hunting.\" Khaun replies.\n\"Ooh!\" Loona gives a smile. \"Is it time to pull the dropship out again? We haven't used that in quite a while.\"\n\"Yeah.\" Khaun rubs his chin. \"Come to think of it, the last time we used that was back when first came here. Go figure...\"\n\n\"I did say that there is a spot somewhere in the harbor that is isolated enough. But if you have to get to it, do it quickly. Even though that mon that was following you seemingly went away, i don't think he is entirely gone, if you hang around outside for too long they likely will start following you again in due time.\"\n\"They don't give up easily, huh?\" Shia sighs.\n\"Well...security here in Ember is tighter than it looks.\"\n\"And what exactly is this spot that you mentioned? Is there something we can use to know where it is?\" Veera asks, if they are to know where that spot is, some references would be useful.\n\"There is a restaurant in the harbor, once you go back to the docks, just head straight and take a right turn and you should find it at the edge of the harbor. Find a way to go around this restaurant and you should find a secluded spot in the back.\" The feline explains.\nThe pack's Raichu raises a brow. \"A...restaurant?\" He asks, a little perplexed at the thought of why there is a restaurant in a harbor .\n\"Yes, I know, it sounds slightly strange...I mean who builds a restaurant on water? In any case it is quite popular with locals and outsiders alike. I ate there once too, that dish was something i never quite seen before but it was delicious. Apparently it's a secret from the chef so I don't really know what was on it.\"\n\nThat last part is a bit eye-raising. But that is neither here nor there.\n\"Well, at any rate, we'll make our way over there.\" Eliumi nods to the feline. He reaches out to shake his hand. \"Thanks for all of your help.\"\n\nThe Liepard also offers his hand for the Avali to shake. \"You are welcome. Here's hoping for a bright future ahead of us if everything goes alright.\"\nShia looks down at the docks, just to be sure if that pokémon is still nowhere around, it's not easy to tell with all the movement going on down there, but he thinks it's safe to go. \"We should go now, guys.\"\n\nThe Avali takes the Liepard's hand in his, and gives a brief, and light shake before letting it go again and looking to his Luxray companion.\n\"I agree. We've got lots to do, after all.\" He nods to the rest of his pack, and they nod back, before disembarking the boat in order to move to the place that the Liepard envoy mentioned.\nTheir trip to the docks is uneventful, and soon they see the restaurant. Part of the pack's minds wants to actually check out the restaurant, but they know that any delay before beaming out, especially in one place, might cause... complications. They don't see nor hear the interloper anywhere, but one can never be too careful. So they pass the restaurant, and find the secluded spot in the back.\n\"Ready to beam back up.\" Eilumi announces to the rest of his pack. And with a nod, their forms are transformed into light, which then shoots upwards towards the sky faster than the eye can make out. And before they know it, they are safely back on their ship.\n\n\"Phew, kind of missed being here.\" Spark commented, then again he misses this little space home of theirs very easily if they stay away from it for some time.\nSomething is bothering Shia though, there was something in the air in that spot where they beamed up from, of course at first wasn't anything wrong but after a bit more thinking it makes him wonder why that place behind the restaurant was smelling like fish. But regardless, they are here now. He goes over to spark and pats his head. \"You like it here, huh Spark?\"\nHe nods. \"Yeah, I'm okay with going out of it for us to do our missions and stuff, but kind of really got used to the cold in here.\"\nVeera smiles. \"Yeah, I get what you mean.\"\n\n\"Yeah, it's rather odd, we were all desert dwellers, yet my fur almost seems more suited for the cold.\" Loona comments.\n\"Indeed..\" Eliumi turns to Veera, and lightly rubs her spiky fur. \"Even Veera here has thick fur, especially on the back.\" He pets her head, before moving his hand down to her back, gently grooming it as Loona looks on with a single raised eyebrow. She can almost taste where this is going, as his hands travel lower and lower.\n\"And as long as we're back here...\"\n'Here it comes'. She thinks to herself.\nSure enough, Eliumi's talon drifts over her spiky-fluffy skirt, around it, and onto her butt, giving it a soft, inviting squeeze.\n\"Hows about we ... 'relax' with some 'pack activities?' He whispers into the Jolteon's ear.\n'Yup.' Loona almost rolls her eyes. Yup, Eilumi hasn't changed at all, and is still the little hornball that won her heart all those months ago. The only thing that has changed... was how open they were with one another now. For a while, Loona would stick to Elumi, Spark, and sometimes Shia. Whereas Veera would stick with Khaun.\nBut nowadays, there are a lot more... interconnected. More free with each other.\nAnd today, it looks like Eliumi's got his sights on Veera.\nNine however, seeing what's more than likely about to happen, gives a small cough.\n\"I'll just go... check the dropship and do any maintenance. It's been a while since we used it, and it might need some minor repairs.\" Before anyone can stop him, he's already beamed out to the dropship, presumably to do what exactly he just said he'd do.\n\nVeera was wondering what Eilumi was up to, only realizing what he wants to do when he gives her butt that squeeze which surprised her. \"Oh! Hehehe, yeah some 'pack activities sound good'.\" The Jolteon is not opposed to some fun with her fellow packmates, feels like it's been quite a while since they have had something like this anyways.\nShia holds back a small chuckle, it's kind of amusing when Eilumi is being a little hornball. \"Alrighty then, you guys do that, I'm gonna spend some time deciding on what to bring.\" And by that he means what weapons to bring as he walks off the armory.\nThis leaves Loona and Spark. The latter has something to say. \"Okay in that case...i just gonna go make a sandwich or something.\" This electric rat sure does like eating, all things considered. And with that he goes off to the kitchen.\n\n\"Well, you two have fun.\" Loona waves off to Eilumi as she turns to follow Spark. \"I've got the munchies too, come to think of it.\"\n\"So that just leaves the two of us.\" He gives her butt a small, light spank. Nowhere near hard enough to be painful, just a playful tap. \"Let's head up to the living room, shall we then?\"\n\nVeera let out another small playful 'oh' when he gave her rear that little spank. \"Yes, let's.\" And with that, the Avali and the Jolteon are free to go to their ship's living room so they can have a proper space for their 'pack activity'.\n\nThey soon arrive. Veera has barely even taken one step inside before Eliumi turns her around, and wraps his winged arms around her back, pulling her body close to his. Their down and fur filled bodies are pressed against one another in needful closeness. He takes but a moment to look onto her, his hungry, lustful yellow eyes meeting her soft, yet also lustful green one, before he closes his and plants a hard, aggressive, passionate kiss onto the lips of his gentle jolteon packmate. Their lips are pressed together, as his tongue slides along her surprised lips, desperately seeking entry, as his talons roam the upper and lower parts of her back, rubbing her fur with gusto.\n\nVeera expected the Avali to want to get things started as soon as possible, but even how sudden this caught her a little bit by surprise. Seems like her packmate is REALLY wanting some action with her huh? She hopes not to disappoint the feathery hornball! While they share their passionate kiss, Veera's hands rub along the feathers on the Avali's back much like how his talons are roaming on her back. Usually a Jolteon's fur is prickly, but Veera's is soft overall like regular fur because she does not use her electricity a whole lot.\n\nEliumi's tongue slides into her mouth, his long, thin tongue rubbing up against her thick but shorter one as he feels her hands roaming his soft, feathery back. Despite being a might bit shorter than her, the Avali holds onto her, and dips her back. His upper hand stays still as to hold her up. while his lower hand moves down, over her rump. He gives it another squeeze before moving down to her left back leg, and begins caressing it softly yet lustfully in between moans.\n\nShe can feel his member begin to slide out from his sheath, a process being helped by the jolteon's rubbing. After a few more sensual rubs of her back upper leg, he tilts her back up so she's standing up straight, gives one more moan into her mouth, before slowly breaking the kiss, and smiling mischievously at her. It seems he has something naughty in mind indeed!\n\nAfter his member came out, Veera gently grasps it with her hand to rub it a few times. After they broke the kiss she speaks. \"You have that look in your eyes, Eliumi.\" The Jolteon chuckles a little. \"That one that says you got something fun in mind. So what is it?\"\n\n\"Oooh definitely.\" He replies to her. \"As for what it is... well, this.\"\nHe gives her one more light kiss, before reaching under her legs, and sweeping her off her feet! It's easy to forget such a light and small creature is so strong. As for where he's carrying her, she soon finds out: to one of the hammocks hanging around. He places her inside, perpendicular, so her legs are hanging out the side.\nHe grins at her with a naughty look, licking his lips before he then places both of his hands on both sides of her, giving a few quick, but smooth rubs up and down her calves. He then licks his long tounge along his lips again, before sliding his hands to her inner legs, and spreading them apart, exposing her jolteon sex to him.\n\nAfter getting comfortable on the hammock, Veera watched with a smile as the Avali sensually explored her lower body before spreading her legs. The Jolteon's pussy is there, ready to receive stimulation. She wonders what her Packmate is going to do next, but she wager he is going to go for a little more foreplay with his tongue.\n\nIndeed, it seems she knows her packmate very well by now. The Avali in front of her moves in, and gives her inner folds one slow, long lick, which then turns around and traces the outside of her folds, and over her nub. Once that slippery tongue rolls over her clit, one of his talons moves to replace the tongue, rubbing it through its sheath as he makes his way back to her inner folds. Unlike before, he gives her entrance very quick and rapid licks, up and down the slit.\n\nThe Jolteon began panting, even moaning a little, as the Avali played with her pussy. His long tongue playing with her clit sends jolts of pleasure through her body. \"Aaaahhh...~ Mmmm, you really been looking forward to this, haven't you?~\" She said as she kept watching him lick and lick.\n\nIt takes a moment to stop licking to respond. \"Hell yeah.\" he says as he goes right back to lapping up her ever dampening pussy. his fingers continue their work on her clit. Meanwhile, his other hand travels down to his hardon, and begins to lightly stroke. Nowhere near enough to make himself cum, but just enough to keep himself hard and teased, in preparation for the next part...\n\nVeera coos and moans once more as Eilumi's tongue keeps lapping up her genitalia. Her pussy is all wet and ready to receive his member. The Jolteon can sense that soon enough they might move to the next part, the best part... \"Mmmmmm~ You ready?~\"\n\nSeeing and tasting that she's plenty wet enough now, he stops, and looks up at her soft, yet lustful eyes. \"You know it.\"\nWhile one might expect him to take her right here like this, with her hanging her legs over the side of the hammock while he fucks her standing up, he instead moves her legs back into the hammock, and soon after he crawls into the hammock with his jolteon packmate. He looms over her, and gives her one more loving kiss before breaking it.\n\"You're so beautiful, you know that?\" He huskily whispers to her before giving her another kiss, followed by the only question that needs asking in this position.\n\"On your back, or on your front?\"\n\nIt didn't take long for Veera to decide here. \"Well, I prefer to stay on my back, I want to embrace you while we do it.\" She says before rubbing a hand along his feathery chest.\n\n\"Heh.\" He gives her a kiss in response. \"Works for me.\"\nHe looks down, and takes his throbbing member into his talons. He guides it to her waiting, wanting pussy. He pauses to take a good look at her before he proceeds, eyeing her up and down. \"You're so beautiful, you know that?\" He says as he gives her a quick peck again.\n\nThe Jolteon giggles a little at what he said. \"Well, you are quite charming yourself, you know?\" She can feel the anticipation building up with how close they are about to begin their little sexual fun. She rubs his hands along his arms before speaking again. \"I'm ready for you~\"\n\nAnd that's all the invitation and confirmation he needs. With a firm, but slow push, he pushes his tapered tool past her dripping folds, her moist insides pleasantly squeezing his length as it goes deeper and deeper. He gives out a moan as he feels his crotch meet hers, his down meeting and pressing against her soft belly fur.\n\nHe holds his cock inside of her, his hips wiggling a little to worm it in as far as it can go. He gives a moan before pulling himself back, the soaked cock leaving the warm confines of her insides and were he not an Avali with a natural affinity for the cold, he might shiver at the sudden chill as the semi-cold air, aided by the jolteon's slick juices coating. Once he is sufficiently far enough, about three quarters way back, he wastes no time in stuffing himself back into her warm confines, only to pull back once more, starting this lovemaking session with a brisk pace as the hammock jiggles against its bindings.\n\nWith their movement picking up, and with it the hammock jiggling Veera places her hands on Eilumi's shoulders for a bit of support as he starts properly fucking her. She can feel his dick moving in and out of her flower, stimulating her and giving her pleasure. \"Aaahh~ Mmmmm~\"\n\n\"Oooh, yeah!\" As does he feel her walls rub and massage his cock with each thrust in and each pull out. Audible slishes and sloshes fill the room as he drives himself into her, his pace and voracity increases as does his pants and moans. He looks into her green eyes, giving her the occasional quick but aggressive kiss as he makes love to his packmate.\n\nShe begins to hug him as his pace increases. Veera begins to moan from the pleasure, the audible sounds of their intercourse getting louder as their pace escalates. After one or two of those little kisses, the Jolteon takes the opportunity to say something to tease her packmate. \"Ooooh~ Y-you really are the pack's hornball, you know that? Aaahh~\"\n\n\"nngh, Ha!\" He moans in between thrusts. \"You say that like it's a bad thing.\" He gives her a quick peck on the lips, before thrusting hard into her, increasing his speed as fast as it will go just to make a point. \"It doesn't sound like a bad thing to me, Veera!\"\n\nThe Jolteon moans louder and hugs the Avali tighter as he fucks her pussy with all he's got. It takes a little effort now to form a sentence with all her breath being spent on moaning and panting from the pleasure of their intercourse. \"N-Never...said it was...a bad thing~ Aaahh!~ S-so goood!~ \"\n\n\"Ahh, yeah!\" He grunts loudly as his hips repeatedly slam into hers, their lovemaking filling the room with wet, hard slops and slaps and moans and pants. At this pace, his orgasm is quickly approaching. \"Ahh! Gunna do it!\" He yells. \"In or out?!\" He asks as quickly as he can with a huff.\n\n\"D-do it in! do it in!\" It feels to good to have her packmate's dick pulled out now at the height of their pleasure making, and she knows she won't get pregnant so there is no reason to not go all in. \"I'm...aaaaahh!~ Getting close too...!\"\n\n\"He-\" He huffs, as he feels the intense buildup of his orgasm about to overtake himself. His cock throbs as he tries to hold back his climax for just one moment longer. \"Here-I-CUM!!\" He shouts as he gives one last hard thrust into her depths, filling his lovely packmate below him with his length, their hips pressing against one another. His seed gushes out of his tapered cock hard with each pump, quickly filling her insides with his sticky ejaculate, a small bit of it even leaking out and onto her fur, going so down as to her anus before stopping.\n\nVeera also yells out in pleasure as her orgasm hits, she hugs him tightly as he pumps her pussy full of his seed. The two of them remained in this tight embrace until this intense climax died down. Now somewhat relaxing and panting, the Jolteon has something to say to Eilumi, something to tease him regarding that pun he did. \"'Here i cum'? Really?\" She chuckled.\n\n\"It's the best I.. could come up with in ... short notice.\" Eliumi pants with half a chuckle, the exhaustion from his rapid love-making having finally caught up in the afterglow.\n\nShe also chuckles before giving him one last little peck on the nose. \"You're precious...\" Veera says before just lying down there on the hammock with the Avali beside her so they both can catch their breath.\n\nThe Avali wraps his feathery arm around her back and side, and pulls her close to him as he gives her a smooch on the cheek. \"I love you so much.\" He whispers into her ear, as the two of them enjoy one another's presence, for this short period of time before they are needed down below once again.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Act 78: Anchor

When they get to the teleporter, the Ghost Bear Pack beam back up to their ship.
Once everyone is back on the ship, Spark speaks up. "So, when are we going down there to this 'Anchor' place? Are we going when it's daytime or are we going to try to be stealthy when night comes?" The Raichu asked his pack.
"I suppose it would be less likely for us to be seen if we beamed down at night." Veera comments  on what the other electric type proposed.

Khaun nods. "I agree. It'd draw less attention if we came in during the night."
Loona silently nods as well.
"Well, in that case." Eilumi gives a small shrug. "We still have a quarter of a day left before nightfall on this planet. Sooo..."

This would mean that the Ghost Bear pack has a good amount of time to prepare for when it was the time for them to go back down to the planet. When it was eventually time the pack beams back down to the planet, this time not the Black Isle, but to the island of Anchor on the center of the Oracle Sea. The Avali, Protogen and pokémon find themselves on a beach, it's currently night, the moon is high in the sky and they hear the sound of the waves crashing against the shore behind them.
Shia scouted their immediate vicinity, cutting through the darkness with his x-ray vision he discovered he had sometime after evolving into a Luxray. Though he doesn't see anything that could be alarming. "...We are clear."

"Well, so far so good." He looks around, and sees a town not too far off. "I'm guessing that's anchor"

It's not much of a town as much as it is a city apparently, though it's not easy to tell from where they are as there it has quite a wall surrounding all but its shore. As they approach it they need to start thinking about how to get in there.
"Anchor is the island we are currently standing on. That's the town of Amber." Veera said to her packmate. "But we gotta find a way to get in there now..."
Shia ponders for a moment. "It looks like quite a bit of pokémon live there. Would it be feasible to sneak in?"
"Or maybe we could just head in as is?" Spark tried to put forward an idea, even if it was a bit of an unusual one, he is just trying to be helpful. "I know that in the Sands they were very picky about who could get in there...but maybe here it's not the same?"

"hmmm." Eliumi thinks. "I think we still have the badges in storage back from the old days if we need them." Eilumi suggests.
"I don't see any real reason as to why they wouldn't have the same badge system here as in the sands." Khaun suggests. "Especially if that 'Iron King' originated from Black Isle, this would probably be one of the frist places he instilled it."

Veera gives a nod to that. "Yeah, it sounds like a good idea. It's only logical to think that they would still be using the badge system here."
"In storage, right? Back in the ship? I could get up there and get it." Their Raichu packmate volunteers.
Shia is currently counting how many guards he can see by the gates and up in the wall. "Three...four...five..."

"Yeah, that'd be best." EIlumi replies to Spark's proposition.

Sparks goes back the way they came, just so he is far enough for the flash of him beaming back up not getting spotted by any that shouldn't see it.
"That's six guards..." Shia finished counting the amount of guards around that gate.
A little bit later their Raichu packmate came back with those old badges they got a long time ago. "Well, here they are. Hopefully everything goes as planned, right?"
"Don't worry Spark, in case something goes wrong we can just go with a plan B." Veera says to the other electric type to reassure him.

"And what plan might that be?" Loona asks.

"Sneaking, perhaps." Veera shrugs. "You know, in case this doesn't work."
"Even so, I'm not sure about the odds of us just happening to find a silent way to get in there." Shia says to Jolteon as he looks at Amber's wall. "It isn't anything high-tech but it looks like whoever build this look like they knew what they were doing. And the guards don't look like they are half-assing on the job either."

"Well, right." Eilumi says as he adjusts the 'guild badge' on his outfit. "First we'll try the front door."
"And if that doesn't work... we sneak in." Loona says.
"Presuming they don't raise the alarm first." Nine adds in.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Eilumi replies.

The the badges in their possession the ghost bear pack proceeds toward the gates. The guards in front of the gates, a couple of Ledian armed with flint spears, seemed to have gotten on guard as they approached.
"Huh? Who are you and what are you doing out here at this hour?" One of the insectoid pokémon questions them.

"We're guild members" Eilumi says as he shows them his badges. "We were out on a mission out at sea and just got back a bit late."
Loona nods along with this, the others keeping quiet and letting Eilumi do the talking.

The Ledian looks to Eilumi with suspicion. "Really?" At first it doesn't look like he is buying it.
The Electric types of the pack watch on in silence, not knowing what to expect but they are ready for whatever might happen...
The other guard approaches, looking to one that first approached the group. "Is something wrong?" He is also suspicious about them.
"...No. There is nothing wrong, let's let them through." The bug said to the other one before both of them flew over to the gates to open it.
It looks like this might have worked? However Shia is getting a bit of a bad feeling about this in his gut. This was...a bit too easy.

"That was easy." Nine comments softly.
"A little too easily." Loona whispers back under her breath as the group heads in.

The Ghost Bear Pack now finds themselves coming into the city of Amber. It might not be the most impressive thing for those that have seen worlds with better infrastructure and technology, but for some of them such as Veera it is worthy of note that this place makes Sandstone, the old Sandstone that they knew, look small by comparison. Though they already see that it's...a bit odd for a town of this world too, for starters the streets seem empty, and what at first looks like houses turns out to be smaller walls that seem to surround a property, these look all very closely together. There is also not a single pokémon out on the street right now, maybe it's because it's late.
"What's with these?" Spark asked, a bit confused at what he was seeing. "I can see the roof of some houses sticking out but why the walls?"
Veera notices that these walls have an open passage that allows one to head in. "Perhaps we could go check one out? They do seem to be everywhere around here. It must be where the citizens live."


"Yeesh and I thought Miniknog towns were creepily monotone." Eilumi comments on the buildings and layout.
"I'm beginning to think they should rename this place to 'hive' instead of 'anchor.'" Khaun remarks.
"Well, it couldn't hurt." Loona responds to Veera's inqury.
"This is a scoutting mission after all." Nine adds in.

Veera nods and decides to go with them to one of hexagon that is closest to them, to their left, there is a wide open entrance that when they approach they see what's inside, it looks like a berry farm. She looks to the house and spots someone coming out through the front door, it's a humanoid pokémon that appears to be some sort of plant, with a 'dress' made of her own foliage, she also has several leaves and two olive fruits on top of her head.
Spark sees that the pokémon had noticed them. "Sooo what do we do now?"
Shia decides to step forward to talk with her. "Hello. Can we talk for a moment."
"Sure." The grass-type approaches them. "Is there something I could help you with? People shouldn't really be out on curfews..."
The Luxray thinks of something to try to make them not look suspicious. "It's alright, we are guild members."
"Ah I see." That looks like it worked as she doesn't seem to suspect anything. But then she starts looking over each and everyone of them. The Protogen and the Avali, as unusual as they are, didn't looked like they got any suspicion from her; neither did Loona, Shia, Veera...but when she looked at Spark she tilted her head in confusion for some reason.

"Erm, something wrong?" Eilumi asks as he notices... her? Looking over his Raichu packmate.

The Raichu also looks a bit confused as to why she is looking at him of all people like this. He isn't sure if he shouldn't say anything though in case he ends up making it worse.
It looks like this pokémon doesn't want to get in trouble with guild pokémon so she quickly drops the subject. "N-no, nothing's wrong, sir."
That was a bit...strange, but Veera tries to keep the conversation going. "So this is a farm?" She asks.
"Well, yeah, we grow Rawst berries here." The citizen responded.
"Just...Rawst berries?" The Jolteon is a bit confused by the lack of variety.
The grass-type looks like she is getting a little weirded out by these questions, like it's something they are supposed to know being part of Amber's guild but they are asking her anyway? She doesn't dare disobey them though. "Yeah...? If you are looking for other kinds of berries you need to speak to our neighbors, they grow other kinds of berries." She explained to them.

"Well, alright." Loona says. She leans over to Eilumi and speaks in his ear. "This is getting weird."
"I've seen weirder." Eilumi whispers back.

"I see." Veera is starting to formulate some patterns from what she is hearing from this pokémon. "So do you live alone?"
The grass-type nervously shakes her head. Reacting a bit spontaneously to the inquiry "N-no, our community has all 6 members present! The others are just sleeping."
The Jolteon doesn't think that they are under the threat of suspicion, but she does feel a little sorry for making this civilian feel anxious like this. But she does think she has any other worthwhile questions for her. "Alright, thank you for your time." She waves to the pokémon before coming back to the group. "Well...that's that."
"What do you think?" Spark questions her.
"She seemed afraid to talk, that was pretty obvious..." The electric-type Eeveelution ponders, rubbing her chin. "Now that I blame her, we are posing as guild members, and they can be quite unpleasant."
"What do we do next?" Shia pipes up. He looks up at that big castle in the center of town, or well...more of its silhouette in the moonlight. "I guess it's obvious where the leadership is."
"I say we can keep going further into this place, we might find something else of interest, or perhaps a spot where we can beam in and out of here without attracting attention." Their Raichu packmate said.

"The latter we should attempt to find first." Eilumi says. "Because that conversation is starting to give me miniknog vibes already, and if Miniknog towns are anything to go by, having a place to move in and out without notice is definitely a priority."
Khaun and Nine both nod at this notion.

With everyone in agreement to find a place to beam to and from, they set out to search deeper into the town, toward the center where they can see the castle more closely, they can see its towers above the hexagonal outer wall that surrounds it. So far they do not see any obvious place that they could duck down in, everywhere they look it's more of these 'communities', no abandoned buildings to make use of at all.
Shia looked back then and noticed a couple of Ledian who seem to be eyeing the Ghost Bear Pack, the Luxray assumes they are being followed. "...I think we got a tail."
Spark and Veera start to get a bit worried if that's the case. "That's not good...what do we do?" Veera asks.
 "We could try to go around the castle to try to see if we can find a place to beam out." Spark suggests. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

"Or it could draw them into action out of sight at least." Nine suggests.
"Yeah, let's try that." Eilumi nods, and leads the group around, as they look for some sort of beam out point, or at least some place out of sight...

As they try to go around the corner however...the Ghost bears come face to face with two more pokémon hovering their way, Two beedrills, they appear to be guards too and they don't look too friendly.
Spark feels like his 'bad feeling' was on to something as it appears like they walked into some sort of ambush. "Oh no..."
If they were to try to take a third path however, there would be yet more guards coming from there, an Escavalier and a Scolipede. Suffice to say any path they can take to try to escape is cut off.
"How did they see through it so fast...?" Veera exclaimed under her breath, thinking that their cover was somehow blown, but she doesn't know how.
 Shia has to admit that he didn't expect the town guard to be suspicious of them that much so quickly, he wonder's what it's up with that. "Everyone, let's not do any sudden movements just yet..." The Luxray whispered to his packmates as he watched bug-types approaching them.

"Can we... Help you?" Eilumi asks them as they approach, still hoping to avoid a confrontation if at all possible. However, his talon twitches as it gets ready to draw his weapon at any moment. It appears that Khaun is doing much the same, with only Nine not preparing to go for his weapon, possiby being because being a cyborg he feels no need to so.

"Oooh ye can help us alright..." The biggest bug of the bunch, the Scolipede, says to them as he begins pacing around them. They can see that this pokémon in particular seems heavily scarred, like he lived through multiple encounters with mons that used Iron against him, either through sheer luck or small blades just not being enough to reach anything vital, maybe both. "Ye can start by surrendering, come quietly, pirates..."
So that's what they think they are? Outlaws? Shia speaks up to try to defuse this situation. "We are not Pirates, we are guild members."
"Hmpft, i'm afraid yer have one pair of hands too many to make that claim, laddie. Now, I'm gonna say it just one more time...last chance to surrender." He surrounds the supposed 'pirates' with the other five bug types. Things don't look good...
Seeing that it looks like it's going to be a fight, everyone looks like they are waiting for someone to make the first move....
"Wait! Stop!" Someone called out from behind the two Ledian, who looked back for a moment before someone came barging through the both of them. It's another pokémon, this one is a feline, a Liepard to be precise...seems to be dressed rather sharply too. This doesn't seem to be anyone in particular that the Ghost Bears are familiar with but what he says next might be unexpected. "They are with me!" he pointed to Shia and the others, much to the surprise of all the guards present.

"Erm, uhh... Yeah! We're with him!" Eilumi wisely decides to play along with this.
"Yeah we've been looking all over for you!" Khaun decides to similarly play along.

Shia, Veera and Spark nod along and listen in silence for the moment.
The Scolipede is definitively not amused, the 'bug-horse' paces over to the feline to lean it's head down to glare at him. "Care to explain then? Are ye conspiring with these pirates?!"
The cat shakes his head at that. "They are not pirates, they are from the New Sands Republic, same as me. They are here to deliver a secret message to me." He explained like the other pokémon asked of him. "They weren't supposed to make a ruckus, I am sorry about that."
This still leaves the bigger pokémon skeptical. "A Secret message ye say? Yer quite bold try to pull this while within our walls...I don't know what yer are up to, but ye are lucky our lady wishes to talk with an ambassador from the 'Republic'."
"And I thank her for the hospitality."
"Ggrrr...What is this secret message anyways?"
"If i told you, it would no longer be a secret now, would it?" He gently retorts. "You keep a lot of secrets yourselves, is it really wrong if we too keep a few?"
"Hmpft, fine...ye and yer friends are off the hook this time, but you better not linger out of here for long or we are going to have trouble again." The Scolipede begrudgingly begins walking away from this whole thing, walking past a duo of the other bug types. "Come you, yer lot...let's get out of here." And they all left, leaving the Ghost Bear Pack alone with this stranger.
The Liepard then approaches Eilumi and the others. According to that argument that just happened moments ago, apparently this feline is an ambassador from the New Sands Republic. "I guess that went...well. Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah we're doing alright." EIlumi says.
"Thanks for the save." Loona gives a small nod as she says this.
"So uh... You're the NSR agent, I presume?" Nine asks matter of factly.

"How did you know we were here?" Veera asks him. It kind of felt like he had a bit of good timing there, and the Avali back in the Black Isle told them nothing about someone waiting for them on the inside.
He looks around a little bit to make sure there was no one else watching them before continuing. "I was told by our 'benefactors' that you would be arriving. I mean, not you. The 'humans'. Stic also trusts me enough to let me clue me in on what you are...Avali." He whispered that last part to them. "My name's Urloi. And I wish I could talk more but this city has a curfew every night. And I'm already really pushing the guard's patience by just being out here, and with that little convincing too... I can explain more if you follow me to the visitor lodging they got me staying at for the moment, alright?"
Shia thinks that this would help, maybe Urloi could be helpful to them, especially since Stic seems to trust him so much. Though he has to admit, the night curfew going on in this place does remind me a little more of Avali's main enemy by the second. The Luxray is really starting to think this place might be more 'controlling' than the Sands. "Alright then, sounds good."

"Yeah, alright." Eilumi and crew follow Urloi back to where they are staying. If there is indeed a curfew going on, better there than out in the street after all, and far better than being confused for pirates.

The City of Amber certainly can look a bit 'samey' with how every community is inside hexagons, it looks like it's kind of easy to lose one's way here if they aren't used to it. Urloi even looks like he almost went the wrong way more than once and had to correct his path. But finally they get to another section of the city where the docs are, which is something different. The Ghost Bear pack is led to what is, for once, not a building surrounded by a hexagonal wall. With the Liepard vouching for them, the guards around the premise let them through. It looks like this is an inn, a bit more luxurious than others considering the standards of how such establishments in a world like this can be, it's likely that only those with money would be able to afford staying here. Urloi took them to his room, where it's finally private enough for them to talk.
"So what are you doing here exactly? Is the NSR trying to connect with the Oracle Sea?" Veera goes ahead and asks the first question.
"Yeah pretty much, almost all of the sea traffic passes by here, and since NSR took over the sands the Oracle Sea has limited its interaction with us, it could pose a problem if they don't trust us so i'm here to try to make them open up for us." The Liepard answers her.
"And how's that been going so far?"
He sighs. "Well...a bit slower than I would like. Apparently there are some who are ahead of me in 'line' to talk with the leader of this city, the so-called 'Lady'. I have been waiting here for about two days now waiting for my turn."

"Let's start with the 'Lady'."  Eilumi nods. "What can you tell us about her?"
"Was going to ask about the city first. And why it seems so much like the Miniknog trying to parody the Avali?" Khaun says under his breath.
"We can come back to that later." Nine chides him.

"Right, the Lady. Haven't seen her in person yet, but I heard she is one of those bug type pokémon, from what I heard, she is 'regal'. I did hear that she wasn't the first to be given the title though, there were others before her, but apparently they weren't very different." The feline explained to them.
"Does the city always look so...empty at night?" Shia asked another question.
"Oh yes. Like I said, there is a curfew. It happens every night. Makes things look quite eerie out there, doesn't it?"

"Boy I'll say." Eilumi replies. "Not to mention a bit dangerous for travelers who don't know better."

"Well, given that every traveler is supposed to come in by Amber's harbor, they should know about that." He says. "The island itself was already explored thoroughly ages ago so there is not much reason to go out unless it's to get to some other establishments that are out there."
Spark tilts his head. "Like what?"
"Digging for flint or gold." The feline answers that question as well.
Next one to ask is Veera. "What is it like around here when it's daytime?"
"Oh it's quite lively as opposed to what you saw out there, everyone's transporting their goods to the harbor, some communities trade with each other. That sort of thing."

"So this 'curfew'..." Eilumi begins to ask. "Are pirates really that much of a threat around here, that they'd confuse any sort of traveler for them?"
"Or is it mostly something being used for control?" Khaun finishes the question. If there's one thing they'd learned from the miniknog, is that imagined threats often are better at controlling populations than real ones. Though the most effective ones are the latter if they had some grain of truth to them. Not a complete lie, but the truth told in a deceptive way as to manipulate and deceive.

"Well, I assume the word 'pirate' is just how 'bandit' is said around here. Apparently they are out there but I personally never saw them myself." The Liepard said.
"Hhhhmmm...you think they are so much of a threat that they would need so much security?" Shia asked next.
"Honestly, the security here feels pretty...excessive if I do say so myself. Yet they do boast that no Wallbreakers or pirates have been able to take root in the city thanks to the rigid security."
"Those living spaces are strange, don't you think?" Veera commented next, wanting to get a bit more information about that. Those hexagonal living spaces are surely noticeable as they seem to be pretty much everywhere.
"Yeah, those...i don't know what's the need for those 'communities', there are always 6 pokémon in each and every one of those."

"Sounds a bit like they're trying to emulate the Avali pack system, though ending up with the Miniknog system instead." Eilumi comments.
"Except that can't be right." Khaun retorts. "As they've been around long before any concept of Avali packs, or even Avali themselves."
"I know." Eilumi gives an annoyed huff. "I was making a small joke."

"We might need a place where we can teleport to and from Amber, preferably somewhere quiet where it's unlikely to have prying eyes on. Do you know any place that fit's that description?" Shia enquiries. It would be pretty good to finally get a spot they can designate to beam in and out.
"Hhmmm...That is hard to find around the town itself, given that all the houses are inside those 'communities' and the roads are mostly barren otherwise. I guess the design of the town was made with leaving little place to hide." Urloi ponders a bit. "Perhaps there should be a corner on the docks where one might find a quiet place."

"That is good to know." Nine comments.
"It would probably be better to beam out during the day when everyone is less on guard, than during the night when they are." Khaun suggests.
"A reversal of our normal procedures." Nine notes.

"A little less on guard I would say..." Urloi admits. "During the day the guards are just watchful, but the high traffic that happens during the day should even help you blend in somewhat if you are not standing out too much. Well in any case, I take it that you now need to stay here until the day just to be safe huh? I can try to ask for another room for you but I can't promise I will be as good as this one."
"That is alright, one night in a poor room shouldn't be too bad." Veera says to him, not really much phase by the prospect of being in a room of lesser quality, just need to push through it once...If they must.
"Yeah, can't possibly go wrong, right?" Spark added.

"Don't jinx it." Eilumi half-jokingly chides Spark. In his experience, any time someone says 'what can possibly go wrong?' or something similar, there seems to be an unusually high chance of exactly that happening.

Unfortunately it looks like Spark would have ended up Jinxing things somewhat.
After Liepard went to ask for some new rooms for the Ghost Bear Pack and came back, he said that there are some rooms available and that he will take them there.
The slight problem is that unlike that well furnished room on the second floor, this one looks like it's in the basement. Looks like the 'beds' they will have to use are some cloth on the ground, at least there is enough space for all of them here.
Spark is kind of regretting opening his mouth.
Veera tries to cheer everyone up a bit so that the sight of this sorry room they will be in isn't going to damp their spirits too much. "We can make it work, right? We got a few things in the Matter Manipulator that might make this a little more comfortable."

"Well, I always keep a few hammocks on hand. Just for such an occasion." Khaun offers.

"Yes, that would help." Shia comments before giving a less than pleased look down at the 'beds' that were provided for him and his pack. "It's certainly leagues better than these. Come on, I can help you set them up."

"Alright." Khaun points the device at the ceiling, and with a few clicks of the button, the device spits out the shiny gold hammocks, complete with a pillow and blanket, all tied to the ceiling and ready to go, mostly, with only a few adjustments needed.
"Ah, gotta love old protectorate tech." Khaun remarks. "Takes all the work out of setting up camp."
"Funny that they never really used it that way." Eilumi replies back.

This makes things better, the overall place is still a bit of a dump but that's a hundred times better than lie on the floor.
Shia smiles. "Alright, that's much better. Thanks, Khaun." He said to the Avali.
"Real odd, this place..." Veera sighs as she walks to Eilumi to talk with him a bit. "I didn't think I would be getting that 'Miniknog vibe' here of all places. When I lived on this planet I used to think the Sands was the most oppressive place."

"Well, it's not like we had any frame of reference." Loona replies to her as she sets up her hammock, tying it to the roof securely.  "Before that whole thing with Rai and his... 'friends'," She stops her work for a moment to look at Veera and make scare quotes with one of her paws before returning to her work,  "we never left our dungeon for any reason." She finishes attaching the hammock to the roof as she finishes the sentence.

"You are right about that." Though Veera has to admit that it was that journey out of the dungeon that eventually got them to where they are now. Perhaps they would not have met the Avali if all of that didn't happen...maybe. Though she does have a few regrets about the past, mostly concerning Brel...She has gotten over it mostly, sometimes she just kind of wonders if things could have gone differently.
Shia meanwhile is helping Spark set up another hammock. The mention of Rai left him eerily quite for a moment. When it was tied up securely to the roof the Raichu climbed on.
"Aaah, I love lying on these." The electric rat said as he relaxed on it, then looked to Shia. "You feeling alright?"
The Luxray blinks and nods. "Yeah I'm fine." He then looked up, focused his eyes as they gained white shine to them. Shia could them see right through the ceiling with his natural X-ray vision, something he is glad he didn't skip on before acquiring his nanites as they would have prevented him from evolving. He can see Urloi is talking with the city guard again. "I hope Urloi isn't going to be getting into too much crap for having helped us when he did."

Nine looks on with a little concern as Shia clams up for but a moment. He considers saying something, but decides against starting up a convo about something Shia would no doubt rather forget about. Unlike the others, he does not get himself a hammock. He goes into the corner, leans up against it, and closes his eyes, appearing to 'sleep' in place.
"Oh, what makes you say that?" Eilumi asks Shia as he climbs into the hammock. But then he catches on, something confirmed as he looks over to his Luxray packmate and sees his eyes glowing. "Ah you're doing the X-Ray thing. Any idea what's going on up there?"

"HHhhmmm." Shia obviously can't make out what they are saying from this angle, but he analyzes their body language to get a bit of an idea. "It looks like they are trying to pressure him to talk, not really getting physical or anything though. He looks like he is managing." Then the Luxray closes his eyes and rubs them.
Veera get's herself comfortable on her hammock before looking at her packmate, Shia. "Your eyes still hurt when you do that?" She asks him.
Having stopped using his X-ray vision, he looks to her and shakes his head. "No, not really. I think I'm getting used to it, it just makes my eyes feel a little strained." Then he goes to get on his own hammock to rest.

While Eilumi and Khaun both have the temptation to listen in, they decide that getting more sleep is more important at the moment. And besides, they can always ask him tomorrow if it comes up. Loona appears to be out like a stone already, as she's not said a word since crawling into her hammock, and her eyes are already well closed. Nine is in his semi-shutdown 'sleep' mode.
Soon, the two avali join them in quiet slumber...

The night made way for the day as the morning came. The hammocks helped the Ghost Bear pack have a nice sleep. Someone begins calming down the stars slowly so as to not wake them up, it is that Liepard, Urloi. He is trying not to wake them up as that would be rude. Perhaps the non-Avali member of the pack will likely not be awakened, but perhaps the Avali might be able to acknowledge the fact that they are no longer alone right now thanks to their hearing.

Indeed, it is Eilumi that first awakens, with a twitch of his ear, and then a stretch of the arms and a yawn. He slowly looks up from his hammock at the source of the footsteps, as Khaun also starts to wake up...

The feline blinks in surprise for a moment before smirking. "Just as Stic said...your sense of hearing is so strong that not one of the living can go around it." He commented before going down the last steps of the stairs. "I hope I did not wake you up."
"It's fine..." Shia, barely awake but aware of what's going on, gives a response to the other pokémon. He tries to savor the feeling of being on a hammock while it lasts, he has the feeling he and his pack are about to have a long day today...

Loona likewise gives a long yawn as she slowly starts to wake.
NIne simply flicks on, his 'face' flicking on and off for a split second before staying on.

"So do you have a way to go out into the sea?" The Liepard asks.
"We have our ways. Why do you ask though?" Shia raised a brow a little.
"I was just going to ask for a little favor if you had time, and if you are going out to check out the sea."
"Hhmmm, I see. Say, what about you, are you going to meet that 'Lady' we heard of before?"
He nods. "Yeah, hopefully. Oh and before I forget...it's day so the curfew has obviously been lifted for the time being, things are quite lively out there so try not to get lost if you wander around the place."

"So what's the favor?" EIlumi asks as he crawls out of his hammock. He lands on the floor feet first gracefully, as Khaun does the same.

"Since you are checking around here, I would like to know if these sea bandits called 'pirates' are as dangerous as the authorities of Amber are making them out to be."
Shia think it's probably unlikely that they are given the technology around here. Proper ships are pretty much relics of the time of Iron King almost as much as Iron itself, the method of their production being hard to reliably achieve. So he thinks that such a city with tight security wouldn't have to worry about something such as pokémon in rafts. "Sounds like they are really just overplaying it to make the citizens scared if you ask me." He shrugs.
"Could be, but apparently a ship was lost not too long ago, simply disappeared with seemingly no reason." Urloi explained.
"Could have been the weather, right? Maybe a storm happened?" Spark speaks up, having heard the conversation that is going on.
Urloi shakes his head. "I don't really think that might have been the case, ships from old times are usually very capable of handling the sea even when it gets rough."

"Well, our mission was to find out more about this place." Eilumi explains. "But I suppose doing this little favor couldn't really hurt. Especially if we have you doing that on this end too."
Khaun and Nine both nod, while Loona lightly brushes her hair in preparation for whatever this morning might bring...

"I'm sure you got the time to find out more about this place, it's a good time to do so too, with the curfew not in effect." He said before starting to make his way back up the stairs. "Then after that perhaps you can investigate the sea a little bit."
Shia, Veera and Spark are ready to get things going again. After they got the hammocks back into the matter manipulator it looks like it's time to get going.
"Okay then...let's go see how things are in this place during the day, shall we?" the Luxray said to his packmates before heading up the stairs to leave the inn.

"Right-o!" Eilumi cheers on lightly. He and the rest finish up putting their hammocks back into the device from whence they came, and follow Shia up the stairs, ready to start the day and see what this place is like in the busy of the day...

Once the Ghost Bear Pack steps outside, they see the City of Amber is quite lively indeed. The streets are full of mons going about their business, big or small. The communities are buying and selling to each other and to outsiders. While food is obviously one of the commodities being sold around, there are also many other things such as pottery, cloth and many other types of artisan goods. Suffice to say it is quite a contrast when compared to silence of the night thanks to the curfew. The Ghost Bears are also able to spot something curious leaving the castle in the center of the city, it looks like many bug-type pokémon, so much so that it is almost a cloud of them, they seem to resemble bees. They seem to be flying out of the castle and going in-land based on the direction they are going.
"Wow, it really is quite lively. It looks like business really goes around here huh?" Veera comments on all that she is seeing, kind of surprised at how much is going on this early in the morning. "I guess it isn't a surprise, with this being the middle point between all three of the continents."
"Almost makes you forget that at night things are a lot more...strict." Shia added as he remembers their first experience here at night.
Spark raised a paw to say something. "Perhaps the locals will be more willing to talk at this time of the day, right?" He gives his pack a little suggestion, as they didn't had a good chance to talk with someone from around her proper, it's likely to go smoother now.

"Quite so." Eliumi says. He and Khaun look around, and see all of the people walking about and going about their daily lives.
"Question is..." Khaun starts.
"Where to start?" Eilumi fishes the question.

"Well, I suppose anyone will do." Shia says, reasoning that maybe the average citizen won't be scared to talk. He approaches a Heracross pulling an empty cart "Hello? Excuse me? Can you help us?"
Once he noticed that someone has calling him, the bug type stopped and looked in the Luxray's direction. "Huh? You talking to me?"
He nods and speaks again. "Yes, we are not from around here and we would like to ask a few questions."
"Hhhhmmm, well, okay but not a whole lot, okay? I need to get back to my community soon."
That sounds good enough to Shia, this local seems to be reasonably open to them. "I have been a bit curious about this 'lady' that lives in the castle. Is she very well known around here?"
"Yes of course, everyone here is aware of Lady Vespi IV, she is our leader after all. Under her care Amber continues to prosper and remain relatively distant from all the conflict going on these days." The Heracross explains to him.
"There...was more than one Vespi?" Shia thinks that this is a little bit unusual.
"Yes, she is a descendant of the past one, obviously. Only females of royal blood are allowed to evolve and take the throne."
Shia rubs his chin and nods. "Alright...is it alright if I ask you exactly what kind of Pokémon is Lady Vespi?"
"Well, I haven't seen her in the flesh. Rarely does any commoner is allowed in the castle, let alone anywhere near the lady. But I know she is a Vespiqueen."

The crew take a moment to gather their thoughts. So many questions they want to ask, but where to begin. Just when it looks like their Heracross guest might be getting bored and decide to move on, Eilumi breaks the silence with the next question:
"Soo are there any other nobles around here besides The Lady? Or is she the only one?"
It admittedly isn't much of a start, but it is one nonetheless.

While at it, Veera also decides to ask something. "Hhmmm, Also...do you think living inside walled off communities is a bit...strange?" It certainly is a bit strange to her.
"Just lady Vespi for the most part. And the communities keep everything very organized, every community works with its own specialty, you see? That way everyone has a job. " The bug-type said.
Spark hangs back and comments on what he is hearing, just whispering because he doesn't want to say something that might be insensitive to the Heracross or making him suspect them. "Huh...just 'one' noble? That sounds quite a bit...different than what I thought. It seems less like the usual nobility and more like..."
"A monarchy?" Shia whispered back to the Raichu. "Yeah, it certainly is not like the sands, that's for sure."

"Speaking of jobs" Eliumi then asks, "Are you guys having some sort of trouble with pirates?"
Khaun and Nine look like they have questions they want to ask too, but they decide to wait.

"Oh, yes those bad actors are always up to no good out there in the sea. Security on Ember is top notch though, they would never try to come cause trouble here." He says to them. "But out there though? I heard stories of mons going to explore the islands in small numbers and having run-ins with pirates. The well prepared ones usually come back in one piece to tell the tale, the rest...not so much."
"And has the town deal with any wallbreaker before?" Veera asked.
"I don't see much difference between the two, they just bring trouble to our doorstep." The bug-type sighs. "That said, that doesn't mean they haven't tried before. But they can't blend well at all within our community system, it's easy to spot when someone is acting out of the ordinary."

"Speaking of the community system, are we keeping you from your job right now?" Khaun suddenly asks. "We wouldn't want you to get into trouble on the count of some visitors."
The rest of the pack nods slowly. While there are many more questions to ask, there are many others around to ask. And knowing how Miniknog towns usually are, that was always a real possibility. Even ignoring the fact that this whole thing is starting to sound suspiciously like them, there's always the possibility of them getting into trouble on their account. After all, almost never does 'I was giving some tourists some answers' ever seem to fly in the workplace. Khaun in particular thinks it might be worth it to ask a few people a few of the same questions, just to judge the consistency of the answers.

The Heracross realizes that they have a point, so he begins hurrying away with his cart. "Yeah, you are right, i gotta go, sorry!"
Shia begins wondering if this means that perhaps the guards of Amber might be keeping an eye on them in particular. After what happened last night it's safe to assume they would be interested in some sudden arrivals, even if Urloi vouched for them. He will keep an eye out if it looks like they are being followed. "I guess that wasn't half-bad."

"Yes." Khaun replies. "I did have other questions, but there are quite a few others to ask around here. Why don't we go see if we can find someone else? Preferably someone that looks a little less busy and less likely to get into trouble for taking time out to chat?"

"That is a good point, but..." Veera looks around at all the mons going about their business, it looks like everyone has somewhere to be so it is being quite hard to pin down someone who doesn't look busy already. "Where?"
However they do manage to find someone who doesn't appear to be busy. There is this Boltund dressed in a simple gray cloth jacket. He looks like he is just there waiting for something, or someone.

Eilumi is the first one to spot them.
"There." He says pointing out the dog, one that looks much like a normal earth dog save for the coloration. "That one doesn't look too busy."

"Yeah, it seems so...well, let's go talk with them?" Spark said before him and his pack approached the other electric type.
The Boltund raises a brow when the group approaches him. "Hhmmm? What do you want?" He seems willing to talk, but is a little bit rude about it.

His rudeness gives Eilumi a brief pause, but only for a moment.
"Hello my good sir. We're kind of new in this area and we're wondering if you could answer a few questions for us?" He asks. "That is, if you aren't too busy right now."

"Well, I'm not really doing anything right now, so I could answer a few questions..." He says to them.
"Are you from around here?" Shia asks, just to be sure.
The Boltund shakes his head. "No, I'm not from around here. I'm a merchant. I come here to Amber every once in a while to stock up. This place didn't get affected much, if at all, by the war that happened some time ago so the prices here are good."
The Luxray nods before asking something else. "And why are you just standing around here exactly?"
"Just waiting for an associate of mine who carries my load, I sent him off to buy a few things and he is taking his time..." So that must be why this dog is in a bit of a bad mood.

"I see." Eliumi replies.
He then proceeds to ask a few of the same questions they asked the heracross before, just to check for consistency, and to see how much this person actually knows about Amber. Mostly about Lady Vespi, and the one about how bad the pirates are. He decides to ask these questions before moving onto new questions that he would have asked the large bug, but ran out of time to do so.

As far as answering the questions go, he is not quite sure about the whole 'community' thing, mostly because all these walls make it hard to get around all this and it is possible to get lost, but he admits that he is surprised that this way of life of theirs works so well somehow. He knows as much as everyone else about Lady Vespi, perhaps a bit less so, but he does mention a rumor of her having some 'unusual treasure' hidden within her castle. And as for the pirate question he says that there are definitely 'pirates' out there, he has seen them too but they are smart enough not to try anything when they know they won't stand a chance against a ship with a good number of mons that look like they can defend themselves.

So far, it seems like his answers were fairly consistent with the ones that the Heracross gave them. Time to move onto other topics.
"So speaking of pirates, have you heard any rumors relating to a place called 'The Black Isle?'"

"That sounds a little bit familiar...Oh, right, that the legend about that one island shrouded in mystery that lures in a lot of pokémon to their deaths with the promise of treasure?" It looks like he thinks of it as a legend at least, just a scary tale pokémon tells one another when they are bored.

"So you haven't heard any recent rumors about it?" Eilumi asks to confirm.

"Not really. Can't say I look much into those sorts of things. As far as I know it's just some legend spread by the pirates to lure would-be-explorers into a trap."

So this mon at least seems none the wiser to the change in management over there? So far, that seems like a good sign. But then again, this is also an outsider, and just one mon. Eilumi mentally notes that they'll have to ask a couple more mons this too...

"If you are not from around here, where are you from?" Veera throws in another question.
"I mostly work in Snow territory, used to sell on Grove lands too but things over there have been getting rather worse after they lost their battle with the Sands..." He shrugs. "Heard that some bad bunch of mons have shown up and are causing quite a bit of stir. And I thought the Sands was the rough one out of the three continents."

Okay, so that was rather interesting to the bunch. "Tell us more about this 'bad bunch of mons'." Nine, who had remained silent up until the point, decides to inquire.

"Well from what I heard...after the war with the Sands didn't go their way, the Grove has fallen on some tough times. So much so that Pokémon from the dungeons started causing trouble for them in their moment of weakness. And from what I know the Grove is having trouble dealing even with THAT of all things." The Boltund explains before chuckling. "Can you imagine how embarrassing that must be? Failing to contain the likes of the mons from the dungeon from rising up?"

"Hmmm..." Eilumi thinks on this info. Is this their doing? Or something else? He'll have to ask the commander about that once he gets back to base.
He tries to think of something else to ask, but at the moment is drawing a blank.

It looks like the rest of his pack has nothing else to ask of this pokémon.

Just as they're about to however, Nine has one more question to ask. "So you said you are from the 'Snows'. What's going on up there, might we ask?"

"Oh it's better than the Grove in regards to keeping the peace, even with the Slink still in the shadows. Really glad the war didn't affect the Snow too much, if at all." The merchant said. "Honestly, I can't wait to go back, I miss the embrace of the cold already."

"Slink?" Loona can't help but ask. Even during her time on this planet, she had never heard of such a thing.

"Huh, you haven't heard of that? Well I suppose the more correct term out here would be 'Wallbreakers', probably. I don't see much difference between the two. The Slinks are Pokémon that have made a dreaded name for themselves by killing Snow nobles and ending bloodlines." He explained to the Linoone.

In her more belligerent past, Loona might have responded with 'I fail to see the problem.'  Now however, she knows better than to try and start a fight over this, so she simply nods her head instead. "Anything else you can tell us about the Snows?" She replies.
"Yeah, sounds like a nice place to visit." Eilumi remarks. "Maybe they'll send us there next. It'd be nice to get out of this sauna of a place."

"What? Do I look like a guide to you or something?" Seems like the Boltund doesn't wish to make any more small. A Marshtomp comes passing by struggling to pull a cart full of crates, the electric type seems to recognize him and goes to him. "Finally, where the heck were you?!" He berates his lackey as both of them walk away towards the harbor.
Shia watches the pokémon go, slightly annoyed at the tone he took with Loona just now, but at least that's done with. "Well...all things considered, at least we learned some things.

"Quite so."
After this , they look for another target to question, and they soon find one in the form of a passing vaporeon. She however mostly gives the same answers, at least in regards to the queen and the local town. Once they move onto the subject of the Black Isles however...
"So I've heard rumor of a place called the Black Isles." Loona begins. "Tell me a little about it."
"We do not speak of it!" The Vaporeon almost hisses. "It is a cursed place from which none return."
Just when they're about to move onto another topic, she suddenly adds.
"...Well... Untill..."
"Yes?" Eliumi right away asks.
"Look, you didn't hear it from me, but there's something of a small rumor going around that something... weird is going on there. Weirder than usual. It used to be that people went over there and never came back. Now rumor is people go there, but then end up back here with no memory of ever going there. There's also been some rumors of mons suddenly showing up here, with no clue who they are or how they got here. I haven't seen any myself, but still..."

Shia raised a brow. "Huh..."
Hearing this sort of peaks Veera's interest too. So it would appear that some of the locals do happen to have noticed something different about the place since the Avali took over the Black Isle, but they still don't know the whole thing. Well it is certainly better than when any unwitting explorer went there and ended up getting killed. "Hhmhmm, I see."

"Hmmm... Interesting. Very interesting." Nine comments. The others nod. He looks to Shia and Veera to see if either of them have anything to ask yet, or whether they can send this Vaporeon on her way.

Spark does have one last question regarding the Black Isle before they move on. "Since when has the whole Black Isle legend been a thing?"

"For as long as I can remember"  The vaporeon recalls. "Long since before I was an egg, that's for sure. No one really knows where the thing came from, or why. They say it just sort of appeared there one day, and that it's been gobbling up unfortunates and overeager guildies ever since. It's older than the Iron King if I recall."

The rest of the questions they ask her are pretty much par for the course by now, as are the answers. Nothing else of real interest comes from them, and soon she is on her way.
They continue this line of questioning with a few other citizens with nothing else new coming of it. In fact, they are starting to get bored of this. The pack begins to realize that soon it will be time to move onto other tasks.

Shia does take notice of something, something he was suspecting...They are being tailed by someone. With all the movement going on around then it took up until now for him to confirm it, but there is a particular Kecleon who just seems to linger some distance away from them. It seems like even though the guards of Amber are not gonna bother them, they still insist on keeping an eye on them. The Luxray informs his pack of this.

"So I think this has run its course. I think we should-" Khaun's ears twitch as he stops mid-sentence.  Eilumi's ears twitch as well, and he sees Shia looking off in a particular direction.
"... You notice it too, little buddy?" He says to his packmate, who ironically is quite bigger than he is at this point.

The Luxray nods to the Avali. "Yeah. Looks like they still want to keep an eye on us after last night. He must have been on our tail for a while now."
Veera has not been paying much attention to that, so this comes as a bit of a surprise to her. "Oh, i see..." She sighs. "What should we do then? If he knows he got noticed he might slip away in the crowd."
"Or...maybe we can just go to that spot in the harbor where there is no traffic so we can beam back to our ship?" Spark suggested. "It might work if we are quick about it."
Shia has another possible idea to deal with this though. "Perhaps. If he really needs to lose that guy first though, we can play it smart. We split up and go different ways, it's easy for him to follow us because we are together, that won't be the case if we split up in every direction. Then we just need to meet up at the harbor."

"Are you sure it's them again?" Khaun questions. "For all we know it might be someone else."
"Since we don't know if they're spies or something else, splitting up might be a bad idea." Nine replies to Shia's suggestion. "They might have buddies waiting to try to pick us off one by one if we do that. "
"We could do what we did last time. Lead them into the back alleyways and try to confront them." Eilumi suggests in turn.

"That sounds like a much better idea." Veera comments on Eilumi's suggestion.
"Yeah, but..." Shia says as he looks around, the layout of the city might prove to be a little problematic for that plan. These organized hexagon-shaped 'community' makes it so finding a something even close to an alleyway very difficult. "I'm not really sure where we can find that here..."
"Then...perhaps we can go back Urloi and try to figure something out?" The pack's other electric type, Spark, says.

"Yeah... let's do that." Eliumi nods to Spark's suggestion.

With not much viable options, the pack goes back to the Liepard who is still in the inn.
"Oh, you are back already i see? So how was it?" Urloi asks them.
Shia steps forward to explain their problem. "It was alright, we learned much but we got an problem...We are being followed by one of the locals and we suspect that they are working with the local authorities. We need a safe, secluded place to continue our mission and we don't think we can shake them off our tail here."
"Oh, i see...so the guards are still on to you even after last night huh?" The Dark-type sighs. "You can't find any place to hide?"
"No, there is simply no alleyways for us to use, the streets are just too exposed." Veera says to him.
"Hhhmmm, i see...so they have the advantage of having you in their turf, that is a bit of a problem indeed." He ponders for a moment. "But i got a workaround. You say you need a place secluded enough from the eyes of Amber's guard, and i got just the thing. The city guard is quite nosy, but surely they would not risk overstepping their boundaries, so here is the plan: I take you to my ship, there it will be impossible for them to have eyes prying eyes on you and it won't really look suspicious at all. Simple and effective."

"Well, we think they're the guards." Eliumi replies to the Dark cat. "We never confronted them, so we don't know for sure."
"I guess we'll know for sure once we board your ship." Khaun comments.

"Alright then, just follow me."
The Liepard leads them out of the inn and towards the harbor. There things are no busy than the rest of the city, with pokémon going back and forth to bring goods into the ships. And as expected...they are being followed from the moment they left the Inn.
But then they got to the ship, which has the flag of the New Sands Republic flying at the summit of it's mast. It also has a good number of crew currently on it, making sure everything is right. It seems like Urloi's idea worked, seeing that it has no way to follow them while unnoticed, and if they just hang around the in such an exposed place they would draw suspicion, the Keckleon that was pursuing then decides to turn around and head back the way they came.
"I suppose that's that then." Shia says as he looks at the pokémon leaving. "Too bad we couldn't ask them a few questions."

"Well, that's that." Eilumi watches them walk away. "I guess we'll never know what exactly their deal was. Ah well, no matter." He shrugs his fluffy shoulders.
"Well, now that that's solved, I propose we find an out of the way place to beam back." Nine says matter of factly. "And after that?"
"We go island hopping. And pirate hunting." Khaun replies.
"Ooh!" Loona gives a smile. "Is it time to pull the dropship out again? We haven't used that in quite a while."
"Yeah." Khaun rubs his chin. "Come to think of it, the last time we used that was back when first came here. Go figure..."

"I did say that there is a spot somewhere in the harbor that is isolated enough. But if you have to get to it, do it quickly. Even though that mon that was following you seemingly went away, i don't think he is entirely gone, if you hang around outside for too long they likely will start following you again in due time."
"They don't give up easily, huh?" Shia sighs.
"Well...security here in Ember is tighter than it looks."
"And what exactly is this spot that you mentioned? Is there something we can use to know where it is?" Veera asks, if they are to know where that spot is, some references would be useful.
"There is a restaurant in the harbor, once you go back to the docks, just head straight and take a right turn and you should find it at the edge of the harbor. Find a way to go around this restaurant and you should find a secluded spot in the back." The feline explains.
The pack's Raichu raises a brow. "A...restaurant?" He asks, a little perplexed at the thought of why there is a restaurant in a harbor .
"Yes, I know, it sounds slightly strange...I mean who builds a restaurant on water? In any case it is quite popular with locals and outsiders alike. I ate there once too, that dish was something i never quite seen before but it was delicious. Apparently it's a secret from the chef so I don't really know what was on it."

That last part is a bit eye-raising. But that is neither here nor there.
"Well, at any rate, we'll make our way over there." Eliumi nods to the feline. He reaches out to shake his hand. "Thanks for all of your help."

The Liepard also offers his hand for the Avali to shake. "You are welcome. Here's hoping for a bright future ahead of us if everything goes alright."
Shia looks down at the docks, just to be sure if that pokémon is still nowhere around, it's not easy to tell with all the movement going on down there, but he thinks it's safe to go. "We should go now, guys."

The Avali takes the Liepard's hand in his, and gives a brief, and light shake before letting it go again and looking to his Luxray companion.
"I agree. We've got lots to do, after all." He nods to the rest of his pack, and they nod back, before disembarking the boat in order to move to the place that the Liepard envoy mentioned.
Their trip to the docks is uneventful, and soon they see the restaurant. Part of the pack's minds wants to actually check out the restaurant, but they know that any delay before beaming out, especially in one place, might cause... complications. They don't see nor hear the interloper anywhere, but one can never be too careful. So they pass the restaurant, and find the secluded spot in the back.
"Ready to beam back up." Eilumi announces to the rest of his pack. And with a nod, their forms are transformed into light, which then shoots upwards towards the sky faster than the eye can make out. And before they know it, they are safely back on their ship.

"Phew, kind of missed being here." Spark commented, then again he misses this little space home of theirs very easily if they stay away from it for some time.
Something is bothering Shia though, there was something in the air in that spot where they beamed up from, of course at first wasn't anything wrong but after a bit more thinking it makes him wonder why that place behind the restaurant was smelling like fish. But regardless, they are here now. He goes over to spark and pats his head. "You like it here, huh Spark?"
He nods. "Yeah, I'm okay with going out of it for us to do our missions and stuff, but kind of really got used to the cold in here."
Veera smiles. "Yeah, I get what you mean."

"Yeah, it's rather odd, we were all desert dwellers, yet my fur almost seems more suited for the cold." Loona comments.
"Indeed.." Eliumi turns to Veera, and lightly rubs her spiky fur. "Even Veera here has thick fur, especially on the back." He pets her head, before moving his hand down to her back, gently grooming it as Loona looks on with a single raised eyebrow. She can almost taste where this is going, as his hands travel lower and lower.
"And as long as we're back here..."
'Here it comes'. She thinks to herself.
Sure enough, Eliumi's talon drifts over her spiky-fluffy skirt, around it, and onto her butt, giving it a soft, inviting squeeze.
"Hows about we ... 'relax' with some 'pack activities?' He whispers into the Jolteon's ear.
'Yup.' Loona almost rolls her eyes. Yup, Eilumi hasn't changed at all, and is still the little hornball that won her heart all those months ago. The only thing that has changed... was how open they were with one another now. For a while, Loona would stick to Elumi, Spark, and sometimes Shia. Whereas Veera would stick with Khaun.
But nowadays, there are a lot more... interconnected. More free with each other.
And today, it looks like Eliumi's got his sights on Veera.
Nine however, seeing what's more than likely about to happen, gives a small cough.
"I'll just go... check the dropship and do any maintenance. It's been a while since we used it, and it might need some minor repairs." Before anyone can stop him, he's already beamed out to the dropship, presumably to do what exactly he just said he'd do.

Veera was wondering what Eilumi was up to, only realizing what he wants to do when he gives her butt that squeeze which surprised her. "Oh! Hehehe, yeah some 'pack activities sound good'." The Jolteon is not opposed to some fun with her fellow packmates, feels like it's been quite a while since they have had something like this anyways.
Shia holds back a small chuckle, it's kind of amusing when Eilumi is being a little hornball. "Alrighty then, you guys do that, I'm gonna spend some time deciding on what to bring." And by that he means what weapons to bring as he walks off the armory.
This leaves Loona and Spark. The latter has something to say. "Okay in that case...i just gonna go make a sandwich or something." This electric rat sure does like eating, all things considered. And with that he goes off to the kitchen.

"Well, you two have fun." Loona waves off to Eilumi as she turns to follow Spark. "I've got the munchies too, come to think of it."
"So that just leaves the two of us." He gives her butt a small, light spank. Nowhere near hard enough to be painful, just a playful tap. "Let's head up to the living room, shall we then?"

Veera let out another small playful 'oh' when he gave her rear that little spank. "Yes, let's." And with that, the Avali and the Jolteon are free to go to their ship's living room so they can have a proper space for their 'pack activity'.

They soon arrive. Veera has barely even taken one step inside before Eliumi turns her around, and wraps his winged arms around her back, pulling her body close to his. Their down and fur filled bodies are pressed against one another in needful closeness. He takes but a moment to look onto her, his hungry, lustful yellow eyes meeting her soft, yet also lustful green one, before he closes his and plants a hard, aggressive, passionate kiss onto the lips of his gentle jolteon packmate. Their lips are pressed together, as his tongue slides along her surprised lips, desperately seeking entry, as his talons roam the upper and lower parts of her back, rubbing her fur with gusto.

Veera expected the Avali to want to get things started as soon as possible, but even how sudden this caught her a little bit by surprise. Seems like her packmate is REALLY wanting some action with her huh? She hopes not to disappoint the feathery hornball! While they share their passionate kiss, Veera's hands rub along the feathers on the Avali's back much like how his talons are roaming on her back. Usually a Jolteon's fur is prickly, but Veera's is soft overall like regular fur because she does not use her electricity a whole lot.

Eliumi's tongue slides into her mouth, his long, thin tongue rubbing up against her thick but shorter one as he feels her hands roaming his soft, feathery back. Despite being a might bit shorter than her, the Avali holds onto her, and dips her back.  His upper hand stays still as to hold her up. while his lower hand moves down, over her rump. He gives it another squeeze before moving down to her left back leg, and begins caressing it softly yet lustfully in between moans.

She can feel his member begin to slide out from his sheath, a process being helped by the jolteon's rubbing. After a few more sensual rubs of her back upper leg, he tilts her back up so she's standing up straight, gives one more moan into her mouth, before slowly breaking the kiss, and smiling mischievously at her. It seems he has something naughty in mind indeed!

After his member came out, Veera gently grasps it with her hand to rub it a few times.  After they broke the kiss she speaks. "You have that look in your eyes, Eliumi." The Jolteon chuckles a little. "That one that says you got something fun in mind. So what is it?"

"Oooh definitely." He replies to her. "As for what it is... well, this."
He gives her one more light kiss, before reaching under her legs, and sweeping her off her feet! It's easy to forget such a light and small creature is so strong. As for where he's carrying her, she soon finds out: to one of the hammocks hanging around. He places her inside, perpendicular, so her legs are hanging out the side.
He grins at her with a naughty look, licking his lips before he then places both of his hands on both sides of her, giving a few quick, but smooth rubs up and down her calves. He then licks his long tounge along his lips again, before sliding his hands to her inner legs, and spreading them apart, exposing her jolteon sex to him.

After getting comfortable on the hammock, Veera watched with a smile as the Avali sensually explored her lower body before spreading her legs. The Jolteon's pussy is there, ready to receive stimulation. She wonders what her Packmate is going to do next, but she wager he is going to go for a little more foreplay with his tongue.

Indeed, it seems she knows her packmate very well by now. The Avali in front of her moves in, and gives her inner folds one slow, long lick, which then turns around and traces the outside of her folds, and over her nub. Once that slippery tongue rolls over her clit, one of his talons moves to replace the tongue, rubbing it through its sheath as he makes his way back to her inner folds. Unlike before, he gives her entrance very quick and rapid licks, up and down the slit.

The Jolteon began panting, even moaning a little, as the Avali played with her pussy. His long tongue playing with her clit sends jolts of pleasure through her body. "Aaaahhh...~ Mmmm, you really been looking forward to this, haven't you?~" She said as she kept watching him lick and lick.

It takes a moment to stop licking to respond. "Hell yeah." he says as he goes right back to lapping up her ever dampening pussy. his fingers continue their work on her clit. Meanwhile, his other hand travels down to his hardon, and begins to lightly stroke. Nowhere near enough to make himself cum, but just enough to keep himself hard and teased, in preparation for the next part...

Veera coos and moans once more as Eilumi's tongue keeps lapping up her genitalia. Her pussy is all wet and ready to receive his member. The Jolteon can sense that soon enough they might move to the next part, the best part... "Mmmmmm~ You ready?~"

Seeing and tasting that she's plenty wet enough now, he stops, and looks up at her soft, yet lustful eyes. "You know it."
While one might expect him to take her right here like this, with her hanging her legs over the side of the hammock while he fucks her standing up, he instead moves her legs back into the hammock, and soon after he crawls into the hammock with his jolteon packmate. He looms over her, and gives her one more loving kiss before breaking it.
"You're so beautiful, you know that?" He huskily whispers to her before giving her another kiss, followed by the only question that needs asking in this position.
"On your back, or on your front?"

It didn't take long for Veera to decide here. "Well, I prefer to stay on my back, I want to embrace you while we do it." She says before rubbing a hand along his feathery chest.

"Heh." He gives her a kiss in response. "Works for me."
He looks down, and takes his throbbing member into his talons. He guides it to her waiting, wanting pussy. He pauses to take a good look at her before he proceeds, eyeing her up and down. "You're so beautiful, you know that?" He says as he gives her a quick peck again.

The Jolteon giggles a little at what he said. "Well, you are quite charming yourself, you know?" She can feel the anticipation building up with how close they are about to begin their little sexual fun. She rubs his hands along his arms before speaking again. "I'm ready for you~"

And that's all the invitation and confirmation he needs. With a firm, but slow push, he pushes his tapered tool past her dripping folds, her moist insides pleasantly squeezing his length as it goes deeper and deeper. He gives out a moan as he feels his crotch meet hers, his down meeting and pressing against her soft belly fur.

He holds his cock inside of her, his hips wiggling a little to worm it in as far as it can go. He gives a moan before pulling himself back, the soaked cock leaving the warm confines of her insides and were he not an Avali with a natural affinity for the cold, he might shiver at the sudden chill as the semi-cold air, aided by the jolteon's slick juices coating. Once he is sufficiently far enough, about three quarters way back, he wastes no time in stuffing himself back into her warm confines, only to pull back once more, starting this lovemaking session with a brisk pace as the hammock jiggles against its bindings.

With their movement picking up, and with it the hammock jiggling Veera places her hands on Eilumi's shoulders for a bit of support as he starts properly fucking her. She can feel his dick moving in and out of her flower, stimulating her and giving her pleasure. "Aaahh~ Mmmmm~"

"Oooh, yeah!" As does he feel her walls rub and massage his cock with each thrust in and each pull out. Audible slishes and sloshes fill the room as he drives himself into her, his pace and voracity increases as does his pants and moans. He looks into her green eyes, giving her the occasional quick but aggressive kiss as he makes love to his packmate.

She begins to hug him as his pace increases. Veera begins to moan from the pleasure, the audible sounds of their intercourse getting louder as their pace escalates. After one or two of those little kisses, the Jolteon takes the opportunity to say something to tease her packmate. "Ooooh~ Y-you really are the pack's hornball, you know that? Aaahh~"

"nngh, Ha!" He moans in between thrusts. "You say that like it's a bad thing." He gives her a quick peck on the lips, before thrusting hard into her, increasing his speed as fast as it will go just to make a point. "It doesn't sound like a bad thing to me, Veera!"

The Jolteon moans louder and hugs the Avali tighter as he fucks her pussy with all he's got. It takes a little effort now to form a sentence with all her breath being spent on moaning and panting from the pleasure of their intercourse. "N-Never...said it was...a bad thing~ Aaahh!~ S-so goood!~ "

"Ahh, yeah!" He grunts loudly as his hips repeatedly slam into hers, their lovemaking filling the room with wet, hard slops and slaps and moans and pants. At this pace, his orgasm is quickly approaching. "Ahh! Gunna do it!" He yells. "In or out?!" He asks as quickly as he can with a huff.

"D-do it in! do it in!" It feels to good to have her packmate's dick pulled out now at the height of their pleasure making, and she knows she won't get pregnant so there is no reason to not go all in. "I'm...aaaaahh!~ Getting close too...!"

"He-" He huffs, as he feels the intense buildup of his orgasm about to overtake himself. His cock throbs as he tries to hold back his climax for just one moment longer. "Here-I-CUM!!" He shouts as he gives one last hard thrust into her depths, filling his lovely packmate below him with his length, their hips pressing against one another. His seed gushes out of his tapered cock hard with each pump, quickly filling her insides with his sticky ejaculate, a small bit of it even leaking out and onto her fur, going so down as to her anus before stopping.

Veera also yells out in pleasure as her orgasm hits, she hugs him tightly as he pumps her pussy full of his seed. The two of them remained in this tight embrace until this intense climax died down. Now somewhat relaxing and panting, the Jolteon has something to say to Eilumi, something to tease him regarding that pun he did. "'Here i cum'? Really?" She chuckled.

"It's the best I.. could come up with in ... short notice." Eliumi pants with half a chuckle, the exhaustion from his rapid love-making having finally caught up in the afterglow.

She also chuckles before giving him one last little peck on the nose. "You're precious..." Veera says before just lying down there on the hammock with the Avali beside her so they both can catch their breath.

The Avali wraps his feathery arm around her back and side, and pulls her close to him as he gives her a smooch on the cheek. "I love you so much." He whispers into her ear, as the two of them enjoy one another's presence, for this short period of time before they are needed down below once again.
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