ToT Ch 2: Elementary my Dear part 1

Soleil remembered the first time she came to Mosswood. She was but a wee tyke when her parents brought her along. She could remember staring in wonder as she looked up at the tall trees and rustic buildings that were so different from what she was used to back home. There were wide open spaces which let her run to her heart’s content. The heat had never bothered her then, though the rain and humidity that came afterwards left something to be desired.

That time was the first time she had met Flora as well. She remembered she was much more shy and timid back then, which was saying something. She didn’t remember why but she had made attempts to be friends with her. Of course, the easily excitable child she was back then was probably too much for her because all she did was make her run back to her home. She remembered feeling awful about it and wondering what she had done wrong.

That was years ago.

The second time she came to Mosswood was on her journey to explore and get stronger. She had a chance encounter with Flora once again. Things were different that time around. For one she hadn’t made her run off to her home. She got to know her more and eventually became her friend and trusted companion. So much so that she convinced her to finally sign up to the guilds with her.

She didn’t think she’d be back this soon already.

Soleil let out a loud yawn as she stretched her wings when she exited the transport stop. A frown was on her usually smiling face at having to get up so early in the day. She would have taken a nap on the trip here if not for the fact the road was filled with bumps that made it impossible to sleep. Soleil was not a morning person and hardly getting any sleep didn’t help her mood.

“Excuse me?”

Soleil turned at the sound of the voice. An Emolga wearing a bowtie on their neck swept in, apparently coming out of nowhere and landing in front of her.

“Um… can I help you?” Soleil asked.

“Oh, where are my manners. My name’s Addy! Senior reporter of the Artisans and writer of The Tabiran Informer. I’m sure you’ve heard of it?”

“Umm… Right! That paper Flora is always reading.” Soleil responded in recollection.

Addy gave a disappointed glance at Soleil before she perked right up again. The reporter looked in his notepad before finding the page he was looking for. “Anyways, you’re Soleil of team Tenacity, would ya?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Is there something you needed me for?”

“As a matter of fact, there is. See the Artisans are looking for assistance in proving the innocence of Leite.”

Soleil blinked as she looked at Addy. “… Who?”

“Leite. She’s a librarian all the way from Fabelton. And my friend Madras’s grandma.”

Soleil recalled Madras. She’s even seen her snacking on a treat at the Rosemary café. “Wait what? What’s her grandma being accused of?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard of the strange things happening in Mosswood. Not talking about the sickness, thought that’s pretty weird come to think of it.” He made a note on his notepad to research more of this later. “Anyways, things are going missing, left and right! Random stuff is just vanishing. Poof, gone in thin air. This is where the story gets interesting. Three books from the Scholar’s library are vanishing under odd circumstances. Normally they’d just replace the books but once they try the just disappear too. Right in front of you!”

“Huh? How is that even possible?” Soleil asked, a confused look on her face. Wait, she heard of something like that happening in Rivercross Acres. What was going on here?

“We don’t know. All we know is that Leite is being accused of these acts of theft. You just arrived from Riercross Acres right?” She waited until Soleil nodded. “Well I’m sure you know about the disappearances happening there. I think these two events might be connected. I was wondering if you might have heard or seen anything there that could help?”

Soleil shook her head. “Nope. I mean, I heard what was going on but I didn’t really get to look into it.” She felt a little guilty that she didn’t know anything useful.

“Drat. Well that’s okay, I’ll ask some of the others if they heard anything.” He said as he put his notepad away and began to look for the others that came from Mosswood. “Let me know if you find any clues or evidence that helps proves Leite is innocent.” He said as he prepared to fly. “Have a nice day!” He said before he took off.

“Good luck…” Soleil sighed as he flew off. Well wasn’t this peachy. Soleil was just stopping by to check up on Flora and see how things were going. Well she supposed she’d keep an ear open for anything while she as here. Still, she couldn’t think of any reasons as to why Leite was being accused of this crime. 

She was so lost in thought that she didn’t pay attention to where she was going and bumped into something and fell back. She shook her head as she got up. “S-Sorry about that. I didn’t see where I was-” Soleil trailed off as her eyes widened when she recognized who she bumped into.

“You!” She pointed at the shiny Croagunk who was now looking down at her.

“Hey squirt,” Jezebel grinned.

~~

Flora whipped her brow as she began to crush green herbs by forcing the morar in her hands down on into the bowl. Her purple yes focused upon the task at hand, a rare showcasing of determination that was not often seen in her. Her Leaf was pulled back with her bow to keep it out of the way.

“Okay, that should do it.” Flora said as she took her finished batch of medicine.

As Flora walked toward the second floor where the other patients were being kept, she could help but idly wonder how Soleil was doing. If she recalled she mentioned something about farming, stopping bandits and finding lost items. She didn’t really get to hear the full details of her assignments. Flora had been in such a hurry to get to Mosswood she didn’t remember much of their conversation before she left to be honest. No one could really blame her for being so distracted. A strange sickness had begun to spread in her home after all.

A weird green and purple goop was building up in people’s stomachs and throats. While not the most professional description it was definitely to the point. Symptoms included difficulties breathing, tightening of the chest and more commonly coughing fits that would have them coughing green flakes. 

It was nothing Flora had ever heard about before. This was a cause for concern. After all, an unknown illness was much more difficult to spread. And while the sickness hadn’t taken anyone’s lives yet, there’s no telling how bad the symptoms would get if they didn’t figure something out.

Despite this, Flora knew not to panic. She couldn’t freak out in this line of work. If you freak out the patients assumes you don’t know what you’re doing and begins to panic themselves. Calmness and confidence that she’ll heal them came first. Whatever worries and insecurities she had were left behind closed doors. For the most part at least.

What did they know about the disease besides its symptoms? It wasn’t contagious strangely enough. All of the volunteers at the clinic have walked away without getting infected from contact with the patients. Not even their coughing fits have led to others being sick. This led Flora to believe that it might have been something they had ingested. Either that or they breathed a pollen, fungi or even a gas that was making them sick.

Well, it wasn’t her job to research the illness and what was causing it. Miss Fellin was leading the research herself and she was certain she would find out what was making everyone sick. She couldn’t help research the illness but she could help treat the patients.

They had prepared a few different kinds of medicine to try to make the patients feel better. Personally Flora didn’t agree with administering medicine and hope for the best, without knowing if it would work or not. Even if the patients were okay trying anything that might make them feel better that still didn’t sit well with her. Still, she trusted Miss Chris on this one.

Flora went through her day helping the patients as best as she could. Every person she came across had different stages of the same disease. Some were lucky and were only beginning to show early signs of the disease. Others were fully affected by it and her Aromatherapy wasn’t enough and medicine had to be administered. Fortunately for her, the medicine helped more than she thought it would. At the worse it would only help with their breathing but she considered it a good thing overall.

Flora has been doing this for a few days now.

Despite her clear tasks she found it difficult to keep up with everything. There were so many patients coming through the doors and not all of them could be attended to in a timely manner. Complaints were made in the front lobby, though not all of them could be taken care of easily. It was all rather stressful for the timid Chikorita. She sighed as she finished with another patient and had to sit down for a moment.

“Doing okay there?” Fellin asked her.

“J-just need to catch my breath.” Flora sighed a little. Her leaf was beginning to limp over and fell on her face. She didn’t seem to care it seems. “I didn’t think things would be this bad.”

“I know what you mean. To say we’re stretched thin would be an understatement. More and more Pokémon are falling ill every day. Hardly anyone’s gotten a moment to relax.”

“I know what you mean.” Flora let out a tired sigh. “How’s the research coming along?”

“We’re making a bit of progress. Not where I would like but we’re getting there. We just need to continue treating these patients and making sure they get plenty of rest.” She paused before looking down at Flora. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t you be getting some rest? You’ve been working nonstop since you got here.”

“I-I can’t stop now. E-everyone is working hard so I can’t fall behind,” Flora said as she began to get up.

Fellin gently pushed her back to sit back down. “Hey, I know I made things sound bad but that’s no reason to go pushing yourself. You’ve done a great job since you got here and I like your dedication. Still, you need to rest when you can. I won’t do us any good if we lose one of our own from exhaustion.”

“R-right… Sorry about that.” Flora said with a sigh. She knew she was right. She hadn’t gotten much rest since she had started helping out around here. “If it’s not too much to ask… is there a place I can take a nap around here?”

Fellin gave her a sympathetic smile before pointing to one of the rooms. “No one goes in that room. There’s a couch you can rest in for now. If you ever need to rest again just tell me. Your health is just as important as the rest of the patients.”

“Thank you,” Flora said with a weak smile as she got up and made her way to the room she had pointed to. As soon as she attempted to enter, she tripped and fell on her face.

Flora groaned as she rubbed her face. Had she tripped on her leaf again? She didn’t think so, this was different. She huffed as she found the cause for her pain right now. “Who leaves a book in the middle of the floor like that?” She suddenly sneezed a little and dust was blown from the book. An old book in fact. Someone could get hurt, like she had right now.

She huffed as she put the book away for now. She’d figure out who it belonged to later. She plopped down on the couch and let out a sigh. She had been working nonstop for days now and could feel the exhaustion beginning to catch up to her. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted to sleep. The last thing on her mind before she succumbed to sleep was wondering what Soleil was up to now.

~~

“Why are you following me again?” Soleil asked with a huff as she glanced back at the Croagunk right behind her.

“Whatever do you mean?” Jezebel asked with a raised brow. “I just happen to heading the same way you are. You heard about the old lady being blamed for stealing stuff right?”

“Her name is Leite. And yeah, I heard about it. Don’t tell me you’re trying to prove her innocent.”

“That’s the plan. What, you think I’m not cut out for it?” Jezebel asked with a raised brow.

“Not that. It’s just… You don’t really seem like the type to be solving mysteries.” Not to be offensive of course. It’s just the way she behaved at Rivercross made her think this wouldn’t be something that interested her.

“Eh, can’t blame you for thinking that. But I have something to say about someone being judged unfairly for doing something just because of how they look.” Jezebel said with a shrug. “Plus, I don’t think she did it. It doesn’t add up.”

“What do you mean?” Soleil asked, growing curious where she was going with this.

Jezebel suddenly shoved a list in front of Soleil. The Torchic huffed as she looked over the contents. “A pocket watch, a stuff animal, a box of jewelry, coins, a lunch box…? Cabbages…?” Soleil rose a brow as she looked at the list. “What is all this?”

“A list of all the stuff reported missing. Wasn’t hard to get. Saki asked around to ask what was missing and gave the list to me. Do you notice something? Find anything they have in common?”

Soleil blinked as she looked over the list again. Jewelry, coins, toys and even food from some of the merchants. Her brow creased as she tried to see what Jezebel was trying to get out.

“Can’t figure it out?” Jezebel grinned at her.

Soliel let out a frustrated sigh as she shoved the list back to the Croagunk. “Fine! What? What do they have in common?”

“Nothing.”

“… What?” Soleil tilted her head and rose a brow.

“You heard me squirt: nothing. They have nothing in common at all.” Jezebel replied with a languid shrug.

“Then why did you ask me that!?” She asked, pointing an accusing wing at her.

Jezebel couldn’t help a bit of a chuckle. “You’re missing the point squirt?” She said with a cheeky grin. “There’s no rhyme or reason. Just taking things for the heck of it. The books were probably just something the real thief grabbed along the way. Even then, I’m not sure if they even want them.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You saw the list. You really think one person can carry all that stuff around with them without drawing attention? And if they really wanted the books why drop one out in the open like that?”

Soleil blinked and thought about it before realizing she had a point. “Wait, but how could someone take so many things without notice? That’s gotta be tough even for one person right? Do you think it was magic?”

“Ooh, excellent observation detective.” Jezebel rubbed Soleil’s head, much to her annoyance. “Anyways, I don’t know if it was magic or not but it’s not necessary you know. Stealing is easy if you know how. Like this ring for example~” The Croagunk grinned as she held up an eerily familiar gold ring.

Soleil looked at it before her eyes widened as she looked at her leg. Her ring was gone! “H-how? G-Give that back!” Soleil tried desperately to jump and reach for the ring.

Jezebel held it higher, out of Soleil’s reach as she chuckled a little. “See? You don’t need magic to steal things. As long as you or anyone else isn’t paying attention taking stuff like this is a cinch.” Jezebel finished and gave her back the ring.

Soleil held it to herself before huffing as she put it back on her leg. “Okay… but I doubt this would convince the townsfolk that Leite didn’t do it.”

“Which is why I’m on my way to meet up with Leite at an inn she’s staying. I wanted to ask a few questions before the trial.”

“Trial?”

“Well, more like an impromptu town meeting to argue whether she’s the real thief or not. Saki called it a trial though. A little excessive since Leite won’t even be present and it’s not like they can’t be proven wrong in the end. Still, she got the idea in her head so I rolled with it.” Jezebel stopped as she turned to Soleil. “You coming or what?”

Soleil stopped as she considered. Frankly she didn’t really want to go with Jezebel given all pranks she pulled on her last time she was around. Plus she was still making fun of her size. But she did want to help Leite. She hated agreeing with Jezebel, but it didn’t sit right with her either that Leite was being unfairly judged for these crimes.

“… I’m in.”