“WAKE UP!” The voice rung through Oran's ears, static screeched in his head like nails on a chalkboard. He opened his scarlet eyes wide, but gave the morning light a chance to burn his little eyeballs out. He rubbed the blindness out with his fist, but sadly the first thing he had to see in the morning was Loudred, the guild's living alarm clock, looming over his side. The first thing he saw every morning was always him. “WAKE UP, YOU'LL BE LATE FOR GUILD LESSONS! YOU'LL BOTH BE LATE,” the Big Voice Pokemon blared with his large, gaping mouth to both him and his still sleeping sister. Sometimes, Oran wondered to himself if Loudred could even hear himself talk; then his mind would answer back: he has Soundproof, of course he can't. Some Pokemon just don't know what an “off button” is.
“Rrgh.” The Riolu forced his groggy body from the pile of hay that he called a “bed”, dusting off the itchy straw from his black and blue fur. Two little, pointed, blue ears flapped atop his head. He wore a black mask formed by his fur pattern. The Emanation Pokemon sported a short, canine snout underneath his “mask”, hiding several sharp puppy teeth. The black fur around his chest was worn like a little vest. The backs of his paws naturally wore two metal couplings. A little weak in his knees, his body felt heavy, and had a little jiggle to his stance, as if he was about to collapse any second into his hay pile for a few more Z's. “Do we have to get up so early?” He asked.
“YOU HAVE WORK TO DO TODAY. YOU BOTH DO. HOW WILL YOU WORK IF YOU BOTH ARE SLEEPING IN?!” Loudred screamed.
Regardless of the time of day, his screams were like nails on a chalkboard to poor Oran's ears, only louder. “Agh, okay, okay,” the pup yeilded, folding his ears over themselves to block out as much of that Pokemon's screeching roar as possible. “We'll be there! We'll be there!”
“BE THERE AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL, SOON. OR ELSE YOU'LL TALK TO THE GUILDMASTER, AGAIN.” With nothing else left to say, and his job done, the Loudred stomped out of the room.
“Geez, how loud can that guy get?” Oran asked himself, while rubbing his aching head clear of that painful voice of his. “Just listening to him should be its own work.”
“I thought you wanted the guild life,” His sister yawned while shaking her body awake. For being the oldest sibling of the duo, she stood no taller than her brother, only a foot and four inches to his two feet four inches. Typical of a Buneary, Pecha could rival a Teddiursa in cuteness, even after waking up. Chestnut brown fur covered all of the Normal-type's small, bunny-like body, which ended at the large, sandy brown cotton ball of fur engulfing her entire pelvic region. She had an ovular head like a teddy bear, topped with long ears ending with puffs of fur which she liked to curl into tight buns sometimes. Her two beady, black eyes were separated by a pink, button nose. Despite being the older sibling, Oran towered over her by a foot; for her lack of height, she compensated with a quick tongue, sharper than any Seviper's tail. “Only a week in, and you're giving up. Why am I surprised?”
“I want adventure,” he replied. “I joined to be just like mom and dad, and explore the Unido Region! I joined learn how to use my aura powers! But I've just been getting chores ever since I came here. Speaking of which, how can you sleep through all of Loudred's screaming so calmly?”
“Soundproof.” Pecha joked.
“Whatever, let's just go, already.” With no more words he wanted to say to her, the two left the morning awkwardness of their quarters with a walk to the assembly hall; It was just an appetizer warm-up to prepare their bodies for the mountain of warm-ups that awaited them for the day.
The assembly hall was nothing but a meadow of grass, lit by the many torches lining the restrictive walls of the guild; despite little wind flow seeping into the structure, the grass found a way to dance and wave on their own, influenced by the gentlest huffs of breath.
The room quickly filled with the gathering members, still a bit sluggish from having their ears assaulted so early in the day. Among the growing mass: Normal, Grass, and Bug outnumbered all other types, including Oran, the lone Fighting-type; big and small, strong and weak, there's no such thing as discrepancy at the Florges Guild- only teamwork and happiness.
Pecha and Oran walked into the conversing crowd, with only talks of job requests floating around to be heard. Oran could only catch white noise as he dug around in his own ears, trying to clear out Loudred's lasting echo.
“Okay, the first thing we should do is find Azumarill for our duties,” Pecha told herself while exploring the hall, with Oran tailing her.
“Sis, what are you doing?” he asked his big sis while watching her wander. “The job board is that way,” he pointed the opposite direction they were walking, though Pecha refused to pay his notion any mind. “Why don't we just skip the chores, and grab a request while they're still good?”
“Because we're weak,” she replied to him with a blunt tone wreathing with irritation, about what she was uncertain, “too weak for a request. I prefer being prepared over running into things head first.”
“But Azumarill's jobs are so boring! I mean: garden maintenance? Cooking assistance? Sentry duty? Those are boring! I'm level 5, I'm totally ready for an adventure!”
“Aww, how cute,” the Buneary stopped, teasing her brother as if what he said was absolutely precious, “level 5, and you're so eager to take down a legendary; every outlaw will run away from the big, bad Riolu~!”
“Cut that out! I can tell when you're being sarcastic; I'm being serious!”
“Hmm? Me? Sarcastic?” She hummed, her left paw coyly placed by her mouth. “You must be saying things.”
“I'm not!” His sister's words stung him under his skin like a swarm of Beedrill; he pushed her to the grassy ground with his full upper body, thinking that would stop the teasing. She hit the soft lawn with a thud, her adorable fur coat got painted with mud and grass stains!
Giving herself a quick look, she roared, “My fur! Oran, you jerk!” when she got back up to her feet she gave her brother a taste of his own medicine, returning the push he gave her; a war between siblings soon erupted: while each side pulled at the other's ears and fur, neither stood an advantage without grunting an angered, painful moan. The fight quickly took to the ground, with Pecha jumping onto her brother, pinning him down under the weight of her bottom. Oran squirmed for freedom, but his sad attempt only put a wide grin across his sister's face, “Ha! Whatcha gonna do now, Mr. Bid Bad Level 5?”
“Rrgh, get off me, Pecha,” Oran squealed.
“Oh, I dunno- you look better like that,” she said, ignoring the painless flailing her brother's giving her. “Now say you're sorry.”
“Ne-never!” Too determined to give up in the face of his vain sister, he flailed even harder with every free limb he could control; to his disdain, even then, progress remained constant- he withered himself, while the punished only felt slight tickles to her skin.
“You always wanna do things the hard way, don't ya'?” She teased him some more. “Even for a Fighting-type, you're not very smart.”
“O-of course,” he huffed under the little breath Pecha's weight squeezed out from his lungs, “H-how else'll I become strong? A-at least I'm not taking the backseat, like you!”
“That's not what I'm doing-!”
their vocal war soon broke to the cry of a peacekeeper, “Ch-children, please, stop fighting!” The gentle calling somehow was powerful enough to reach the two through the collective chattering of their surrounding, yet soothing enough to quell the children from fighting anymore. Pecha and Oran looked up with puzzled eyes to find Azumarill, the Guildmistress' assistant, on the verge of tears. Her two long rabbit ears, colored a light sky blue, Upset and heartbreak flowed from the two black dots that were her eyes, just by watching two relatives go through a small disagreement. A light sky blue color painted most of her body, except for her lower quarter, which bubbled with white. Her tail was thin, but stretchable, zigzagging until it ended in a round blue ball. “Wh-why are you two fighting? Don't you love each other?” She asked them in a faint voice, almost ready to break into a waterfall.
“Azumarill: tell Pecha that we're ready for a job request,” Oran told her at the top of his lungs, still struggling to catch breath from Pecha being on top of them.
“Be quiet, Oran- you're going to get us in trouble,” the Buneary hissed in his ears.
“I was told to bring you two to the Guildmistress' chambers, this morning,” She told them.
Oran couldn't ignore the large pit that just dropped in his stomach; Loudred couldn't have reported him to her, already! As his sister released him from the ground, he caught several quick gasps of air, then spoke, “w-w-w-wait, Azumarill, I-I can explain- I was going to wake up on time, this morning! I swear!”
“Huh? What are you talking about? Miss Florges said she had something special for you two.”
A moment of confusion befell the pair, which quickly sparked into a flame of curiosity that sparkled in their eyes. “Really? What is it?” The children asked her in high hopes.
“She wanted it to be a surprise,” Azumarill told them. Seeing the children not attempting to kill each other any more, her smile broke from the confiding gates of her own blues. “Are you interested in finding out?”
The children needed no words- their expressions of joy were enough to speak to the Aqua Rabbit Pokemon. They followed the assistant through the morning crowd, in hopes of finding out the secret.
