Chapter 13: Feral

                                    

                                          
Clanga-clanga-clang!
                          
A loud metallic banging sound  rang from outside as I wearily opened my eyes. The sun was just  beginning to show through our windows as the murmur of nearby teams  waking up drifted in. Groaning, I cursed my tail for making comfortably  sleeping such a chore and rolled out of my straw bed. I quickly noticed  that Rye had done the same, although there wasn't any indication that  his tail was cramped. Maybe proper positioning in this case was an  instinct thing I just hadn't figured out yet?
                          
"Urgh... m-morning, Beck..." Rye mumbled groggily, pushing himself off the floor.
                          
I  got on my feet just in time to see a Bronzong lazily floating down the  pathway outside, a Farfetch'd repeatedly hitting it with its stalk to  produce the clanging that had woken us up. Rye finished stretching  behind me and dusted himself off, turning to face me.
                          
"Y-you ready  for today?" he asked. "If what Nidoran's saying is right, we'll be  heading out tomorrow. Let's make today worth it!"
                          
We walked out the door to find a steady stream of Pokémon ambling towards the mess hall.
                          
"Come on, breakfast lasts till mid-morning," Rye told me as we headed out to follow them.
                          
As  expected, a long line awaited us at the mess hall, so it was maybe half  an hour before we found ourselves at the window looking Raticate in the  face. He grinned, exposing his stained buck-teeth.
                          
"Hey-hey, it's the newbies! How've things been for you?" he beamed.
                          
"Uh, th-they've been good." Rye replied. Raticate pulled out two slabs of wood and waddled over to a set of shelves.
                          
"You  didn't tell me that you whitewatered the Serperior for your first trip!  Why don't I ever hear 'bout these things till they're old news?" he  chortled. We both cocked our heads in confusion.
                          
"Shwaa?" I asked. No one but us and Bert could have been nearby to tell anyone about that, right?
                          
"Er, where'd you hear that?" Rye asked concernedly.
                          
"Well,  Team Assail over there says they met you after the fact," Raticate  responded, pointing behind us. We turned to find that, indeed, a bruised  and beaten Team Assail were sitting a little ways away, Mustie and Gold  both shooting us a steely glare before returning to their breakfast. We  swallowed nervously and turned back to Raticate.
                          
"Wh-what happened to them?" Rye asked.
                          
"Apparently,  they tried to go through Bewilder Forest and ran into a monster house.  They only made it back here last night," Raticate responded. He looked  around a bit before leaning towards us.
                          
"Personally, I think  that's bullshit. You see those burn marks? Methinks they got into  another fight with Apex. Now that I think about it, you were there to  see it, weren't you?" he muttered.
                          
We hesitantly nodded as Raticate chuckled, now holding two full trays of fruits and... was that meat in there?
                          
"Ah,  don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I can call myself many things, but a  snitch ain't one of them. Besides, beating up fellow guildmates happens  to be against Guild rules, we'd all get fucked over if I said I was  hidin' it, you know?" he said nonchalantly.
                          
As he finished, he  plopped the trays down on the counter. Examining the trays to confirm my  suspicions about the strange food in the mix, I quickly noticed that  one of them had almost twice as much on it as the other. I gestured to  said tray confusedly, prompting Raticate to grin proudly.
                          
"Well,  they say you're a feral, right? Everyone says ferals eat like it's  nobody's business out in the wild, so I figured I'd give ya extra just  in case!" he beamed.