[crow]

"We're here," she said, pointing to the star that she had drawn onto the map. "I know this can be a bit confusing, but the easiest way to get from here to there is to go like this..." As she spoke, she drew a route for them from the star to a staircase. "You'll want to go to the third floor, and you'll come out right here..." She marked a stairwell on the third floor section of the map, where the library was.

[crow]

"And if you keep going like this, you'll get there. Can't miss it. It's got lots of windows, and you can see the books pretty well through them." She drew a line from the stairs, through some hallways, eventually connecting it to the circle she had drawn.

Nico took the map from her and studied it for a moment, while Joli expressed his thanks. "Sorry! This place is so big. It's not our first time here, but we still haven't figured most of it out..."

[crow]

He laughed a little sheepishly and scratched at the back of his head, trailing off as he ran out of things to say. There was only so much you could comment on regarding your own helplessness.

"No, not a problem!" said the Jinx, smiling and waving off his concerns with a flap of the hand. "That's what I'm here for, you know?"

"We appreciate it," Nico chimed in. But now that they knew where ti go, there was no reason to hesitate any longer either.

[crow]

The two of them set off from the help desk, making for the room that she had indicated before, where the information for the mist was apparently being disseminated. That was their first priority. As much as Nico might have wanted to visit the library, they were here first and foremost to collect information about the mist.

It would be a lot easier to go to the place specifically set aside for that, rather than poring over books in an attempt to find anything relevant.

[crow]

Besides, it was their library. Nico figured if they thought they had any information about this stuff, they would have gone and compiled it themselves already. In truth, a trip to the library was probably only going to be useful if what they wanted to do was to research a theory of their own, which wasn't covered by whatever it was the guild had already thought of.

It wasn't far from the help desk to the room they were going towards, just like the Jynx said.

[crow]

As they got closer, Nico and Joli could see that they weren't the only ones who were gathered there either. There wasn't so much a line within the room as there was a small mob, all milling about without any real sense of order. Nico was surprised for a moment, but when he stopped to think about it, he supposed it wasn't really that shocking. It wasn't worth being shocked over, anyway.

After all, had the guild not put out a public notice?

[crow]

More than that, had they not tried to gather other rescue teams to mount some sort of expedition specifically to investigate the mist? That was a pretty big invitation, which naturally prompted a big response in kind.

That was how Nico and Joli had learned about it, even if they had gotten it third-hand from Lupin. By the time they'd gotten the information, the news had already permeated their town too. The hubbub at the rescue team headquarters dinner was proof enough of that.

[crow]

And if they, in their small town, had gotten news of it, then surely the teams in bigger towns with bigger bases must have also caught wind of the notice. In fact, he probably ought to be surprised there weren't even more people than there were here.

Whatever they might be hoping to find, be it riches or fame or just a good mystery, the mist seemed to offer it all. Of course, that was because the details surrounding it were so vague.

[crow]

It was hard to know what would come of it if they found it, or found its source. At this point, it could be anything.

What of the dangers? Well, he was sure that some of the teams here must have thought about that, but even if they did, it was still worth it to them. They were rescue teams, after all. They faced danger every day. It wouldn't have been like them to balk at the idea of even a little risk.

[crow]

All of them more or less understood these things when they had first signed up for the job of being a rescue team.

It wasn't that Nico himself wasn't worried, though. Which was why they were trying so hard to gather information, actually. As long as you knew to look out for a certain thing, then there was a limit to how much it could do to you... hopefully. Even if that wasn't always the case, it was still better, generally speaking, to be prepared.

[crow]

Nico was currently trying to peer over the crowd, to figure out what exactly they were supposed to do here. This was the right place, but how did they get that information anyway? To be honest, he had figured it was going to be more orderly than this. Upon finding out that it wasn't... He wasn't quite sure what he ought to do. Should they come back later or something?

He wasn't having much luck though. His height, as much as anything, held him back.

[crow]

It wasn't that all the Pokemon here were tall, necessarily, but there were certainly a lot of them, and not all of them were short by any means either. There was enough of a crowd that Nico couldn't see very well.

He glanced towards Joli, who caught his eye, but could only shake his head and shrug. He didn't know what was going on either, or wasn't having any better luck figuring it out from what he could see--- one of the two.

[crow]

At this time, however, a Pokemon came out and stood up on a little podium. He wobbled a bit, so maybe it wasn't a podium after all. At the very least, it must have been hastily erected. "Ahem!" said the Pokemon. It was a Loudred, which meant that even this little bit of throat clearing could be heard loud and clear over the din of the crowd.

Seeing their choice of Pokemon to speak to the assembled crowd, Nico kind of wanted to laugh.

[crow]

In lieu of a megaphone, what did you use? A Loudred! He wondered if that was what this Loudred's position was within the guild. Did they have someone dedicated to making announcements?

Well, for a big guild like this, maybe it wasn't the surprise it could have been. They did have a lot of people, after all. Maybe one Loudred wasn't enough, and what they really had was a whole squadron--- a whole network of Loudreds, to pass messages on from top brass to the whole of the guild.

[crow]

For now, though, there was only one, and clearly, she wanted everyone's attention. Their situation wasn't dire enough to require a squadron yet.

She got it too. Her voice was heard above the din of the crowd, and slowly, they quieted down after that. They had been engrossed in their conversations, but everyone here had presumably come to get information or sign up for the expedition if they could. They had a great deal of interest in whatever the guild had to say on the matter.