You are lead to the base of the tree, where you find a complex system of caves.
"We use these caves as storerooms for food and other things. There's also an underground hot spring a little deeper," you take a look in one of the caves and see that the walls are covered in a chalky white mineral.
"This is saltpeter,"
"Saltpeter?"
"Yeah, saltpeter or potassium nitrate. It's used in gunpowder and can be used to preserve foods,"
"What's gunpowder?" You'd forgotten that they probably hadn't ever seen a gun.
"It's a powder used in special weapons humans developed, it's explosive," as you were about to leave you notice one of the caves was formed of a different kind of stone. "That's iron ore, it's the same as the stuff brought into the refinery,"
"What are you talking about?"
"A refinery is where metals are processed and made usable, I used to work in one,"
Noivern leads you to very top of the tree, explaining the general structure as you go, "The tree has two main sections, inner and outer. They're separated by stairways that lead all the way up and down. The inner section is mostly living quarters there's no real restrictions to it, you could sleep wherever you wanted, but I wouldn't recommend you try it. The outer section is workspace. Alpha has teams working on various projects and that's where they do a lot of it. Is this making sense to you?"
"Yeah," you're only half paying attention. As you head up the tree everyone you pass stares, and it puts you on edge. Fortunately there is only one other Pokémon at the top and they leave as you arrive.
"This is the birds nest, we usually have a few people posted up here to keep an eye on the area," the nest was a small circular platform that gave an almost perfect three hundred and sixty degree view of the area. You can see for miles in every direction. If you look hard enough you can almost see the towers of the refinery where you had worked. As you think about where you had worked you realize what you have that none of the Pokémon Mira has gathered could have.
"Hey Noivern, I need to talk to Mira. Do you know where she is?"
"Call me Stella," she glances at the sky, "Right now Alpha should be getting lunch, so she probably went back to her room. What did you want to talk to her about anyways?"
"How often do you have conflicts with other groups?"
"A few times a lunar cycle, why? And how did you know about that?"
You take the stairs down from the nest, "You live in a natural fortress, keep the entrances hidden, and have lookouts posted. You're either expecting an attack, or insanely paranoid,"
"Okay, but that doesn't answer my first question,"
You break out into a grin "I think I've figured out what I have that no one here does, what I can do that they can't,"
"And what's that?" Stella asks as she matches your pace.
"Metalwork," her confusion is apparent so you elaborate, "Remember the iron ore in the caves? I can use that to make tools, weapons, and all sorts of things, even armor!"
"Armor? Why would we want armor?"
"Well, in a fight you have to focus on both defense and offense right? But with armor you don't have to focus as much on protection and you're more free to attack, and weapons give you a means of attack that doesn't rely on your energy like moves do, so you're able to fight for longer," by the time you've finished your explanation you're almost at the ground floor.
"Hey, human," up until this point you've been mostly left alone, but it had to come to a head eventually, most of the Pokémon here probably didn't want you there, and you had no doubt they'd try to intimidate you.
"Yes?" You turn around to see a pair of Lucario on the stairs behind you. You tense up internally, in a fair fight you wouldn't stand a chance against a single Lucario so you didn't favor your odds against the two of them.
"Relax, we aren't going to hurt you," one steps forward "If Alpha trusts you that's good enough for us," the other steps forward as well
"But your aura is very weird. Like nothing we've ever seen," they position themselves on either side of you forcing you split your attention, "So what are you exactly?"
"What are you talking about? I'm a human,"
"Nope, your aura is too," the first one speaks up but pauses, searching for the right word, "chaotic, it's far more like a pokemons,"
"Exactly, your aura is completely different from a humans. There's no way you're human,"
"I'm a human. I don't know anything about aura, but I'm a human,"
"The first one narrows his eyes, "I wonder. Oh well, I can tell you're uncomfortable, so well just leave it at that for now," he heads back up the stairs, and the other follows, "Good luck with your proposal,"
You just stand there processing that exchange, "Who were they?"
"They're Kara and Koro, twins. They have a strange connection and always know what the other is thinking, so talking to them can be confusing, but they're both nice,"
"What did they mean about my aura?"
She shrugs "I have no idea, aura's kind of a Lucario thing,"
You grimace, "Let's just move on, which way is Mira's room?" Stella leads you back through the corridors to the room you slept in. "Mira?" You part the veil of vines and step inside, "I've got my answer," Mira's sitting at her table eating some fish,
"Really? Out with it, are you staying?" You can see how tense she is, and how much your answer will mean to her, it almost makes you understand why everyone seems to think she's infatuated with you.
"I'll stay, and," she doesn't let you finish, wrapping you in a fierce hug,
"I knew you wouldn't leave me," she buries her face in your chest.
"Okay calm down, this is why there are those rumors," you pry her off and hold her at arms length.
"Rumors? What do you mean?"
"Everyone seems to think we're mates," her jaw drops open and she
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