As they made their way into the village, Oscar got a closer look at the buildings and inhabitants. Several of the buildings looked like some variation of Totodile or Nuzleaf head, with colors to match. The Totodile buildings where along the water's edge, flanking the village on either side of the fork, with the Nuzleaf buildings making up the majority of the interior. There were several 'normal' buildings in the village, not having a noticeable poke-theme, but brightly colored nonetheless. A little over a dozen buildings for what looked like a little over 30 inhabitants, split about 50-50 between Totodile and Nuzleaf lines, all various sizes with some into their middle evolution.

The villagers seemed to be having something like a party or a gathering, with most of the village congregated around the open 'square' – really a circle of buildings – chatting animatedly about whatever it was backwater Pokémon peasants spoke about. Oscar didn't really care, he was more interested in the fact that the Pokémon had created something like a civilization without any visible human influence. Most Pokémon were sapient of course, and capable of the planning required for such a thing in theory, but for whatever reason such a thing had never been seen on his world. And Oscar was increasingly convinced he was no longer on his world.

The villages got quiet as they entered the square, most eyes squarely on the fox Pokémon but more than a few lingering on the Treecko. Eventually an aged Leafeon, probably the village elder, stepped out of the crowd to greet them.

"Hello travelers," she said, addressing Gaia "what brings you to our humble village?" Oscar was sensing a little bit of tension at his presence, and thought it best to remain quite for the moment.

"We," Gaia began, glancing at Oscar and mentally asking for permission to proceed. She looked back at the Leafeon after he gave the go-ahead. "We have been lost in the woods for a bit now, and yours is the first settlement we came across. Do you have a place we can spend the night before we move on? The forest seems pretty tame, but we don't want to take any chances if we don't have to." She was being very diplomatic, and Oscar was proud.

"You are more than welcome to spend the night with us." She gestured with her right paw to the group of villagers behind her. "I am sure one of my friends has a room to spare, and if not then you are welcome in my home." Several villagers nodded their head at this. Good, this was going better than he thought. "Your companion however will have to sleep outside the village. We have a few storage shelters downstream a bit he is welcome to use, of course." Ah, so there was some tension here. At least they didn't look ready to break out the pitchforks.

"What!" Gaia wasn't taking it as well as he was. "What's wrong with Oscar?" A few of the villagers winced a bit when she used his name, was name usage a taboo here?

"Nothing! Nothing." The Leafeon made a placating gesture. "I'm sure your mate is very nice and pleasant to be around. It's just, well you know how fire types are. They burn things, and we had a bad run in with one a few years ago. I'm sorry, but we aren't comfortable with him here. Our hospitality extends to you, and you are welcome to share any gifts you receive with him when you leave, but…"

"But nothing you ol-" Gaia started before being cut off.

"It is fine, Gaia. They have clearly had a bad experience. If the location is safe, I would be happy to spend the night in shelter."

"I assure you, it's perfectly safe." Offered the Leafeon, seizing on the opportunity to smooth this over as quick as possible.

"See? I will be fine. Enjoy yourself while you are here."

"But-"

"Gaia." Gaia sighed and seemed to let it go, at least her face did. He could tell she was still angry, but so long as she hid it he was happy.

Find out what you can from them. Other settlements, bandits in the area, what they use for money in this backwater. Everything you can. And be nice, we already made enemies today, let us try not to add an entire village as well. Gaia did not respond, mentally or physically, but he knew she would drag as much information out of these people as she could. Really, he got off easy. He was going to sleep the night away while she was working.

Seizing the initiative, he asked for the direction to the shelter, and was told to follow the eastern fork on the village side until he came across a small hut. The elder said he was welcome to any food that was in there, but please do not come to us in the morning we will come to you thank you. Oscar nodded and made his way to the shelter. Gaia and the Leafeon exchanged more words out of earshot, and soon he was out of the village entirely. The shelter was just a hut, used for storing Magikarp caught from the river by the smell. And what a smell it was, he was sure he would have fish-gut smell in his fur for a week after this. Still, if the hut hadn't been attacked by predators yet with the fish miasma surrounding the area, they probably were not going to attack at all. There were two Magikarp in the hut, one fresh enough to eat, the other fresh enough to toss into the river and not think about again. The sun had fully set by this point, and clouds were moving in to make the night truly dark. He drank from the river, and settled in to sleep.

And sleep he did. Straight through the night, not waking up once from this or that inane thing that would usually wake him up. He would normally need to be heavily medicated to sleep this well, and thanked his new body for yet another blessing. Refreshed but stinking of fish, he made his way out of the hut and decided to clean himself in the river. The water was calm, and he took the opportunity to get a good look at himself. He knew what Fennekin looked liked, and the reflection that stared back was a standard specimen as far as he could tell. Yellow fur, perhaps a shade darker than normal with a snow-white muzzle. Male Fennekin did not have the extravagant orange tuft coming out of the ears as the females did, instead having a short mane on the top of their head that would grow long as they evolved. He kept his sky-blue eyes, the only noteworthy difference between his appearance and the typical male Fennekin. Even then, the right breeding could achieve this look as well. He noted with a vain pride that a specimen like the one he was seeing in the water now would place well in a breeding competition. Satisfied, he proceeded with his bath.

The water seemed tolerable when he tested it with a paw, but was freezing cold after he fully submerged himself. He figured this sensitivity had something to do with his Fire type nature, but without a thermometer he couldn't really tell how cold the water was. He took the shortest bath of his life and left the river after about a minute to dry off and warm up. He was in the 'very poofy' stage of drying when Gaia came down the path with a spring in her step to meet him.

"Hey Oscar, you'll never guess what happened last ni-" she stopped to look at him, her eyes trailing up and down his very poofy body, before letting out a short but good-humored laugh. "You look ridiculous." Was all she said, and it was enough.

"Yeah yeah yeah, what about last night?" Oscar asked, waiving it off. After getting a few more chuckles out of her system, Gaia continued.

"You remember those two idiots from yesterday?" She didn't wait for a response, "Well they actually attacked the village last night. Burned a couple of buildings down and started a panic. Leafon eventually rallied a group to drive them off, but not before the village lost their next shipment of Pecha scarves!"

"A pity. So those two pulled it off after all then?" Gaia beamed.

"No, that's the best part. Look." She opened a bag she had been carrying, and when he looked inside he saw what looked like a dozen or so green scarves hidden underneath a few apples after she moved them aside.

"How did you get outside the village carrying all this? Were they not suspicious?" She closed the bag and secured it over her shoulder, motioning him to walk with her downstream.

"No that's the best part. They gave me the bag last night 'for my troubles' and I grabbed the scarves during the chaos. They think there was a third thief with the group that attacked that took the scarves. They don't suspect a thing." This was excellent news! Now they had something to barter when they find another settlement, and no one suspected a thing. Their journey here was off a great start.

As they walked downstream, Gaia filled him in on what she learned the night before. The village wasn't exactly a backwater. It was more of a gathering community set up about a decade ago to get the more hard-to-find forest materials and ship them to the larger settlements about a weeks journey north. They had some limited ability to make finished goods, like the scarves, but mostly they traded in raw materials. The concentration of goods made them a semi-regular target for bandits, and every few years the village itself would be raided for goods. Every time so far had involved a Fire type burning down several of their homes, which explained their dislike for Oscar. He could understand this.

He was relieved to hear that the Pokémon here had something resembling a proper economy, primitive as it was. Their currency was Poké, because of course it was, which was a small gold coin about the size of a dime. This was used more for long term wealth storage as the gold would not corrode, but was for the most part too valuable for every day transactions. That was handled by poke, not to be confused with Poké, which were copper coins the same size as the gold variety but about 1/400th the value. Small transactions, made by smallfolk, were made with poke but the real value of society was stored in the form of Poké. Most of this was held either by the Guilds, or by the various pseudo-noble families of powerful (literally, in this case) Pokémon known as Guardians that would protect regions in return for taxation rights. There did not seem to be any kind of overarching government, but a loose collection of competing fiefdoms with Guild territory overlapping them. The villagers did not know the political dynamics between the Guilds and the Guardians. He could only guess that two powerful entities with overlapping interests in the same area would come to blows, but Gaia said this did not seem to be the case.

Gaia was able to get a little more information about the exploration societies, or Guilds as they were commonly called, from the villagers. While Cinder was broadly correct in his feelings on the matter, that the Guild was charge with exploration and protection, their purview seemed to extend to governance as well. They would make laws in the territories they patrolled, and would enforce those laws if the local peacekeepers were unable or unwilling. Apparently these laws pertained mostly to the type of moves that could be learned, what kind and how many of certain 'dangerous' items could be sold, if at all, and what regions were off limits to those without Guild authorization. The Guardians did not seem to make or enforce any laws in an official capacity beyond their taxation rights, and mostly acted as 'elder families' whose word was valued but did not carry the weight of law. Oscar was not sure he knew the difference between an official law and the word of someone who could kill you if you disagreed, but Gaia insisted they were completely different things.

When asked about where they were going, she explained that they were heading to a settlement called Baram Town, where this continents Expedition Society had its headquarters with its current Guildmaster Alakazam. There was apparently plenty of work and housing there 'so long as you aren't wild' Gaia made sure to stress, and it seemed like the logical next stop. Oscar agreed, and was looking forward to the opportunity to just be able to relax and think about what the hell had been happening lately. He felt he had a pretty good idea, but details always came with reflection.

The trip would take about a week, and they could follow the river nearly all the way there. It opened up to a delta to the ocean a little west of Baram Town, and from there it was only a few hours hike to the Town proper. They were provisioned for about two days, but they could hunt for Magikarp or other wild Pokémon to supplement the fruit in the bag, and the river would provide all the water they needed. They left the village behind and started their journey to what they hopped would be a proper settlement this time.