"Do you think he'll be here?" Fennekin asked as Ethan knocked on the door to Espeon and Umbreon's house.
"Don't know where else to look," he shrugged. "Even if he's not, maybe one of them knows enough to tell us what we need to know."
"I was hoping to find him and Houndoom and Meowstic as well." She cleared her throat. "You know. To help prepare."
Before he could respond, the door swung open; Espeon was standing in the doorway, and gained a big smile when she looked down at them. "Oh hey, it's Team Stargazers! What's going on?"
"Is Leafeon here?" Ethan asked. "We wanted to talk about the expedition he was telling us about, to the Starlit Grove. The Academy is putting on a competition for exploring, and we figured that helping with this could also help us with that."
"That sounds great!" She stepped out of the house, the door and her eyes glowing in a pale blue psychic light as she closed it behind her. "I'm not doing anything right now, I can help you find him. Do you have any questions for me while we're walking?"
Ethan looked to Fennekin as they started walking, who shrugged. "What can you tell us about the Grove?" he asked.
"It's to the south of here," she started. "Pretty far south; you won't be able to do this in a day. Other than that, we're not really sure; you'd have to ask Leafeon if he knows. But that's part of the fun, right? Or so I hear, I'm not an explorer. Feels like just wandering around, at a certain point. Well, I like finding out things, but would hate just going out and trying to find something out; I'd rather try and see what I can get from books, that's just so exciting! Sorry, what were we talking about?"
"The Starlit Grove."
"Right!" She let out a few nervous giggles. "Sorry, I just get excited sometimes. What was I saying about it?"
"Well, that you don't know much."
"Yeah." They walked in silence for a few seconds. "Honestly...that's it. Sorry!"
"It's fine," Fennekin spoke up before Ethan could respond. "It is exciting, though. We don't need to know everything, but just a little so we know what we're looking for or what to expect."
"I understand," she nodded. "You said you've heard of it, right? What do you know?"
"Nothing important. It's just one of the places that explorers talk about and imagine what's there, so I'm not even sure it's real. It would be fun if it was, but I don't think we can find it."
"Why not? You haven't heard what Leafeon has to say, yet. I have, but I don't know what it all means; I mean, I found some of the information, but he's the one that knows about exploring so he said it could point to the Starlit Grove. Well, not all of it. Meowstic was able to interpret some of it, and Houndoom knew a couple of things too."
The group walked for a few minutes, and Espeon broke off towards a two-story building with a staircase going up the side, ascending it. She began knocking on a door on the side of the building once she got up, and once Ethan walked up the last step, it swung open. "Good morning!" he heard Leafeon chirp from inside.
"I brought your mentees," she said as she walked in. "They've got some questions for you."
Leafeon peeked his head out, smiling when he saw Ethan and Fennekin. "Good morning, you two! Come on in. What's up?"
A pleasantly fresh and sweet scent hit Ethan's nose as he walked in, and it was obvious to see the source: potted plants lined the walls of the large, open living room, and appeared to go down the hallway to the right. On the walls themselves were trellises covered in vines and flowers, all of them lush and bright green. Leafeon and Espeon walked to a small table in the back left of the room and in the back right, in what appeared to be a small kitchen, stood Meowstic, mug in hand.
"Morning," he said to them sleepily as he raised his mug slightly towards them.
"Morning," Fennekin responded, enthralled by all the plants in the room. "These are some, uh...nice plants."
"I live with a grass type," he laughed.
"You like them!" Leafeon called out.
"Never said I don't. What brings you three here so early?"
"We're here to talk about the Starlit Grove," Ethan said as he and Fennekin followed Espeon to the table and sat down at it. "Leafeon mentioned it to us earlier, and they're starting an exploration competition at the Academy, so we figured that we could try and do it if you're ready for us."
"Can't see why not," he replied, placing his mug down on the counter. "I'll go get Houndoom real quick, in case he has anything to add."
"Do you all live here?" Fennekin asked Leafeon as Meowstic disappeared down the hallway covered in vines.
"Yes," he nodded. "Most exploration teams live together; we just find it easier for planning and coordinating missions." He pointed back towards the door, and when he looked, Ethan could see a bulletin board not too dissimilar from the one in the Academy. This one wasn't completely covered in notices, however; there were only a small handful of papers pinned. "That's our bulletin board, which we use to keep track of our missions. We don't have anyone like Roserade or Luxio keeping track of our missions and getting on us to complete them, so I do that for us."
"You do?" Fennekin clarified. "Not Meowstic? I would've thought the leader would do that."
Leafeon's face turned a slight shade of pink as Espeon turned and giggled at him. "Normally. I'm just really organized, is all."
"He loves keeping track of things," Espeon said. "When we were little, he would keep track of who had done their homework and chores. He wasn't even asked; he just did it."
He laughed along with her. "I thought it was fun. Mom and dad certainly weren't going to tell me to stop keeping us all organized."
"I didn't mind it. Umbreon didn't either, if I remember right."
"The triplets were the only ones that did." He laughed again. "Any time they tried to complain, dad always told them I'd stop if they did their chores. Didn't get them to stop complaining, just made them complain to him instead."
"Morning, kiddos!" Houndoom called from the hallway. "Meowstic said you're here about the Starlit Grove?"
"Yeah," Ethan confirmed. "We were wondering if now would be a good time for us to go there for you."
"Probably," he yawned. "Hey Meowstic, you make tea yet?"
"For me. Kettle's on the stove." As Houndoom walked into the kitchen, Meowstic started walking towards the table. "So what do you need to know?"
"Everything, really," Fennekin responded. "What it is we're looking for and where you think the Grove is. Plus, uh...any tips for an expedition? We haven't done one before."
Leafeon turned to Meowstic. "Could you go get the map from my room?" As he nodded and got up, going back down the hallway, Leafeon looked back at them. "I'll give you the map we've been using to pinpoint where we think it is. As for what's there, we think there's another map piece either related to the one you got from the Dark Caverns, or made by the same humans and leading to a similar location. Fennekin, you said you've heard of it once or twice, what do you know about it?"
"Just that some Pokémon think it exists," she shrugged. "They never mention anything more."
"There's a lot of legends about the Grove," Espeon butted in before Leeafeon could respond, "but a lot of them talk about a place of healing. We're not sure why a treasure map, or any map, would be there, but we think there is. There are a lot of legends about the place, but a plurality of them talk about it being a place of healing, so it's possible the map leads to somewhere that can cure diseases. Humans were very advanced, so it's possible that it leads to some medicine or some knowledge that we could use."
"Or even just a berry grove," Leafeon laughed. "That's happened to us before; sometimes, legends like that are just bad distortions of the truth. Someone mishears or misinterprets something, a story gets taken as fact, or someone just wants to misdirect people away from something they're hiding."
"Clear some space!" Meowstic called as he walked back into the room, a large rolled-up map over his shoulder. Almost as soon as Leafeon was able to move his own mug out of the way, Meowstic slammed the map down on the table with a loud thud and began unrolling it; it covered more space than the table could, so they adjusted it over the sides until where they needed was centered in the table. "Houndoom, come bring over my mug, help keep this thing from completely falling over the side."
Houndoom obliged, and Leafeon and Espeon joined theirs to keep the large parchment from spilling onto the floor. "Bit of a big map," Fennekin muttered to nobody in particular as Leafeon made some fine adjustments to the positioning of both the mugs and the map.
"It's a world map," he explained. "Was not cheap, but it's one of the more detailed ones you can find out there. It's very useful for detailed expeditions such as this one."
It was detailed, Ethan would admit that; towns, roads, settlements, mystery dungeons, even some geographical features like hills and mountains were on there. He didn't recognize anything outside of Pokéopolis and the few dungeons he had been to, but it was impressive nonetheless. Fennekin knew a lot about exploring, so she could probably tell him everything there was to know about near every location and dungeon notated there.
"You think the Starlit Grove is here?" Fennekin asked, putting her paw on a spot far to the south of Pokéopolis.
"That's right," Leafeon nodded. "Of the exact location we're not entirely sure, but what we've found points to that general area. But of course, finding precisely where it is is what you two are for! And who knows what you'll find along the way while searching?"
"And if we don't find it?" she asked weakly.
"Try to take notes while you're looking," he instructed, "and if you believe you truly cannot find it, come back here. It's entirely possible we're wrong; that's why we want you to take notes. We haven't gone down there to investigate, so we don't have any verifiable proof that it's there, or even that it exists. Sometimes a story is just a story."
"That looks like it's really far away," Ethan noted. "We've barely managed to fit some missions in a day, so how long will we be gone?"
"Probably a couple of days minimum," Meowstic thought aloud. "Maybe since you two are a bit more inexperienced. And then it depends on how long you two wish to search for it. I'd say at least a day, but especially since you're newer, you might want to take some time to be a little bit more thorough. I wouldn't spend too long, though."
"Right," Fennekin nervously muttered to herself. "I mean, I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Even though that feels like I'm not ready."
"The first expedition is always the most nerve-wracking," Leafeon smiled, "but we wouldn't give this to you if we didn't think you stood a chance. Why don't I go to the market with you two and help you prepare? You can ask me any more questions about the Starlit Grove, or anything else regarding exploring or expeditions."
"I'd like that," she responded with a small smile.
"I should probably head out too," Espeon mused. "I just realized that I told Umbreon I'd go see who was at the door. We were in the middle of discussing something over breakfast. Well, her breakfast. I've already eaten. So she's probably wondering why I haven't come back."
"I have no idea how you haven't driven her completely insane yet," Leafeon laughed as he stood up. "Now come on you two, if we head out now it shouldn't be too busy in the market."