As we arrived in the closest town (being called Fal 'oh), Sam and Rou still hadn't said anything about what had happened earlier. It seemed they were giving each other the silent treatment. I knew it was only a matter of time before one of them needed to say something, but I didn't want to start anything right now.

We entered the town to find it was fairly small, a couple window shops and stores, a motel, and a little dock. We decided to stop inside a place to pick up more food before we look for snow gear. I was just glad they let me in this time. It sure is better not looking like a feral!

The interior of the shop was tidy, with items displayed on shelves and piled in bins. It almost reminded me of those cheap dollar-store places my mom would bring me to as a kid.

We bought a lot of aspear berries, because apparently they warm you up or something. I guess that will help us from the cold? Sam also picked out some Yache berries.

After purchasing those (Sam paid for them while Rou just watched), we headed to the next building over. This was a clothes store... I thought until we walked inside.

Inside were rows and rows of different colored cloths, with different sections varying of types and textures. At a front desk was a hamster-like Pokémon called a Bidoof. There was a Leavanny working on a large piece of cloth behind him. Bidoof are normal type Pokémon like me, and Leavanny are bug and grass type. It's... hard to describe what they look like. They are almost 4 feet tall (I think) and they are like yellow stick figures with antennae, and they are almost completely covered in leaves.

I walked up to the Bidoof, him in the middle of some kind of paperwork. He greeted me without even looking up. "Yes?" He asked in a faintly nasal tone.

"Hi, we are trying to hike the tallest mountain here. What do you have that can get us there warmly for cheap?"

"For cheap?" The Bidoof almost choked as he looked at the three of us. "Up the mountain? Hohoo! Leevan, get a load of these jokers! Hohoo!!"

The Bidoof had gestured over to the Leavanny behind him and he was now laughing. 'Leevan' looked up from her work and rolled her eyes at the overgrown hamster. "Sue, settle down. If they want to hike the mountain, let them hike it."

Sue? The name of a male Bidoof? Gosh, maybe they have different naming rules here?

Leevan stood up and walked over to us. I wasn't really expecting to get laughed at so rudely, but then again, maybe things weren't as cartoonish as I thought. I mean, there wasn't really an example of cartoon logic I'd seen yet, and I have been stuck here for a few weeks now...

I cast that thought away to think about later.

"I don't know how familiar you three are with how we make clothes in this region," Leevan said, eying Sam. "But one size doesn't fit all, as you know. So in this region, many of us make clothing by using specific premade patterns. This way, we can just add other pieces to better fit the shape of the Pokémon.

"Oh, that makes sense!" Sam said. "That way, a four-legged coat fit for an Espeon could fit a Ponyta just fine if it was larger!"

"Yes, exactly." She said, slightly surprised at Sam's depth of understanding. "And maybe needing to extend the legs a bit."

This made some sense to me. If there really are so many different kinds of Pokémon, it makes sense that they would need to keep clothing stores flexible.

"The time and effort to fit them together, however, is tedious." She continued. "That is why you won't find many clothing 'mons who are willing to sell cheap."

"Not that everyone always needs clothing." Rou piped up, picking at a feather with his beak. "Honestly most Pokémon buy them out of looks or necessity."

"But there is a way to make clothing which is far easier and cheaper." Leevan quickly said. "Swaddling!"

I didn't like the sound of that. "Swaddling?" I asked. "What does that entail?"

"I'm glad that you asked!" She said triumphantly, placing a leaf-hand around me and walking us around the store.

"Like I said, sewing together even a simple pattern can take quite some time, even with my nimble raptorials. In the past, only the upper class could afford such tailorship... the patchwork system we currently use helps of course, but there is little that we can do about the sewing..."

The seamstress smirked, a gleam in her eye, "That is, until now! 'Swaddling', which is only a temporary name until I find something more marketable, uses only a single piece of fabric! By applying some strategic folding, pleating, wrapping, and tying, I can create pleasant, affordable clothing for any 'mon or circumstance! It's not entirely threadless, but only a stitch here and there to keep it from unfolding really makes it inexpensive! It's an art to me really... the challenge is seeing the final product in your mind's eye and planning each fold from start to finish! Oh! And as a bonus, the new style can be slipped on and off with relative ease, meaning less 'mon need help dressing themselves!"

Sam was enthusiastic. "Really!?" He said, eyes wide with amazement. I guess he really does just love learning new things.

"In theory anyways... To be honest I haven't actually sold any yet... you would be my first customers to try it!"

Rou, however, wasn't convinced. "Yeah yeah, so you want to try out your experimental clothing on us, how much is it going to run us?"

"I was thinking the swaddling market price for these outfits you're requesting would start around 30-40 poke per set... though if business ends up good I hope to cut it down to 20, eventually-"

"40 each!! Talk about a scam! I see what you're doing, you think you can get away with scamming us with overpriced scarves because who'll know after we freeze to d-"

"Rou, stop!" I interjected. "Let's not jump to any conclusions..." I turned back to Leevan. "Continue?"

"It's quite alright, that is, my dilemma." She said, emphasizing on the 'is' in her statement and showing she had obviously thought all this through. "No one will be buying my new designs unless I can show them that it's worth buying. And that's why I'd willing to make a deal with you.

"I'll give you each two outfits- one for hiking the mountain and one of my summer patterns, which use less material and we can start at 15 poke for each of you. Remember that, that's only 45 poke total. In return, you make them look good and tell everyone you got them from the Leavanny at Sue and Leevan's Fashion Shop in Fal'oh town. If you agree, I can have them done by tomorrow."

I turned it over in my head. This seemed like a killer deal! And I'm sure we would need something to keep us warm up the mountain. I knew we had received some poke from the Bagon Gang, but I didn't know how much we had because Sam carried it. I looked over at Sam. He gave me a slight nod, showing that we had enough to cover this. I looked back at Leevan. "We'll do it." I said.

"Excellent! I'll get started on it right after I get your measurements!" She said happily. She then smiled at Rou reassuringly. "And please don't die on the mountain, I'd hate to let my masterpiece go to waste."

——————————-

After she measured us and got our measurements, we paid for the clothes and started walking out, looking for a place to stay the night. As we were walking out, Sam nudged me, "I didn't like what she said..."

"What do you mean?"

"The thing she said about dying on the mountain... do you think it's really that dangerous?"

I thought about this for a minute. I hadn't really considered how dangerous this trip could be. I mean, part of me still wanted to believe that this world was just like a cartoon or a kid's tv show... but I knew now that this couldn't be true. I'd had too many experiences to prove otherwise. I knew this was indeed very real, and that means that we could really get hurt.

Come to think of it, Pos had even died. That means that Pokémon can die, right? Does that mean that we could die on the mountain? And what about Sam? He was still shivering a bit from the sudden swim we had to take earlier, and his tail still sputtered every once in a while. What if the cold was too much for him? Don't cold-blooded reptiles slow down and sleep when it's chilly? I think I saw that in a magic school bus episode. Will Sam be able to make it through the snow?

I decided that there were too many things that I just did not know for sure, and that Pos likely would have just warned us if there was something wrong with our plan.

"I think it will be hard," I said to Sam. "But not impossible. I think with this winter gear and our supplies, we should be fine."

"Alright. I trust you." Sam said as he let these worries slide away.

I tried not to stare or say anything as I saw Rou roll his eyes.