Eleanor leaned up against the back fence in the yard behind the Aspertia Trainer School, carefully watching the battle in front of her. Rosa had defeated Cheren's first gym trainer and it looked like the second would be defeated in a similar manner. Rosa and her starter were facing off against a Patrat but the small normal type couldn't advance because of the flailing vines. Rosa had ended up naming her Snivy Ivy, though she'd made sure to clarify to Eleanor that it was for the plant and not simply shortening the name of the species. When they had first started their training, Eleanor hadn't expected the emphasis that she'd put on Vine Whip to extend to the Pokemon's name.
"She's gotten pretty good already," Eleanor quietly commented and Honor chittered in agreement at her side. While Patty had been the one who had done most of the training with Ivy over the previous few days, Honor had been Rosa and Ivy's biggest cheerleader. As such, Eleanor had decided to let him watch the pair's battles for a bit of extra moral support.
It only took a couple of minutes for Ivy to finish knocking Patrat to the area floor, and Honor started clicking his pincers together in an approximation of applause. While Rosa and Ivy celebrated their win, Cheren stepped away from the spot where he'd been watching to stand next to Eleanor. "It appears you have a knack for teaching. Rosa and her Snivy have made great progress in only four days."
"I only helped her get started. It's pretty much just been her since then," Eleanor said with a shake of her head. Her claim wasn't even an attempt at deflecting the compliment. After the first day, Rosa had led the training sessions, only needing occasional input from Eleanor.
"To be honest, I'm surprised to hear that. She was never terribly attentive in classes," Cheren said thoughtfully. "At any rate, what other Pokemon does she have? So far she's only used her Snivy." When Eleanor hesitated to answer, Cheren assured, "You don't need to tell me if she asked you to keep it a secret."
"No, it's not that. It's actually just Ivy," Eleanor said with a slight wave of her hand. When Cheren raised an eyebrow, Eleanor sighed. "I suggested several times that she catch another one of the Pokemon we saw on route nineteen, but she wasn't interested in any of them."
Cheren fell silent as he considered that and Rosa finally halted in her celebrations to look back towards Eleanor. When she saw Cheren, she called, "Can we have our battle now?"
"Did you heal Ivy yet?" Eleanor called back before Cheren could respond. In place of a verbal reply, Rosa quickly returned Ivy and rushed over to the small healing machine that was located in the yard.
"I was about to say that not catching a Pokemon that you weren't sure if you would mesh with was a sign of maturity, but…" Cheren smiled wryly rather than finishing his statement.
"I think she's plenty mature," Eleanor said defensively. "Just excitable."
"Then please try to keep her reined in," Cheren said, and Eleanor reluctantly agreed. While she would do her duty since that's what the league wanted her to do, Eleanor wished it wasn't necessary. She wanted Rosa to have a normal journey with all of the usual exploration and mistakes that came with one. But unfortunately, that simply wasn't realistic.
While Eleanor continued to ruminate on the injustice of the situation, Cheren quietly stepped away to take his place on the marked battle arena. It only took a couple of minutes for Ivy to be healed and Rosa was practically bouncing with excitement as she retook her place across from Cheren.
"I'll be using my usual team even though you only have one Pokemon," Cheren warned as he selected his first Pokeball.
"That's fine!" Rosa answered confidently and sent Ivy out for her third battle in a half hour. Without any further preamble, Cheren sent out a Lillipup, which Eleanor thought was a good sign for Rosa. The first gym trainer had also used a Lillipup and Ivy had won handily, though admittedly there was likely a large difference between a gym trainer and a gym leader using the same Pokemon. Nonetheless, Rosa decided to use the same strategy that had worked previously. "Keep it back with Vine Whip!"
For the umpteenth time over the last few days, Eleanor watched as twin vines erupted from Ivy's collar and started flailing at her opponent. Cheren's neutral expression didn't change at the display and he calmly said, "Approach cautiously." Lillipup took several careful steps forward but was quickly forced to jump back when one of the vines swung down toward it.
Lillipup attempted several more attempts to push towards its opponent, but each time it was rebuffed by a vine. Eleanor wasn't surprised in the slightest by its lack of success since by the end of their training the previous day, Ivy had been able to tag Patty with fairly good consistency. After his Pokemon's fourth such retreat, Cheren called, "Bite the vines."
Rosa was thrown off-balance by the unexpected counter to her strategy and her eyes darted towards her mentor, looking for advice. Eleanor did her best to keep her full attention on the battle and not meet Rosa's eyes. While Eleanor was happy to help with training, the battle with Cheren was fully Rosa's to win or lose.
A pained hiss forced Rosa to return her attention to the field where Lillipup had managed to do what Cheren had ordered and grab one of Ivy's vines with its mouth. "Shake it off!" Rosa frantically called, but that predictably went wrong when the extra shaking motion made Lillipup Bite harder to maintain its grip as it was lifted off of the ground.
"Nevermind! Stop!" Rosa called when Ivy hissed again at the damage that Lillipup was doing to her vines. The Snivy immediately slackened her attack at the command, and Lillipup was unceremoniously dropped back down to the ground. Cheren's Pokemon sat on the ground, slightly dazed from the impact, but it still managed to maintain its grip. "Keep that one slack and use your other one to force it off," Rosa called, looking a bit more in control. Ivy brought her second vine down on Lillipup, who winced at the lashing.
"Tackle," Cheren ordered from his side of the field and Lillipup released the vine that it had been holding onto. It started charging towards Ivy by running along the vine, leaving it open to only being attacked by the second. Lillipup didn't deviate from its path despite being hit two more times until it finally reached Ivy and Tackled her at full speed, though Ivy was quick to shake off the hit.
"Tackle it back and push!" Rosa said and her confidence appeared to be fully restored now that she was dealing with a scenario they had specifically practiced. Ivy's vines retracted as she jumped belly-first into her opponent, knocking Lillipup back slightly. The moment that there was a tiny bit of breathing room between the two Pokemon, Ivy's vines erupted again and pushed Lillipup further back before it could recover.
With the battle-state more or less reverted back to its original situation, Rosa returned to her strategy of using Vine Whip for both offense and defense. The one difference was that she warned Ivy to be extra careful of Lillipup's teeth, but that turned out to not be necessary. With the blows that it had taken while trying to reach Ivy, it only took a couple more Vine Whips before Cheren's Pokemon collapsed to the ground.
"That's a good start," Cheren said as he returned Lillipup and reached for another Pokeball. "But as a Gym Leader, I aim to be a wall for you to overcome!"
Eleanor couldn't help but smile at the cheesy line, but her mirth disappeared when Cheren sent out his second Pokemon. Unable to keep silent, she incredulously asked, "That's one of your gym Pokemon?" Rosa and Cheren turned away from the battlefield to look at her, and judging from Rosa's curious expression, she didn't recognize the Smeargle that Cheren had sent out.
Cheren didn't seem upset by the interruption and explained, "Professor Juniper imported some Smeargle to test something for her research. When it ultimately didn't work the way she had hoped, she gifted them to me. I thought they would make for a unique challenge so I added one to my gym roster." Eleanor thought that calling a Smeargle a 'unique challenge' for a first gym battle was a major understatement but refrained from commenting as such. Satisfied that Eleanor didn't have any further questions, Cheren turned back to Rosa and asked, "Are you ready to continue?"
"Yes," Rosa answered, though she was clearly wary of her opponent after Eleanor's outburst. Rosa's hesitation meant that Cheren acted first as he told his Pokemon to use Hypnosis. Rosa yelped when the move was called and told Ivy, "Look away!"
The urgency in Rosa's command turned out to not be necessary since Smeagle didn't immediately perform the attack. Grasping its tail with one of its paws, the painter Pokemon started swishing its appendage back and forth, leaving trails of paint floating in the air. It took barely over a second before it had constructed what looked like a 2D Watchog that stood at Smeargle's side. Glowing waves of light began emitting from the construct's eyes towards Ivy, though she wasn't affected by the move since she was staring at the ground instead.
"Woah, I didn't know a Pokemon could do that!" Rosa exclaimed and Eleanor was almost as amazed as her mentee. She'd of course heard what Smeargle were capable of, but she'd never seen one in action before.
"Don't get distracted," Cheren chided. "Tail Slap." This time, Smeargle drew the outline of a Cinccino that began running toward Ivy the moment it was formed.
"Stop it with Vine Whip!" Rosa told Ivy, but her Pokemon was mesmerized by the paint Watchog the moment she looked up. Rosa winced at her mistake and desperately called, "C'mon Ivy! Snap out of it!" Her pleas went unheeded and Ivy stood perfectly still as the Cinccino construct dashed across the field. Despite the fact that it was made out of paint, the image still packed a punch, and Ivy was knocked backward when the multicolored tail slammed into her. While she was no longer dazed by Hypnosis, Ivy still had issues regaining her footing against the assault.
"Push it back!" Rosa shouted, and despite the hits that she was taking, Ivy managed to fall back on her training. Twin vines shot out of her collar, disrupting the Cinccino construct and making paint splatter on the ground in front of her. "Great job! Keep your eyes shut!"
Cheren nodded approvingly before calling, "Strength!" This time, Smeargle rapidly created an image of a large Stoutland that wasted no time in charging across the field toward Ivy.
Rosa looked somewhat panicked by the image twice the height of her blinded Pokemon, but she set her jaw after a second. "It's time for Overgrow!"
From her place on the sidelines, Eleanor softly sighed. She had told Rosa several times that it wasn't necessary to call out abilities, but her mentee insisted. Then again, Eleanor couldn't argue with the results as Ivy's vines began to softly glow. Overgrow had been the second thing that Eleanor had been sure to stress the importance of since the ability had caused her significant issues during her own first gym battle.
"Alright, now get ready…" Rosa called as the Stoutland continued its charge. She waited until the construct was less than a foot away from Ivy before finally calling, "Push!" Ivy's vines instantly shot in front of her, hitting the Stoutland, though it didn't splatter like the Cinccino. For several seconds, Ivy strained to push back the attack until the Stoutland finally followed the Cinccino's example and destabilized.
Before the paint had even hit the ground, Rosa shouted for Ivy to run and the Snivy started dashing across the field. Rosa had to give Ivy slight course corrections to keep her on track since her eyes were still closed. Cheren had Smeargle make another Tail Slap Cinccino construct to stop Ivy, but with a well-timed command from Rosa, it was destroyed before it could strike her. With how close its opponent was getting, Smeargle started to back up, though it evidently couldn't paint and move at the same time.
"Alright! Attack to your left!" Rosa ordered, and both of Ivy's vines moved in the called direction. While one of them went wide, the other vine swiped right through the Watchog construct, making it splatter to the ground. Rosa whooped in excitement before calling, "You can open your eyes now!"
While Eleanor had already thought that Ivy had been effective in the battle, the Pokemon became an absolute terror on the field when she could see again. Smeargle tried several more times to create new constructs, but each of them were destroyed before they were half-formed as Ivy mercilessly flailed on her opponent. Eventually, she slapped the tail-brush out of Smeargle's paws, leaving the Pokemon completely unable to retaliate or defend itself.
Cheren silently watched for another couple of seconds as his Pokemon tried to recover before finally returning it. "That was an excellent battle," the gym leader told Rosa, his voice warm with approval.
Rosa cheered before charging across the field after Ivy, sweeping the Pokemon up to give her a large hug when she reached her side. Ivy was breathing heavily and took a few seconds to relax before she carefully used her vines to return Rosa's hug.
Smiling, Eleanor stepped away from the fence and moved over to join Rosa on the field. "Really good job out there you two."
Rosa hugged Ivy for a moment longer before carefully lowering her Pokemon to the ground. As soon as Ivy was situated, Rosa turned toward Eleanor and pulled her into a hug as well. "Thanks for all your help!"
"Glad I could help," Eleanor sputtered. Despite spending a few days with Rosa and her mom, she still hadn't gotten used to the spontaneous hugs. It took several seconds before Eleanor was finally able to disengage from the hug and lightly nudge Rosa back towards Cheren. The gym leader was patiently waiting with an amused smile as he held a badge case and a TM in each hand, holding them towards the two trainers.
Rosa eagerly reached for hers, but then paused and gave Eleanor a curious look. "You get the badge too?"
"Part of the deal with the league is that I automatically earn a badge when you do. At least for the first four." Eleanor explained, though she suddenly felt guilty for not telling Rosa about that aspect of their partnership. "I'd be fine earning them myself if you want," she quickly added.
Rather than answer, Rosa turned back towards Cheren and unceremoniously snatched both pairs of items out of his hands. She then pushed one of them towards Eleanor, saying, "No way! I'm glad that I can help you back even this tiny bit!"
Eleanor smiled at the gesture and accepted the offered items. "Thank you, Rosa."
Cheren coughed, making Eleanor and Rosa return their attention to him. "This TM contains Work Up, which boosts a Pokemon's offensive potential." He turned to give extra attention to Eleanor before adding, "And you can use the TM as many times as you want."
"Wait, really?" Eleanor asked. She had used a number of TMs on her own journey but all of them had broken after a single use.
"Yes. It's a fairly recent innovation here in Unova, though it hasn't spread outside of the region yet due to the crisis." His smile faded and he looked at the pair seriously. "Speaking of, the road will get more dangerous from here on out. Rosa, you've made an excellent start and you should keep up the good work. However, you should put definite consideration into catching a second Pokemon sooner than later." Rosa nodded seriously and Cheren relaxed slightly. "Well, then. Good luck to both of you and stay safe."
"Thank you," Eleanor and Rosa said at the same time. The two trainers turned back to get their Pokemon and found a tired, but victorious, looking Ivy riding on top of Honor's head. Rosa giggled at the sight and then the four of them said their goodbyes to Cheren before they started walking back to Rosa's house.
As they walked, Rosa kept reopening her badge case to examine her new Basic Badge, though her cheerful disposition slowly faded. They had almost reached Rosa's house when she softly said, "So this is it, huh? I'm finally leaving home. I thought I was ready a few days ago when we met but now…"
"We don't have to leave right away," Eleanor quickly assured her.
Rosa didn't even look tempted by the offer and determinedly shook her head. "I've waited so long to go on my journey that I can't not go now. It's just hard to say goodbye."
Eleanor nodded, understanding the sentiment. "You can call your mom whenever you want," she kindly reminded Rosa, which seemed to cheer her up a bit. Eleanor had been calling her own parents every other day, which had really helped to make both parties feel better about their separation. While it was a bit of a hassle to coordinate given that they were on opposite sides of the planet, it was completely worth it.
Rosa's mom met them at the front door of their house and she must have been able to tell that Rosa had won since she immediately swept Rosa into a hug, crying, "I'm so proud!" Eleanor took a step back and looked away to give the pair space, so she was caught completely off-guard when she was pulled into a crushing group hug. When they finally let her go, Rosa's mom looked directly at Eleanor while still holding onto Rosa. "Thank you for looking after my baby."
"I'll keep her safe," Eleanor promised, still reeling as she got her breath back.
"You stay safe too Eleanor," Rosa's mom said sternly and refused to look away until Eleanor agreed. She then returned her full attention to Rosa and the pair tightly embraced. This time, Eleanor was able to give them space, though she could still tell that both of the pair were nearing tears.
It was another ten minutes before the goodbyes had finished. Rosa and Eleanor waved to Rosa's mom as they slowly made their way back towards the Pokemon Center so they could finish preparing for the journey. When they turned a corner and lost sight of Rosa's house, Rosa sighed deeply and, after a moment's hesitation, Eleanor put one arm around her shoulder, which she seemed to appreciate.
Rosa had mostly returned to her energetic self by the time they reached the Pokemon Center and she rushed to the on-duty Joy to get Ivy healed up. Since none of her Pokemon needed healing, Eleanor instead approached the Pokemart counter to get some supplies. The red-headed shopkeeper was busy putting away stock and without turning around called, "I'll be with you in just a minute!"
"Thanks," Eleanor replied before leaning forward to read the sign sitting on the counter. It listed out that the Pokemart would only sell some items if the purchasing trainer had a certain number of badges, which made sense, especially given the crisis. Ultimately it didn't make a difference for Eleanor's purposes though as it looked like all of the items she wanted either were unrestricted or only required a single badge.
"Oh, you don't need to look at that!" The shopkeeper cheerily said, breaking Eleanor's concentration. Eleanor looked back up and saw that the shopkeeper had returned to the counter and was standing there with one finger resting on her chin. "The league-sponsored trainers don't have the normal restrictions."
"Thanks for letting me know," Eleanor said as she straightened back up. "I'll take three Pokeballs, three Super Potions, two Full Heals, and two Revives in that case." Being able to get Full Heals instead of the status-specific items would be convenient and it was always nice to have a couple of extra Revives in a pinch.
The shopkeeper's eyes lit up as Eleanor listed off her order and she immediately bustled back to the shelves to gather everything. While she was grabbing the Pokeballs, she turned back to Eleanor and asked, "Just Pokeballs? Nothing stronger?"
Eleanor was about to say no, but her thoughts turned to the device on her arm. It would definitely be better to be safe than sorry so she conceded, "A couple Ultraballs would be good actually." While she was thinking along those lines, another worthwhile purchase came to mind, even if she wasn't sure that they would work on Shadow Pokemon. "Could I get a couple Repels as well? Just regular ones," she quickly added before the shopkeeper could try to upsell her again.
With incredible speed, the shopkeeper placed the ordered items on the counter in front of Eleanor. As she placed the last Repel down, she cheerfully said, "I'll send the bill to the league then." Looking at the small mound of items in front of her, Eleanor felt a bit bad about getting all of them on someone else's tab but decided that it was fine since none of them were extravagant purchases.
Eleanor had finished putting most of the items into her bag when Rosa walked up to her with Ivy following close behind. "You ready to go?" Eleanor asked before adding, "How many Pokeballs do you have?"
"Yep! And I've got two empties," Rosa answered with a smile. Since she still had a number of items from her own journey, Eleanor handed off two of her new Pokeballs to Rosa along with a Super Potion and Full Heal. The pair sorted their new items into their bags before finally leaving the Aspertia Pokemon Center.
When they reached the gate out of the city, they were once again greeted by Leo, which had become a usual occurrence over the previous few days. "Hey! Rosa, how'd your battle against Cheren go?"
"We won!" Rosa enthusiastically replied and Leo grinned, sharing her excitement. "Cheren was super tough, but Ivy was amazing and beat his crazy Smeargle!"
Leo tilted his head slightly and thought for a second before asking, "What's a Smeargle?"
"You should ask to see it sometime! It's super cool!"
After Leo nodded at the suggestion, Eleanor interrupted the two. "What's the news Leo?"
The gatekeeper suddenly became serious. "There was a Cipher attack on Mistralton, but Plasma has been quiet today." Eleanor frowned at the news, not sure how to feel about a town that she had been in less than a week prior had been attacked. She hoped that Skyla was okay, but figured that it would have been big news if she'd been hurt and Eleanor didn't want to distract her by calling to check. Leo mirrored Eleanor's expression as he asked, "So are you guys leaving for good now then?"
"Not for good for good, but yeah," Rosa answered sadly.
"Well, I'll be here when you get back!" Leo answered with somewhat forced cheerfulness, but it was enough to make Rosa smile again. Their goodbyes with Leo were significantly shorter than the ones that they'd shared with Rosa's mom, and they soon left the Aspertia gate for the last time in the foreseeable future.
As they walked onto the route, Honor moved to walk in front of them with Ivy once again riding on his head. Once they'd passed the spot that they had done their training at, Eleanor commented, "From what I saw on the map, it's a straight shot to Floccesy Town."
"Yep!" Rosa replied, putting a small pop on the end of the word. "I went there a few times before everything happened."
Eleanor laughed ruefully. "I somehow forgot that you're from here so you already know your way around."
Rosa gave her a bright smile. "I've only been past Floccesy once though, so we'll be in the same boat soon." Eleanor returned the smile, though she thought that wasn't exactly an ideal situation to be in.
About fifteen minutes after they had left Aspertia, Honor suddenly tensed up in front of them and when Eleanor looked forward she saw two people on the path ahead of them. Eleanor held out an arm to stop Rosa, earning her a curious look until Rosa followed her gaze down the path. Eleanor was reaching for Devo's Pokeball when Rosa interrupted her. "It's Hugh and… umm…"
Eleanor squinted and confirmed that the people on the path did look like the other pair. With a sigh of relief, she dropped her arm and supplied, "Michael."
"Yeah! Michael!" Rosa said and then started enthusiastically waving towards them, which wasn't particularly necessary since they were heading in opposite directions on a straight path. Rosa and Eleanor wordlessly decided to meet them in the middle and continued walking down the route's path. As they got closer, Eleanor could see that Michael had his Jolteon out and there was a Patrat walking at Hugh's side. When they were within hearing range, Rosa cheerfully called, "Hey! Are you guys heading home?"
"Yeah, I'm ready to beat Cheren!" Hugh answered self-assuredly.
Rosa smiled and proudly said, "I beat him this morning!"
Eleanor decided to let the mentees catch up and moved to stand next to Michael. "Did you guys run into any trouble out here?"
"Nah, we actually didn't see anyone else the entire time," Michael replied with a shrug. "So we've just been training."
"Wait, you've been training the whole time?" Eleanor asked incredulously. As she finished her question there was a flash of red light behind her, and when she looked she saw that there was a Dewott standing next to Hugh.
Baffled, Eleanor turned back to Michael, who continued as if nothing unusual had happened. "Yeah. Oh, so how did Rosa's gym battle go?"
"It went well. She beat him with only her Snivy though."
Michael was silent for several long seconds. "We overtrained, didn't we?" When Eleanor gave him an empathetic nod, he held up his hands in mock surrender. "To be fair, it's not like I know what gym battles are like. And anyway, it's not like some extra power is a bad thing right now."
Eleanor glanced back at the younger trainers where Rosa was vividly describing her battle to Hugh. "You're not wrong there. I'm going to make sure that she catches another Pokemon before we get to Floccesy."
Michael rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's not a bad idea. Do you know what sort of Pokemon she's looking for? We traveled over a decent chunk of the route so I've probably got a good idea of where a particular Pokemon might be. It's actually been crazy seeing this many Pokemon in the wild."
Eleanor decided to answer his question and refrain from mentioning how there was only a fraction of the wild Pokemon on route nineteen compared to the routes back in Sinnoh. "She floated the idea of being a grass specialist, but I'm not sure how serious she was about it."
"Taking after you already?" Michael asked with a grin.
"I guess so," Eleanor said uncomfortably. Rosa had mentioned being a grass specialist a few times over the past few days, but each time had been as if it was a certainty rather than a possibility. Eleanor hated to admit it, but Rosa's snap decision had her wondering if Cheren had been right about Rosa's maturity.
Michael seemingly didn't share her concerns and simply shrugged. "Why not go for a grass type then and see how she likes it?" Before Eleanor could respond, Michael turned to call over to the two Aspertia natives. "Hey, Hugh! Where'd we see the bugs with the leaf hats?"
Rosa's story had been interrupted, but she didn't seem at all miffed as she quickly asked Hugh, "You really saw some Sewaddle?" Eleanor thought that Hugh looked glad for the escape from Rosa's story and after a few seconds of thought, he vaguely pointed to the northwest. Rosa was completely unphased by the unspecificity and excitedly asked Eleanor, "Can we go?"
Eleanor wasn't thrilled by the idea of combing the route looking for a specific Pokemon, but she also didn't want to let Rosa down on her first day leaving home. Plus Eleanor had just wished that Rosa would be able to explore as part of her journey and they were probably in the safest place in Unova for that. "Sure, why not."
Rosa whooped with excitement. "Let's go!" She barely paused for a second to wish Hugh good luck before starting to purposefully stride in the direction that Hugh had pointed. Thankfully, the section of the route was fairly clear so Rosa was in no danger of leaving Eleanor's sight. Nonetheless, she quickly wished the boys good luck before rushing after her charge and Ivy who had hopped off of Honor to follow her trainer.
"Good luck to you too!" Michael called after them and Eleanor gave him a halfhearted wave as she followed Rosa.
At a jog, it didn't take Eleanor long to catch up with Rosa. "Alright, new rule. Don't go off without me," she said, trying her best to imitate her dad's stern voice.
It didn't quite have the desired effect since Rosa just gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I've always thought that Sewaddle were super cute and I'm pumped to have the chance to catch one already. They used to not be in this part of Unova so I thought I'd have to wait a long time before I found one."
"It's fine to be excited, but be careful too," Eleanor cautioned.
"Got it!" Rosa replied with a salute and Eleanor couldn't help but smile.
Several hours later, it was starting to get dark and they still hadn't seen any sign of a Sewaddle or even the edge of the route. They'd stumbled across a lot more wild Pokemon than they had seen during their training sessions, but there was still nowhere near the amount that Eleanor was used to.
"How about we stop here for the night?" Eleanor asked, not wanting to wander around in the dark. While her Pokemon could see fine at night, she and Rosa didn't have the same advantage. Thankfully, Rosa agreed without argument and Eleanor started pulling her tent out of her bag, but then paused when she noticed that Rosa was doing the same. "It might be a bit cramped, but we should probably share a tent. If something happens during the night, I don't want us to be separated."
"Oh. Sure, that makes sense," Rosa said as she stowed her tent back in her bag. She paused and looked unusually nervous as she asked, "But what if something does happen?"
"It'll be fine," Eleanor assured her as she sent out her other three Pokemon that had been resting in their Pokeballs. "Honor will watch us doing the day and then Devo, Inno, and Patty will take turns watching at night."
Rosa's smile returned in full force. "Thanks for having everything figured out! I've been a bit worried a few times today, but it really looks like our journey is off to a smooth start! I bet we'll find a Sewaddle in no time!"
Eleanor hoped that Rosa's confident statement turned out to be true. Even though they were in the 'safe' section of the region, she still didn't want to spend more time exposed on routes than what was necessary.
A/N: Apologies for the somewhat abrupt end to this chapter. It was originally going to be a single chapter with the next one, but I realized it would be way too long if I did that. It did allow me to pad out some scenes in the next one though so I don't think it was ultimately a bad change.
Thanks to Star for betaing. Next up is Chapter 5: Blind Search