Rosa woke up almost as soon as the sun started to rise and was immediately fully awake, eager to continue looking for a Sewaddle for her to catch. Nevertheless, she managed to contain her excitement enough so that she wouldn't wake Eleanor, who was still sleeping next to her in the tent. Rosa knew from experience that Eleanor was far from an early-riser, and since she didn't want to wait in the tent until her mentor awoke, Rosa slowly crept toward the tent's entrance.

Eleanor's tent must have had fairly good insulation since Rosa was greeted by the much cooler and refreshing outside air when she opened the tent flap. She paused for a second to enjoy the morning breeze, but quickly stepped outside and zipped the tent back up when she heard a soft grunt from Eleanor.

Hoping that Eleanor would be able to go back to sleep, Rosa looked around their campsite to check on their Pokemon. Ivy was curled up asleep near the fire pit that they dug the previous night, with Honor and Inno both sleeping nearby. There was a soft caw from above and when Rosa looked up, she saw Devo sitting on a thick branch in a nearby tree. The Honchkrow gave Rosa a nod and she cheerfully waved back at him. She didn't see any sign of Patty but guessed that the speedy Pokemon was surveying the surrounding area.

While she knew that she shouldn't go off on her own, Rosa also couldn't stand the thought of sitting still until Eleanor was ready to go. As a compromise, she started walking around the edge of their campsite gathering wood for another campfire. She wasn't sure if they would end up reusing the campsite, but even if it turned out to be a pointless effort, it was definitely better than doing nothing. Plus, even if they didn't end up using it, it would be a nice surprise for whoever came to the spot next.

Being careful to stay within Devo's line of sight, Rosa wandered around picking up sticks and twigs that had fallen to the ground. She'd gathered a pretty good armful of wood when a Purrloin burst out of a nearby bush without warning and loudly hissed at her. Rosa quickly backed away from the Pokemon but stumbled on a root and fell to land on her rear, dropping her gathered sticks everywhere.

Rosa's failed retreat attempt evidently wasn't good enough for the dark type since it took several steps closer with its hackles raised. There was a loud squawk from behind Rosa and less than a second later, Devo landed directly in front of her. Purrloin hissed at Devo, but he didn't react in the slightest. Instead, he forcefully flapped his wings and when Rosa peered around him, Purrloin had vanished.

"Thanks for your help!" Rosa earnestly told Devo, who once again gave her a short nod and then took off to return to the branch that he had been sitting on earlier. When Rosa's gaze followed the Pokemon, she winced slightly when she saw that Ivy, Honor, and Inno were all awake and staring at her. With bated breath, she watched the tent flap, expecting it to burst open at any second. While Rosa wasn't afraid of Eleanor being mad at her, she also didn't want to face her mentor's disappointment at being so careless. Rosa ended up watching the tent for a good ten seconds before she finally sighed with relief, glad that Devo's call hadn't woken Eleanor back up.

Once she was convinced that Eleanor wasn't going to come out of the tent, Rosa finally stood back up and started picking up the wood that she'd dropped. A moment later, Ivy and Honor likewise stood up and came over to help out. Ivy used her vines to pick up some of the sticks while Honor simply held his arms out. Remembering what Eleanor had done the previous night, Rosa piled the sticks across his arms so that they fit right into the grooves in his armor. While Honor didn't seem to have any issues regardless of how many sticks Rosa stacked on his arms, Ivy clearly couldn't match his ease. She clearly still had plenty of strength training to do since her vines were wobbling while carrying only a few decent-sized sticks.

It didn't take long for the three of them to pick up all of the dropped wood and start walking the short distance back to the fire pit. Rosa kept glancing at Ivy as they moved to make sure that she was doing alright, though the Snivy seemed to manage her small load fairly well. While they had already done a good amount of training with Ivy's vines, Rosa decided that they should continue to focus on them. Seeing Hugh's Dewott had reminded her that it wouldn't be all that long until Ivy evolved, and her arms would shrink as a Servine and then completely disappear as a Serperior. Rosa wanted to be absolutely sure that Ivy's vines were a ready substitution for when that happened.

When they reached the campsite, they set down their respective loads near the firepit. "Thanks!" Rosa happily told the Pokemon, barely remembering in time to be quiet. Deciding that she had had enough adventure for one morning, Rosa resigned herself to simply sitting on a log and waiting for Eleanor. A few minutes after she had sat down, Patty sped back into the campsite, making Rosa start slightly, thinking something had happened until Patty simply leaned against a nearby tree, looking completely relaxed. Rosa gave the Pokemon a friendly wave, which was slowly returned after a second.

It took another half-hour before Rosa finally heard shuffling from within the tent. Eleanor emerged a couple of minutes later, already holding a can of coffee. "Morning!" Rosa said cheerfully, though Eleanor only grunted in reply as she pulled the tab to open the can and immediately took a swig. Rosa wasn't offended by the lack of a coherent greeting and giggled. She had already gotten used to Eleanor's lack of responsiveness in the morning.

The trainers and their Pokemon sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Eleanor finally spoke. "So what was Devo cawing about?"

Rosa sat up straighter at the sudden question with a soft eep. She took a deep breath before reluctantly explaining. "I was gathering wood but I guess I disturbed a Purrloin. Devo scared it away for me."

Eleanor leaned back in her seat to more easily look up at her starter and simply said, "Good job." The Honchkrow made a short squawk in reply but Rosa kept her full attention on her mentor. There were a few more tense seconds of silence before Eleanor finally readdressed Rosa. "You didn't do anything wrong, but maybe keep a Pokemon closer next time."

Rosa nodded enthusiastically, glad that Eleanor didn't appear either mad or disappointed by her blunder. Deciding to push her luck, she ventured, "So what's the plan for today?"

Eleanor simply shrugged. "I guess we'll keep looking for a Sewaddle. I wish we had a bit more specific information to go off of, but there's not much we can do about that." There was a momentary pause as Eleanor's gaze swept over the newly renewed woodpile. "And we can keep camping here until we do find one."

"We can just stay here until we find a Sewaddle?" Rosa asked with a bit of surprise.

"Sure. We're not exactly under a time crunch and it's your journey," Eleanor said with another shrug and a sip of her coffee. "Hunting for a specific Pokemon is a classic part of a journey so it's pretty much expected."

"Thank you!" Rosa said while jumping to her feet, excited to resume their search. She was interrupted when her stomach loudly grumbled, helpfully reminding her about breakfast. "I'll get our bags," she added, heading back to the tent to retrieve both of their bags since they contained all of their food.

After they'd finished their short meal and packed up camp, Rosa and Eleanor resumed working their way through the route. As Eleanor had mentioned the previous night, Honor was once again leading the way while the rest of dark specialist's Pokemon were returned to their Pokeballs. The group aimlessly walked around the route for a while without any success before Rosa asked, "Do you have any tips for finding a specific Pokemon?"

"It's mostly about knowing their habitat and having patience," Eleanor answered, then chuckled. When Rosa gave her a curious look, she explained. "I hadn't meant to make the pun, but Patty is short for Patience. Mostly because of how long it took me to catch her."

"Oh! So then Devo and Inno..." Rosa trailed off, trying to think of what they would be short for.

"Devotion and Innocence," Eleanor finished for Rosa before she could guess. "A lot of people have negative preconceptions about dark types so I wanted to name them after virtues. I know it isn't much, but I want to do whatever I can to change that."

Rosa was silent as she took a second to reflect on her own thoughts on dark types. Apart from her close encounter with the Purrloin that morning, she hadn't really interacted with any before. However, she had to admit that despite the lack of personal experience, she'd always been more than a bit wary of the dark types native to Unova. Pokemon like Krookodile and Hydreigon had always been scary to her while the possibility of Zoroark's illusions were frightening in an entirely different way. But she realized with surprise that they weren't any more dangerous than any other strong Pokemon. "That's really awesome!" Rosa earnestly exclaimed.

Eleanor coughed, but it was clear that she was trying to cover some embarrassment. "Anyway, we were talking about looking for a particular Pokemon. I know it's not the best advice, but really it sometimes does just come down to pure patience. I had to keep going back into the Great Marsh for almost a full week before I finally found Honor. At least here we don't need to burn through gym earnings while we're looking."

The name Great Marsh sounded familiar but it took a few seconds for Rosa to place it. "That's your safari zone, right? It would be cool if we got a safari zone." However, she immediately realized the obvious outcome and glumly commented, "But I guess that wouldn't be a good idea. All of the Pokemon probably would have been poached by now."

The two trainers fell silent at the sudden drop in the mood until Rosa lightly slapped her cheeks to get her head back into it. While she wasn't as gung-ho about it as Hugh, Rosa still wanted to do whatever she could to help her home region, but she couldn't do anything about it until she was stronger. And right now, getting stronger meant finding a Sewaddle.

With her thoughts refocused, Rosa started quietly listing what she knew about the species out loud in the hopes that it would jog some idea. "Sewaddle are normally pretty shy and cover their heads with leaves when scared. They like to make things so they might make their own shelters, but there must be at least some out in the open since Hugh and Michael said they saw some. They're also not usually on this route."

"And what can you take from that information?" Eleanor interrupted.

Rosa was a bit surprised that her mentor had been listening to her mutterings, but moved past that to consider Eleanor's question. After thinking for a few seconds, Rosa decided that the last piece was the most important bit. "They're new to the route so they wouldn't have a set territory," Rosa said with confidence, sure about her conclusion. She continued working through it and got more animated as she talked. "Since they're shy, they'd probably want to hide from other Pokemon and set up their shelters in peace. So they'd want to find a place where they wouldn't be disturbed!"

Eleanor was clearly smiling now and waved her hand in a circular motion, signaling Rosa to keep going. "So that means?"

"That means we need to figure out where the other Pokemon territories are and find the edges and gaps! That's where the Sewaddle will be! With how angry that Purrloin was, we were probably in its territory so we can rule that out!" Rosa felt proud of herself for several seconds but then realized how much work it would be to do what she had suggested. She didn't know anything about surveying routes, but she guessed that it was something that would take even skilled researchers several days to do. Then again, she realized with a start, there was already someone who had done a decent amount of the required legwork. Turning back to Eleanor, Rosa asked, "Can we ask Patty? I think she was looking around while we were sleeping."

"Feel free," Eleanor said with approval as she sent out Patty.

The moment that the Sneasel materialized, Rosa eagerly asked, "Did you see any Sewaddle while you were running around earlier?" Patty frowned and glanced at her trainer, but Eleanor silently nodded back toward Rosa. Realizing that Patty probably didn't know what a Sewaddle was, she clarified. "They're bug Pokemon about half as big as Ivy and they wear a big leaf for a hat." Patty turned back to Rosa and after a second, she shook her head. Undeterred, Rosa pressed, "Did you find any spots where you didn't see any other Pokemon then?"

This time Patty nodded and spent several seconds looking around before finally pointing further to the northwest. The group set out again with Patty leading the way this time, and as they continued walking, Rosa grew increasingly impressed by how far out Patty had scouted overnight. Eventually, Patty came to a stop and lazily gestured to the area in front of them. "Thank you!" Rosa earnestly said though Patty only shrugged in reply.

"Thanks Patty. Why don't you get some more rest?" Eleanor said and returned the Pokemon a moment later. After clipping Patty's Pokeball back on her belt, Eleanor turned to Rosa and asked, "What next?"

Rosa put a hand to her chin to consider their options, but this time she wasn't about to think of anything beyond the obvious. "I guess we just check this area for any Sewaddle?" Rosa answered questioningly, wishing she had a better solution.

"That's fine. We can look around and see if we spot any," Eleanor said, seemingly fine with the lack of direction. The four of them started looking around the area that Patty had pointed out, though Rosa could immediately tell that it was going to be a long shot. Since it was still the middle of summer, all of the trees were covered with the same green leaves that Sewaddle wore, so spotting one from the ground would be almost impossible.

Rosa continued trying to think of a way to improve the process as the group moved from tree to tree. After they had finished checking the fourth tree with no signs of any Pokemon, Rosa suddenly perked up. "Can we have Devo try to flush one out?" This time instead of responding, Eleanor wordlessly sent out the requested Pokemon. When Devo had appeared, Rosa repeated her question to him. "Can you try to use your wings like you did earlier and see if anything comes off of the trees?" Devo gave Rosa his usual tight nod and then took off of the ground to start hovering next to a nearby tree.

Rosa's hair began flapping wildly in the wind as Devo started violently beating his wings at the tree, but she ignored it so that she could keep a sharp eye out for any Sewaddle. For a moment her hopes were raised when several small items were blown off of the tree, but that hope was quickly quashed when Rosa realized that the objects were berries. After ten seconds of using Whirlwind, Devo finally stopped and landed on one of the branches of the buffeted tree.

"Thank you!" Rosa called up to him and rushed over to collect the downed berries off of the ground. They weren't what she was looking for, but she was more than happy to take them instead of letting them rot on the ground. With Ivy's help, it didn't take long for Rosa to pick up the assortment of Oran and Pecha berries and safely place them in her bag. With that taken care of, she looked back up at Devo and asked, "Can we try another one?"

They repeated the process for a few more trees, but for a while didn't have anything to show for it except an increasingly large berry haul. Finally, on the fifth three, Rosa spotted a small green object fly out of the tree and called for Devo to stop. As soon as she was sure that she wouldn't be blown away, Rosa ran toward the object with Ivy following behind.

As Rosa had thought and hoped, the dislodged object turned out to be a dazed Sewaddle lying on its back. After the Pokemon regained its senses, it tried to right itself, though all that it accomplished was waving its legs pitifully in the air. Rosa had always been told that you were supposed to battle wild Pokemon that you wanted to catch in order to impress them so they'd want to join your team, or else weaken them so that they could be caught if the former didn't work. However, she didn't think that she had the heart to battle a Pokemon that was struggling just to stand up. After that moment of indecision, Rosa hurried to Sewaddle's side, reaching into her bag as she moved.

Rosa reached Sewaddle's side as it finally managed to regain its footing, but the Pokemon immediately covered its head with its leaf. "Sorry we knocked you out of your tree," Rosa said and placed one of the two Persim berries that they'd found in front of Sewaddle. When the bug Pokemon didn't react, Rosa took a few slow steps back and gestured for Ivy to do the same.

Even after they had backed up, there was no movement from Sewaddle for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the leaf covering started to retract off of the Pokemon's head, only to snap back into place when it saw that Rosa was still there. There were a few more seconds of complete stillness from Sewaddle before the hood once again began lifting off of its head. This time, the Pokemon cautiously looked up at Rosa but didn't otherwise move.

Rosa gave the Pokemon a friendly smile. "Sorry again. You can have that berry if you want," she added, pointing at the Persim berry. Sewaddle turned its attention down to the berry in front of it and took a cautious bite. It evidently liked the flavor since it began slowly nibbling on the berry while only occasionally glancing back up at Rosa.

Rosa quietly watched Sewaddle eat for several seconds before she couldn't contain her excitement anymore. "Do you want to come with us?" Sewaddle stopped eating and cautiously looked up at Rosa, but otherwise didn't react to her eager question. Deciding that it was a positive sign that the wild Pokemon was at least listening, Rosa pressed on. "My goal is to become a grass specialist and I think Sewaddle are really awesome! I would love to have you join my team!"

When the Pokemon still didn't respond, Rosa switched tracks. "If you're not interested, do you have any friends that would be?" That finally garnered a reaction out of Sewaddle, but it was for the Pokemon to slowly shake its head, making Rosa deflate. "Oh. Okay. Well, sorry again for knocking you out of your tree."

Rosa turned around to start walking away, but she was interrupted by a light tug on her left shoe. When she looked down, she saw there was a String Shot coming out of Sewaddle's mouth attached to her foot. "Do you need something else?" Rosa asked curiously as the wild Pokemon lightly tugged on the strand. Cautiously optimistic again, she asked, "Or do you want to come with me?" This time Sewaddle nodded and Rosa grinned widely.

While she was glad that Sewaddle had decided to join them, Rosa didn't understand the reply that it had given her previously. She quickly replayed what her question had been and suddenly realized what Sewaddle's reply had actually meant. "Ohh. You were saying you didn't have any friends." Even as the words left her mouth, Rosa realized how bad that sounded and cringed. Sewaddle tilted its head down to look at the ground, making Rosa feel even worse.

Rosa quickly stammered an apology. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it that way! And besides, you have friends now! I'm Rosa and this is Ivy," Rosa said while gesturing to her starter, who used one of her vines to wave at Sewaddle. She then turned to point out Eleanor and her Pokemon, who had kept their distance when Rosa had approached Sewaddle. "And that's Eleanor, Honor, and Devo!"

Sewaddle apparently hadn't noticed the other three since it jumped when Rosa pointed them out and its leaf started to cover its head once again. A friendly chitter from Honor was enough to make the leaf retract enough that Sewaddle could once again see the other three. While Eleanor gave Sewaddle a casual smile and Honor waved, Devo didn't react at all. When Sewaddle had returned its attention to Rosa, she explained. "Eleanor and her Pokemon are traveling with us to make sure we stay safe." That was enough for Sewaddle to relax the rest of the way and it fully uncovered its head.

With Sewaddle once again calm, Rosa took a second to think if there was anything she had done with Ivy shortly after meeting her. The answer came right away, prompting her to ask, "Do you want a nickname?" When the Pokemon slowly nodded, Rosa smiled again and attempted to come up with some potential names. She wasn't having much luck until she spotted the strand of String Shot still attached to her foot. "How about Silk?"

It only took a moment for the Pokemon to nod, this time with significantly less hesitation. "Great!" Rosa enthused with a large grin, though it soon turned sheepish when she suddenly realized she'd forgotten a very important step. She once again reached inside of her bag, this time retrieving one of the Pokeballs that Eleanor had given her the day before. Rosa held it out to the newly named Silk and asked, "You ready to go in the Pokeball? I can let you out right away again after."

Some of Silk's earlier cautiousness returned, but it still stretched its head forward to press the center button on the Pokeball. The Sewaddle disappeared in a flash of red light and the Pokeball barely shook a single time before there was a soft ding as the capture was confirmed.

Unable to contain her excitement, Rosa hopped back to her feet. "I did it!" Her enthusiasm was contagious as Ivy started happily waving her vines around a moment later. After a few seconds, Rosa calmed down a bit and turned toward Eleanor to see that her mentor was smiling at her. "I hope that was alright. I know that you're supposed to battle wild Pokemon but…"

"That was perfect. Congratulations," Eleanor assured her but then flashed Rosa a wry smile. "Though I don't think I've ever heard of someone nicknaming a Pokemon before catching it."

Rosa giggled at that before pulling out her Pokedex to check on her new teammate. After seeing that Silk was male, she tossed his Pokeball down to the ground and a moment later he reappeared, looking much the same as he had a minute prior. "Is there anything you need to get before we leave?" Rosa asked. One of the reasons why she thought Sewaddle were so cool was because of craft projects that they usually had. When Silk shook his head sadly, Rosa attempted to cheer him up. "Well, I'd love to help you if you do start working on something!"

That appeared to cheer him up, so after doing one more check to make sure he was fine with it, Rosa lifted Silk off of the ground and placed him on top of her bag. Sewaddle weren't known for being all that fast so that seemed like a good way for him to keep up with them as they walked. Once Silk was situated, Rosa turned back to Eleanor and found that she had returned Devo at some point. "We're all ready to go! I guess we won't need that wood I got this morning after all."

Eleanor shrugged. "We might as well reuse the campsite. I think it's more or less on the way to Floccesy from here and since we're still not exactly in a rush, it makes sense to reuse a spot that we know is good. Tomorrow we can head deeper into the route."

"Okay!" Rosa happily agreed, glad that her work from that morning wouldn't go to waste. She wondered if Silk would want to make anything using the sticks and decided that he would get the first pick of wood before any of it got put on the fire. With that decided, they started making their way back to the campsite. Rosa had an extra pep in her step since she was excited to continue Ivy's training, get to know Silk better, and introduce Silk to Eleanor's other two Pokemon.

They ended up spending three more nights on the route before finally spotting the gate that marked the entrance to Floccesy Town. Rosa was looking at the gate to see if it was any different from the Aspertia one when she noticed something unusual in the sky to the north. When she peered closer at it, she realized that it was a plume of smoke that was quickly becoming darker and thicker. "Um, Eleanor?" Rosa said cautiously, pointing it out.

Eleanor frowned at the sight, giving the smoke a thoughtful and cautious look. A second later the relative quiet of the route was disturbed when her Xtransciever began to ring. Eleanor looked at the screen with her eyebrows furrowed before tapping it to answer the call. "Hello?"

"Hey, quick question," a voice that Rosa recognized as Michael's came out of the device's speakers. "Where are you at?"

Eleanor's eyes darted to Rosa, then the gate. "We're just a few minutes out of Floccesy. Why?"

"Oh good. Actually, hold on one second," Michael said and when he started speaking again a second later, his voice sounded much more distant. "Moon, use Return! Tail, Water Pulse! Hugh, get to work on putting out those fires!" There were a few seconds of silence, which Eleanor and Rosa used to share a startled look. "No, I'll fight. You work on the fire." A moment later, Michael's voice returned at full volume, though he still sounded completely casual. "Sorry about that. Anyway, we ran into some Plasma grunts at the ranch and I wouldn't say no to some backup. It would be great if you could swing by."

Eleanor opened her mouth to answer, but the line went dead before she could get a word out.

A/N: Thanks to Star (quarknova on this site) for betaing. Next up is Chapter 6: Dark Dealings