The sounds of other Pokémon outside their door stirred Ethan from sleep; as he came to, he could tell Fennekin was waking up as well since he could no longer hear the almost-snore she did when she was deep in sleep. The hay rustled as he sat up, and could hear some more rustling coming from the other side as Fennekin too woke up.

"Morning," she groaned, brushing some of the larger pieces of hay out of her fur. "Day of the big expedition. Almost doesn't feel real, does it?"

"Feels like any other day." A cool, damp breeze blew in through their window; it wasn't properly cold, but after the heat of the summer, it sure felt that way. "Guess that's kinda similar; feels like this should be more...monumentous, I guess."

"Yeah." Fennekin got up and stretched, a few of her joints popping in the process. "I know what you mean. Still could barely sleep last night I was so excited, though." She sighed. "And nervous, I guess. I just really hope this expedition goes well."

"We'll be with everyone else, so if something goes wrong, we're all in the same boat. Besides, even if it does, I think it'll be fun. I know you've traveled a lot, but me...I don't remember anything before the day you found me, and I've had a lot of fun going to all these new places. Who knows what we'll see on this expedition."

Fennekin sighed again. "I know you're right, but I'm still worried. Especially since our last expedition didn't really go anywhere."

"We learned a lot about a place everyone thought wasn't real, I wouldn't call that 'not going anywhere'."

"And who can we tell?" She tugged the knot on her scarf, making it tighter from gradually coming undone overnight. "We have to lie about why our scarves are pink, even! I know there's a good reason, but wouldn't it be nice to at least say what we saw to someone? Anyone?"

Ethan had to practically bite his tongue to keep from responding; was that what this was all about, just wanting someone to know what she'd done? It made some sense, he supposed, but it seemed...he wasn't sure what. Almost like it was what she wanted, but not really the whole story behind it. He knew what they had done, and she had been incredibly helpful on that expedition. She was even the one who saw the Grove itself; if not for her, he probably never would've found it!

"Ethan." Her voice snapped him out of his trance, now realizing he was sitting on his bed staring straight ahead. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah sorry, just thinking. You know, Fennekin, we know what we saw in the Starlit Grove. So I guess you can say what you saw to me."

"Yeah, but you were there. Where's the fun in that?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "It gets to be our little secret. Something only you and I know. Isn't that kinda fun?"

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm not really the kind of Pokémon that likes keeping secrets. It just feels...I don't know. It feels like I'm lying, like I'm being deceptive. It would be better if I could just tell everyone."

"But then everyone would swarm the Grove," he pointed out. "Shaymin said she kept it hidden so it can be reserved for who actually needs it, remember? I get that it's not fun to just keep such a big discovery hidden, but it's the best thing we can do."

"You're right." She paused. "I just wish we could tell them what we know, you know? I mean, we respected her privacy, so why can't other Pokémon? Maybe we could tell the Academy, I trust them."

"I trust them too if we told them why it was so serious to keep it hidden, but...I don't know, every other Pokémon we tell, it becomes harder and harder to keep it hidden. And how did Shaymin say it, 'wild tales'? Us telling them that there's nothing there valuable to any of them is probably fine, but like she said, stories get blown out of proportion."

"I know. I just wish I didn't."

"Wish you didn't know about the Grove, or didn't know we shouldn't tell people?"

"I...well, you know, I know…" She cut herself off with a single shaky giggle. "I should probably stop saying 'know' now, right? But I…" Another giggle. "Sorry. I was going to say 'you know' again."

He smiled; it was good to see her mood improving. "I know...or, perhaps I should say, I understand what you mean. Would just be nice if you could guarantee Pokémon wouldn't take advantage of it, but I guess it's better safe than sorry. You know?"

The two of them laughed at Ethan's final sentence. "I do understand. And you're right that it's better safe than sorry, I just wish we were able to tell someone what we found. Why explore if we can't go tell others about it?"

"Again, you can always tell me." He shrugged. "I kn...I'm aware it's not the same, but at least you don't have to keep it entirely to yourself, right? And not like everything we'll ever find is something we have to keep secret. We didn't have to keep the Sandy Point treasure secret, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." The two sat in silence for a few moments before Fennekin got up and walked to the door. "We should probably go out now, it sounds like most everyone is already gathering."

Ethan yawned and stretched as he stood up and walked to the door, opening it for Fennekin and letting her through before closing it behind them. She was right; nearly everyone was gathered in the main room of the top floor, except for Luxio and Cinccino. Cinccino was often late and half asleep, but Luxio was usually there before any of the trainees. Before he could ask anybody else where they were, Roserade raised a hand, signaling silence which quickly fell over everybody else.

"Thank you," she began, passing a stack of papers to Helioptile at the front. "Take one map and pass it around; you all signed up for this expedition, so we made copies for all of you. Please take one even if you are planning to travel with somebody, god forbid something should happen to either of you.

"Now, as you have probably noticed, it is only me this morning. Luxio and Cinccino left here yesterday to set up a forward camp closer to your destination; with their experience and the additional time they took to travel, everything should be ready for you all once you arrive. If you look at your maps, we have marked the rendezvous point: the Iron Forest. From there, you will be traveling towards Carracosta Island, the objective of this expedition." Ethan looked down at the map: it was a basic topography map, with Pokéopolis located on the east coast and Iron Forest far to the northwest, on a paw-shaped peninsula jutting out into the water.

"You are all in charge of making your own way to the Forest," Roserade continued, "and from there, Luxio and Cinccino will be organizing travel so nobody gets left behind. If something goes wrong and you are not yet to the Iron Forest, please come back here. The Academy's ground floor serves all explorers, not just those at the Academy, so I will be here and the Academy will remain open so there is no interruption in service. Are there any questions?"

All the trainees looked at each other wordlessly, so Helioptile raised her hand. "Can we head out now?"

"Yes," Roserade nodded with a smile on her face. "Good luck all of you, and most importantly, have fun!" As soon as she finished speaking a small roar erupted as Pokémon began scrambling to find their traveling partners, but before he even knew it, Ethan's hand was grabbed by Fennekin, who led him down the stairs.

"Come on!" she said as they turned the landing on the third floor to go further down. "Let's try to be the first ones there!"

"It's not a race," he laughed as he unsuccessfully tried to get his hand away from hers. "Let's try to enjoy the trip too. Not saying go slow, but we don't have to burn ourselves out."

They got down to the ground floor before anyone else. Truly anyone else: there weren't even any other explorers unaffiliated with the Academy there. "I know, but after losing the competition to actually get this map, I want to make up for it somehow."

"We didn't lose that competition," he corrected. "We don't know who came in last place, only that we weren't first. And we don't need to 'make up' for anything, most other teams didn't win either. Even then, we're the newest people at the Academy, so they probably weren't thinking we were the favorites to win."

"Oh." She averted her gaze from him. "You think they don't think we're capable?"

"That's not what I said, Fennekin. We're doing great work, but we are objectively less experienced than everyone else here. It's not that we're not capable, just...we were going up against some really good Pokémon who've been doing this for a while. If we were super experienced and they were all new and we didn't win it would be another thing, but we're still learning a lot of what they already know."

Footsteps started coming from the stairs behind them, so Fennekin sighed and shook her head. "I don't know. Let's just head out, okay? We can talk more about it later."

"Alright." He'd hold her to that; she was a fine explorer, he didn't know why she couldn't see that.

Cool air, heavy enough that dew was forming on the ground, blanketed them as they opened the doors of the Academy, soft gray light ahead of them turning orange on the horizon as the sun was coming up. There were a few Pokémon out in front of the academy, and judging from their general shapes—

"Stargazers!" Leafeon called out as he and the rest of Team Sunstriders walked up to them. "You two are heading out on the big expedition, right?"

"Yeah," Ethan nodded.

Meowstic held up a small canvas pouch. "We brought a little going away present. What do you say we head to the Café and brew a pot before you get going?"

"We found some gummis, too!" Houndoom exclaimed. "Always fun to go all out at the Café before a big journey, isn't it?"

Ethan and Fennekin exchanged looks, and when neither said anything, she looked back to them. "We were kinda hoping to get on the road quickly…"

"It shouldn't take long," Leafeon smiled. "The tea is a special type too, it should make you feel a bit more resilient for your journeys. And we weren't able to see you off when you went looking for the Grove, so let us make up for it with you!"

Fennekin was the one who wanted to just get going, so Ethan looked to her for an answer. "I guess we can come along real quick," she mumbled.

Meowstic smiled and put the bag of tea away. "We'll make sure not to keep you."