Pious Odyssey

[Zeromus]

Chapter 2 – Convergence of Two Fates

This whole situation seemed ludicrous Rosa thought to herself as she angrily glared at the pokemon around her. Not being a native citizen of Psyonia, this was the first time she had spent any time inside the kingdom, but it didn't mean she was ignorant to their customs and ways of life. She had been sure to read up on all the different places of Evolia before she set out on her journey so as to make sure the whole thing went smoothly. In her books that she had read through, she found that the Psyonians held eevees and eons in such esteem that the only other kingdom to rival their dedication were the Obsidians, thus surpassing her kingdom's own devotion. To find that they held her kind in even higher regard than her people did was astounding to her, and given her background, she was more than looking forward to being pampered and looked up to upon traveling through the psychic kingdom.

When she decided to make a pass through the small town that had no marking on her map, she had failed to notice the angry glares that she was receiving from the native dwellers, and failed to notice that she was being followed when she made herself to the south-western reaches of the town to take a rest by the lake she had chanced upon. Because she had remained ignorant to the true nature of her predicament, she made the poor decision of stopping to rest, feeling almost as though she were back in Tidania. It was when she had fully decided to settle down did she realize the folly in her actions, and noticed her assailants as they had begun to surround her. To Rosa, it was insulting enough as it was that these random group of brats were rude enough to cramp her personal space without her consent, but then had the audacity to threaten her for some reason unbeknownst to her.

It didn't matter what their reason was, their behaviour was inexcusable. She could get answers later however once she put these runts in their place as the circle was beginning to shrink, the female eevee poised herself into a battle pose, and began to size up her opponents and take into account who she was dealing with. There was six opponents: a phanpy, bidoof, machop, nidoran, ledyba, and litleo. While she couldn't accurately judge just how powerful they all were, she could tell the phanpy was the leader of the group as he was the one to make the first move towards her slowly, the bidoof being the last showed that he was most likely the weakest link. She would have to keep this in mind when the fight broke out.

"If you leave now, then perhaps I'll be nice enough to not notify your town guard of your incredulous behaviour. That is, after you answer a few of my questions," Rosa began to threaten, only being half serious about the statement as she tried to bide for more time.

This earned a snicker from the phanpy as he continued his slow advance towards his victim. "You hear that you guys? If we leave the eevee alone," he said, putting emphasis on Rosa's species' name, "she won't go run crying to the other mon and get us in lots and lots of trouble!"

"I guess we have no choice but to comply with her demands Aries. She is after all one of Arceus' chosen." The ledyba grinned, but it was clear she was mocking Rosa as she made no movement to stop her advancement.

"I have an idea. Since it seems our humble visitor is new around here, why don't we give her the ol' Patrasan welcome that we give to only our most illustrious of visitors?" the nidoran offered.

"I think that's a great idea," the machop laughed. "In fact, why don't I be the first to do so!" the machop responded as he broke away from his group's formation, charging at Rosa with his fist raised.

Doing an hundred and eighty degree turn, Rosa had no time to charge up an attack of her own and could only brace herself for the oncoming attack that was sure to leave a mark given her type disadvantage. However, just as the machop's attack was about to connect, a blur rammed itself into her opponent and sent him flying into the lake with an audible sploosh. Surprised by the sudden interference, Rosa could only stare at the new arrival until she was snapped out of her stupor by the sound of his voice.

"Welcome to Patras," he said without looking at her, his eyes glued to that of the annoyed phanpy's.

It seemed to Rosa that these pokemon knew this eevee quite well as they had stopped moving altogether and diverted their attention away from her to him. Their expressions were all similar except for that of the phanpy who looked like someone had injected his breakfast with cough syrup. For the rest however, their body postures had stiffened, and their expressions had changed from that of surefire confidence, to uncertain fear, as it became unclear as to who would win this fight now despite it being five-on-two. Hmph, figures I was right about most of them being spineless cowards. They still have over twice the numbers and yet they're afraid.

"What do you think you're doing here, freak?" Aries demanded, directing his insult at Rosa's savior.

"I should be asking you the same question. What could this random traveler have done to warrant you picking a fight with her?" the eevee frowned, returning the question. "Actually, knowing you guys she probably did nothing since you don't seem to need a reason to pick on others."

At this, the blue elephant began to laugh causing his opponent to frown even further, and Rosa's confusion to deepen.

"That's a great one. Pretending we don't have a reason for putting the four-legged freak in her place," Aries replied with mirth.

Surprised by the phanpy's offhand remark, Rosa took a few steps forward, hackles raised as she began making her own growling sounds. "Why you little... I'll show you who the four-legged freak is," she shot back as she began to charge up a Shadow Ball, but stopped when the male eevee turned to gaze into her blue eyes with his striking amber ones. They continued to stare for only about five seconds; long enough for her to get his message.

This was personal, and the eevee wished to get through this alone.

Recognizing that, she backed away from him but remained standing in case any of the others decided to take a cheap shot at her.

Convinced that she got the message, the male eevee returned his attention to the phanpy. "We've ran through this whole scenario who knows how many times now," he began, motioning with his head all of the other pokemon, "and only now has the irony of this whole thing dawned upon me."

"Oh? And what irony might that be?" the phanpy sneered at him, snorting air out of his trunk.

"It's the whole reason why you decided to pick a fight with this innocent pokemon. It's ironic because you're treating her the same way that you scold my kind for treating everyone else. It's humourous and down right pathetic really."

This statement earned an exchange of questioning glances from Aries' companions as they recognized the eevee had a point. Aries however was not so easily deterred in his goals however, and he began to paw at the ground as his temper began to rise, and his teeth became exposed as he lowered his head into an attack position.

"You think you're so clever huh? Let's see you talk smart when I grind your bones into dust!" Aries exclaimed as he lifted his head and then shouted, "Patras Pranksters! Attack!"

At the sound of the loud command, any apprehension that the others had before vanished in a second as they too began to charge into the middle of their circle towards the two eevee. Backing away through the open space in the formation still left by the absent machop, Rosa placed herself at a safe distance as she watched the ensuing chaos from the sideline, trusting that this stranger knew what he was getting himself into.

There was no doubt that he did as he give a rather large smirk before doing a double back flipping over all five of his opponents, causing them to smash into each other. Due to the fact that she was flying rather than running on the ground, the impact of running into everyone had less of an effect on the ledyba so she was the first to remove herself from the pile of bodies and charge the still smiling eevee.

"You're mine!" she exclaimed as she let loose a fury of punches, but failed to land a single one on the fox pokemon whom dodged every single strike.

Shocked that none of her punches landed, the eevee punished this lapse in concentration and swung his iron-hard tail in the bug-type's face, sending her flying towards her nidoran teammate into an opposing tree. Not long after he sent the two females tumbling away, he rolled to the right as three small embers were fired at him. They hit the trunk of the oak tree behind him but sizzled out upon impact, hardly leaving even a small scorch mark behind. Rosa took note of this as did the male as he began to charge quickly forward towards the litleo who looked like she was less than confident in her attacks now. Not knowing what else to do, she fired more poorly made Embers, but they had no effect on the charging quadruped as he rammed his skull into hers and sent the fire typing flying a few feet before she landed on the ground, unconscious.

"Rolling phanpy! Two o'clock!" Rosa shouted in warning to her fellow eevee, causing him to turn just in time to see the leader of the group rolling at him like a wheel. Rosa was astounded when instead of dodging the attack like he had with the others, he took the same approach as he did the second ember attack and lifted his front paws in front him as he tried to stop the spinning Aries in his tracks.

His face contorting with effort, the eevee dug his paws into the ground in order to stop himself from being pushed back. It seemed that the confident battler had made a mistake as it seemed as though the attack was too powerful for him until the eevee's slow push backwards began to slow, until it gradually came to a complete halt, the phanpy's attack still continued as the elephant's body spun. A smirk returning to his face again, the eevee used his opponent's momentum against him and shifted it with his body as he tossed him back the way he came into a tree, causing a loud crack sound as the phanpy's back made contact with the dense wood. With that, the brutish elephant joined his companion in a dreamless slumber.

By now, the ledyba and the blue-coloured nidoran had regained their senses and decided to attack together, charging the eevee from the same-direction so that they couldn't run into each other this time. They knew something was wrong when he didn't move from his that he threw their leader away from. Their suspicions were proven correct as they seemed to make contact with nothing but thin air, charging right through the fake image of the eevee, both pokemon running headlong into a tree he had been standing behind, rendering themselves unconscious. Looking up, Rosa found the real eevee balanced upon one of the lower branches, smiling down at the two fallen opponents.

With a large gasp, the machop finally resurfaced from the lake he had been knocked into. His arms clutching onto the shore and his head resting upon it, his breath came out as deep, wheezing gasps, as he tried desperately to catch his breath.

"Stupid water… Stupid lake… Stupid eevee… I swear when I get my hands on him, I'm going to karate shop him in the windpipe, and then I'll-" stopping his furious rant, the machop's face went pale as his angry rant was cut short when he looked up into the eyes of said eevee, whom stood right before him giving him a look of pure child-like innocence.

"Lovely day to go out for a swim, wouldn't you say?" the eevee inquired, giving the tired machop a jovial smile.

The machop could only stare at him with wide-eyed shock at his sudden appearance, words unable to make their way out of his mouth.

The eevee gave a frown of pity and looked at the machop with sympathy, before he began to smile again. "Wanna go for another?" he asked as he began to charge up a ball of dark energy.

"No! No! No! No! N- ahhhhh!" the poor machop shouted before he was pushed to the middle of the lake with an explosion.

Turning his gaze towards his last opponent, a cowering zigzagoon, the eevee gave a small "Boo!" causing the tiny racoon pokemon to let out a yip before making his way back towards town, running in a zigzag pattern. Letting out a sigh of relief, the amber-eyed eevee relaxed his facial expression and looked over at Rosa, making his way over to her. He held a smile on his face, a genuine one this time, and his amber eyes maintained contact with hers. Looking into them, she suddenly felt uncomfortable as she unknowingly began to blush and diverted her gaze towards the lush grass in front of her.

Rosa became agitated by her own reaction to the male's approach, and whether or not she understood why, she knew it was dumb and childish. It was like she had turned into one of those stupid and helpless princesses from the many storybooks she read through. They always melted beneath the stunning and commanding gaze of the "brave" and "powerful" knight whom had saved the "poor" and "defenseless" young maiden from the evil dragon. She knew now that she could've handled those six pests on her own. She knew that the whole thing was personal between the eevee and the group and not a single part of what he had done was for her sake. He didn't fight them to protect her. He fought them for his own pride. She was not helpless, and she was not weak. She made sure that was not an issue anymore. So why did she suddenly feel like a jumbled mess? She didn't care to find out, or better yet, she was too scared to find out. Either way, when she looked up, she was met with the confused and wondering gaze of the pokemon in question.

"Are you okay? You look as though that patch of grass just shot a pretty mean insult at your mother," he inquired.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine," she visibly winced, looking up. Rosa returned her gaze to the ground again, but this time for a different reason altogether.

Noticing the unnecessary joke did more harm than good as he accidentally hit a nerve, the amber-eyed eevee decided to try and turn the conversation towards a different topic. "I'm sorry your first encounter with this town was such a poor one, although it comes as no surprise."

Rosa lifted her head again as she remembered her initial question that she had for the group of bullies that had ganged up on her. "I forgot to ask what the whole deal was back there! What was up with those guys, and why were they so quick to pick a fight with me?"

"I'm afraid you'd get pretty similar treatment out of almost everyone here in Patras," he replied with a grim tone. "There's some stuff you should know. Just know that they were the ones at fault here. But let's not talk here, my house is just east of here in the southern suburbs of the town. We can talk there where we'll be much more secluded, and don't have to worry about any more surprises."

Granting the stranger at least the benefit of the doubt after he "saved" her from those pests, Rosa nodded, and decided to take him up on the offer. "Hold on, let me just grab my stuff. I tossed it over here after those goons started to make a move on me," she said, trotting over to a leather bag that was laying beside one of the willow trees. "I hope nothing fell out of it…" she mumbled to herself as she gave it a quick look through. Having accounted for everything as being there, she sat down and slipped each forearm through the straps one at a time before standing back up and making her way back to the male eevee's side. Gesturing with her head, she commanded, "Lead the way."

---

The walk to Iskander's house was a quiet and wordless one as both pokemon were deep in thought. The stranger whom he had saved was deep in thought, so Iskander took this as a chance to study her so as to maybe figure out what her story was and why anyone would ever come and pass through a place like this, let alone an eevee at that. He guessed it came as no surprise that someone of his own species would be ignorant to the culture and ideals of the pokemon who lived here, after all there was no reason really for others to know about Patras. The town was secluded from the rest of the kingdom as not many roads led through it, and news neither entered nor exited as its citizens had no interest in the outside world, only in what happened around them as they shunned Evolian culture.

So why was this eevee here? It was clear that she had had no intentions of doing nothing more than pass through here judging by the fact that she was intercepted outside of town, and the way she remained ignorant towards why she was attacked proved she knew nothing about the town. She had a rather strange bag with her that looked like it was not originally made for someone of her stature, rather it was redesigned to do so; something that was not native to Psyonia so she was not from this kingdom. She seemed to be somewhat prideful of her species, so she came from somewhere where she is highly valued, so she must've been from either Obsidia or Tidania as she was clearly not of Psyonian descent. So she was a traveler, but why was she traveling? Why… why… why…

No matter, he could ask her himself soon enough as they had arrived at his place. "Hey, sorry to snap you out of your daydreams, but we're here," he said, grabbing his traveling companion's attention away thoughts of her own. Looking up in surprise, she saw him holding open the cloth door for her. Nodding her head in thanks, she entered his home, with Iskander following close behind her. Leading the blue-eyed eevee into the kitchen, he decided to attend to her personal needs before they got down to playing twenty questions.

"I have a lot of questions for you, and I have no doubt that you have the same for me, judging by your far-away look you had on your way here," Iskander said, walking over to one of the cupboards. "But I'm guessing between traveling all this way, and having a run-in with our local welcoming committee," he said sarcastically, "I'm sure you're as famished as me."

Nodding her head half-heartedly, more eager to find out more about what happened back at the lake, the female eevee walked over to inspect the contents of the wooden storage unit with Iskander. "I've got all sorts of berries in here, not much else other than that though. I usually handle all of my non-berry needs in town, or at a friend's place. So what would you like? Cheri? Chesto? Pecha? Rawst?" he began, listing off some of the most common berry types. "I think there's some Sitrus and Lum berries and some other strange stuff in the other cupboards if you're looking for something more exotic."

"Anything will do, I'm not feeling particularly picky at the moment," she replied, setting her bag down, but pausing while doing so when she noticed the broken table.

Sensing that she had suddenly stopped moving, Iskander turned around after he had grabbed a random assortment of berries. He saw the eevee staring at his recent piece of work. "I guess you could say I got up off the wrong side of the bed this morning," he said dryly.

The female simply nodded, not wanting to get sidetracked from her goal. Both quadrupeds made their way into the living room, with Iskander following behind carrying their berries in a scarf that he kept in the kitchen for the purpose of moving food around. Sitting down on both piles of hay placed in front of the living room fireplace, Iskander gently placed the berries down on the ground between the two of them. Grabbing an Oran berry out of the pile, the female traveler began to eat while she watched Iskander with mild interest as he turned on his fireplace by clapping his front paws together.

"Gift my father received from his travels. The flames appear and disappear just by clapping. Was installed by a-"

"Mystanian. The logs have been enchanted with a magical dust that ignites with a simple set command, and while it's not the same kind of fire that can be produced by a fire-type, it still has similar qualities such as providing light and heat," the female interrupted. "I've done all sorts of studying of the other kingdoms. My parents wanted me to know this kind of stuff because of… reasons. Before they were murdered anyway."

Iskander was caught off guard by the eevee's sudden revealing of facts, along with her knowledge of his father's enchanted fireplace. Deciding to not push his luck after having learned so much so quickly, he decided to keep the conversation away from facts that might upset his new companion. After all, he understood how parents could be a touchy and volatile subject to talk about…

"Judging by your interest in general knowledge and the rather strange bag you carry around with you, I'm guessing you're from Tidania?" Iskander asked, earning a nod from his new companion.

A thoughtful silence settled upon the two as they absent mindedly plucked a couple berries from the pile and began to eat. Iskander was organizing his thoughts as he pondered what he wanted to ask first based on what he had figured out thus far, when suddenly, he realized that he had skipped over the most obvious of questions, and hadn't even asked his guest what her name was. At this, he smacked himself in the face with his paw, earning a questioning look from the other eevee.

"I can't believe I could forget such an obvious thing. We don't even know each other's names!" he exclaimed with embarrassed humility. "My name is Iskander. What would yours happen to be?" he asked, bowing his head towards her in an apologetic manner.

The female eevee blinked in confusion, somewhat taken aback by his respectful gesture before she nervously replied, "Ma…Rosa. M-my name is Rosa. Th-there's no need to be apologetic over something as simple as forgetting to greet someone. I mean, you did just come out of a fight with five other pokemon not that long ago. So much has happened in such a short period of time, i-it's no surprise that you did. Besides, you're acting as though you're speaking to someone of importance. If anything, I should be the one treating you with such respect."

Rosa looked down as she stopped talking, seemingly uncomfortable with the whole conversation. Thinking it was due to him acting so strange himself, Iskander took it upon himself to help defuse the emotions that were beginning to climb in the room.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable," he said with a sigh. Grabbing another berry from the pile between them, he began to bat it back and forth between his front paws while he continued. "I suppose I've fallen out of touch with talking to a mon who doesn't hate my guts just because of what I am. It really is nice to have someone else besides my best friend whom I can talk to without getting the death glare."

"But enough about me. What gave you the crazy idea of walking through this dump of a place, and why are you traveling by yourself?" he asked, looking up at her.

"To be perfectly honest, according to my map, this town doesn't even exist. Coming up on this place, I was confused at first as I thought that maybe I had gotten my directions wrong and had ended up in Veria or Trikala," she said, referring to the towns located to the south-east and north-west respectively. "There was no town sign indicating the name of the place however, and on top of the whole place just giving off a weird vibe, I decided to try and make my way around the outskirts of town. As you found out though, that plan didn't end up going so well."

Chuckling slightly, Iskander couldn't help but be amused by the cartographer's intentional omitting of Patras' location on the map, no doubt hoping to dissuade others from visiting the rebellious group of pokemon.

"As for why I'm traveling…" Rosa began, pausing slightly before continuing, "My parents used to run a library back in Aquali. In Tidania, we have laws that prohibit any pokemon from running any sort of business until they become the age of sixteen. While my parents' death would normally mean that the library would have to be shut down, I'm fortunate enough that my parents had others who worked for them that are qualified enough to take control of the place until I am ready to do so."

Nodding in understanding, Iskander was secretly mystified by what exactly her parents did, as he had no idea what a "library" was, or a "law" for that matter. That was something he could figure out some other time however. Instead, he decided to cock his head to the side in confusion as he had another question he wanted to ask.

"That doesn't really explain what you're doing, traveling all the way out here by yourself though. I mean, you must not be sixteen yet if you're not running the 'library', as you call it, but you must be close. I mean, to me you do," he corrected himself awkwardly. "Surely going on such a long journey as traveling across the continent will cause you to miss your birthday. Wouldn't your superiors be displeased if you were to not be there?"

Suddenly taking interest in the shrinking pile of berries in front of her, Rosa began to mimic Iskander's action of playing with a berry, she became disconcerted by the question directed at her. It seemed that he was very good at asking the wrong questions. For a while it seemed as though Rosa wasn't going to answer at all, having become enticed with her personal distraction, until finally she looked up at him.

"I told my superiors that I wished to travel around the continent and learn more about it so that I could… gain a better understanding of it, hoping that it would help aid in running the place in some way," she replied, before heaving out a sigh. "The truth is I've already come to the age where I'm old enough to take over, but the whole idea of taking over such an important job seems… daunting and… impossible. Having watched my parents do it for so long, I never thought about what it'd be like for me to take over one day. I guess you could say that…"

"You're running away from the job. The idea of having to commit your life towards something so important that your parents have forced upon you is more than just daunting, it's terrifying. You're afraid of failure, and you can't help but compare yourself to them, to pokemon you've looked up to your entire life. You can't imagine ever being able to match their expertise, and you think by failing to match their success, you will be tarnishing everyone's memories of them. That, and you know that everyone will be comparing you to them. So instead, you do whatever you can to bide your time until you inevitably have to do what must be done," he cut her off, finishing with an empathetic smile on his face. "I understand, I'm in the same exact situation as you."

"You-you are?" Rosa asked with surprise.

Nodding, Iskander shifted his gaze towards the glowing, enchanted, fireplace, losing himself to the dancing waves of orange, red and white. "Just like you, I lost my parents by unnatural means, along with my little sister. My father's job… was a rather demanding one. One that very few can do," Iskander spoke in a solemn voice. "About ten years ago, he revealed to my entire family with utter certainty that someday, it would be my responsibility to take over for him. He told us it was not his choice, but his boss' instead. This came as a shock to everyone, as this was the first time that two pokemon from the same family would have the… 'honour' of serving under 'Him'."

Perplexed by his bitter toner, Rosa couldn't help but wonder what was so bad about that. "But surely that would be a good thing right? Obviously your father's boss saw something in you that showed great promise. How could something like that turn into something bad?"

At her question, Iskander couldn't help but give a scornful and mocking laugh. His temper beginning to rise once again as the events that led up to the tragedy which would ruin his life began to play through his head. "My 'mother'," he began, spitting out his parent's title, "had other plans for what she wanted to do with me. She wanted to move the whole family to Obsidia where it would be easier to train me for my future obligations. My father heavily disagreed with the idea, saying that it was no place to raise a family, regardless of the circumstances. The subject turned into a large topic for debate, and things escalated until finally one day she… she…" he trailed off, gnashing his teeth together in anger until finally it became too much and he sent one of the last remaining berries flying into the fireplace, watching it burn to a crisp and turn into soot. When he continued, Rosa noticed his amber eyes had suddenly softened, and could now sense a deep feeling of sadness emanating from the male eevee.

"Now he's dead, and my mother and sister are gone who knows where. They could be in Hadesius for all I care," he finished.

His body began to shake as he fought back the urge to cry, scream in anger, and cause destruction to his home. All he could do was place his muzzle on the ground and cover his eyes with his paws as his body began to shake with effort, choosing to remain in that position until he could get a hold of his emotions once again. Iskander remained in this position when suddenly he felt a warm body place itself beside him, and someone place their neck over his in a comforting manner.

"I'm sorry… I'm so so sorry you had to be put through that," he heard Rosa speak as she continued to try and calm him down. The two eevees remained in the same position for several minutes; Rosa continuing to apologize and make Iskander feel better. Eventually the tears had stopped flowing from his eyes, and his restrained crying had been reduced to that of hiccups. When at last even those came to a stop, both laid there in silence as they took comfort in the other's presence. Minutes passed by, and still neither fox pokemon made any sort of movement. Silence continued to pervade the room, challenged only by the crackling of the fireplace until at last it was broken by the blue-eyed female.

"What is it that keeps you here then? Why do you insist on staying in a place plagued with memories that haunt you everyday, surrounded by pokemon who detest your very existence?" Rosa asked, lifting her neck off of Iskander's so that the tear-stricken eevee could lift his head. When she did though, he made no movement to do so, instead remaining in his forlorn state of staring into space.

"Iskander?" Rosa asked, thinking that perhaps he hadn't heard her.

After a few seconds of remaining still, he at last lifted his head up and directed his attention towards her, a lost expression on his face. "I don't know," he spoke at last. "Part of it is that I'm scared that if I leave here, my father's employer will come and force me to finally follow in my father's footsteps. The other part… I just don't know," he finished.

At this, Rosa looked down at her paws in thought for a moment before looking back up again, smiling at Iskander as she came up with an idea. "Well, the way I see things, you seem to be against the idea of me traveling all by my lonesome and would rather I had some sort of travel companion, as well as it seems that sticking around this trash heap of a town isn't doing you much good," she stated, wrinkling her nose in disgust at mention of Patras. "And I think it's about time we both sidle up and face our fears. I mean, it's like what you said. We're only biding our time, we'll be forced to face them one way or another anyway."

"Besides, I wouldn't mind having someone as strong and handsome as you act as my escort," she mentioned, winking at him.

"I'm not following what you're saying," Iskander replied, shaking his head in confusion. "What are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that you come with me on my journey around Evolia! Come see what the world is like outside of your small shell that you've entrapped yourself within. You'll find that pokemon will treat you with a lot more respect, and life is actually much more enjoyable than you might think," she replied, subconsciously standing up and rubbing against him to help further convince him.

Weighing his options, Iskander could see that getting out of Patras for a while could do him a lot of good. The positives of leaving far outweighed those of staying, and he could always come back in the end after all. Smiling to himself, it was no difficult decision to make on what he wanted to do. Standing up, he nodded his head in affirmation.

"Okay! You're right, I think I'd be helping solve both of our dilemmas by coming with you," Iskander said, standing up and crossing his neck over Rosa's as a form of hugging. "Thank you Rosa, you have no idea how much better you've helped make me feel."

Backing away from him and returning the smile, Rosa nodded her head. "Don't mention it, what are friends for?" she asked rhetorically.

Iskander gave a short laugh but stopped when Rosa's words suddenly sunk in, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Wait a minute… did you just call me strong and handsome before?"

At that, the female eevee's eyes widened, and her muzzle had stopped half way open when she was about to respond, as she turned into a statue upon realizing that she had accidentally expressed her feelings towards Iskander. The blunt compliments, the wink, the rubbing of bodies, even laying down beside him in an effort to comfort him while he was crying was now suddenly coming off as extremely awkward and too forthcoming for her.

"W-w-what? I-I never s-said that! You-you must've heard me wrong, or imagined it! Y-y-yeah… i-imagined… ha ha ha ha…" she responded, laughing nervously.

"You definitely said that, you even winked at me to make sure the point got across," Iskander responded suspiciously.

Rosa couldn't think of a counterargument to that, as she knew she had been caught. She could feel her entire face begin to heat up and she began to sweat as she continued to stand there in embarrassed silence. When it became clear that Rosa was making no move to reply, Iskander let out a sigh.

"Look, it was just an honest question, I didn't mean to make you feel bad by asking," Iskander said, causing Rosa to let out a sigh of relief upon realizing she had somehow not been caught. Focusing his mind on the journey instead, and the idea of leaving Patras behind, he instantly became upbeat. "Okay, unfortunately a lot of my traveling supplies are kept at my grandparent's place, so we'll need to make a detour to their place to get my proper gear. They live up north of Tanta on the Blazidian coast. It's going to take us nearly a couple of weeks to get there if we travel up north to Trikala, then head west to Heraklion and go from there…" he trailed off, mumbling to himself. He headed into his room looking for his money bag, and traveling sac which was just large enough to hold the amount of supplies needed to make the trip.

Following after him into his room, Rosa saw Iskander looking into a large wooden chest set beside his bed. Standing on his hindlegs so that he was tall enough to reach in and look for his things, Rosa had to more than once dodge a flying projectile accidentally thrown at her as Iskander tossed out various objects, tools, and items, in his search for what he was looking for. With a shout of triumph, Iskander pulled his head out of the chest, dragging out of it with his teeth a satchel with two bags on it. It was just big enough for a pokemon his size, and when slipped on over him, the two leather bags came to rest on either side of his flank. Rosa couldn't help but screw up her face in apprehension. The bag was akin to that which was used by numel, rapidash, and other beasts of burden who were used for nothing more than transporting goods around. She was quick however to wipe the look off of her face when the male eevee turned around to look at her with a look of triumph.

"Now I just need to grab some berries, my Rampardos Scarf, and maybe some other types of food. I think there's still some meat left in the freezer that I could bring… no that would take too much room, and would be too heavy and annoying to carry," he thought out loud to himself. "I could still bring that weird hat with me to protect myself from the sun. It's really hot in Blazidia… Or maybe I could bring it for Rosa. She's used to the cool weather of Tidania. I should bring another item on top of that just in case…"

At that, he stopped talking altogether as another great idea hit him. Iskander's grin widened in size and his tail began to swish back in forth in excitement. The jovial and uplifting mood that the male eevee was exhibiting was making Rosa nervous as she had a bad feeling about what Iskander was about to suggest.

"W-what's the matter Iskander?" she asked nervously.

"We should get my best friend Galen to tag along with us! I'm sure he'd love to get away from that farm, since that's where he spends pretty much every waking hour of his life," Iskander responded with a smile.

"S-so, there'd be three of us…?"

"Yup!"

"So that would make you, me, and…"

"Galen!"

"Are-are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, he sure sounds like a busy pokemon and all…"

"Non-sense! Even if he declines, which he probably will…" Iskander said with annoyance, "I'll get him to come anyway! He needs the travel as much as I do, if not more."

"I-I think we're better off leaving your friend behind…" Rosa responded, trying desperately to keep the annoyance of having her plans altered unfavourably.

"Come on, follow me! I'll die before I let him turn down this offer of a lifetime," Iskander said as he dropped his satchel onto the ground. Not having heard Rosa's last suggestion amongst his excitement, he dashed into the kitchen and out of the house towards his friend's fields down the road.

"Oh joyous day, what a wonderful turn in events…" Rosa muttered under her breath sarcastically as she ran to catch up with her friend.