It seemed the Rowlet brought Josh back a snack! "Why thank you!" he gently pet the Rowlet before taking a look at its edible-looking half. It was quite dirty, and the river was anything but fresh, given the many Quagsire inhabiting it. This kind of leek, from what his Ranger studies told him, were used by Farfetch'd, and were both edible and weaponized by the bird Pokémon associated with them. The only issue he ran into was the leek was filthy.

Fortunately for him, he had a way to wash it! "Resheph!" He called on the help of the Dragonair that carried him across the bramble trap, who looked excited to see the sweet leek and wanted to partake of it herself. "Can you run your AQUA TAIL for a bit? I want to clean this leek so we can have a quick snack!" Giving Josh a look that could only be interpreted as conditional agreement, Josh nodded. "Don't worry, you'll get your fair share, too!" With that, a layer of water covered the Dragonair's tail, Josh running as much of the edible end of the leek as he could over it to get it as cleaned up as it was going to get.

Afterward, he sent Aslan out, who also wanted a piece of the sweet treat. The Pyroar's purpose in food preparation was to radiate enough latent heat for their snack to sufficiently dry: moist, but not saturated was ideal, he thought. Once the three had completed their work, he broke off a piece for each of his two Pokémon, then himself. Down the hatch three they went!

The taste of honey felt great in their mouths! Not so much the bitter aftertaste. The three of them woozily swayed like they were under the influence, all of them keeling over and nearly vomiting. Had he misidentified the herbs in the leek? Clearly he had, otherwise his Ranger knowledge would have warned him the leek was poisonous. Josh recovered from his nausea well before his Pokémon did. Perhaps whatever was in it was more toxic to Pokémon rather than humans?

Either way, the Master of Faster didn't trust himself to keep going unaided in his current state. He withdrew the dry-heaving Pyroar for Janus, his Espeon. Taking advantage of Resheph's ability to silently fly, Josh would have the Dragonair do her best to cross above the river despite her dizziness. Provided she would be able to make it, Josh would hop on the Espeon's back and hold on tight as the psychic-type took the two of them on an astral jaunt via ALLY SWITCHing with the floating serpent. If successful, he would withdraw the Dragonair and continue past the river, remaining astride the purple, lithe Pokémon.

While the duo were still over the river, Resheph started sinking, her dive angle growing greater and greater until they both fell into the river. The moment he splashed down, the waters felt like those of Mossdeep: freezing cold almost year round. He desperately reached for the attachments on his mount's cocoon saddle, trying to free himself from the harness before he drowned. His chilled fingers kept slipping.

When he reached for the Dragonair Poké Ball, Josh felt himself be dragged upwards, deeply inhaling as he and his mount were pulled to the surface by a pack of wild Quagsire. Even Janus was there, though he wasn't having a good time, either. Not in trying to stay balanced on the Quagsire's head. They didn't seem hostile, though! Pokémon were intelligent in their own ways, and if they weren't hostile toward him, they clearly trusted him with something. He had to reciprocate that trust. He refrained from resisting and simply let the Quagsire take him downstream.

How long had Josh been floating in the river for, indeed? Long enough that he heard what he thought was the Gym Leader's voice. The vines of a Zarude, a Pokémon Josh had neither seen nor heard of before, let him pull himself toward shore. He breathed heavily as he was at last back on his own two feet. Not aboard one of his own Pokémon, even. Had they already looped back to the entrance?

Either way, it seemed the challenger had to explain himself to the Leader. He withdrew his other Pokémon, then sent out "Raikou" the masquerading Manectric once he had dried off. Standing next to the electric-type, he gave his account of the journey. "I came here to test my skills as a Ranger to prepare for their Elite Ranger test, and I found myself in situations no amount of Ranger training could ever account for. Nature truly is unpredictable." He went back through the journey in his head, feeling he didn't make a mistake other than the incident with the leek. "I have to recommend your Gym to new Rangers, even if they're not taking the Gym Challenge. It's great training for the real world. It even told me I need to review my list of edible plants. I could have sworn that leek was the edible kind!"

The young Gym Leader did have a point; after all, Combee were venomous insects. It wasn't the same caliber as a Beedrill, one of the most poisonous insects on the planet, but it would certainly explain why the normally edible and nutritious stalk incapacitated him. It was a valuable lesson the young Ranger would keep in mind as he took on more and more work in Hoenn's remote corners.

"A second run..." Josh mumbled, recalling every decision he had made, every Pokémon he had used, and every battle he had fought. Ultimately, the answer he would reply with would be in the negative. "The wilds test one's knowledge, yes, but they primarily test one's instinct. Instinct to act in a situation one has never experienced before. With the knowledge I have now, yes. Perhaps I was a little too direct in some approaches in hindsight. I do want to make clear, though, that I feel that on this run, I made the best decisions I could with the knowledge I had and the Pokémon I brought with me to the challenge." There was always room for improvement. He could run through Rosmontis' woods over and over again and always improve.

Josh accepted the EXPLORATION BADGE, gently taking it from Rosmontis' hand. "Thank you; I learned quite a bit that I'm sure will help me as I climb the Rangers' ranks," he answered, sliding off Saber's back and withdrawing him after being led to the Gym entrance. The forest was so fast that none of it even looked familiar until the lobby was in sight. How she could keep all this straight was impressive... then again, Josh also had a rather large facility of his own. Seven sectors was a lot to keep straight, too, though that was a little more organized than the chaos that was Mother Nature.

"Of course," he nodded. "I'm still learning all my responsibilities as a new Gym Leader. Most of them I like, but some of them I don't. Comes with any job, really. You can come in with a plan, but you have to plan to be adaptable." He walked toward Mauville City proper before turning around. "Your Gym is great. If I ever have to step down as Mauville's Leader, I'll give the League a recommendation to promote you!" He walked backwards for a bit, waving to Rosmontis before turning around again. The sound of a popping Poké Ball and a Manectric bark echoed from beyond.