they take a meandering path, figuratively stopping to smell the flowers on the way. there's signs of life all around them, though most of the pokemon they hear around them don't show themselves. it's still pleasant enough just to hear the birds chirping and the distant cry of the zigzagoon on the horizon. it reminds reese a little of floaroma town, where they grew up.

the bushes rustle. he stops, and his lurantis stops with him. something emerges, and... it's another lurantis? reese blinks. this one looks more suited for the wild than for contests like his, its pink eyes staring straight at him. the two pokemon size each other up for a moment, and seem to eventually decide it's not worth the trouble of a fight. reese takes his phone out and takes a picture, then tosses the wild lurantis a home-made poffin using his own special recipe from his time in sinnoh.

the wild lurantis munches on it as reese and his own lurantis walk off.

in the distance, now, reese hears barking. he follows the sound against his better judgment and discovers three poochyena have cornered a slurpuff, harassing it until it's backed itself into a corner. he doesn't like the looks of this one bit, but he hesitates for a second. is it a good idea to get involved in the territorial disputes of wild pokemon? well, maybe if this were more of a fair fight...

they tell carnation to x-scissor. they can't use leaf blizzard, because that'll hit the slurpuff as well, so they'll have to do this one by one. the bug type attack is super effective, knocking out one poochyena immediately. emboldened, the slurpuff launches itself at a second poochyena, knocking it unconscious with play nice. the third poochyena looks at the situation and scampers away with its tail between it legs.

the slurpuff sniffs the air, taking in reese's scent. apparently deciding he's not a threat just from this alone, the fairy type waves at him in thanks and waddles away.

they've still got a bit of time until the next air taxi arrives, but they're going to head back to littleroot now. better safe than sorry, they figure. they don't want to miss the taxi and have to wait another half hour or so until the next one.

along the way, they realize they're being followed. a tiny smoliv has been stumbling after them for some time, and reese finally notices because the pokemon trips and lets out a cry as it falls. he turns and sees that it looks about ready to cry... but that's just its usual face, isn't it? reese's brow furrows, but he walks back to it and crouches down. "are you alright?" he asks it. the smoliv gives a little nod, though it's shaking like a leaf. "don't you have any family to go back to?" he asks next. the lurantis at his side gestures as if translating for him, and the smoliv shakes its head.

reese sighs. "do you want to come with me?" they ask, figuring that it must have been watching them for some time. maybe it saw how they interacted with the other wild pokemon?

whatever its reasonings, the smoliv nods. reese takes an empty pokeball out of his bag and taps the smoliv with it, and the grass type gets sucked up and doesn't even put up a fight before the ball stops wobbling and settles in. picking up the ball, reese and carnation start to hurry toward littleroot as reese contemplates a name for the little thing.