Part 6 – The Observers

‘Wulfric’ and his partners were just full of surprises. The first one was that his partners all had strange-sounding names much like Achille and his family in town did, ones that didn’t seem to have much relation to what sort of Pokémon they were. The Avalugg was ‘Serge’, the Cryogonal was ‘Horace’, and the Abomasnow was ‘Roiland’, and none of them seemed to find those names strange at all. The second one was how effective those Potions the human kept in those resin bottles were at dressing wounds, as good or better than any poultice that Pelin or Ernel would use in the village Infirmary. Tigri remembered seeing them before in the place with the harsh lights, but for some strange reason, she couldn’t remember one ever having been used on her or Stig while they were there. Most bizarre of all was how alien Wulfric found watching Pelin and Ernel dress what remained of Patron’s wound. From Serge and Wulfric’s other partners’ blank gazes at the time, they clearly found the sight unusual themselves.

“… Wait, why are you just staring like that anyway?” Tigri asked. “Pelin and Ernel are just treating a wound.”

There was a moment’s flustering between Serge and his companions before the Avalugg shook his head and spoke up in a low, rumbling tone.

“Sorry if we’re being rude,” the Ice-type replied. “It’s just that we usually don’t see Pokémon this different from each other working together like this.”

… Was it really so strange? Tigri knew that the wilds outside of Abri normally kept to their own kinds, but surely somewhere out there they’d work together with other Pokémon that weren’t of their same kinds… right? Her ears pricked as Patron stirred on the grass and shifted. Serge and his teammates watched intently along with their human as the Zoroark got up shakily and Pelin stepped forward to steady him. Patron leveled a sharp glare back but otherwise did nothing to challenge the three as Gide sized up the Zoroark and turned aside with a metallic hiss.

“… Patron should undergo further rest and observation before returning to his pack,” he said. “Pelin, Ernel, bring Patron back to the Infirmary. Nobi, take your team out to his denning grounds along with these packmates of his. Let them know about their leader’s whereabouts.”

Ombre and Chasseur shifted as the Aegislash’s attention fell on them and the pair seemed to hesitate for a moment. They both seemed to be weighing words in their mouths that they were unsure of whether to say when the female of the pair broke the silence.

“I… guess that works, but what about everyone else in our pack?” Ombre asked.

“Yeah, it wasn’t just Patron who got torn up during that battle yesterday,” Chasseur added.

Right, those two had said as much back in Abri’s central square, even if it was a bit surprising to hear their request. Abri tried to keep to its own affairs and the wilds, Patron’s pack included, generally did the same outside of specific agreements between them. Tigri knew that she’d struck a deal with Ombre and Chasseur, but that was behind Elder Gide’s back, and helping others from their pack wasn’t a part of it.

She snuck a glance at the Aegislash as he stared down the Zoroark with his eye. There was a lingering silence, before he shook his tassels with a grudging sigh.

“I suppose that we can make an exception to tend to them,” he said. “Do be aware that we are not providing such generosity unconditionally, and there is only so much we can do if their place of treatment is just lying out there for the world to see and walk up to.”

The various Pokémon nodded back before parting their respective ways, Patron and the medics back for the forest outside town, while Team Rapid slipped off deeper into the meadow with Ombre and Chasseur. Wulfric and his partners watched as the two parties drifted off, with a peculiar difference in reactions. Wulfric seemed particularly awed by the sight, while Serge and his teammates seemed downright flummoxed and shot askew glances over at Elder Gide.

“Wait, you all have an ‘infirmary’?” Roiland asked.

“What kind of Pokémon are you?” Horace chimed in. “How do you do the things you do if you’re talking so casually about ‘villages’ and the like?”

Gide turned off towards the other villagers and motioned off back to the forests outside of town. Even unspoken, the message was clear, and one by one the other townsfolk began to slip back off into the meadow for town. The Aegislash lingered and waited as the crowd drifted off, with Ticho standing guard with leek drawn.

“I’m afraid that we can’t answer that question, Cryogonal,” the Aegislash harrumphed. “Our village wouldn’t have survived all these years if it were glib about its secrets. Especially to your kind.”

Tigri felt a pang of annoyance spike from the voice in Stig’s mind and briefly heard Wulfric’s Pokémon grumble among themselves. Ticho interjected with a low tap of his leek against the ground that snapped her to attention. Beyond some crushed flowers, there was little sign that there had once been a large gathering here. All that remained of the party from Abri was just her and Stig, along with Ticho and Elder Gide.

“Come on, you two, it’s time to go home,” the Farfetch’d insisted.

“Can you give us five minutes?” Stig insisted. “This ‘Wulfric’ and his partners were genuinely kind to us earlier, and we’d like a chance to thank them properly before leaving.”

Gide narrowed his eye sharply and Tigri couldn’t help but feel her fur bristle as the Aegislash floated up and loomed over them.

“You two are hardly in any position to be making any requests right now,” he harrumphed. “You explicitly violated a decree that I gave out, and you endangered the entire village because of it.”

Tigri flinched and looked away. There was a moment of silence, as Gide closed his eye and turned for the direction of the Barrier with a low, metallic sigh.

“And yet, I can’t say that things didn’t turn out for the better because of your actions,” the Aegislash said. “You have two minutes. Consider it a gesture of appreciation. Ticho and I will be leaving afterwards with or without you, and we won’t be there to help you if something goes awry with this human.”

The pair shuffled off into the flowers, as Tigri stared after them in blank surprise. She caught Stig glancing at her from the corner of her eyes, when he suddenly spoke up with the voice in his mind.

“I mean, at least it doesn’t sound like we’re in trouble? For a second, I was worried that Elder Gide was going to strip our team’s rank or something like that!”

All was well that ended well, she supposed. Except, something wasn’t quite right. Wulfric was still looking off into the flowers in the direction where the other villagers had gone and paid a strange amount of attention to it. The human pulled his attention away and went up beside Serge, who turned his head as the human neared.

“Is something the matter, Wulfric?”

Wulfric’s voice piped up again and its muddled rhythm and tone seemed to change. It felt more animated, more excited. Perhaps Tigri was reading into it a bit much, but it sounded like he was surprised or awed about something, which seemed to rub off onto his partners, whose own expressions similarly took an awestruck turn.

She’d heard that Pokémon that spent a lot of time around humans wound up being able to better understand human language. Had they understood what Wulfric was saying? If so, what was it about?

“… ‘Serge’, right?” she asked. “Why’s your human reacting like that?”

“He’s just a bit excited right now,” the Avalugg explained. “My human’s heard stories of this place in fairy tales long, long ago when he was still a youngling. Tales about a village of Pokémon living together, hidden away from humans.”

Serge trailed off and turned his own head off towards the forest beyond the meadow. He stared at it, before peering back down at the pair with an incredulous murmur.

“He just wasn’t expecting that it would actually exist. None of us did, really.”

Tigri wasn’t sure how she felt about humans having stories of their own about Abri. For them to have them to begin with meant that at least one human had to have discovered it in the past and then gone and told others about it.

And yet, Wulfric seemed awed just seeing a glimpse of the villagers without even making it into Abri itself. Hardly the sort of reaction she’d have expected from a human who harbored ill intent towards the village. The human leaned in and said something that drew his partners’ attention as they started to head off to pack up the objects around their camp. The Abomasnow briefly drifted off, before stooping down and rummaging through a few heaps and returning with his arms filled with bulky resin objects.

“Here, I believe these are yours,” Roiland said. “I don’t know why on earth you want these ratty things, but clearly you’ve been able to find some use for them.”

The Ice-type set the objects down, as Tigri’s ears briefly flared in surprise. It was their sled and the white chest they’d found from the day before! She and Stig went up and pawed at them to make sure that their eyes weren’t deceiving them, but they were just as they’d remembered them, and just as real as the day they’d left them behind.

Tigri looked up as lumbering footsteps rang out and saw Wulfric and Roiland and Horace loading some bags onto Serge’s back. The Avalugg began to pace for a small trodden path down the hill and stopped briefly to peer down at her and her brother.

“We’ll be leaving now, since it sounds like that ‘Elder’ of yours isn’t the type who likes to be kept waiting,” Serge said. “Sorry about the misunderstanding with the… ‘salvage’, as you call it. It’s not the best thing for this place, but I suppose if you’re all finding uses for it, we can’t really begrudge you for doing so.”

As if on cue, Horace and Roiland looked up from helping Wulfric with all the salvage and camp supplies they had heaped up onto their Avalugg teammate, and came up alongside him.

“Yeah, we understand that you’ve kept quiet about this place for a reason,” the Cryogonal said.

“Your secret’s safe with us,” the Abomasnow grunted. “Just give us a little bit to get going and we’ll be out of here.”
“Wait.”

Part of Tigri wasn’t sure if it was a good idea and from the puzzled look on Stig’s face, she surely wasn’t alone, but… this Wulfric was so different from all the humans they’d known. All the humans that anyone in Abri seemed to know.

Could there be others like him out there beyond the Mazewoods? Were they rare? Were they common? It was a large and dangerous world out there, and yet Serge and the others seemed to be at peace with it.

And was it possible for them to also be at peace with it, too?

She didn’t have an answer to that question. There were definitely enemies out there lurking the world of humans outside. For that matter, she still didn’t know if she could trust Wulfric or not…

But she was at least convinced that she wanted to find out for sure one way or another.

“It’s just… my brother and I have never known a human that we could trust to not hurt us. Just about everyone in Abri is the same way,” Tigri explained. “I’m still not sure if I trust this ‘Wulfric’ of yours but… will you all be coming back here again?”

A moment of silence followed as the four traded glances with each other. Serge turned his body around, lumbering with his feet as he faced Tigri and Stig head-on. He paused briefly, before lowering his head and letting out a low rumble from his throat.

“We can if you want, though you and your friends don’t seem to trust us very much. Certainly not enough for us to actually come and visit this ‘Abri’ of yours,” Serge replied. “I assume that you want us to pace ourselves and show that we’re deserving of your trust before that happens. So… is there someplace outside that everyone would be comfortable with us coming back to?”

Tigri trailed off and fell quiet. Even if Wulfric and his partners had ultimately proven not to be the scourge that everyone feared, Serge was right. There was no way that the villagers in Abri would allow him or any human to enter town peacefully even if there weren’t Illusions hiding the path through the Barrier.

She caught her tongue briefly, before seeing Stig walk up and shake her head.

“We don’t have a place like that right now,” Stig said. “We’d need to find one outside of the village. Someplace where everyone will know that you’ll come without surprising them.”

The easiest place for that would be someplace here in Longbloom Meadow, but… where? The flowers, as pretty and aromatic as they were, were easy to get lost in and had wild Pokémon that passed through them. Hardly the sort of place where one could take it for granted that it was safe to hold a peaceful meeting. Why, they might as well come back to this hilltop!

… Actually, now that she thought about it… maybe they could come back to this hilltop. They were just missing some way of marking it off so that way the villagers wouldn’t be alarmed if Wulfric came back.

Tigri’s eyes fell on the ring and disc lying in the heap of salvage in the camp. She glanced down at the small mound of a hill underfoot and then at the two rubber objects as her mind turned back to how the ring had rolled back on the day when Wulfric and his partners surprised them.

And then a flash of realization crossed her mind.

“What about this hill right here?” she asked. “Since I think we might just have what we need to let everyone know that this is a place we can trust you to come to…”

Two weeks after parting ways with Wulfric and his partners, Tigri found that she’d been sleeping a bit better. That nightmare of the place with the harsh lights hadn’t come back for the past few days and happier dreams filled its place.

Tigri wasn’t really sure why that had been the case. Maybe it was because she was less worried about the future lately. Maybe the whirlwind of events in the past couple of weeks had simply led her mind to drift elsewhere.

Whatever the reason, she wasn’t complaining about it.

“Come on, Tigri, this way!”

This time, she dreamed of the first time she saw the yellow flowers in Longbloom Meadow. Of the way she looked past their stems to see Stig waving at her, all as the Furfrou Brothers waited on them from deeper among the flowers. Fantasy and memory had a way of blurring together in such dreams. She remembered that they had trouble getting lost whenever the Furfrou Brothers weren’t there to guide them, but that wasn’t really a part of it.

She remembered the palpable excitement she and her brother felt that day. About how the haven they’d heard rumors about really existed. About how they were safe at last from a world that had seemed to only hold harshness and cruelty for them. About how they had a chance to make a new start together.

“Tigri?”

Tigri heard Stig’s voice again, except it wasn’t part of her dream. The images in her mind’s eye darkened as the Espurr cracked her eyes open. She looked up and saw the earthen roof of her den again. The same old bedding was underneath her, the same cloth strip she wore out in the field was laying by its side near the same bottlecaps lying against the wall. And with Rouge’s sprained wing having healed about a week ago, the den was back to its same pair of inhabitants.

“Tigri?”

Tigri blinked as the voice from Stig’s throat reached her ears that time and she pawed at her eyes. Stig was already at the mouth of the den and waiting for her. Except, this time, there was something different about him.

“Come on, we’ve got a big day ahead of us,” he insisted. “The Furfrou Brothers left a mission for us in the mail.”

“Wait, they did?”

Tigri shuffled onto her feet and pawed at her eyes. Much of the past two weeks in Abri had gone by in a flurry after their encounter with Wulfric. There were debates among the villagers as to Wulfric’s intentions at the time, while Sheriff Ron and his Officers were kept busy with increased patrols. And of course, she could hardly forget about everything involving Patron being brought to town to recuperate… along with at least half a dozen other Zoroark who clogged up the Infirmary after his pack took up Elder Gide’s offer to treat their wounds.

It was a bit hard to believe that the Furfrou Brothers would still have time to ask them to join them on a mission right now. But she supposed that they had managed to convince Brais to leave Rouge on Team Aspirant, so it wasn’t as if they’d be shorthanded for whatever task the Furfrou pair wanted them to do if they accepted their mission.

She went up to the small basket set out at the entrance to their den where Brais would deliver their mail and found a wooden chip left in it. Tigri focused and floated it over with her mind’s power, settling it on the ground as she and Stig looked over the runes scratched into it.
“‘Need a team to help observe a human in Longbloom Meadow. Bring something to write with’?”

Tigri paused and stared down at the wood chip. The Furfrou Brothers were observing a human in Longbloom Meadow? Since when did they ask teams in Abri to help with that? And why them and not a stronger team? She turned her head to Stig her brother Espurr held his head with a puzzled tilt and uneasily flicked his ears.

“I’m not sure why they want to get villagers mixed up with a human sighting, or why being able to write would be so important,” he murmured. “Do you have any idea what this mission’s about, Tigri?”

It did seem peculiar. What was writing supposed to do to help if something went wrong in this situation? Did Couaf and Farel not think that the human that they’d come across was a threat?

She looked at the bottom of the scratched runes, where one final line on the wood chip caught her eyes:

“… Meet near ‘The Tires’?”

At once, her eyes lit up, and everything about how odd the Furfrou Brothers’ request suddenly made sense. After all, the Tires had only existed as a landmark in Longbloom Meadow for all of about two weeks, and there was only one human who would reflexively think of going there.

“So Wulfric and the others came back after all,” she said. “I’m not fully sure what they’re up to, but we might as well go and find out.”

The walk over from the burrow to Abri’s central square went by much as it always did: after a few minutes north, the nests and burrows gave way to the part of town where huts started popping up. First came the General Store and the Bank, where an older Kecleon seemed to be haggling with the latter’s Gabite proprietor over a larger-than-expected ‘withdrawal’ she was loath to provide. Then came the Battlefield where Lind the Chesnaught was on-duty watching over Nobi and Orne from Team Rapid as the Greninja and Rhyhorn sparred with… a pair of Zoroark as their opponents?

“Chasseur! Ombre! Come on, you’ve got this!”

Tigri paused and looked closer at the Zoroark pair. Sure enough, they really were Chasseur and Ombre. Tigri didn’t think those two had been that hurt from the skirmish with Serge, so why were they here? The Espurr turned her attention to the stands ringing the battlefield, where much to her surprise, mixed in with the expected audience of gawking villagers, there was Bijou… along with some other Zorua and even a couple of Zoroark.

The Espurr carried on, stealing incredulous glances as she went around the Battlefield’s edge with her brother. Tigri swore that she hadn’t seen most of those Zorua and Zoroark around the Infirmary over the past couple of weeks.

“Wait, am I missing something here?” Stig asked, flicking his ears with a befuddled frown. “Since I thought that when Patron and those other Zoroark were brought to the Infirmary, that there weren’t any Zorua with-”

“Well someone’s been making himself at home as part of his recovery.”

Tigri’s ears flicked after hearing Ticho’s voice carrying along as Stig trailed off and stared ahead. Much to Tigri’s surprise, Stig even blinked at the sight, and there was a noticeable pang of surprise that came from the voice in his mind.

“What on earth?”

When she followed her brother’s gaze over to the counter of Carat’s Juice Bar, she could hardly believe the sight herself. Ticho was there, perched on the chest they’d found which over the past couple weeks had seen new usage as one of the Shuckle proprietor’s stools. The Farfetch’d dipped his bill into a portion of Berry Juice while Elder Gide floated in place a little further down the counter, and between them, was none other than Patron seated at the bar—silken bandages on his abdomen and all.

Tigri almost blinked herself and slowed her pace as she passed by, just in time to catch Patron snatching a simple cup off the counter. The Zoroark raised it to his mouth with his ears pinned back, as the Farfetch’d beside him turned his bill up with a quacking laugh.

“For a Pokémon that likes going on about how strange and silly our way of life is, you sure take well to it!”

“Shut up. This is just a precautionary measure since we’ve got a history with that human prowling around the meadow right now,” the Zoroark harrumphed. “I’m well enough that once he’s gone again, it should be safe for us to return to our dens without having to worry about him or those pets of his following us.”

Patron gulped down the contents of his cup and set it back onto the counter with a sharp tak. Tigri waited for the Zoroark to go on some diatribe about how silly it was to be drinking juice or having vessels from it, but instead, he turned his attention back to the Shuckle behind the counter.

“Whatever that was, I’ll have another of it.”

Maybe Ticho had been onto something after all. The Shuckle gave a quiet grunt before slowly ducking behind the counter as Elder Gide floated up beside the Zoroark, idly brushing a set of tassels against his blade.

“It sounds like our village is a bit more useful than you gave it credit for, Patron,” the Aegislash chuckled. “Though it’s definitely easier for us to extend hospitality to outside guests when we’re not worried about running short on things around town.”

Patron got up and glared sharply, as Tigri subconsciously backpedaled and tugged Stig back. The Zoroark crouched, much like he would in battle, only to flick his ears and glance past them. Tigri turned and looked off in the same direction as Patron and saw the match on the Battlefield between Chasseur and Ombre and Team Rapid was still going on. And there in the stands, was Chasseur’s kit—Bijou—happily yipping and cheering her packmates along. Tigri and her brother looked back towards the counter, where Patron’s expression had softened. He visibly hesitated for a moment, before he pawed at his arm and looked aside with a grumbling sigh.

“Fine, I’ll waive your town’s tribute for this moon. We can get by for one moon without it. If you’re still having trouble getting things together in the ones afterwards, we’ll talk about trying to work out a way to defer things a little bit,” the Zoroark said. “Just don’t get any funny ideas about this becoming a permanent arrangement!”

From the side, she saw Gide fidget his tassels and she could’ve sworn that his eye narrowed for a minute. Not from annoyance or frustration, but with an expression that the eyes of some of the other villagers would have when they had knowing or self-satisfied moods.

“Glad to hear that you’ve come around, Patron!” Gide said.

The Aegislash brought a set of tassels against Patron’s back with an audible pat. The Zoroark’s eyes briefly widened as he stiffened up with a sharp yelp, before whirling around with a sharp glare. Stig had to fight back a laugh at the sight, and Tigri found herself doing much the same. For all of Patron’s strength and how harsh and intimidating he could be, something about seeing him looking silly like this made him seem a lot less frightening.

Tigri and her brother carried on along the contours of the village battlefield as the roof of the Post Office came into view. Brais was behind the counter dealing with a patron, which was a sure enough sign that Rouge would be…

“Stig! Tigri!”

Right there, perched at the top of the mission board right next to the Post Office. Even if it’d only been about a week since his right wing’s sprain had healed, he was already putting it to use waving at them to hail them. Down at the bottom, the Furfrou Brothers were there, with Couaf being the first to notice their arrival, and Farel turning his head just afterwards. Tigri hurried over alongside her brother as Rouge flitted down from his perch to meet the two of them, ruffling his feathers with an impatient tweet.

“Took you two long enough! Couaf and Farel say that Serge and his human are already waiting for us at those ‘Tires’ you two set up in the Meadow.”

So it really was them. Tigri turned her attention over to the Furfrou Brothers walked up and looked down at them insistently.

“Rouge swore up and down that you two wouldn’t turn down our request, but we figured we might as well make sure just in case,” Couaf said. “You two got our mission notice in your mail this morning, right? If so, are you interested in coming along?”

“Of course!” Stig insisted. “The human you wanted to observe is Wulfric, right? Of course, we’d be willing to come and help you check up on him!”

Tigri couldn’t help but notice a few of the surrounding villagers staring at them after the words left Stig’s mouth, some worriedly, others with disapproving frowns. Truth be told, a part of Tigri couldn’t fully believe that this was really happening either. That they were really just going to go up and meet a human again, one of the creatures that Abri had been founded to hide away from.

She snapped back to attention from a scoffing bark and saw Farel shooting a sidelong glance at them.

“Gee, why don’t you go ahead and say that a bit louder, Stig?” the Furfrou grumbled. “Though we’re running a bit late as it is. Is there anything you two need before we start heading for Longbloom Meadow?”

Tigri traded looks with her teammates, before shaking her head in reply.

“No, let’s go.”

It wasn’t long before Couaf and Feral led the three of them out of Abri and the square’s buildings gave way to the outskirts’ nests and burrows, and then to the surrounding forest where the Barrier was. The trek into it along the path to Longbloom Meadow was wholly unremarkable—just the normal process of following the guiding stones that marked the path forward. The usual light and shadows in the surroundings were there too, and as always, ever-so-slightly off if one stopped to inspect them more closely. A sign that Patron’s pack was still keeping up its end of their bargain.

It almost felt surreal for things to be so normal again after multiple moons of one crisis after the next piling up.

Well, Tigri supposed that wasn’t fully the case. They’d been making their way down the path to Longbloom Meadow quicker than normal this time, though she supposed that the Furfrou Brothers’ keen sense of smell would help them find paths trodden earlier by other Pokémon a bit easier. For all the peace and camaraderie Patron’s pack had had with the village right now, there was no guarantee that it would last and that they wouldn’t find themselves back at odds with each other sometime in the future.

And of course, their mission today to go and observe a human would’ve seemed incredible to her just a couple of weeks ago. Much less the idea that it’d be a human that she and the others in Team Aspirant would willfully go up to observe.

She looked up at the sound of a sharp tweet from above and Rouge settling on a branch over the path. The Fletchling hesitated a moment, before tilting his head down at her and the others.

“We’re seriously the only team who volunteered to go on this mission, Farel?” he asked. “I know that getting close to a human’s usually a scary experience, but you’d think that someone would’ve at least offered to join us…”

“I tried to have Sheriff Ron come along just to be safe, but the lazy oaf couldn’t be bothered to wake up from his post,” Farel sighed. “That Snorlax would probably sleep through anything short of a meteor landing on the village.”

The elder Furfrou trailed off and slowed his pace briefly, before turning and giving a serious expression back in their direction.

“Are you three are sure we can trust this human? The mission didn’t say anything about how close we had to be to observe him or his partners,” Farel pressed. “If you don’t think it’s safe, it’s not too late for you to opt out. Couaf and I can handle the mission just by keeping watch on the human from a distance and we’ll still reward you as if you were there with us.”

Tigri caught herself and paused for a moment as her teammates traded glances with one another. She didn’t think that any of them were worried about seeing Wulfric, but…

“I’m perfectly comfortable with it,” Stig said. “But I’m not the only one who makes decisions for our team. Rouge? Tigri? What do you think?”

There was a moment’s silence before Rouge flitted down between Tigri and her brother. The Fletchling seemed to hesitate for a moment, before murmuring under his breath.

“I mean, he didn’t hurt us last time even when he had the chance…”

Even so, there was still a hesitant tone to the Fletchling’s voice, and it was frankly hard for Tigri to fault him. She looked aside as unpleasant memories of the place with harsh lights came back to her mind. Along with ones about the things that the humans there had done to her and Stig. It was a bit hard to believe that Wulfric could really share a kind with them and yet be so different from them…

What if she’d misjudged him? What if Wulfric and his partners’ kindness last time was all an act? It wasn’t exactly easy to gauge a human’s true feelings when their voice was hidden behind that strange, dissonant language of theirs. Picking up on stray thoughts with her powers only went so far, and it was easy to garble things from a lack of surrounding context.

Except, back when they’d met, Wulfric and his partners seemed to be on the same page as each other. Those three, she at least could at least understand. Serge and the other two were strong enough that she doubted that even with the Furfrou Brothers’ help, that they’d last long enough in a fight to even run away. But at the same time, beyond their attitude towards Patron, they didn’t seem aggressive at all and like they just wanted to get to know them better.

Even if it was from a distance.

Tigri put a paw to her mouth in quiet thought, before turning over to Couaf and Farel. Now that she thought about it, maybe they did have a way to tell whether they could trust Wulfric and his partners’ motivations for coming back…

“Couaf. Farel. You two said that you saw Wulfric and his partners at the Tires, right? Did they move on from it at all?”

“They didn’t while we were there,” Farel said. “But I can’t say anything about if they’re still there or not.”

It was just as she’d told Serge to do if he or his human ever came back. She’d honestly been surprised at how quickly Serge and the others agreed to put up that sculpture that they’d made with those ‘tires’ at the top of the hill in the middle of Longbloom Meadow. Especially when the way they set it up kept the lot of them from being able to camp there again easily in the future.

She’d explained to them that doing so would mark it as a safe place where they could approach each other. It also meant that if they did turn on anyone who came there, that they’d still remain ignorant of Abri’s true location.

She hadn’t told them about that last part, but they clearly hadn’t forgotten their promises to meet at that hill if they ever came back.

The Espurr paused for a moment. She still wasn’t fully sure whether or not she trusted Wulfric, but if he had gone to the tires like she’d told Serge to and he was waiting for them there… surely it was worth giving him the benefit of the doubt.

“If he’s still waiting for us at the Tires when we get there, I think it should be safe to go up to them,” she replied. “Call it a Team Captain’s hunch.”

Beyond a brief skirmish with a Jigglypuff, the journey over to the ‘Tires’ through Longbloom Meadow went by without incident. The height of the meadow’s flowers still made going through the blooms tricky, but Rouge’s ability to spot things from the air and the Furfrou Brothers’ extra height helped with getting a sense of direction. Not that Tigri really needed it once they got close enough to the central mound overlooking Longbloom Meadow.

With the hill’s height, Tigri could already see the upper ring which Serge had called a ‘wheel’ poking out over the tops of the flowers. Then, when as she and her companions stepped out into the grassy knoll ringing the hill, they saw them: just to the left of the sculpture, there was Wulfric in those same blue hides as last time standing, alongside his Avalugg partner.

“Wow, word really does go around quickly here,” Serge said. “And here I thought we were going to need to wait a bit with how early we came in the morning.”

It wasn’t that early in the morning, was it? Dawn had been almost an hour ago! One by one, Tigri and the others made their way up the small hill to where Wulfric and Serge were waiting for them. Tigri went first along with Stig, then Rouge came flying up from behind, and finally the Furfrou Brothers followed behind them with their tails held up and alert. They stopped opposite the tires from the human and Avalugg, as sounds with strange rhythms began to prick Tigri’s ears.

It was Wulfric’s voice, speaking that strange, dissonant language that humans had. A glance over and up at his moving mouth confirmed as much. The human pointed his hand down at Rouge, who visibly stiffened up for a moment. From the traces of his thoughts that she could glean, Tigri didn’t think Wulfric meant any harm, but it was hard to tell much of anything about what was going on. The Avalugg waited a moment, before giving a small smile and speaking up with a chuckling rumble.

“Wulfric says he’s glad to see you’re doing better, Fletchling,” Serge said. “He was worried about how your wing was hurt the last time we saw each other.”

Rouge reflexively batted his wing in reply and piped up with a flustered chirp.

“I mean, it was just a sprain, so it didn’t take that long to recover from it…”

Tigri noticed that the Fletchling couldn’t help but keep his distance from Wulfric. It was hard for her to really fault him since even if Serge and Wulfric had been keeping their word thus far, the two were so much bigger and more imposing than them.

There was a moment of silence on the hilltop before the Fletchling held his head at a puzzled tilt and bobbed his head to study the pair carefully.

“Why did you come back?” Rouge asked. “You’re not here to take all the salvage from the river again, are you?”

“No, no. The river doesn’t wash stuff up that quickly, we’re here more because of you,” Serge said, shaking his head. “ Last time, your friend… ‘Tigri’, right? She made it sound like you wanted to get to know us better. And we kinda wanted to do the same ourselves, too.”

A shock of cream fur filled Tigri’s vision as Couaf stepped forward and placed himself between her and the outsiders. Farel was doing much the same to her right. The two Furfrou Brothers carried themselves stiffly as their eyes narrowed and they studied the Avalugg and his human.

“What, is this some sort of trick?” Couaf demanded.

“Yeah, this sounds like you’re trying to get us to give away the location of our village or something,” Farel growled.

Wulfric’s voice spoke up again as he held his hands out, before stooping and setting down a bag in front of him. Tigri briefly glimpsed over the human, unsure of what he was doing, before looking back at Serge as the Avalugg shook his head.

“You don’t have to tell us anything about where your village is if you don’t trust us with its location,” the Avalugg said. “We just wanted to know a bit more about you specifically. Since you’re all… well… quite different from the other Pokémon we’ve run into living on their own before.”

A series of faint clacks followed by pattering noises came from Wulfric’s end as Tigri saw that he’d set out a series of bowls with kibble poured into them. He pushed them forward and stepped away, before saying something that prompted Serge to inch back himself.

The Avalugg turned his attention to her briefly, before turning aside and pawing at the ground with one of his forelegs.

“I suppose, we’re just curious about how you all got here. About how you’re able to get by with an entire village like this,” he said. “If you still don’t trust us enough to say anything, we understand. We just thought that you’d be open to it since the last time we met, you seemed like you wanted us to come back here.”

Tigri stopped and glanced at her brother with a worried fidget of her ears. A part of her still wasn’t sure whether or not this was a good idea. Even if Wulfric and his partners had been kind thus far, they were strong enough to be formidable enemies if they had a change of heart for any reason.

There was so much that she and the others didn’t know about them.

About whether they were safe.

About whether they could trust them.

And yet, where would she and the rest of Team Aspirant be if they hadn’t been willing to put themselves on the line? If they hadn’t taken the chances that led them to meet in the first place?

Stig nodded back at her, and at once, she knew what they needed to do.

Tigri stepped forward alongside her brother and settled down beside the middle bowl. Rouge hesitated briefly, before hopping along beside them. She turned her head up, and looked up at Serge and his human, as a small smile crept over her muzzle.

“We were, and we still are. What would you like to know about us?”