[ti]private[/ti]Circular Argument

Josh's collection of Pokémon was growing by the moment. Soon enough, his kennels would be full, and he would have to purchase more. Soon, he would be able to travel almost wherever he wanted, whether it was by land, sea, or sky. If it weren't for him missing one thing.

Experience.

The Birchwild Grove did not have a lot of Pokémon he was looking for. One day, he would come out to the forest in search of Vulpix, but today was not that day. Today, he would put in some work to get a few small steps closer to making that "mount" button for his other Pokémon solid instead of grey. His Pokémon needed to get stronger, and he needed to get stronger alongside them.

As Josh bounced astride his cantering Mudsdale, the sound of a female's voice called out to her. He gently pulled back on the equine's reins and released his pressure on the ground-type's sides, coaxing her to a walk and eventually a stop. "...Not enough to know which ones are edible," Josh replied, one of his Poké Balls in hand. "I have a Pokémon that might, though." Clicking one of the Balls on his belt, a buzzing Yanma hovered near his side before landing on a thick tree branch. "Her name's Xira," Josh introduced the insect.

Xira hovered near Franka and Lash before landing, silencing her loud wings to make it easier for the two trainers and their Pokémon to converse with one another. "Hi there!" she greeted the Snivy, doing her best to smile. It was difficult to not look intimidating with those sharp-looking mandibles, though.

"Great to meet you, Franka and Lash," the traveler answered before introducing himself. "I'm Josh, looking to be a Pokémon racer, and this is Granmarg," he gently pat the Mudsdale's mane.

Xira crawled over toward the circle of mushrooms, her compound eyes easily able to see purple spores growing underneath them. "Nope! I wouldn't even sniff them." she answered Franka's question, though Josh was unsure if Franka could hear her due to how PokéSpeech settings were set up.

"Did you hear what Xira said?" Josh asked, Granmarg snorting not once but twice. Was he going to sneeze on fairy dust?

Josh at least confirmed Franka's PokéSpeech settings were on. That made conversation among them easier, as long as Xira wasn't buzzing about. Even as a Yanma, her wings were loud. She would only get bigger when she evolved and could be flown on. There were so many concerns with using Yanmega as a flying steed; the noise, the tactile vibration, and their sheer agility. The species could fly in any direction while independently facing any other direction, making for even more of an odd sensation. He wondered if he could even handle it.

"It is," Josh nodded in agreement. "I certainly didn't expect Granmarg to be so big. I'd love to be able to meet a horse like this in the real world," he mused as Xira attempted to make small talk with Lash, being as friendly as possible to try to ease tensions sue to her double type advantage over the small snake. "I actually don't know how for sure how UNOVR calculates what you can and can't ride. I just catch what I think I could hop onto."

To demonstrate, he slid off the ground-type's back, withdrew her temporarily, and clicked his Manectric's Poké Ball. The electric wolf, smaller than the Mudsdale but still quite large, was at least as impressive-looking, and certainly big enough for Josh to sit on. Without a saddle on his back, though, it looked a lot rougher. Riding a Pokémon bareback was not for the faint of heart. "It mostly depends on whether or not you can fit your whole body on the Pokémon, from what I gather," he answered, "but again, I don't know, and data mining is against the TOS."

It wasn't just Franka and Lash that disappeared into the portal; so did Xira, chasing after the lost trainer and Pokémon. "Xira!" he cried before grumbling out of frustration. "Ugh... One of these days, her curiosity is going to get her killed. Come on, Granmarg, let's go after them."

With a silent nod, the ground-type equine trotted through the portal, emerging in a strange corner of the grove covered in enormous mushrooms. With every hoofbeat came a faint, cartoon-like BOING! sound. Xira, excited to see Josh again, flew above and landed on the horse's head, causing him to shake it in an effort to dislodge her. Even for a Pokémon of his size, having a giant bug crawl through one's hair was not pleasant.

"Where in the Great One's name are we?" Josh asked, confused. Glancing at his mini-map, it was fuzzy and distorted, the young man unable to see anything but vague shapes that seemed to shift with every passing second. They were off the main map, too; was this a completely unexplored part of the grove?

Josh chuckled at Lash's suggestion. "Sadly I can't text her; I have my messages set up to only receive from people nearby or on my Friends List," he answered. "We'll have to search for her manually," he answered. "But I have an idea. Xira, you mind giving Lash here a hand?"

"I don't have any hands to give," Xira replied, bending her mandibles in the shape of a human smirk.

"I didn't mean that," he rolled his eyes. "You're big and can fly. What say you give Lash a little... altitude?" the blonde proposed. "It'll be good practice for when I get to fly on you after you grow up." Josh certainly wasn't one to mince words; it seemed Xira was going to be outfitted with a saddle shortly after she evolved. That would take quite some time; when he was at the Pokémon Center, he researched how much experience he would need to craft a saddle for a Yanmega. He was nowhere close.

With a nod, the bug-type zipped to Lash's side and crouched. "Hop on!" she offered to the grass-type. While the dragonfly's narrow body would be too thin for a human to sit on, it would not be too narrow for a Snivy to grip. And unlike Josh, a Pokémon wouldn't need a saddle to carry another Pokémon.

Lash clinging tightly to Xira may have worked against the Snivy; while the vibration wasn't quite as intense once they were in the air, it may have been downright numbing for the split second the Yanma was buzzing her wings on the ground. Thankfully, the bug's trainer could hear the grass-type over her wings, though it was a bit of a challenge.

"This lets us cover ground faster," Josh answered as Xira flew up to head level in order to make it easier for both of them to make eye contact. "I don't think you were keeping up with Granmarg on foot." Keeping up with fast Pokémon was the domain of a Bolter. "Xira, let's spread out a little and keep a lookout for Franka. Launch an Air Cutter wide of me if you find them."

"Right!" the insect answered, doing her best to try to keep the Snivy as comfortable as possible amidst their search.