[ti]closed[/ti][S][C/Respiro] Respiro's First Rodeo

"Sure thing!" Josh replied before doing as Crash asked, the Boltund that was about time-and-a-half larger than normal sitting down to allow him easy access to the area in question. Just as Crash had advised, the part of his harness around the halters had almost no play to it. With some effort, he loosened that part of the riding gear by two notches. "That better?"

"Much better," the canine replied before barking to make sure it didn't feel too loose.

Just as he was about to sit astride the electric dog's back, Josh noticed another young child about his age dashing up to him. Crash simply barked over and over, not speaking in PokéSpeech to the stranger. "...Can I help you?" the surprisingly mature-sounding child asked. Was his player really such a young age?

Josh saw the trade offer and the message before him. Though he could craft a new saddle for Crash easily as an Ironsmith (which, strangely enough, allowed him to craft similar pieces not made of metals), a lot of work went into not only putting it together, but fitting his mount and configuring the saddle for the perfect balance of functionality, security, and comfort. "Sorry, not interested," he verbally answered. "If you're an Ironsmith, though, you can craft a saddle just like his!"

The lack of a verbal response back, and only a Direct Message, cued him in. Was Respiro unable to speak? If so, it made sense why his body language was so strong. Trusting his intuition, he read the direct message and declined the trade offer before reading the body. The message wasn't even in English. Mistaking the language for Spanish, Josh returned the message with what little first-year Spanish he knew.

[tangent="Do you speak English?"]DIRECT MESSAGE> Se habla inglés?[/tangent]

Josh frowned and shook his head in response before replying with a simple "no" to the request to speak in Spanish. It was clear by now that, for some reason, Respiro either couldn't speak or couldn't hear, and he definitely didn't understand English. He would instead have to make use of universal gestures -- not even sign language, for he didn't know sign language, either -- to communicate with the avian.

Josh watched Respiro struggle to mount his Cetitan; even with a double jump from his Aviator class, he could not stay on the creature's slippery back. No wonder he wanted a saddle! Riding a Cetitan without one looked extremely challenging due to its slick skin.

It was clear, at least in Josh's mind, that Respiro just wanted to get somewhere else in town quickly. He would send out a second Pokémon: his Manectric, Saber. He couldn't believe he hadn't ride-trained the electric wolf yet -- it was as close as he would get to a Raikou, and this was the persect opportunity to do so. The young man sat aboard the electric wolf and gestured toward the center of Crash's saddle.