Into the forest, to see what adventure awaits.

Intrepid goes into the pokeball first thing once they settle for camp, then after that - reading!

Reading! Humans usually learn to read with stories, rather than lists or datasheets that information about fairy moves will probably be in.

"What sorts of stories?"

"All sorts of stories. Stories about people and pokemon, cities and fields, adventures and daily life..."

"We should read stories about sylveons! Or other eevees, I guess."

"Let's see what we can find..."

Filtering for the combination of 'introductory reading level' and 'sylveon' gets them a story about an eevee that doesn't know what to evolve into because they don't know which one is best, so they go on a trip and meet all the different evolutions and see each of them face a problem they can solve and a problem they can't. At the end, the group has to confront a ghost and the main character is the one to do it because they're the only normal-type. The story closes with them deciding that they don't have to pick right away, because everyone has their own strengths, even just as they are.

Aw! That's cute! (Though Sylveon is clearly the best pokemon here, Intrepid can empathize with taking your time deciding.)

Intrepid has at best the ability to recognize what symbols are writing, but she's learning decently quickly at least in terms of short-term memory. (Helps that she knows the language better than most early readers do.)

They can go again tomorrow night.

Yeah! Keep practicing.

That's the key to it.

Ellie does some research about fairy moves Intrepid should be able to learn before turning in for the night. The next day, she has two she thinks they should focus on: Draining Kiss and Dazzling Gleam.

Hm... What do those do?

Draining Kiss is like the fairy version of Absorb or actually Leech Life is a better comparison because that's a physical attack too. Dazzling Gleam is another special attack like Fairy Wind, but should work better on heavy pokemon that can't be blown over easily.

Does Draining Kiss involve actually kissing her opponent?

It can!

It sounds fun, but harder to practice without an enemy to target, someone who doesn't mind being drained she guesses...

Yeah. Probably there'll be people at Pewter Gym at least, battling's basically all they do on a day-to-day basis.

So maybe they can work on Dazzling Gleam on the way... Though Intrepid will have to practice away from Ellie. And on improving Baby Doll Eyes and Fairy Wind...

Sure.

There are some opportunities as they travel through the day. An aggressive beedrill, a migrating swarm of caterpie that has to be persuaded to go around Ellie, a couple bug aficionados whose teams want to show off...

She has fun with all of these, getting nicely tired and therefore settled a bit energy-wise by the time they make camp.

Reading is a bit easier when you can stay still.

Seems like it! (And being lower on physical energy means she's far more content to stay snuggled with Ellie.)

Snuggles are also good.

Intrepid drifts off to sleep in the middle of a sentence.

Sleepy baby.

Ellie softly shifts them both into a better sleeping position.