"Intrepid, dodge!" Ellie shouts as the weedle puffs up their cheeks.

Very dodge! She does not want to get weedle string on her nice soft fur!

The sticky string whiffs by-

-but tags the end of one of her streamers, pinning it to the ground.

- Waaaahhhh!!!

Intrepid yelps, tugging at her streamer quickly, but it doesn't come free.

She only needs one more hit, though... Baby Doll Eyes turned all the way up, with tail wagging to say Weedle should definitely come over here? 

Oh they're coming over all right, point first. Intrepid's immobility plus the old man's encouragement seem to have gotten past any reluctance they have.

"Fairy Wind, Intrepid!"

Deep breath and loud roar, kicking up a wind storm in front of her. Not a very polished one, but...

It's enough to knock the weedle down.

"Good! Again."

Roar!!! A bigger, harsher storm this time. 

The weedle goes tumbling end over end, and that's the match.

Ellie and the man both call halt, and she goes over to Intrepid to help her cut loose from the string.

Intrepid's pretty sure she wants to take a bath first stream they pass. This stuff is icky.

Still, good fight! She bounces happily a bit at Weedle.

Weedle waves somewhat dizzily back at her.

Ellie and the man congratulate each other, then tap their phones together to transfer the funds. The old man turns back to talk to the kids, who sound like they have about a million questions apiece.

Ellie goes to Intrepid. "Ready to keep going?"

"Yeah!"

"Great." On they go.

"Congratulations on your first win as a sylveon."

"Thanks!"

"You helped a lot. You're really smart."

"I'm glad."

"What do you think we need to work on?"

"I need to pay attention to my surroundings differently. I'm not used to these," she waves a white tendril, "Or to being this big."

"Also in general figure out what moves are gonna be easier now I've evolved and learn some more fairy type stuff."

"I know about a couple of the common ones, but more would be good, yeah. I can look online for information, or if you want to hop in a ball for a couple minutes, we can hook it up to the 'dex and get a scan for specifics."

"Hopping into a ball works. Then I can look at stuff, too! ...You know I think I want to learn how to read, then I could do research on my own..."

"That'd be cool. Not so easy to do while walking, but it can be an evening activity."

"After we get tired for the day."

Nod.

"Do you wanna try the ball now, or wait on that too?"

"Hm... I think wait on that."

"Sure."

As they keep walking, the forest gets closer, dense and dark and green. There's a ranger station on the edge where they can register their trip. Ellie picks a 'medium' duration, so if they don't check in on the far side after three days, someone will come looking for them.

That's pretty smart... And Intrepid doesn't think they're going exploring, yeah, they're just heading to the other side right now. 

Onward?