A New Beginning

Giles entered the Copse for the third time. However, this time like the last he had a purpose. Apparently the burmy that he met the first time coming there had a secret organization that Giles could join. After completing what he was led to believe was his initiation mission, he came back with renewed confidence that he could do this. He had to wander through the ever changing copse in order to find the burmy in hopes that he could find him and give him the purple leaf. With that being said, he really hoped that he did not get lost on his way there. If Giles remembered correctly then Russel did not give him instructions other than meet him back here.

It was a rather pleasant day, nearly midday if one were to be precise with the time. The sun was high in the sky, light reflecting off the many hues of red that made up the forest. A certain Mothim was heading back towards the Windrose Library after taking a small break to fly leisurely around the forest, purely for the enjoyment of feeling the wind on his wings and smell the crisp air of the copse.

As the moth headed back down below the treeline in order to land for a spot of rest before he headed the rest of the way home, he spotted movement on the forest floor. With a curious twitch of his antennae, Russell gently flew downwards, getting closer without making too much noise so that he could attempt to ascertain whether they were a threat or not. After all, if they kept heading straight in that direction they'd at the very least pass straight by the Windrose Library.

Luckily for Russell, he breathed a relieved sigh when he found that he recognised the pokemon below. It was Giles, a Shuckle he'd met not too long ago and remembered assigning an entry challenge to... ooh! Did that perhaps mean that he had finished his challenge?! Well it couldn't hurt to find out after all!

With a cheerful smile, the Mothim flew over to the Shuckle, making a little more noise with his wings this time so as to hopefully not completely startle the other pokemon.
"Hey Giles!" he grinned, "How have you been?"

Giles heard a voice from above. The voice sounded like it was Russel but it did not look like him. The Russel that he knew was a Burmy, hanging from trees observing the landscape. As Giles tried to figure out who this was it dawned on him. This was in fact Russel, Giles just forgot that evolution was a thing… again. Giles’ attitude immediately perked up upon meeting his friend, seeing how finding Russel was the whole reason why Giles was there in the first place. “Oh hello there friend, it is great to see you again. It’s going well on my end, continuing to explore the world and all that. I can see that you look quite… different. Oh also before I forget, you are actually the reason why I am here in the first place! I did it!” he says quite proudly holding his purple leaf in the air with pride.

"Oh of course! My apologies I forget sometimes that my appearance is different to how I first met some of the pokemon I know," he chuckled weakly and in an almost embarrassed way. The Mothim's cheeks warmed at the fact that he'd forgotten again. He supposed that the one plus was that there were only a few pokemon in the world who had met him as a Burmy and not yet seen him as a Mothim so it wasn't like this sort of thing could happen forever!

Russell quickly perked up again though, and grinned widely, "I'm glad you are doing well though and- Oh! That really is one of the special leaves from here! Congratulations!"
The Mothim did a little wiggle dance in the air out of joy for the Shuckle's accomplishments, "Have you written the report about your experiences yet?" he asked curiously, finishing his little dance and landing gently on the ground a few paces in front of Giles. He really hoped that the Shuckle had, after all it was exciting whenever someone new joined the Windrose Scouts!

Giles listened to his friend talk about his evolution briefly. He could not figure out how Russel was talking about it; he was picking up a hint of… embarrassment? Whether he was embarrassed or not he probably should clear the air so to speak. “No don’t worry there Russel I sometimes forget that evolution is possible seeing how it is not a possibility for me… I always wondered why that is… never mind that congratulations on your evolution there friend!”

Giles listened intently as Russel talked about his mission. When eventually he got to the part about the report he completely forgot to grab it. “Oh right give me a second,” Giles stuck on of his tentacles inside of his shell and pulls out a piece of paper, “here you go, everything is all here. I think I mentioned everything. So tell me more about the Scouts, it’s been on my mind ever since you mentioned it.”

The Misdreavus floated in, reviewing her notes she took on her challenge exploration, then gently tucking them away to begin looking for where to go. If she recalled correctly, Miss T remembered Russel saying he lived around here, but never told her a specific location to come by. Plus, with his autumnal cloak, it would be significantly difficult to find the Burmy among the crisp chilly leaves colored like a warm sunset. She would have to keep her eye out for a more specific shape: irregular clusters of leaves that do not fit with the maples' opposite arrangement on branches. Something like that should surely catch her observational eye, so it couldn't be too hard.

As Genevieve drifted on, some movement caught her eye: the flapping of wings, and from a Mothim no less. His features even from a slight distance looked very similar to the Burmy she had known, and had even retained the same colors from his cloak, so she could only know it was Russ. A Pokemon has to learn how to discern their friends from other Pokemon of the same species after all, no?

As she approached, she also noted the Shuckle lying on the forest floor, but chose to ignore him momentarily in order to direct her attention to the Mothim acquaintance she hoped to report to pridefully.
"Greetings, Russel, I'm glad to have found you here, and it seems I'm not the only one," referencing to the smallest of the present Pokemon and returning to her focus, retrieving her small notebook filled with sketches, notes, and lengthy entries about studies, and finally Miss T's essay on what she found, which she tried to keep short so the once-limbless insect didn't have to hold all the loose sheets. Obviously that wouldn't be a problem now, but she didn't think the bug type would want to read through 13 pages about leaves.

Russell grinned and thanked the Shuckle for congratulating him and gently accepted the paper from him as he removed it from his shell. The Mothim began to read the report, smiling slightly at the Shuckle's style of writing. It was always nice to be able to tell how the writer felt about a task or place in particular and that seemed to come out clearly in Giles's writing.

After deeming everything to be in order, he turned to the Shuckle to express as much and began to go into much detail about WS and what they did there. He continued to explain up until the appearance of another familiar face.

"Oh! Miss T!" the Mothim smiled as the Misdreavus appeared, and gave him another report to read, "Two in one day!" he chuckled.

"Oh, before I get ahead of myself and start reading, Miss T, this is Giles. Just been accepted into the Windrose Scouts himself! Giles, this is Miss T," he introduced the Shuckle and Misdreavus. Hopefully if Miss T's report was good - which he assumed it would be - they would both end up as part of the Scouts and be interacting on a somewhat regular basis. Establishing a good relationship early on would be the key to assuring that everyone all got along.

After this, the Mothim read through the Misdreavus's report. He was a little surprised at the mention of Kelina, another candidate he had scouted for WS and found himself wondering how she was getting along with her own challenge. It seemed the two had ended up working together and Russell couldn't help but smile at the thought that the two could have already become friends, or at least acquaintances.

Upon finishing the essay he turned to the Misdreavus, "It seems everything is in order here as well. Congratulations! Since you have both passed your tests with flying colours, I can now show you the way to our main base," he continued, pausing for a moment to open his own bag, filing away both reports and the items that came with them.

"I actually have a gift for each of you too," the Mothim smiled, closing his bag back up, "But I didn't expect to see either of you so soon, so they're back in my room in the Windrose Library. If you come with me I can show you the way and give you your gifts," he grinned, motioning in the direction that he would take them in.

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