Tea is Best Served Hot

Walking slowly over to zandrophin, never taking his eyes off him until he reached within arm's distance, then he looked down at his hand. He slapped his hand away as he looked him in the eyes.

"I don't need your help to get there; I never needed help to get there and I don't really care if she looked at me or not or whatever other reason you're trying to convince me to let you come along." Sticking his finger in zandrophin face, "I don't like your eyes, I don't like your personality and I don't like your family. The ONLY reason I'm letting you coming along is because I don't want to have to severely injure you and your Pokemon and there'd be no other way to keep you from tagging along." Turning around, Marcus walked to the fountain in the middle of the town.

Maya sat on the fountain, re-braiding her thick hair and swearing. "God d**n it..." She said, pulling off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. Dororo sat on her lap nuzzling her hand in concern. Sofa sat on the fountain as well.

"You know what? I'm sick of this. I give up. I feel like I'm chasing a f**kin ghost pokemon!" She sighed and groaned.

"Froak..." Dororo said sadly.

"I know I need to find her but it's just..." She finished her braid and pulled up her sleeves to examine the cleanse tags on her arms. One was starting to peel off. She would have to put a new on soon... "There is no guarantee we'll find her. I could end up chasing her around the continent. What if she has like an abra and is just teleporting all over the place?"

"Froaaak..."

"Don't remind me.... Oh I think they're finished..." She said looking up.

Zandrophin casually walked up to the fountain, his left hand in his pocket. He walked up behind Marcus and asked,

"Alright, Chief...so what's the plan? You going to lead us forth by this map and our wits alone...or are we going to hire a guide? On the one hand, just us traveling would mean more time to bond and become closer friends..and we might not make it out alive. On the other hand, we could hire some stranger to take us somewhere were we've never been..and we might not make it out alive. It's your choice."

He waited a few seconds before continuing,

"However...there is a third option..."

"He was being sarcastic the entire time. Cheerful has less...insult in the tone. But hey, have you ever found any information about her before? This is good, that means you're following her and not just wandering around aimlessly. If they said North and West, we don't know of any town west of here, but we do know one north." Turning to zandrophin, Marcus rolled his eyes, "So what's your brilliant third plan? I'm guessing it involves you leading us through the tundra with your marvelous leadership skills..."

-sigh- This is going to be a long trip. Marcus brought up his fingers for each point he made,

"One: We don't know if that lake on the map is the lake we're going to, maybe they have a smaller lake that isn't on this map. If you bring us somewhere miles and miles off of where we're going, maybe north of where we're going, how are we supposed to find our bearings?
Two: If you teleport us there and we don't end up where we're supposed to go, apparently you don't have a very strong confidence in teleporting places you haven't been, how are we supposed to find our way back? We're going to wander around in the snow until we all starve to death
Three: Let's say you do manage to teleport us to the lake. What if we get there and land on top of the lake, and all of our weight combined drop us through the ice? If the lake is as large as it says on the map, we'd have a difficult time making it to the village before one of our toes broke off."

Turning around and facing the north, "No, we ask around for advice on where to start, we find the trails the villagers took and we go the old-fashioned way."

"True," Maya nodded at Marcus'' in agreement. It was true this was the most information she had gotten in along time...

She almost smiled at Zandrophin's sarcasm. She remained silent for a moment looking between the two. These two would be near impossible to get to compromise it seemed...

"While I'm not sure where all this hostility comes from..." Maya spoke. "Perhaps both would be wise? We try your way Marcus... And if we' get stuck... We fall back on Zandrophin's plan of teleporting? ... It is just a thought. I will go with whatever you decide on considering I have no choice anyway...