The party travels to Silvertree...hopefully

Maya just smiled at the Squirtle's entrance and his bow, something that befitted his trainer.

"No, its fine. He sounds wonderful," she said smiling at how Zandrophin raved about his Pokemon. Dororo was careful but he wasn't terribly precise with his moves and if she asked him to clean her hair she would just get a blast of water in her face. She had actually tried it before and it didn't turn out great and she ended up dripping wet right down to her clothes. It wasn't Dororo's forte.

"Er... uh thank you I think I will accept your offer on that," she said to Zandrophin before looking down at the little Pokemon. "If you don't mind."

Zandrophin acknowledged Marcus' obvious point with a slight bit of irritation. He wasn't an idiot...he knew the washing would have to happen either on a stone floor...or outside. He'd hoped it would be the former...for the comfort of both Maya and Squirt. A small smile crept onto his face as he spoke,

"Fantastic; we're glad you've accepted our offer. Alright, Squirt...Miss Maya here would like your help in washing her hair. It is very important that you follow her every instruction. Do remember she has quite a bit of hair...so a bit more water may be in order. Keep the pressure low and be sure not to go too fast. Imagine you are watering the garden."

Squirt saluted at these orders...he wasn't planning on disappointing anyone. Zandrophin returned his attention to Maya.

"I turn him over to you, temporarily. He'll do anything you ask, within reason...and he will perform to the best of his ability. Now...we need to find an acceptable location for him to do his job."

Marcus didn't look up from his baby pokemon, blowing up his own cheeks as if it were a balloon every now and then and squeezed Lex. "Well...the other option is waiting outside in the cold in an unknown area; which you're free to do if it pleases you, zandrophin. No one is making you do anything you don't want to do." Marcus smiled as Lex imitated him by inflating his own balloon-like body. "Very good! Once more," He blew up his cheeks again and Lex inflated with him; both breaking into chuckles as they deflated. Marcus glanced over to the hallway the man exited through.

He is taking a while, but maybe he didn't have any food ready and wanted to get us something hot or had other things to attend to...or just needed to go get his axe from the shed and couldn't find the key to the lock.....Nah, he seems like at least a relatively intelligent man, he wouldn't try to attack a bunch of pokemon trainers; he'd get through one of us and the others would pulverize him. Plus, it's a bad business plan. If we survive and come back, we'll most likely stop by here again and tell our friends of the only save place this far north. Nah...we're fine...we're fine.....

Squirt looked sideways at Maya as she knelt down and stroked his chin...considering how to go about the washing. He decided that a higher elevation would allow for easier water aiming and greater control. So, without any form of hesitation, he jumped...or rather attempted to jump up onto the nearby end table. He didn't quite make the height, but he managed to grab on and clamber up to the top.

Once he was set up, he arched his head back a bit and arched a light stream of water over to Maya. The water lightly doused her hair, but did not get any of her clothes wet. Squirt knew Zandrophin would be proud of his control. He could water brittle flowers, from what he could guess, watering a girl was not much of a shift. All he hoped was that he was doing a satisfactory job.

She had hunched her shoulders, expecting it to be cold and get thoroughly doused, despite Zandrophin's proud comments. However, the water was surprisingly lukewarm and felt more like a light rain on her hair.

The blast of cold air that came at her from Sofa opening the door, and the white furred Pokemon almost bowling right into her almost made her fall over. She shivered and watched the Vigoroth go around her.

She had a lot of hair, and it was thick but the water felt refreshing though there was no soap. At least there wouldn't be any dirt in her hair anymore.

"That should be fine, Squirt," Maya said, head tilted back, hair soaked and heavy. She was glad she had a towel in her bag. "Thank you."

Marcus put Lex into his ball for his nap right as the man walked into the room with four porcelain bowls with spoons already in them; two in his hands and two balancing on his forearms. He had an almost whimsical look on his face as he handed zandrophin his bowl and the rest he placed on the small glass table in front of the fireplace.

"Please, enjoy. I didn't know if your Vigoroth was a poffin and berry only kind of pokemon, so I guessed and brought a bowl for him as well. I know abras don't eat much, but if any of your pokemon want some, there is at least 3 more bowls-worth still in the pot. Just ask and I'll go get some more for you." He then took a seat in the wooden chair across from the couch Marcus was sitting on and picked some nonexistent lint off his shoulder.

"But first...it appears that I don't know any of your names. I'm sorry for not having proper introductions made. You see, out here in the wilderness; you sort of begin to not care about those kinds of things.
I am called Rhys Flaxencrow. I own this...trading post; that's basically what it is." He then paused, slouching in his chair, his hands dangling off the armrests as he waited for a response. It was in this position that Marcus could see the man's physique despite his large sweater.

His chest was sizable, even for his large body. Probably from cutting firewood all the time. However, he had a small layer of fat on his stomach; not enough to really care about, but enough to notice. The man's thick dark hair came down straight but curled up just at the ends. His beard was half an inch longer than stubble; the bottom of his scar just cutting into it. He didn't look middle aged, but he was most definitely not in his twenties. He was an imposing man that just looked like he lived out in the woods...except for the fuzzy slippers.

"Oh...uh, I'm Marcus Gleyser, this is Sofa, he's zandrophin and she is Maya Reed." As Marcus was introducing everyone, Sofa reached out and grabbed the bowl on the table with both palms. He smelled it, nodded, then held it out to Marcus. "Hm? Oh." Marcus grabbed the spoon and Sofa drank the soup incredibly quickly. Marcus picked up his bowl as well and began to slowly eat his food.

The man smirked as if he was intrigued by this strange group, sitting straight up in his chair and shifting around to get comfortable,
"So tell me, Marcus Gleyser, why are you kids north of civilization in dangerous lands if you don't want to go skiing? Don't go looking on your pokemon journey for any gyms up here; there are none."

"Well...we're up here because we've been told by someone that there is a town a bit further north, and there is a contest being held there not...too......long from now." Marcus had trouble finishing his sentence because Rhys began laughing, soft at first, but he couldn't hold it in and began bellowing grand and echoing guffaws that bounced up into the ceiling and across the large lobby.

"Young man, whoever told you that obviously wanted you dead, because there is no such place."

"But...there are people that come down, a lot of people, that send mail to those in the south. This is the place they have the return address go to."

"Yeah, wild men and folks like me, folks that like to live out here in the eastern forest away from cities and people. They stop by every now and then looking to trade furs and meat for anything the skiers trade me for equipment. They only put this as their return address because they need to put a place and there are no roads to where they live."

".......There is a place called Silvertree Village up past the blizzards that..." Marcus tried to continue, but Rhys began laughing again, not as loud but still strong and distracting, "...that is just a few miles north of a lake. We...we know someone that..." Marcus was losing his patience and brought his fist down onto the couch's armrest, raising his voice, "we know someone that lives there and we need directions."

Rhys' laughing died down and his face became serious, "Young man, It would be smart not to lose your temper in another man's home." He stood up and stepped to the fireplace, resting an arm on it as he looked into the flames. "If there is such a place...I can understand why I don't know of it. The kind of people that could live up there don't really need much to stay alive. People like that, if they find each other, they tend to try and stay apart; but it could happen that some folks just got together and started to grow until they were a village. People are more likely to trust a group than a single person." Rhys turned around and looked Marcus in the eyes,

"There is a lake in the eastern forest. Star Lake is an enormous lake stretching down a bit farther south than where we are over to the west, the skiers cross it to get to the mountains, but no one has managed to walk along it all the way north to where it starts. A long while back, when the towns down south started to grow, we got a huge boom in explorers trying to search the great unknown expanse of Eirlys." Rhys turned his head and returned to his seat. "Most died. But there were a few that made it back. Most of them, when I asked 'em what they found, said 'Nothing. Just forest, then just snow and winds too hard for even a tree to stand up.' There were those, however, that told me there was a point up north where the heavy snow stopped. It was calm, but nothing was up there, they were low on provisions and they had to turn back."

"How far north was it?"

"I don't know. Every last one of them lost all sense of direction. They said that gale-force winds were pushing them around, making them walk in circles; which shouldn't be possible in a forest, there are trees to absorb most of the wind. It's bizarre...but those that came back said they had walked for days."

Marcus paused for a long time, his face scrunched up in thought. I don't know how to feel about this information. It was helpful and now we have a definite direction; but with what he's been saying...

"Hey, finish your soup; it's going to get cold. Now that's enough talk of serious things and business. I'd like to get to know you kids better. Like you, young lady; you've got some very interesting attire."