Too much, of even the best things, could become an eyesore. Or cause a sore nose. Such was the case with the flowers used to decorate Floaroma City in preparation for their Seedling Festival. They were everywhere, filling the air with their scent but the sheer amount turned it from a comforting, alluring smell into an olfactory club that drubbed you over the head and left you reeling.

In addition, even though the festival hadn’t officially started, the flower-motive was inescapable, with flower-pancakes, flower-tea, tables strewn with flower-petals, everything was flower, to the point that I suspected the toilet-paper of being flower-flavoured. Each of those, on their own, would be a charming thing, but all together only made my nose itch, to the point that I considered trying to get out of town before the festival.

My mood wasn’t helped by the fact that the primary characteristic of the festival was one of fertility, with all the implications that entailed. There would be a spring-bride, flower-dances, even some nonsense with masks, apparently in an effort to let go of social norms.

I had come to accept that the general perception painted travelling Trainers as promiscuous, with a partner in every town, drifting through the lives of others on their journey, occasionally joining them for a pleasant bedroom-experience. I was not fond of said perception, but I could hardly do anything about it. That Claire seemed to enjoy the compliments and attention made my mood go from bad to worse, especially since it meant that the friends of her admirers were either tasked with keeping me occupied or decided to try taking their own shot at me. We had spent the evening after checking in at the Centre and most of the next day strolling around town and the number of times we had been hit on, mostly by males, had long-since crossed into double digits. If we remained in town for much longer, we might even hit triple-digits at some point, the idea enough to give me a headache to go with my itching nose.

Instead of sticking with Claire the whole time, I decided to visit the Gym, hoping that I’d be able to get some reading done, maybe discover a good, nearby area to train, anything that gave me the necessary excuse to drag Claire out of town.

The reference-room was empty when I entered and I began scanning the shelves, looking for something interesting to research. Reports on Pokémon-sightings and general recent events, maps and a veritable river of information and I had to sift through it for those precious nuggets of insight.

Instead of trying to guess which reports might be the important ones, I picked a local one mostly at random, briefly scanning the introduction before deciding on a report that focused on Eternia Forest and the mountains beyond. It was the direction Claire and I were planning to travel in, so knowing more would be advantageous.

Instead of remaining in the slightly stuffy library, I took the report with me and moved into one of the open gazebos, sitting in such a way that a mild breeze was blowing past me, while the sun was warming my back. It was comfortable, the breeze just enough to carry a light, ever-changing fragrance past me, the sun nicely warm without being too hot.

The pleasant environment turned a normally dry task into a fascinating endeavour. Getting up from time to time, I switched out the reports and, at one point, went to get a drink. Sadly, when I got back, the comfortable space I had claimed had been invaded by another trainer.

He looked as if he was about my age, just a bit smaller than I, but with a strong frame, brown hair and a pair of glasses sitting on his nose. His clothing marked him as a trainer, the same muted colours and practical, sturdy clothes, with a couple Pokéballs sitting on his hip confirming the idea.

While I was displeased at his appearance, I hadn’t been present earlier, so trying to shoo him away was almost impossible. As such, I simply gave a curt greeting, which was returned by a similarly brief reply, and focused back on my work. Luckily, despite the space now being shared, the person I shared it with had a similar desire to converse as I, namely none. Thanks to that, we both continued to work in silence.

Sadly, the silence couldn’t last forever. It wasn’t even that one of us broke it, the silence was broken from the outside. When I heard a noisy group approach, I looked up to see a group of twelve people on their way to the gazebo I was in. While I didn’t recognise the people up front, further in the back were Claire, Ivie and Farrel.

Once again, clothing and demeanour differentiated between travelling Trainers and locals, the trainers all walking in a similar, controlled and efficient way, a habit formed by many miles of travelled road. The locals were moving much more casually, with the presence of Pokéballs serving as the final evidence. In this case, the group was mostly trainers, with only five of them looking like locals.

“Hey, Dani, you’re here, too?” Claire greeted me, surprise on her face.

“Apparently.” I raised an eyebrow, looking at Claire, before focusing on Ivie and Farrel.

“Long time no see.” I gave them a greeting, a polite smile on my face.

“Nice to see you again, how are you?” Ivie asked, glancing at Claire for a moment. Giving a simple shrug in response, I waved off her concern.

“Eh, getting here was a little rough. You never told me that you’d travel here next.” I raised an eyebrow, curious about the circumstances.

“Oh, I told Claire about it. I visited last years’ Seedling Festival and it was incredible.” I noticed her hand grabbing Farrel’s and briefly squeezing, causing a blush to bloom on his face.

“We just had to come back, even if we already have the Badge.” she grinned, giving a glance to Farrel.

“I see.” I replied, only to frown a little. If I had known about the festival, I might have tried to convince Claire that heading somewhere else was better. Anywhere else, really.

Nearby, one of the girls that had been in the small group had pulled up the guy that had invaded my space earlier. When Claire noticed me looking over to them, she began to introduce the people around us. I tried to match faces and names, but after a few, I was already beginning to mix them up.

The two that stuck in my mind were Jeff, the guy who had invaded my space, and Emily, the girl who had pulled him up. It turned out, the two of them were Travelling Trainers hailing from Oreburgh City.

“Dani, do you want to join us? There’s some live-music in one of the local parks.” Ivie suggested and I considered for a moment. There was a part of me that wanted to decline, return to our room and simply relax, but given my promise to keep an eye on Claire, I decided to join them.

As we were leaving the Gym-park, the attendant stepped out of the reception-area. It was the same, slightly bored looking guy we had met before.

“Excuse me, Dani, Claire? Can I have a word?” he called out. After exchanging a shrug and a brief look, we walked over.

“What’s wrong?” Claire asked, sounding concerned.

“If you have a moment, I can tell you about your task.” he offered, opening the door for us.

“Sure, why not.” I readily agreed, hoping that it would be something that got us out of town, preferably today, as unlikely as that was. We followed him in and he pulled out a simple map. A quick glance allowed me to get an idea of what was shown, namely the local area. The map only covered a circle around town, roughly fifty kilometres in radius, with allowances for different landmarks.

“Ok, you two.” he began, pointing out a part of the heartland further west, towards the ocean. “Your task, to receive your third badge,is to patrol area 9-3, the west-south-western area, stretching from the quiet brook to the field of round rocks. The purpose is to make sure no large concentrations of Pokémon are gathering there, so nothing disturbs the Seedling Festival. It should take you a day to get there, maybe two or three days to check the area and another day to come back, so you can participate in the festival.” he paused, studying us for a moment. “You came from Jubilife, right?” he asked, getting nods in return.

“Well, we don’t want anything like that to happen here. The Seedling Festival is important, both to bring in travellers but also as a symbol. So, please, help making sure that it can go off without a hitch.'' His voice was almost pleading and both of us agreed, after asking a few more questions to make sure we knew where to go and what to expect.

“We’ll head out tomorrow, first thing in the morning.” I promised, gleeful at the excellent excuse to leave town.