“He can take as long as he wants.” Miu finally piped up, catching up with the others since Charlie’s abrupt stop. “He just shouldn’t be too surprised if we leave him.” Mago squeaked, either in agreement or finding some humor in the situation. The forest was still fairly thick, but she didn’t think it’d take much longer to reach Ouvert Way. She had already made the trek earlier today. In fact, they could probably make it to Snowbelle City before nightfall if they kept moving. If his phone call ran long, well, Miu wasn’t going to suggest hanging around. She pushed between Charlie and Bailey before the latter could respond.
Charlie took a slight step back as Miu pushed herself between himself and the other girl; aside from anything, he remembered what the girl had said to him earlier and didn’t particularly want to risk another snipe from her. However, any further regression from him was stifled by the fact that the two other girls seemed willing to invite him along until they reached Snowbelle; even the girl in front of him seemed to be apathetic at worst to the idea, meaning he’d just have to keep out of her way. Wouldn’t be too difficult, at least for him.
“Alright, uh- I’ll call home soon as we get to the Santalune Pokemon Center, okay? Need to sort a few things out and, well- got another Pokemon besides Phil here that needs some attention.”
Hearing Charlie mentioned him, the Gastly just hissed and looked around the group again, hearing the loud, sharp squeak from the Poliwag he’d spooked earlier.
Quick as a flash, Phil swooped down from his position floating around Charlie and lowered himself to the base of the forest floor; eyeballing the little tadpole Pokemon quietly, and also sneaking a quick glance towards the Duskull also floating upon the floor of the forest.
Again, Bailey seemed to perk up at the mention of another pokemon - Miu guessed she was hoping for another Ghost-type. She picked up her pace, not quite quick enough to avoid hearing Bailey ask “You have another? When did you catch it?”, but quick enough that any other replies were just muffled sounds. The trees were thinning around her, with more light seeping through the canopy of Santalune Forest. Not far now, though it seemed the relatively large group had been keeping most pokemon away.
It took her a minute to realize the possible issue with this mere seconds before the Caterpie dropped onto her shoulder.
Of course, if they caught up, she’d deny the shriek had been hers, no matter how implausible that denial would be. The Caterpie hit the ground, and Miu dropped Mago. She landed on her bottom, rolling back and forth slightly before looking up at her irritated trainer.
“Mago! Bubble!” The Poliwag tilted a bit - she was Mago? - before deciding that her trainer’s full attention was a good thing. She jumped to her feet and shot a Bubble attack at the small bug pokemon. It wasn’t enough to knock it out, but Mago’s attack did push the Caterpie into the sunny path of Ouvert Way.