Encounters - Rei

"Whoa!" Clay takes a step back. He knows full well how sharp those teeth are. Going full-on threat display was a gamble, sure - if it worked it would scare the dog off or at least make it back down, but if not he could just elevate himself to threat number one, and he's afraid that may be what just happened. "Oookay, not gonna back off easy... This guy's probably got a trainer somewhere, I don't think it'll go for us unless it gets the word. But I hope they show up soon..."

Fan hops up next to him, ready just in case it comes to a fight despite Clay's prediction. She screeches at the Growlithe, but if Clay didn't intimidate it much she probably won't have much luck either.

"... What the?"

Clay's shoulders relax slowly as he looks after the Growlithe. He's just kind of confused now. "Musta called him off, but I'd have expected the guy to show up first..." Apparently not everyone is as straightforward as that nice farmer.

He looks down after a moment at Fan to figure out why she's pulling on his pant leg. "What is it, sis...? Wait, where did..." Huh. No belt, no bag. That is... extremely not good. "Um, guys...? I think we might have a problem."

Rei also is as confused as the others at first, and once the others notice, she also notices.

"Oh no! Someone absconded with everything I had!"

Rei wants to begin questioning where her things went as well but Tiki begins to panic and Rei rushes to her side, and holds Tiki close.

"No Tiki, please. Sooosh. Just please be calm, we'll find our things, whoever did this can't have gone far."

She looks up, trying to find the airborne Kopi.

"Kopi, you must have gotten a look at whoever did this? Your eyes are sharper than ours, yes?"

Rei raises an eyebrow. Of course Kopi would want something.

"If you help us find that person and get our stuff back, you can take whatever you like from their possessions. They did steal from us, we should let you steal back."

Kopi informs you (via Clay's translations of Poké Speech) that the red dog thing was (obviously) a distraction, and while you all paid attention to it, a human that 'blended in with the forest' snuck up behind you and took your stuff. They then quietly slipped away off into the trees to your left (towards the mountain) and it lost sight of them after that.

Tiki is able to pull some of herself together to get up, and walk with Rei. Through sniffles, "T-They'll be ok.....r-r-right, R-Rei? *sniff*"

Okay, so made a fool of them, took their stuff, took their Pokémon, and made Tiki cry. Yes, definitely somebody they need to... catch up with. Clay translates Kopi's explanation, making a face as he tries to make it a little less condescending. "You know what I'm gonna do to this human when I find them? He made the noisy girl cry. Think about that before you're mean to her, huh?"

He's got a direction, which is a good enough start. Better yet, he knows exactly where the Growlithe started from; presumably it's going to link up with its owner at some point. Between Kopi's direction and the Growlithe as starting points, he starts trying to pick up a trail. "C'mon, sis. We got a bad guy to catch and teams to get back. Keep an eye out for me, huh?"

He helps Fan hop up onto his shoulder and stalks off into the undergrowth to track down a thief.

Clay's Survival (tracking time): 15
Fan's Perception (lookout): 16

"What...?" Well, that's certainly a more efficient way to confuse Clay than simply hiding the trail. He himself was trying to leave a clear trail for Rei and Tiki to follow, knowing that they aren't as used to being out in the wilds as him. But how is he going to handle this? If he waits for them to catch up and debate things, the thief will just get farther ahead, and if they make it to their real camp who knows where they'll go?

After a moment's thought, he scrounges around for a dry, dead twig and holds it in front of Fan's mouth. "Light it up just a little?" Fan obligingly chars the end for him, and he uses the crumbly black ash to scrawl a shaky C on a nearby tree and an arrow pointing in the direction of one of the side paths. Then he pinches out any remaining embers on the twig and sets off along the path the arrow points towards. Hopefully if he's on a false trail it doesn't go too far and he can double back to try again...

Tiki wipes away stinging tears, and hiccups a little as she tries to calm down more. Her eyes scan the trees for a sign of anyone. "Oooohhh.....W-Where are they?...." She tries desperately to focus, but images of her pokemon keep coming to mind. This only makes her cry more.