Forrest made a gruff grunt through his chest as a passive affirmation. He then slammed his knife into a tree he walked next to to stick it deep into its trunk. He sloughed off his rucksack and quickly took off his shirt that had become wet with sweat. He folded it twice and stuffed it into a back pocket and pulled his rucksack back on. He then pulled the knife out with a single swift motion and resumed the hike. Strange that he had a sheath for the knife but chose to stick into a tree, instead. Perhaps he wanted to hit - stab - something. Perhaps it [i]was[/i] indeed faster than to fiddle with the sheath.
	He wiped across his eyes with a forearm. "Oh, so you called the press? Lilycove Times? But I'd assume it'd be best to look good [i]after[/i] we took out the base. Seems reckless to invite civilians."
	Forrest looked sideways at Tristan but kept his head forward. His brow raised slightly and there was the slightest hit of a smirk. This was only because the muscles in his cheek simply held up the corner of his mouth in a neutral position. He wasn't pushing the corners of his mouth down anymore as he had been since Tristan had arrived.

	Oracle, Ether, Veritas, and Shaq'ti were in constant communication with each other. Antligon and Damselraed would only be reached out to directly when it was deemed necessary.
	These woods were quiet - peaceful, even. Oracle and Antligon had visual on the safehouse but knew it'd be hours before they would reach it by foot. Shaq'ti continued to share her mind's eye of the surrounding area to Ether like some kind of condensed panoramic video that expanded a rather large distance. But the images were monochromatic and fuzzy. Damselraed's body was the most clear and distinct within the "sight" only because of how familiar she was with Damselraed. Compounded with Vertias' "sight" of living beings at a greater distance and being the hub of communications, Ether may have felt more calm - relaxed, even - than his trainer and his - "friend"? They only picked up on the occasional forager or bird Pokemon. Sometimes they passed a Wurmple or Weedle. One of the trees in the distance had a colony of cocooned Pokemon. There wasn't another human in "sight."