Spotting your arrival, Hugh exclaims happily over your showing up to practice your battling skills, and then challenges you to see how you’re doing.

Battle: Hugh (800 Poke)
Opponent: Tepig/Oshawott/Snivy Lv 8

Hugh isn’t much really, especially considering how easy it is to outlevel him by the point you fight him.  Still, he calls your performance ‘Not bad’, and comments on how well you’re doing at figuring out how to bring out the strength of your Pokemon.  He says he should be able to count on you for backup, but wants to know why you’ve come up here, anyways.

This is when you hand over the Town Map to him, which seems to make him a bit bashful, saying he didn’t need that help.  Still, he thanks you for helping him out even though you’ve both only just set out from home.

Your conversation (such as it is) is then interrupted by two people and a Herdier.  The one with the red bandanna exclaims about the noise, and supposes you and Hugh were having a battle out here.  Hugh asks who these people are- and they turn out to be the owner of the ranch and his wife.  The rancher’s wife comments that you should probably heal your pokemon after battle, and offers you a potion so that you can do just that.  She also gives one to Hugh, and comments that Potions are very useful when you’re not near a Pokemon Center.  The owner then asks if you’ve seen a Herdier around- one of his two has gone missing, which is pretty unusual given the two are almost always around each other.  He says he’s a bit worried about the missing one.

Hugh pretty much flips out at the claim of being ‘a bit worried’, and shouts at the man, exclaiming that for all he knows his Herdier could be lost forever.  He shakes himself free of his disbelief pretty quickly, though and says he’ll look- then tells you to help out as well.  Hugh runs off, and the ranch owner expresses a bit of confusion at the teen’s rather violent reaction, and says he supposes the Herdier is just off playing somewhere on the ranch.  His wife then tells you that if your Pokemon get hurt, you can just come back to her and she’ll patch them up for you.

If you want you can head back to Floccesy town- but Alder still isn’t ready for you, so you might as well head through the fence and into the ranch to look for that missing Herdier.

You can head up or left from here- you should first go left.  There are several Mareep you can pet here, and some tall grass- and a trainer who wants to see how you handle your Pokemon.

Battle: Lass Molly (96 Poke)
Opponent: Purrloin Lv 6, Sewaddle Lv 6