The Loyal Growlithe and the Wandering Vulpix

Prologue

A long, long time ago, when Elwood Village was first settled, the village was not secluded as it now is. Instead of an engulfing forest, there were endless grassy plains that stretched as far as the sky in all directions. These endless plains contained grass and only that. The only life belonged to that of the villagers and their Pokémon, as few in number as they were. The settlers of this village believed themselves to be the only inhabitants of these plains because they had travelled them long before their birth with their ancestors and had never encountered one outsider. The goal of the settlers' ancestors had been exactly that, to find others like themselves and their Pokémon, but the settlers themselves had another goal. Faced with their ancestors' failure and no legacy of even why they pursued outsiders so desperately in the first place, the settlers decided to end their nomadic ways. They no longer wanted to travel, but create a home where they could grow. The last ancestor to die cursed this plan as foolish, but recognized why the settlers sought what they did. To this final ancestor, he believed the goal of the settlers was the same as the very first ancestors, to grow themselves and their families, even if their methods were different. Nevertheless, he could not accept this course of action. To him, it was denying the knowledge of not only the first ancestor but all of the ones following and he would not bear that disrespect. So he left, leaving the village to grow on its own without the guidance of the ancestors.

Without the ancestors, the settlers did not have it easy trying to build a village out of nothing. Even with the ancestors' wisdom it still would have been difficult, but slowly the village came together and started to grow. However, it soon became clear that there was a problem concerning this village and that was deciding how it was going to be run. Before, when they travelled the plains, they had always been led by their ancestors, from the first ancestors' intentions to the final ancestors' interpretations. But the ancestors did not control this village, the settlers did. That was why it was decided that first settlers to build the village would lead it, as the visionaries from the past, and they thusly became the village elders. These elders, though, were not equal in the slightest as it was originally intended and time only exasperated the wound. Quickly, the elders that truly pioneered building the village by quarreling with the ancestors took power. From there, two elders especially stood out. One was the man that first had the idea to build the village and the other was the daughter of the final ancestor. These two, though with different personalities and as rivals in power, worked well together and always put the village first. Sadly, this could never last. The elders were exactly that, old, and their age made controlling the village harder and harder. Before long, these two elders had to give their positions to their children.

The elders' children were some of the very first few born within the village and they knew nothing of the reality of when their parents travelled the plains. But they did know the village. More than enough to believe they knew what was best for it. However, like their parents before them, they did not have the same ideas for the village. Unlike their parents, though, they could not put their differences aside. In fact, they fought so terribly that they had begun to divide, not only the elders, but the entire village with it. The two elders could not bear to watch as their children tore the village apart and the village tore their children apart, so they did one final thing for both their beloved village and children: they designed a contest. Now this was no ordinary contest, but it was not a complex one either. Both of the elders' children were well known for their skill with their Pokémon partners in the village, so the elders decided that instead of their children fighting directly the Pokémon should compete and whoever won would become the sole leader of the village. Both of the children agreed to the contest, confident in their partners and their own skill. So confident were they that they decided that there even ought to be a punishment for the loser, exile. When the word of this spread around the village the elders' hearts were broken. They had suggested the contest to quell the fighting and restore peace to their children and the village, but instead it was going to divide them both as the fighting had once done. The elders, unable to bear what they had done, did not live to see the contest and each one's child swore to their dead parent that they would win before it began.

The day of the contest was a highly anticipated one. The younger villagers were excited while the older villagers were tense. The elders especially dreaded the coming contest, as they knew the pain the parents of the contestants had gone through. Still, the day of the contest came just like all the others. The sun climbed higher and higher into the sky until it finally reached its peak, and that is when the contest began. Each child commanded a different Pokémon partner, one a vulpix and the other a growlithe, but they both commanded them masterfully. The two partners danced a fiery dance for the contestants and as this dance wore on the fire blazed brighter and the Pokémon seemed all the more beautiful. The contest lasted well into the night and by the time one partner was defeated the crowd had long cleared. The loser was no other than the child commanding the vulpix, and while the growlithe collapsed merely seconds after the loser had already been decided. The defeated child, as she cradled her beaten vulpix, watched as the newly crowned leader sneered in victory before ever reaching to help his partner and it sent her over the edge. Losing to an honorable opponent was one thing and while she had never said it, she had truly respected the man that had become the village leader, but not anymore. She cursed him with her every breath and vowed that one day she would come back and do what she should have today, be it now or a thousand years later and until then he and his misguided village could only wait for her.

The new village leader tried to ignore her as he scooped up his growlithe and carried it home. Nevertheless, his worry ate away at him and he could not help but constantly look behind him to see if she was following, even as she disappeared over the horizon. When he got back to the village this unease still did not go away. He thought himself crazy to worry about the utterings of a sore loser as she, especially when he had respected her as a proper opponent. His disappointment and fear aside, he had more on his mind. His partner was badly wounded, as he was sure her vulpix was. Despite his dread and discomfort, a new feeling took over as he finally finished treating his partner. Guilt. He was sure that the exiled woman was still where they had fought, with her wounded partner, as she had not moved as he had left. As he nursed that guilt it overtook everything else and he could not help but take what little medicine he had left from treating his own partner to try and give it to the exiled woman. However, the moment he left his house he knew that would be impossible. Where there were once endless plains was now an endless forest as far as he could see. As much as he would have liked to deliver the medicine as he had planned, he realized something as he stared at the forest. This was her curse. The curse she and her vulpix had placed on him and the village to wait for her. While he had been foolish with this contest before, maybe he could do one thing right to appease her and the elders that lost their lives for the contest. He placed the medicine at the edge of the forest and vowed that he would never enter it nor allow his villagers to. That was how the forbidden forest, now called Elwood Forest, came to be as it is now side by side with Elwood Village.

Of course, that does not mean the story is over. Far from it actually. After years and years of the villagers abiding by their first leader's decree, a young girl will test the boundaries of both the village and the curse. Little does she know that these two things should be the last things on her mind when she enters Elwood Forest.