"I curse you to die a horrid and painful death…" the fortune teller cursed. She would have no more of this.
"Ha!! There's no such things as curses, you old ugly ass windbag!" Ridge retorted confidently. Salle began to sweat profusely, as he feared for the safety of his friend. He knew all too well about how powerful curses can be. The fact that there was a snarling Vulpix at the fortune teller's side didn't to seem to ease his mood.
"P-p-please, Ridge, stop…" Salle pleaded. Unfortunately, his plea fell on deaf ears. He began to quake with fear. The pokemon sensed this and seemed to suddenly get scarier. However, Ridge was unfazed, as he continued to hurl obscenities at the fortune teller because of the great prediction Salle had gotten.
Flashback to 30 minutes ago…
"Alright, you won the game!" praised Salle to his friend, Ridge, who had just won the Power Slam game, where you smashed a hammer onto a target to try to make the light hit the top of the tower.
"I'm invincible! Nothing can touch me!" Ridge proclaimed like some knockoff king. Moving on, the duo continued on further down the game & gizmos lane until they reached a fortune teller's shop.
"You think we should get our fortunes told, Salle?" Ridge asked. Salle was carrying a Floatzel doll that represented one of his favorite pokemon. Admiring it, he didn't hear his friend's question.
"Oh… what'd you ask?"
"I asked if you thought we should get our fortunes told." To this Salle replied, "Sure. A prediction sounds good." Unknown to the duo, however, the fortune teller watched them from a crystal ball as they drew near.
"That orange-shirted young man (who is Salle, by the way) seems like a very kind fellow. I would hate for anything bad to befall one so undeserving," the fortune teller said to her Vulpix. Unknown to everyone except her Vulpix, she was actually a Ninetales in disguise, trying to find a Fire Stone for her child. Unfortunately, the disguise was known to attract very rude remarks. It was the only one that did not cost magic power, as she did not want to attract the wrong kind of attention.
When the two came to the shop, Salle and Ridge asked the woman if they could get a prediction. Being the generous person he was, Salle paid her and gave her two Fire Stones mostly as an act of generosity, the other part being that he preferred Water Stones for their color. The old woman, who has a bad case of acne, began to look into the crystal ball, starting with Salle's prediction. Ridge, the black-shirted one, decided to let Salle go first.
"Let the prediction begin. …I call upon the power of my ancestors… Reveal this young man's fate!" the old woman chanted. Focusing her power into the crystal ball, it began to glow.
"Gaze into the crystal ball, young man," the woman ordered. Salle cast his gaze into the crystal ball. Ridge, becoming interested, also decided to look. "Wonder what's in his future."
The crystal ball began to show an image of gold coins and rare treasures raining down on top of Salle. In a huge mansion, to boot, along with a mysterious girl of his dreams that could not be seen.
"Wow.. Just wow…I'm speechless…" said a dumbfounded Salle. Nevertheless, he suppressed his excitement but some came out as a smile. After a moment of recovery, Salle asked if this was true. In return, he got a simple 'yes'. Now it was Ridge's turn.
He was insanely jealous of Salle's good fortune and deemed him unworthy in his mind.
'That's gonna be MY fortune!' he thought. Yes, he THOUGHT. Switching places with Salle, he asked to have his fortune read. The fool that he was, he demanded to be given the same fortune.
"Don't you know that all fortunes are different for everyone?" Salle told the idiot.
"No, they're not! They're the same!" Ridge retorted stupidly. "Gimme the same fortune!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that. Your fortune would always be different from someone else's," the lady replied calmly. "Please take your own fortune." At this, the black-shirted one began to insult the lady and her Vulpix, arousing a very unsettling angry air.
-Present time-
It was beginning to get dark, and the fair had ended, causing everyone to go home. Solaceon Town began to look abandoned, unsettling Salle even more from his dark fear. The old woman was beginning to reach her limit.
"I'll make you pay for this," she spat in a demonic tone. This managed to terrify Ridge obscenely. Suddenly, the exit had been sealed by a magical force. A light began to emanate from the old, ugly woman as she began to transform. When the light cleared, there stood the true form of the woman, a beautiful, gold-colored Ninetales.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ME NOW?!" The Ninetales waited for a response from Ridge, who fainted. He must have become mute, because he wasn't saying anything. Salle simply stood there as though he was frozen solid. He had no idea of what he should be doing right now. Running away would solve nothing. The Vulpix had joined its mother in its threat towards Ridge's life. Salle then knew what he had to do.
"N-n-ninetales. Please spare my idiot friend's life. I will accept his fate in his stead if you do," stammered a nervous, fearful Salle, very well knowing that it could mean the end of him. His eyes were shut tight as he braced himself to accept his friend's doom. "I-I-I w-w-would also want him to forget this ever happened, if it's not too much trouble. P-p-please?"
"…Very well then," spoke a more relaxed Ninetales. "I will spare the life of your foolish friend, on the conditions that he never knew you existed, and that your fate is that you live out the rest of your days as a pokemon. Killing you would do nothing, as your noble act to save your moron of a friend would be in vain. Is there a deal? Think about it."
"…D-deal," Salle accepted. Ridge, who had fainted from the fear, was teleported to his bed in his home.
"You are very kind, risking your life to save your friend. I only wish you hadn't done so. And thanks for the Fire Stones. Now the curse must be placed." With that, the Ninetales glowed with an intense blue color. Touching a tail to his forehead which wasn't hard since the Ninetales was about 4 feet, she began to place the curse.
"I curse you to live out the rest of your days as…a Floatzel." With that, the curse was cast and Salle blacked out, teleporting to an unknown area.
'It's a truly noble act. Taking a curse in his friend's stead… I feel almost sorry I did this. Plus, he had given me two Fire Stones that I can use for my children.' the Ninetales thought. 'I don't want him to go insane… Good luck, Salle…'