Chapter One

Unknown forest

The small white fox who laid curled up on the ground groaned as she seemed to slowly wake, whimpering as she tried to pull herself up on sore legs. Trying to remember who and where she was, or really anything at all, the Alolan Vulpix drew only blanks. Trying to look around, she found herself dazed and confused. She couldn't find her sense of direction. Her sight spun and blurred into a sickening blend of green, brown, and what bright light breached the canopy above.

Once her eyesight became a little more clear and she could actually tell where she was going, the Vulpix tried to go through the idly waving shrubbery to what she could hardly make out as some kind of path. Her legs felt vastly unfamiliar and thus caused her to stumble and walk with an odd, unhealthy-looking gait like a newly born infant. Making it onto the dirt path after much more time than conceivably necessary, she rested against a large tree standing stoically in the surrounding army of similar plants. She remained there for hours, somehow surprised she wasn't shivering in the cold winds, when a rather distinct voice broke her trance.

"H-hey, there, a-are you alright…?"

The voice was definitely boyish, though the small fox would never call it masculine. She craned her bluntly aching neck to look back at the speaker - he was some kind of rabbit, white with a dash of orange on his ears, feet, eyes...she would say he was cute.

"M-miss?"

Remembering she was being spoken to, the Vulpix tried to speak. For a moment, nothing came out of her moving mouth, but after a moment a weak yet squeaky voice manifested off of her tongue like a thirty year old mute suddenly gaining the ability of speech.

"I...ah...dunnno…." She stumbled over her words, like she had been everything else.

"You, uh, don't look so good…" The bunny mumbled, his face tinged slightly pink. The girl didn't know why. "W-why don't you come with me to Novitae Village?"

"Noo...Novitae?" She reflexively cocked her head, showing her own confusion. "I..I….w-where am I..? I...I can't remember anything.."

"Huh…?" The lagomorph stared at her for a second, visibly surprised. There was something of a twinkle in his eye, a little star...curiosity? "You don't…" He bites his lip for a moment, looking off through his peripheral vision. "Not...not even your name?"

She hesitates for a few moments, reaching into her mind but grasping nothing in a pit of inky black. "N-no…"

"Well," the boy seems to force out the next words, stuttering out what should have been cocky words, "I-I'm Otto, b-best Scorbunny in Idipola!" He seems to remember who he's talking to. "Oh, uh...that's the region we're in, by the way."

"Idipola…? U-um, okay…"

"S-say, uh, we should figure out something to call ya….hmmm….how aboout.."

The fox waited awkwardly for the next few minutes while he stuffed random words together under his breath.

"Uhhh...Ellie...cord….Elicorde? How's that sound?" He suddenly beams, despite having taken seven minutes to come up with something. Nevertheless, she finds it a pretty name.

"I..I l like it." Elicorde manages a smile, glad she met this...Scorbunny? Yeah, Scorbunny. "S-so...where is this Nov...Nov-i-dy….?"

Otto giggles at her attempts to pronounce the place's name. "Hehe….it's Novitae, silly! Nah-vi-tay!"

Elicorde's face reddens, embarrassed at her mistake.

"O-oh…" She takes a few minutes to practice saying it, but when she manages it she seems awfully proud. The Scorbunny grinned, his rounded buck teeth prominent.

However, his face soon turns from some sort of joyful to surprise; Elicorde can only guess that it's the soft drops of water hitting her head. Within a few minutes, the ground was being drummed almost rhythmically with precipitation…

"U-uh, Ellie, we really should go."

She nods rather unconsciously, moving away from the tree to follow Otto. She falls over within a few steps with a small grunt.

The lagomorph turns back, surprised and then worried. He rushes to his new friend's side and helps her up.

"O-oh, s-sorry, I-I, u-uh…" Otto seems to have no knowledge of how to convey his words. Sighing, he helps a protesting Elicorde up, awkwardly walking her towards his home.

The Vulpix eventually silences herself, already busy wondering what Novitae Village is going to be like…

Thank you for reading the first paragraph of my first posted story! I know it's short, but I wanted to see what people thought of my story before actively trying to make it longer. All reviews are welcome, so long as the critique can be used to improve my writing!