Disclaimer: Not that I do not own Pokemon or anything about it. But the characters in here are mine, so please do not plagiarize. Thank you.
All right, since this is the prologue, it's not up to speed yet. I apologize for the rough start ahead of time… Well, if you haven't read The Whitefang Pack, I suggest you go to that first, since this is a sequel.
I won't be responding to reviews over the story, as the powers that be here have said that it's not allowed anymore. If you have a question that you want me to answer, please contact me at Neopets under the username 'kittenfive', at Gaia Online with the username 'Star-Bird Swellow', or lastly the place I'm normally at: Delmara. It's my homepage if anyone is interested, and a Pokemon role playing site. Ask a question to 'Swellow' there, and that'll be me answering it. Anyways, I absolutely LOVE reviews, so please give me one anyway. :) And now I'll stop blabbing and start the story…
Prologue
The packs of the forest were all united under one tree at the start of the coldest season of the year, winter. The semi-annual meeting of the packs had begun, and with it was the growing excitement of having new warriors crowned in front of the eyes of many.
Standing at the heart of the grouping of wild Pokemon were the five pack leaders, each with their eyes on their own pack. Blazewind, leader of the Whitefang Pack, stood straight and tall as her gaze lingered on the playful kits that were giving the queens a hard time. Tetzleflame, the golden pelted Ninetales, kept his neutral mask on. Years of being the ancient leader of Eaglefire Pack had taught him one thing, patience.
The leader of Blackstar, one wily old Mightyena named Zerron, stood next to his old ally Blosten of Staticstrike Pack. "Hear me out!" The last leader, a large Houndoom, roared above the din of noise coming from the assembled packs. Silence fell on the ranks, and he continued with a flick of his tail, "As you all recall, this is the second meeting we've had like this. The last one was a success, and we hope that you'll agree that this one is starting off well."
Murmurs of agreement shot through the crowd, and even the Pokemon that stuck out like a sore thumb nodded. The Umbreon's rings glowed with pleasure as he gazed upon the spot when he was finally accepted for what he was, a warrior of the Whitefang Pack. Kashen still had to keep a low profile; even though the amount of hate from the others had been diminished so much it was not even funny.
The new tyro director had seen to it that he had gotten an apprentice a moon back, and sitting behind him was none other than his very own tyro, Randry. The half-grown kit still couldn't keep still! "Hey Kashen, weren't you at the last meeting?" She asked, poking his tail several times before he growled a reply. "Did it go well?"
"Yes, now will you please be quiet?" He whispered, keeping his voice low. The Umbreon could hardly believe that Myrone's kit had been assigned to him, until, that is, when the director led him to her and winked. Sometimes he wondered if Pyrone still disliked him…
"Quiet, Randry." The female Flareon by his side said more firmly when the Eevee opened her mouth to ask another question. Freda side-grinned to the Umbreon she'd been a little more than friendly with over the past six moons, as the leaders continued their speeches again.
"So now we give you the tyros that have proven themselves to be true warriors." Blazewind started, flicking her own tail in the direction of a small group of Pokemon, but mostly there were Houndour, and a handful of Ninetales.
The old ceremony was repeated as always, the new warriors came up one by one and announced their old name, and what their new name would be. It was all quite boring, after a while. Surprising for those that had done it last, when the butterflies were on them instead of the ones before them.
Randry began to twitch, her excess energy just screeching to get out. But the ceremony was not done, there was also something new: tyro announcements. The new tyros in the forest were announced, including Kashen and Randry for once, also with one of the Umbreon's old friends, Noric, who fluffed up proudly with his tyro.
"Sorrelki and Marren of Eaglefire, and lastly of all; Kaki and Flame." Tetzleflame nodded to acknowledge that he was done, and ended the announcements. Kashen and Freda exchanged glances of concern, the Vulpix Marren and Flame were both cubs to a litter of three. One they knew well, Flamedance was a Ninetales that Kashen had befriended early on, and she'd been with cubs at their first meeting. It just didn't make sense why the last cub wasn't there; Ember was of the same age as her brother and sister…
Ember had always been small; it was just a fact of life for her. When she'd been born with two fully healthy, strong siblings, she'd been given a moon to live. What was not expected was that she would survive, however poorly.
The runt of Flamedance's litter got sick easily, catching colds or even worst, something Eaglefire Pack called flame sickness. She'd been miserable with her brother and sister, and they had no real sympathy for her, as both Marren and Flame never got sick. Never.
Today she was forced to watch her siblings fluff up in pride when they were last announced as tyros for the Eaglefire Pack. It would be a bitter lie to say she wasn't jealous; on the contrary the said emotion was biting at her heart, making it increasingly difficult to feel happy for them.
Yet… it was just one more wrong dealt to the youngest, weakest, and smallest of them all. And Ember was just furious about it.
"Sir! Sir, please wait!" Kashen yowled after the form of Tetzleflame, who was returning to his own pack grounds after the meeting. The sun was low in the sky, shedding its orange sheen off onto those that were under it.
The elderly Ninetales abruptly stopped and sat back gently with a sigh. "You are wondering about Ember." It was not a question, yet had more of the air of a command. Kashen stopped before he ran into him and replied positive to the statement. "I understand. Come with me."
Tetzleflame got back up and dashed off into the underbrush with a beckoning flick of one tail. He didn't have to wait long, as Kashen went tearing after him the second he realized what was wanted. Together they traveled for a while through the thick, sweet-smelling grass that grew in Eaglefire territory, and seemed to have died out everywhere else in the forest.
Finally there was a break in the trees and Kashen trotted off onto a clearing that was sweet with the special grass. Several of the Vulpix and Ninetales looked up from their dinners at their newcomer and nodded politely to the Umbreon before promptly ignoring him again.
But one of them, a slim female Ninetales, whose walk seemed to be more of a stalking gait, came over to Kashen and licked his forehead. "Hello." Flamedance said calmly, "What brings you here?"
"Well, I wanted to talk about a certain someone… Ember." He replied.
Flamedance looked at him with those petrifying red eyes for what seemed like an eternity before the calm reply came, "You want to know why she isn't a tyro."
The stare of the fox was full of a certain sort of pain that could never be expressed, the kind that only a fellow Pokemon could understand. Kashen's mouth couldn't form the word, so he nodded stiffly, while a little crimson bundle came out of nowhere and sat down next to him. "At least someone would like to know." The young Vulpix said, startling the Umbreon, who hadn't heard her silent step.
Ember was tiny for her age, less than half the size of her brother or sister, and she herself was thin. Not thin to the starving point, but very close to it. "Well, you're a smarty, you should know." She continued sourly.
"I do know, but it always helps to ask." Kashen replied, "Maybe in a moon, little one?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" She snorted, "I don't believe that for a second, and you shouldn't either."
"Daughter, you mustn't be bitter about something like this." Flamedance's glossy gaze followed Ember as she stood up and fluffed out in anger.
As Ember snorted for the second time and turned away from her mother, a small though crossing her mind. It was a nasty little thing, one of the kind of ideas that could turn disastrous to the bearer if not used correctly. But Ember knew what she was doing, at least.
"Father, what lies to the North?" She asked politely to Tetzleflame.
His face contorted with a new emotion, what could be seen as a sort of anger. "To the North are the mountains, where a pack of disgraceful Pokemon called Absol live. Have I not told you the story of them?"
"Yes, you have Father." She responded with a slight smile upon remembering the tale. So the North, eh? Are you sure you want to tackle a pack of Pokemon you do not understand? The mental voice of reason inside Ember piped up. It was quickly shot down as Ember smirked and nodded, looking to the North questioningly before nodding again. "Thanks anyway Father, I'm going to bed now." She announced and bounced off with a new idea forming in her head, unaware that the Umbreon sitting so calmly by her parents had psychically heard every word of it.