Chapter 2:

Rays of soft sunlight streamed through an opening in the ground, hidden beneath a large tree. It scattered across the brown dirt floor, and across that single splotch of reddish brown fur, rising and falling... and also shivering. The effect of the light on this fur gave it the appearance of fire, each ray creating a tongue of flame. However, this did nothing to alleviate the poor creature's chills as it lay there, asleep.

After some time, the mound of fur shifted and gave a small, nearly inaudible yawn. The shivering slowed, but did not stop as it rose to four feet, giving a stretch, and walked to the center of the tiny sanctuary. There, it looked at a small pile of dry wood for just moments before setting it aflame with only a brief exhalation, like a sigh. The odd flame-creature sat itself down next to the newly-lit fire and pulled all its legs close. It remained like this for several minutes until finally, the shivering ceased.

Same routine as always... thought the young vulpix as she picked herself up from the dirt. She looked to one corner of her humble little home, and saw that the pile of food was running alarmingly low. Well... at least I'll have something to do today. She picked up her tattered leather bag, empty as usual, and slung it around her neck. The small red fox then padded over to the door to her tiny home and poked her head out. It wasn't snowing at the moment, so that was good. In fact, the sky was pretty much clear. This might not be so bad after all. These were the words she thought to herself as she crossed the threshold of her home and exited into the morning glow.


As she wandered the snowbound forest, she checked through each of the usual places she might find berries. All picked over...of course. Well there was a lot of food in the forest, so surely no one could take it all. She just might have to settle for something a little less sweet, like mushrooms or various types of roots. She could always go hunting, but the idea had never really appealed to her. Well, that and she was never quite good at it to be perfectly honest. And so she walked, picking up the occasional frozen berry that someone had dropped. It was like this every winter, and she had survived until now. So, she wasn't particularly worried. It just got... old. She lived alone, and her entire livelihood revolved around making sure she had enough food to survive another day. It was a lonely existence, to the point that at times she talked to herself so that she would be reminded what her voice actually sounded like. Of course, she wasn't sure what she would do if she actually met another pokemon. She'd probably just scare them off. That was her problem. She was exhausted with being alone, but abysmal at conversing with others.

She was shaken out of her thoughts be the sounds of yelling from off through the trees. Curious, she hurried toward the clamor, hiding in the undergrowth when she grew near. She gasped at the scene before her. There was a very upset looking houndoom, standing tensely and growling. Across from the heated canine floated a ledian, wielding what looked like some sort of lance. Beside her was an umbreon, not using a weapon but holding a much more relaxed stance than his opponent. Behind those two was an injured pichu. It was the houndoom which spoke first, a gruff male voice.

"Damn cowards! Why don't you take me on one at a time, like honorable pokemon?!"

The ledian smirked and replied, clearly female. "Pah! Talk of honor coming from someone like you.. Do not make me laugh! Lunic, you ready to take this guy?"

The umbreon, apparently named Lunic, replied in a smooth monotone. "Of course, I'm always up for a fun battle."

Growling louder, the houndoom gave an angry "Screw you!" and opened his mouth toward the ground. A toxic smoke poured out from his maw, filling the area with its stench and obscuring him from view. When it cleared, he was gone.

"Damn!" Swore the ledian, "He got away!"

The umbreon simply shrugged and replied. "No matter, we'll get him next time. What's more important now is getting this youngster back to the guild." he gestured to the pichu, "That criminal will show up again eventually."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Let's go. Come on, little fella', we're gonna take you somewhere safe."

The pichu responded with only a nod, still too scared for words, and followed his protectors out of the forest.

The vulpix in the bushes watched all of this in complete awe. She had heard about exploration teams and the great things they did, but this was the first time she had ever seen one in action. It was incredible! Of course, there hadn't been any actual fighting. But just the way those two had handled the situation.. wow...

Unfortunately, in all her wonder the she-fox forgot that there was still a dangerous criminal close-by, and much closer than she could have expected. She gave a frightened yelp as sharp teeth closed around the scruff of her neck and tossed her harshly out of the undergrowth. She turned to see the same houndoom from before walking towards her with a wicked grin on his face.

"Ooooh, I may have lost one meal today.. but it seems another has walked right to me!"

Mortified, the vulpix tried to scramble backwards. "P-p-p-please no, mister...!"

He only gave a powerful laugh before pouncing on her, pinning her to the snow-covered ground. "A nice, young one too! I'm gonna have some fun before I eat you~"

She knew what that meant, and she knew she had to escape quickly. "Leave me alone!" She shouted before firing a burst of flame straight at his face. Much to her surprise and to his amusement, however, it simply seemed to dissipate and absorb into his body. He had the flash fire ability...

"You really aren't the brightest are you? Well then..." He pressed down hard with a claw, causing warm blood to drip down her leg.

Thinking frantically, she realized she still had one chance, and only one chance. As soon as his eyes met hers for the briefest of seconds, she released a short pulse of light. Unlike the flames from before, this had the desired effect, causing the houndoom to stagger off of her and shake his head vigorously.

She wasn't sure quite how long the effect would last, so she had to make her move now. Ignoring the pain in her leg, she scrambled to her feet and took off back the way she had came. She didn't look back, nor did she pay attention to where she was going. After running for what felt like an hour, she finally came to a stop and looked around. No houndoom, that was a relief. But unfortunately, she was a long way from home. She knew how to get there, but she still hadn't found any food to bring back. Oh well, she could go another day. At least she was safe. Now she would rest her legs for a bit. At least the snow had done a good job of numbing the pain in her injured leg.

Feeling well enough to get going again, she stood and looked around the whited-out forest around her. All was silent. Strange.. Wait... what was that weird mound in the snow..? As she approached it, something seemed... off, though she couldn't quite place what it was.

Finally she reached it and began to dig through the frozen powder. It wasn't long before she felt something soft... Fur! Much more desperate now, she brushed the rest of the icy snow away, revealing a pokemon lying unconscious beneath it. It was a shinx, to be precise. The poor electric type had probably gotten lost or something. She flipped him over onto his back and put a pointed ear to his chest, breathing out a relieved sigh as she heard a gentle tha-thump! tha-thump! He was breathing... Now the question was what to do with him. She couldn't just leave him... could she? No, that would be cruel.

After finally making her decision, the red vulpine hoisted the unconscious pokemon onto her back and began to walk.


It would be dark before she finally reached her den, having been slowed down by the weight on her back. She dropped the boy to the ground and quickly started up a fire again. Once it was glowing nicely, she dragged the shinx closer to it, watching the frost melt slowly from his fur. His breathing appeared to deepen after about half an hour, so that was a promising sign at the very least. Maybe she ought to see if he was responsive now...

Deciding that this would be the best course of action, she gently nudged his shoulder. "Hey..." No response. She took a breath and spoke louder. "HEY! Buddy, are you okay?"

This seemed to work better. The small creature finally began to stir and open his eyes slowly. "..."

A/N: Welp. Yeah, it's been a while. Hopefully I'll start actually updating this regularly. Also, I just realized that it didn't keep italics and the like when I uploaded it, so I went back and fixed those.