Aetas Inifinitas

Chapter Three- Friends

"Friends come and go, but family will be with you forever. If your family leaves you, your friends become your family and you rely on one another for even the smallest troubles…"

I've finally finished chapter three, hope you all like it.

Veri sat alone, or so she thought, watching the flap of cloth that covered the door, hoping that Laske would return. When he did not, Veri lowered herself to a laying position and rested her head on aching front paws. After a moment of silence, save for the rushing of wind past the door, the vulpix heard something shift behind her. First an ear turned, and then she raised her whole head and looked for what had moved.

Veri's eyes would have missed it if the shady figure nestled in the back corner of the shelter hadn't fidgeted again. When the object became more focused, Veri could see that it was a female human, clothed in colors much brighter than the vulpix had seen worn by the females outside. She had two, long, black braids that fell all the way to the floor from her sitting position and her hand was slightly outstretched; holding something that smelled wonderful.

Veri's instinct made her wary, but the battle between instinct and hunger in the young vulpine was leaning in favor of her appetite. Veri couldn't clearly make out what it was by sight; even with her sharp eyes. The smell of the chunk of mystery was mouth watering however. Slowly but surely Veri rose to her feet and paced over to the girl's hand.

Her tiny nose quivered and a tiny pink tongue crept out of the rusty vulpine's delicate muzzle. It smelled of blood but only faintly and the chunk was drizzled with something delicious. The girl made no more noise and Veri greedily took the morsel from her hand.

It tasted- sweet and Veri found that her tiny teeth chewed it with ease. A new sensation came over the puppy, the stringy food suddenly made Veri feel older and perhaps stronger. Veri has just had her first taste of the very definition of a carnivore- meat. When she had finished with the small bite, Veri plopped down on her haunches to try and remove a string of the food from her teeth.

Then the girl, who had watched the whole time, extended her hand farther and pat Veri on the head, and then her long nails scratched gently behind Veri's ear. This was comfort. Veri extended her neck and leaned in farther against the girl's hand as the caressing got even more sensational. All of a sudden Veri's right leg began to rapidly move up and down; Veri hadn't made her leg do that…The human girl giggled that of a young child and put her other hand forth to draw Veri nearer to her. Veri tensed up, but let the girl rake her in. She only relaxed when she found herself cradled in the girl's arms, and a hand was stroking he head again.

Veri relaxed so much that her entire back end went numb and upon feeling the discomfort she sprang out of the girl's arms. The young girl was surprised and laughed even harder than before when Veri began walking around dragging her lifeless legs in a crooked circle like a broken cart. The girl thought it was funny but Veri did not. She noticed her tails and chased them in a tight circle several times before landing in a heap on the floor. Now the feeling returned to her legs and Veri pranced back over to the girl, three crimson tails waggling elated behind her along with a huge, sunny, canine-like smile. She liked this new human. She wasn't as big and bulky as the other humans Veri had experienced since she had arrived at this place.

Veri nuzzled the girl's arm and turned to leave, trotting out the door flap, tails vibrating with joy. Once outside, Veri looked around for Kapok, but he was nowhere to be seen. With nothing much else to do, Veri decided to go exploring again. There she found another interesting group of specimens fenced in a somewhat large area in the far corner of the human encampment-these must have been the rapidash from yesterday. Veri backed away suddenly at the vision of the gored nidorina and wanted to leave. Once again however her childish curiosity moved her onward to squeeze under the fencing.

The herd of fiery horses was fairly spread out in the fenced area; Veri counted twelve but there must have been four times as many in the stampede. She ambled curiously to the middle of the circle and sat down waiting to be noticed. A few minutes passed and no one paid any heed to her- she must have been much too small for creatures eleven times her size to notice. A large rapidash vacantly strolled past Veri. Now growing impatient, Veri barked almost chirping-like barks in hopes of someone taking notice of her. This worked quite well, she found, for several of the more aware rapidash flickered an ear and made their way over to the pint-sized creature making a ruckus at their feet. The largest of the bunch stepped up closest to Veri and kneeled down on his forelegs to get as close as he could to the interruption of his meal. A ponyta trailed behind him.

"Now what are you young one?" the sturdy horse still had a chunk of grass hanging out of his mouth and his voice was deep and masculine. Veri just sat and looked around at the various rapidash around her. The male addressed her again.

"One of the silent ones, eh? That's alright. I'm Shintoi."

Veri's mind wandered elsewhere while Shintoi rambled on about the dryness of the grass in one particular area of the field. That was when she spotted it; a lone rapidash grazing at the far corner of the pen. Its slightly bloody ankle stood out against its white hide like stained snow. Veri's childish anger wanted her to run over and vengefully nip at the creatures ankles.

Sudden she realized that would not solve anything because the humans controlled where they went, not to mention that she would most likely get trampled. Veri sighed in an effort to release any extra anger. She turned her attention back to Shintoi, who was still on his tangent, completely unaware of his listener's absentmindedness. Still tuned out, Veri guessed that Shintoi wasn't the brightest star in the sky. His size however gave others the opposite first impression.

She looked back at him and averted her head to glance at the ponyta behind him. The colt was bouncing up and down at a passing butterfree with wings shimmering in the sunlight. Now Veri was itching to go play with someone her own age. She glanced repeatedly at Shintoi and back at the ponyta. Then he stopped his blabbering and apparently had asked Veri a question.

"You can go play with him if you'd like." He nodded and Veri excitedly bounded over to the romping foal.

The young ponyta was still leaping up and down in an effort to get the hovering butterfree to come down. He reared up on his hind legs, kicking his forefeet while whinnying loudly. When he came back down he noticed Veri perched on a small rock near him.

"Hey, who are you?" The ponyta's eyes lit up and his voice was young and friendly. Veri, too shy to speak, raised her ears and three tiny tails thumped on the ground. The ponyta seemed confused.

"Why don't you tell me your name? I don't bite; well, mostly." He grinned and took another leap at the butterfree.

"Well, whatever. Name's Koi." Koi raised an eyebrow with surprise. From underneath Veri's rusty fur she flushed in embarrassment.

Koi paused and when she noticed his sprouting impatience she mustered up all she had and greeted him.

"I…I…My name is…Veri," This was nearly the first time the tiny vulpix had ever spoken. Despite play with the nidorina Veri was quite shy.

Koi seemed satisfied with her response and trotted closer to her. Once he stopped pestering the butterfree, it chirped angrily and fluttered away. Koi looked Veri over, circling her and finally plopped down on his haunches.

"You don't seem so bad" He said at last. "Kind of shy but okay. So why did you decide to pay a visit to the pen? Bored maybe? If so I understand completely. The only other one my age around here was a filly, my best friend. But she died a few weeks ago from somethin'. Said she got it at birth."

Veri looked around as if she expected to see another ponyta prancing around. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I lost my mother too. She was stepped on yesterday."

Koi saw the sadness in Veri's voice and nudged her head up with his muzzle with hopeful eyes that brightened Veri's spirits a bit.

"Try not to think about it too much. Kipa was like my sister but the dead can't come back so we just have to deal with it until we take dirt naps ourselves." Koi oddly put a positive perspective on death that Veri had never thought about before but perhaps he was right. The dead couldn't come back. Little did she know however that death would become the very theme of her life until she died.

Over the next few months Veri began visiting Koi more and more, and each day gradually brought her out of her shell. Kapok often looked in on Veri when she wasn't with Koi. Veri also found the last of her six tails growing in, and reaching her mature height of six hands high at the head. One of the most significant events of her life occurred when Kapok approached her one day with some personally startling news.

And that's the third chapter I guess. I don't plan to add any new characters for awhile, so that'll keep things a little easier and whatnot. Some important things are going to be happening to Veri in the next couple of chapters and I'm a little anxious to get them down. Thanks again to everyone for reviewing; it makes me want to keep going.

The next chapter should be ready by March 5th or so. (I want to be persistent with the chapter or I'll fall behind and accidentally forget about it )

Update note, thanks to foxyjosh I noticed that they didn't have crayons back then- so I changed it to the suggestion. Thanks again!