Freaky Foxes

Part IV

When Demon finally clawed his way out of the dark pit of sleep that he'd been sucked into, he found himself in an earthen den. Underneath him was a nest of dried grasses, clumps of shed fur, and seed fluff. It was roomier than the den he'd been hatched in, but otherwise very similar to what he was used to. The sunlight of full day streamed in through the entrance—

Sunlight?! Demon scrambled to his feet and darted out into the open. It's daytime already?!

:So, you finally awake.:

Demon flinched and turned to the right—

He was magnificent; a great creamy-gold beast sitting regally in profile with many long, silky tails, tipped in orange. The grand fox was nearly double Demon's size with an eye as red as a ruby. He turned to face Demon directly—

:What happened to your eye?!: Demon blurted out in shock.

While the pale yellow fox's left eye was untouched, his right eye was destroyed; sealed shut by an enormous, irregular scar that ran from the long tuft of fur on the top of his head down to the right corner of his mouth.

:A terrible battle, long ago,: the great fox answered calmly, in that same dark and silky voice from before.

:You…put me to sleep?: Demon took a step back warily. :How? Why?:

:My father was a glameow, and he passed the power of hypnosis on to me. And as for why…it was late, and you were agitated,: the one-eyed fox replied. :A good night's sleep is one of the best ways to clear the mind.:

Demon narrowed his golden-brown eyes. :Who are you?:

:The vulpix around here have taken to calling me Guardian, and I quite like that,: the fox answered, languidly rising to a sitting position that better displayed every one of his beautiful nine tails.

:You're…a ninetales?:

The scarred creature seemed to smile at him. :Yes, I am a ninetales.:

:How—:

:What is he doing here?!:

Demon jumped and looked over his shoulder to see Notch-Ear, Scar-Leg, Five-Tails, and a few others clustered around the edge of the den he'd emerged from.

:What happened to leaving and never coming back?: Scar-Leg sneered.

:Yeah!: Bent-Ear barked. :Couldn't you have just stayed away and tormented some other creatures with your curse?:

:Curse?: the ninetales snorted. :You think this little one is cursed? Why?:

Demon cringed as the cluster of vulpix eagerly called out every single unfortunate thing that had been attributed to him.

:That is no proof of a curse,: the ninetales snorted after listening to them all. :If he had been born the same color as all the others in that year, those bad things would still happen and then what would you blame?:

None of them could find an answer to that.

:But…why is he such a weird color?: Notch-Ear sputtered.

:Some pokémon are simply born special,: the ninetales answered. :I have lived a long time and been to many places and seen many things. I once saw a gyarados that was red instead of blue, a caterpie who was gold instead of green, and a charizard who was black instead of orange. Sometimes pokémon are simply born different, and there is absolutely nothing wrong or cursed about them.:

Demon pricked his ears so far forward that they hurt and every muscle in his little body tensed. There…is nothing wrong with me? I…I'm not a cursed freak?

:…Really?: Scar-Leg muttered dubiously.

:Ugly isn't bad luck?: Dark-Paws said disbelievingly.

:Really,: the ninetales nodded gravely. :The only thing that sets him apart from the rest of you is the color of his fur. He suffers no curse. There is no bad luck attached to him. If anything, he is very special, and should be treasured.:

:…I still wouldn't mate with him,: Rosy-Pelt snorted.

:Treasure him?: Five-Tails scoffed. :No way.:

:He's worthless,: Bright-Eyes sniffed. :He disappeared months ago! Why should he be welcomed back now?:

:Yes, he left!: Notch-Ear barked. :Why is he back now?: The vulpix boldly stalked right up to Demon's nose and stared at him. :Perhaps you were captured by a human and now you're here as a spy!:

The hope that Demon had felt at perhaps not being a feared freak, which had crumbled some at the continued rejection, now shattered into nerves at this accusation. :I'm no spy! No human told me to come here. And even if one had, what would I tell them? Humans are too stupid to understand anything we say!:

Notch-Ear sniffed at him and grimaced. :Liar! You stink of human! You're their servant now!:

Demon recoiled. :I'm not a spy!:

:Enough!: the ninetales barked. :It does not matter whether or not he is a spy; as the young Golden-One has said, he cannot simply tell the humans what he has seen and learned here. But, little Golden-One, just because humans cannot understand the things we say does not make them stupid.: The one-eyed fox's remaining orb started to blaze. :They are clever and cunning and they have strange subtle powers. They find ways to make you love them, to make you want to do things for them. They suck you in so completely that they day they tire of you and cast you aside it can destroy you.:

…Whisker Face…tire of me? Demon flattened his ears, unable to imagine that, yet very disturbed by the idea.

:Let's drive him out!: Five-Tails growled. :If humans are so powerful, Ugly will never be free of them!:

:No,: the ninetales replied. :I was once deep under the thrall of humans' power. It took me years and to be passed between many humans' hands before I finally saw the truth of things.: He tilted his good eye down on Demon. :You are special, Golden-One, and I wish to help set you free.:

:Free?: Demon looked down at the dirt and dead leaves under his paws. Shouldn't that sound…good?

:Yes, free,: the ninetales nodded. :No more confinement, no more commands, no more human rules, and the openness of the wilds and company of your own kind.:

Demon mulled that over. Okay…that does sound kind of good…

Sometimes he didn't like sitting inside that ball; it was boring and he couldn't see anything, he could only listen. In the beginning he'd hated being ordered around and although he'd gotten used to it now, at times it still grated on him. And worrying about whether he could pee someplace or what he could or couldn't chew on was just stupid.

Although…the "company of his own kind" had never been that enjoyable in his experience. He barely remembered the nicer times when the adults simply thought he'd outgrow his odd color and there was no talk of curses. And with the "openness of the wilds" came other wild pokémon competing for food, bad weather, and the sameness of the surroundings…

:Guardian!: a voice cried out from down-slope. :Guardian! We're back!:

:Ah, the foraging party has returned,: the ninetales smiled and sauntered down the hillside. :Let's see what they have collected for us.:

Foraging party? Demon hesitated before slinking after the ninetales out of curiosity. There were never "foraging parties" before…

It had always been "find your own food" in their hillside cluster of dens. Parents would bring back food for their pups and friends would bring back food for the sick, but that was the extent of bringing food to the dens. There had never been any large-scale foraging for food to share with everyone.

Several yards down the hill, and through a few clumps of bushes, Demon came to a clearing where most of the other adult vulpix were clustered. The pile of foraged food wasn't all that impressive, but—

:That's human food!: Demon yelped.

There were dinner rolls, doughnuts, breakfast pastries, a few large cookies, and one loaf of bread still in its plastic bag. It looked like all the stuff Whisker Face and his mother had been discussing was true. The wild vulpix were stealing human food from town.

:Yes, it is,: the ninetales nodded. :Humans have far more food than they need. It doesn't hurt them to take it from them.:

Demon frowned. That's not what I heard…

The ninetales critically surveyed the small pile of baked goods. :There isn't much here. Was there a problem?:

:Yes,: Straight-Tails (whose tails had never curled) replied timidly. :Several humans with servant monsters appeared quickly and attacked us. The food in the storage den was difficult to gather and move. And…and we lost Silky-Tails. She hasn't caught up with us yet, and we traveled slowly once it was safe to do so. …She must have been captured.:

:We cannot be perfectly successful every time,: the ninetales sighed regretfully. :Bad things will happen from time to time. Perhaps young Silky-Tails can be saved, but we should not hold out too much hope—:

There was a pop sound, and then a solid thump.

:Whoa! Where the heck am I?!:

Demon turned to find a strange pokémon sitting beside the meager pile of baked goods. It was mostly yellow with brown shoulders, a brown chest, and a brown ring on its tail. The creature had a fox-ish face with eyes so slitted they looked closed. In one hand it clutched what appeared to be a white plastic eating utensil.

:What sort of deformed fox are you?: Scar-Leg asked.

The little yellow monster turned to him. :You have a lot of tails.:

:Where did you come from?: Notch-Ear demanded.

:I was looking for some food in my forest when this mean old fearow tried to eat me, but I teleported to escape…and now I don't know where I am,: the creature answered. Then it seemed to notice the human food that was mere inches away. :Hey! Is that food?: It picked up a dinner roll in its free hand and sniffed at it. :Mmm! Smells goo—:

:That food is not for you, Abra!: the ninetales barked, slapping the bread from its hand with one tail. It loomed over the small yellow abra, one red eye blazing. :Be gone before I tear you to pieces!:

The abra stared up at the ninetales, its head craned back so far it was nearly falling over backwards. It sat there, absolutely still, like an ice sculpture. And then it started to tremble all over.

:You're mad,: it whispered in pure terror. :You're completely mad…:

:Enough, you thief!: the ninetales snarled and lunged in with bared teeth, sinking them into the frozen abra's shoulder.

There were no rules in fights between wild pokémon; there was no restraint. The ninetales chewed into the little abra's shoulder, picked it up, and shook it some. Slamming his prey into the ground, it looked out wide-eyed and locked gazes with Demon.

Why hasn't he run? Demon wondered. If teleport brought him here, can't he use it to run—

(It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts—)

Panic and a sense of agony poured into Demon's skull. Damn it, run away!

(—where, where, where, where—)

Demon's brain buzzed with the foreign feelings, and all that came to mind was Whisker Face's home on the lake and the blond human boy's stupid smiling face.

POP!

The ninetales' jaws bit nothing but air as the abra vanished into thin air. The mighty fox snapped his jaws a few times and glanced around before barking in triumph. He licked the traces of the abra's blood from his lips like he enjoyed the taste of it.

:No one steals our hard-earned food!: the ninetales declared.

The vulpix all eagerly agreed, unbothered by the aggressive display.

Demon sat by silently, relieved that the foreign presence in his head was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

:Should we return to the human nest and get more food?: Straight-Tails asked once the crowing over the abra's mauling tapered off.

The ninetales stared out towards Whisker Face's town for a minute. :Go at night,: he decided. :We need to make our raids at night for several days. That will lull the humans into a false sense of security during the day. Then it will be safe to attack during daylight hours once more…:

:Why steal food from humans in the daytime at all?: Demon asked.

:To send the humans a message,: the ninetales answered. :To show them that we are not docile creatures that they can capture and enslave. They need to be reminded that we are powerful and dangerous, and that we should not be messed with. No matter what they do, they will not defeat us. We will always take their food and there is nothing they can do about it…:

Demon shivered a bit. Maybe…maybe that abra was right. He's crazy…

Naruto struggled to contain his impatience as he paced at the edge of the woods. Izumo's growlithe was trying to pick up Demon's trail leading away from his house, but Growler was young and inexperienced and he kept getting distracted by other scent trails. And the vulpix that Kotetsu had caught was no help at all.

After giving it a cheri berry for its paralysis and an oran berry to boost its health, Kotetsu had tried to recruit the vulpix—which he'd dubbed "Vixen"—to the cause of locating Demon. Vixen's reaction was just to sit there and shake. She seemed so terrified of everything that all she did was tremble and turn away from everyone who tried to talk to her.

How can something so timid and fearful do something so bold as breaking into a bakery and stealing food? Naruto wondered. Was it because it was in a group? Pokémon in packs sometimes do things that they'd never do as individuals…

"Hey kid," Kotetsu grunted as he approached, the cringing vulpix trying to curl into a ball in his arms, and his plusle riding on his shoulder. "How long did it take you to bond with your vulpix?"

Naruto's shoulders slumped. "A long time."

"Great," Kotetsu sighed. "This is so depressing. Not even Plusi can convince her that I'm not going to skin her and tack her pretty pelt on my wall…"

The plusle tried to engage the vulpix in conversation yet again, but Vixen turned her face away and closed her eyes, like she was wishing to disappear or wake from some terrible nightmare.

"So depressing," Kotetsu mumbled as his plusle slumped in defeat.

Naruto had to agree with that sentiment. "I had a soothe bell; that helped a bit."

"Could I borrow it?" Kotetsu asked. "They don't pay rookie police officers a lot of money."

"…It got broken," Naruto frowned.

"Damn," Kotetsu muttered. "What an unhappy day today is turning out to be. First we're posted at the police box with nothing to do all morning, then you turn up with a lost vulpix, then wild vulpix attack the bakery, then catching Vixen turns out to be a bust because she hates me, then Growler can't find the right scent trail, and now the soothe bell is broken. Oh woe is us!" he cried dramatically. "What unfortunate thing will happen next? Will pokémon fall from the sky?"

POP!

Before Naruto could fully register the odd sound, something small and very solid dropped onto his head and shoulders from above.

"Yah!"

"Huh, maybe I should've said that candy would fall from the sky instead of pokémon," Kotetsu mused. "Perhaps Vixen would be more social if I had chocolate to bribe her with. Girls always like chocolate, right?"

"Hey!" Izumo called out from over by the side of Naruto's house. "What's going on over there?"

Naruto was too busy trying to pry whatever had fallen on him off his back to bother answering. "Wah! Off, off, off!"

"Hold still," Kotetsu said, putting down his pokémon to assist.

Naruto did his best to not move, which was hard as the fact that a mystery monster that he couldn't see was clinging to him really freaked him out.

"Man, this thing is clingy," Kotetsu grumbled, and Naruto could feel a lot of tugging on the back of his jacket. "Ah ha! Got it!"

Naruto immediately spun around to see his little assailant…and it took him a minute to recognize what it was. When he'd looked at photographs of this pokémon before in school, they'd never been bloody. And they'd never had their eyes open, either. He wasn't sure which feature made it look creepier.

"An abra?" Izumo noted as he jogged over to investigate. "Huh. It's weird that it's all bloody like that. Don't they usually teleport at the first hint of danger?"

"Yeah, remember how much Raidou bitched and moaned because he just couldn't catch one?" Kotetsu snorted. "He got all bent out of shape about it."

The abra stared at him with open, teary eyes, and Naruto thought he could almost hear it pleading him for help.

"What should we do with it?" Kotetsu wondered. "It's Sunday, so the professor's lab is closed…"

Konoha Town was too small to have a full pokémon center, so if a pokémon needed healing the best place to take it was Professor Sarutobi's lab. When the lab was closed, like on Sundays and holidays, the only thing to do was use medicines or berries. And thankfully his mother cultivated the berry bushes that had come with the house, and even added a few new bushes, so healing berries were always in plentiful supply. But would berries alone be enough for such a nasty bite?

Naruto carefully removed the abra from Kotetsu's hands, holding it away from him as he didn't want to get anymore blood on his jacket (there had to be some on the back of it already) and because the abra seemed intent on re-attaching itself to his torso with its claw-like fingers and toes. He carried it back to his house, but with his hands full he had trouble getting the door open. With some creative maneuvering, he managed the feat, deposited the abra on the kitchen counter, and headed for the medical supplies.

First, he went and cleaned off all the blood with sterile wipes, revealing the nasty bite mark underneath. Then, he sprayed a potent dose of super potion on the wound to speed the healing and wrapped it with gauze bandages. And then, he fed it some oran and sitrus berries, and seeing how it bolted those down, he fed it some pokémon kibble too.

"Hey, can I eat this?" Kotetsu asked, holding up an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen table.

Naruto flinched, not having noticed the rookie cop's entrance. "Eh, sure."

Izumo had also come inside and was eying the bandaged abra curiously. "Is that abra…holding a…spork?"

Sure enough, there was indeed a spork clutched in the abra's left hand. It was a basic thing, made of cheap white plastic. It had probably been dropped on the ground as litter, or the abra had fished it out of a trash can.

"Kadabra and alakazam really like metal spoons," Naruto said. "So…maybe this abra wanted one too?"

"That could be it," Izumo nodded thoughtfully.

"Here," Kotetsu said to his vulpix, which he'd put on the table with his plusle, and offered it a bite of the apple he'd munched on. "Have some."

The vulpix shied away from the half-eaten fruit, although it looked hungry with the way it was licking its lips. The plusle took a bite and made a good show of how nice it tasted in order to tempt the little fire fox. But still Vixen resisted, and Kotetsu gave up and went back to eating the apple himself.

"I wonder…" Izumo muttered, still focused on the spork-wielding abra. "Could Eclipse help us figure out why this abra didn't flee and got hurt so badly?"

"Eclipse?" Naruto repeated curiously as he looked away from the timid vulpix back to the abra, whose eyes were closed now and seemed to have fallen asleep sitting up.

"Yes, my first pokémon," Izumo replied, pulling a plain pokéball from his pocket. "He's a—"

Growler's frantic barking from outside immediately caught all their attentions.

"Oh?" Izumo blinked, peering out of the kitchen window. "I think Growler's finally found the trail!"

"So we're going?" Kotetsu asked, between hurried bites of apple.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "in a minute."

The boy carefully gathered up the sleeping abra and moved it to his bed room. He left it on his bed with the window cracked in case it woke up and wanted to leave. Then he grabbed his pack and rejoined the rookie officers.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Right," Izumo nodded, heading out to where Growler indicated the trail was. "Hurry up, Kotetsu!"

"I'm coming," Kotetsu grunted, throwing out his apple core, settling his plusle on his shoulder, and picking up his very unhappy vulpix. "I'm coming."

Naruto shut the door to his house behind him after Kotetsu exited and marched out to the woods' edge where the growlithe was yapping. Finally, after hours of being side-tracked by various things, he was on his way to finding Demon. And he didn't plan on heading home until he'd found out what was going on.

I'm coming…