#037 Vulpix

Vulpix, the Fox Pokémon. Vulpix has a flame inside its body that never goes out and is capable of manipulating fire to such precision as to create floating wisps of flame. When the temperature outside increases, it will expel flames from its mouths to prevent its body from overheating. Vulpix is known to feign injury to escape from opponents too powerful for it to defeat. Vulpix can be found most commonly in grassy plains – Nurse Evergreen.

Nurse Isabelle hadn't been on Cinnabar island ever since she rescued a Charmeleon. Gary had adopted it and she seemed to be doing well. Although Izzy longed to check up on them, she didn't really know Gary Oak all that well and therefore feared it would be a bit too stalker-ish to do so.

The last week had brought some rough weather recently on the mainland, none of it had reached the island. The suns shone as beautifully and as warmly as ever here. It felt amazing to shed the raincoat and the regular nurse's uniform. Today, she could wear her shorts and a t-shirt with a Sandshrew napping under a palm tree. Her golden blond hair was done up in a bun with a few strands framing her face that had gotten loose from the slight breeze. Nevertheless, she still stuck out a little, as most Cinnabar natives had tanned over the summer and she had not.

As Isabelle walked over the path that led up to the volcano in the middle of the island, she sighed at her porcelain-coloured legs. She had spent so much time working that her tan had completely gone back to milky white. Oh well, while there were Pokémon that needed her help, Isabelle couldn't take any time off. She should be careful though not to burn. Her skin was incredibly inefficient in preventing that, unlike her friend Wendy's. That naturally dark colour could withstand anything.

While her time at Cinnabar may look like a holiday, it was not. She was on her way up to the Cinnabar gym, one of her favourite ones based on the Pokémon used. The current gymleader, Blaine, used fire types and most of them were so adorable. Vulpix, for example: the elegant fire fox with the gorgeous tails.

Blaine awaited her at the door of his inn. Isabelle could feel his eyes drag from her exposed legs up her body to finally settle on her face. He always did this, and it unsettled Izzy a little, but so far, he had meant no harm.

"Hey there, Blaine. I see you received my message. I thought I'd drop by. Surprise visit and all, to check that you're taking proper care of your Pokémon," Isabelle said, smiling brightly.

Blaine stood there in his bald-headed glory, wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, doing his belly-shaking laugh.

"Nah, little lady, you just want to cuddle with my Pokémon some more. But that's okay. I got a little task for you, and I'm sure you'll like it!" He winked at her, creepily. Why did people do that?

Following Blaine inside, he led her to the volcano. The inn housed more rooms than just the battle arena and guest chambers. Some of these were closer to the volcano than others, and in one of them, where it was nearly unbearably hot, Isabelle saw an egg laying on a blanket. Two things were immediately noticeable about the egg. Firstly, it had the characteristic pattern of a Vulpix on it, being those gorgeous curls representing their tails, so the kind of Pokémon that was in that egg wasn't hard to guess. But the second thing was much more worrying; the egg was cracked!

"Blaine!" Isabelle called out, utterly startled and fearful for the unborn Vulpix's life. "What happened here? How could this happen? I hope it wasn't you who did this!" She glared at him warningly, but he merely raised his hands innocently.

"No, little missy. I did not do this. You know I'm worthless with woman-tasks like this." This earned him a frown from the blonde. "I found the egg like this," Blaine continued, as if he did not see Izzy. "It was near the geysers so it must have been launched? I have no idea what exactly happened, but I tell you, I did not do this. So, do your nurse magic. Save this Vulpix," he demanded. Isabelle sighed.

"Because you asked me so kindly…" She mumbled. Both knew she'd never decline an assignment like this. Life was much too precious to Isabelle not to accept it. It had been a hot summer, so the Vulpix inside should have grown properly and healthily, but she had none of the x-ray equipment with her here to check. Calling the Pokémon centre downtown resulted in an answering machine, telling her the facility was closed for renovations.

For the next few days, Isabelle didn't see much sun either. One of Blaine's gym trainers, who also had a Vulpix, was an excellent cook and made sure both Blaine and Isabelle ate properly. He had quite a task to get Isabelle to leave the antechamber in the volcano. The sea was nicely cool against her legs. On any other day, she would have loved to play, but her mind was with the Vulpix egg. Dominic didn't respond to texts either, except for a single one to her that he was on a mission to investigate a few missing Pokémon reports. More and more of those reports showed up recently.

Then, late at night on the third day since Isabelle arrived at Blaine's gym, the egg began to shake and crack even more. During her studies, Isabelle had watched a fair share of hatchings, but they always remained special to her. If she could not have been a nurse, she would have loved to work with eggs. It had been her second choice in life.

The egg wiggled and cracked further, before finally bursting open, flinging egg shell shards all over the place. The little Vulpix inside was a fighter, this much was sure from the way he survived the crack and the way he hatched. Some Pokémon just gently crawled outside or had to be broken out, but not this one.

After blinking a couple times, he opened his eyes and yawned adorably. Taking the fox in her arms, she checked him gently for any injuries or deformations. To her relief, she found none. He was quite a big boy, almost as big as grown Vulpix. His one tail was properly white and shone so brightly, it looked as if someone had brushed it all evening. It would split into more tails as he matured, which made Vulpix and their evolution very easy to determine in age in their early years.

As the Vulpix kicked off the shell shards off his blanket and curled up, Isabelle wondered about one thing. Who were its parents, as Blaine mentioned having found the egg near the geysers, and more importantly, who would raise it?